On a good day I could outrun the three-wheeler, which was so light we could easily load it and another machine in the back of a pickup truck by hand.
On that first day we were riding the three-wheelers up a hill in about 3 inches of snow to see who could make it farther before the tires started spinning.
Being the competitive person that I am, I tried too hard to go higher and gunned it when I started to slide. I ended up on my back with the machine resting on my knee. Because it was so light, I was in no danger.
Boy, have times changed. If I pulled that same stunt on an ATV today I wouldn't fare so well. Those things are heavy.
I spent a couple of years riding the adult tricycles around various locales like Yuba Reservoir and American Fork Canyon. We rode on dirt roads where we wouldn't dare drive a truck. The machines served us well, getting us to great launching-off points into the woods during various hunting seasons.
During one trip to Yuba I watched one of the 110s somersault end-over-end more than a dozen times when my buddy's cousin failed to make it up a steep hill. His cousin jumped clear before the rolling started. He walked down the hill, started it up and rode off.
I eventually scored my own three-wheeler: a Honda 250SX. This thing had some power and, being a teenager, I wasn't afraid to use it. We rode ATVs everywhere, except off the road. Sure, there were some play areas with mounds and hills to climb, but we never thought about taking the machines off the beaten path. We watched as the roads, trails and dunes got more and more crowded and cringed when new "trails" started to show up in some of our favorite riding areas.
I sold the ATV sometime in the mid-1990s and was sad to hear that the woman who bought it broke a vertebra in her back while riding the three-wheeler.
In my 18 years at The Tribune, I've used ATVs on many assignments - looking for black bears in their dens during winter on the Book Cliffs, reporting a story on the National ATV Jamboree out of Fillmore, and riding with Rainer Huck and Michael Swenson of the Utah Shared Access Alliance.
As an active participant in the explosion of ATVs on the Utah landscape, I can say that the vast majority of riders I've encountered follow the rules, both real laws and the restrictions that many recreationalists place on themselves.
I applaud Gov. Huntsman for his mandate that law enforcement crack down on illegal riding, but I hope he understands that for every one person ripping up the range, there are 10 who are following the rules.
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Brett Prettyman can be reached at brettp@sltrib.com.
