There’s Excitement In The Air…

Can you feel it!... I SAID CAN YOU FEEL IT!!!...Excitement is in the air. This coming Saturday The Manhut Quadsters will be once again hitting the mountain. This time to go where no man has gone before. To Highpoint and beyond!

Invitees; By invitation only… You know who you are (sorry all others, just us guys).
The Goal; to land at Big Lou’s Watering Hole. Followed by fish stories and drinks at the man hut.
Instructions; Start time 0900hrs, be there with warm clothes, full tanks, refreshments, energy bars, stuff that cuts and lots of energy.

Stay tuned campers for more on The Big Ride later.

Cheers!

Ramblings On The Road...

I left the house at 7:00 this morning and If I’m lucky I’ll be at the hotel by 8:00 tonight. As I write I am sitting on board a Continental-737 35,000 feet up and headed for California on biz. I’m on flight 1702, 11:20 departure to San Francisco which didn’t leave until 1:00pm due to the obligatory flight delay. With 5 more hours of air between the left coast and me please allow me to ramble a bit...

Last week was a long workweek and I was really looking forward to a Friday evening retreat at the Hut with the guys especially since I knew that Saturday and Sunday were commited for. But alas none of the Hutsters were around to play with so it was just me and the Manhut for a smoke and a cocktail.

When I got up there around 8:00 I got the heater blasting and quickly knocked the 23 degree chill out of the air. Music was cranked up with my favorite Tom Waits tunes from the Small Change album (good thing I was alone cause no one else I know likes him). I burned a Padron 1926 No.2 maduro (1 hour, 10 min) my favorite cigar. Had a Jameson scotch whisky neat in my favorite glass and a frosty cold bottle of Yuengling as a chaser (nice).

A good time was had by all,... well actually just by me. Cheers!

We Have Reached The Summit!...

As you might remember, the Weave threw down the gauntlet (see January 4th entry), challenging the Man-Hut-Quad-Squad to reach the top of the mountain with our machines (altitude 1,247 feet). Well yesterday WE DID IT!!!!. It was our most awesome ride to date. Little did I know yesterday morning when we met up in my driveway at 8:00 am, we would be on a journey to reach the summit. Before leaving for the woods Big Lou went back to get his chainsaw and other miscellaneous cutting utensils. Starting out for the mountain it was my turn to take the lead with Bobo behind and Big Lou bringing up the rear…. Big mistake, I started by taking us off in the wrong direction before we left the Manhut (seriously), and it only got worse from there. When we finally got to Burning Bush Landing, Big Lou took lead and brought us to V-Ledge. This is where we ended our journey for the mountaintop last time (see January 24 entry). But this time was different, we were prepared, the snow was mostly gone and we were ready to go with a nice early start. And so we began, cutting and clearing the dead trees and limbs blocking the visual path between us and the top of the mountain. As we cut through we moved the quads up behind us. It felt great as we made progress and got higher and higher, the view becoming less and less obstructed. It wasn’t long before the chain saw blade was spent and we had to resort to hand saws and pure brute force. I could tell we were getting close to the top when I started to see the treetops sheared off, a distinct feature of the Broken Pines landing that the Weave and I had hiked to in January. As we got to the last 100 feet we all started to take our time, none of us wanted the journey to end. So we took our time clearing the path even more thoroughly than we needed to. In an instant our three quads roared to the top. We paused. Had a cheer. Took in the view. And enjoyed the moment.

Once we got to the top at Broken Pines, we walked along the ridge to the next high spot. Here we found the stone monument you see in the photos. We also found an old fire pit obviously unused for years. We have named this spot High Point as it appears to be the highest point of the mountain ridge, (duhhhh). On future trips we plan to run the length of the ridge and see what waits on the other side. Stay tuned.
Cheers!

Air Max!...

Huge shout out to our lady quadster for achieving maximum air on her 1988 Honda 350 Fourtrax.
Nice one PW…..

Okay, we know you can do it so don’t do it again…. Please.

Cheers!

Happy Valentines Day!...

This is the burning question on this cheery Valentines Day afternoon; has the Man Hut turned into the “Love Shack?” Sources say that late this afternoon one of the guys (I aint sayin who), and their significant other (I aint sayin who), were seen sneaking up to the Man Hut on this fine Valentines Day.
Aint love crazy!.... (I aint sayin who).
Cheers!

Saturday Night...

It’s been a few weeks since the guys got together for a few drinks and a couple of laughs, so last night was an unexpected pleasure. During the day Big Lou had cut some good wood for a bon fire. Bobo installed a knotted rope to prevent us from falling down and I picked up a few provisions (Grizz we need more shelves).

It was a perfect night. The moon was so bright in the woods that flashlights were unnecessary. The temps which had been in the single digits for weeks was a balmy 40 something degrees. And the snow was still on the ground making everything look pristine…..Nice.

So we smoked, we drank, we talked, we laughed.

Cheers!

PS: Thanks for the pasta LP!

Man Hut vs Man Cave.....

According to Wikipedia a Man Cave is defined as follows :
“A man cave is a male sanctuary, such as a specially equipped garage, spare bedroom, media room, den, or basement.”
A Man Hut is similar but not the same as a Man Cave, although it does serve the same purpose, “A male sanctuary”. Unlike a Man Cave a Man Hut must be free standing and detached from your house, preferably as far away as possible. The differences are important; In a Man Hut your wife and kids can’t yell down the stairs to tell you that the toilet is over flowing or that the dog just ate the bird. But then again, a Man Cave is likely to have less creature comforts like a pool table, big screen TV and an actual toilet…. I guess they both have their benefits….
<<< These are photos of the Weaves Man Cave.....
But today is Super Bowl Sunday and since our Manhut buddy (The Weave) has invited us all over to his Man Cave to watch the big game on his big screen who can’t resist (especially since he’s also got a bar and pool table). Check out the photos… The Weave is a lucky man, he has a ManHut and a Man Cave.
Thanks to The Weave and his wonderful wife for a fun evening.
Cheers!

PS: Between all the office pools me and my Mrs walked away the big winners with a big $1,405 for the evening… Not too shabby!..