Well Happy New Year Everyone! What an eventful end and nice beginning to another year! First, on New Years Eve Day the Quadsters took a long awaited ride up the mountain. As we grouped in my driveway for the morning ride, the snow was coming down fast and heavy but we were not deterred. We began our trip where we left off last time; blazing a potentially new route up to High Point Mountain. The snow was coming down fast and things were definitely getting slippery. Reaching the far point from our last trip, we realized that there was no easy way to go from there. Looking for alternative paths up, Weave and Loo decide to deal with a steep winding curve while Bobo and I dealt with a longer less steep route with ruts and some lateral sloping. As I attempted to cut through a left pass the sideways gravity and an unseen snow and leaf covered ditch were just too much for the machine and me. Bobo watched from behind as I tilted right past the point of no return flipping the quad and ejecting myself to a safe landing right on my feet. A tree had stopped the quad from flipping more than once and within a few minutes all the guys walked there way over to help right the machine… It started right up and neither of us had a scratch. The snow was really changing the dynamic of the ride now, so after my little episode Weave and Loo were starting to fret about getting down from the steep winding perch where they had left there machines. We decided we would play it safe, tie on ropes and ease the machines down using trees as pulleys and muscle power. Once down we made the decision that today was not a good day to blaze new trails (Duhhh) and instead we should continue on our old familiar route up to High Point. A great ride and all went well until we got to the last 500 feet. At that point there’s a steep portion and between the snow and ruts Bobo was having a struggle. He re-started a couple of times until a slippery rut got the better of him; he gunned it but the gravity and speed couldn’t overcome the slippage and the machine tipped up backwards going completely vertical. I mean really vertical straight up like a bowling pin. Boobo climbed out and was just fine… We think it was his hard shell Tamarack storage bins on his rear rack that held the machine up and prevented it from flipping backwards end-over-end. Using the winch on Weaves Fourtrax his bumper behind a tree as a chock, the quad was pulled back horizontal (the weight on the bumper broke a weld). Within a few minutes, the quad started right up and neither machine nor Bobo had a scratch, we were back on our way. We made it to the top quickly. We drank a toast to the New Year over High Point Monument…It was beautiful as always. We returned to the Manhut for a few libations (of course), but most of the time spent was reminiscing over the day’s trip - These are our stories of which our legends and myths are made.
The second part of the day was equally as cool with a Grand New Years Eve party at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Grizz. There was food and drink and lots of high energy song singing as Grizz and his Bro made merry sounds with their geetars!... It was 3:15am before we knew it. What an awesome way to end a year and start a new one!
Cheers!....
Just a quick update on our quest for a new route up to high point. Last weekend me, Loo and The Weave went back to the point of “most resisdence”. This is the spot that I flipped my quad and the others needed to be roped down because of the steep slope. The three of us faced our fears and went back to continue the quest for a new path up the mountain to High Point. I admit, I was a little apprehensive going back to the place where we all faced some of the toughest challenges on the mountain, but we all succeeded to face our fears and continue our quest. We got to the point where Loo and Weave needed to be winched down on that snowy New Years Eve Day ride and realized that without snow, the path was much more approachable (note to self: going up steep mountain slopes in the snow is stupid). We passed that point and cleared log blocked paths with the chain saw for several hours until we landed at a place we named “The Fish Bowl”. Loo coined this name observing that we had reached a flat landing surrounded by steep slopes….. We where close. We were probably 100 feet away from reaching the top of the mountain. From this point we could see the scruffy pines that marked the beginning of the original High Point route. But the way up was still hidden and we were exhausted. Loo walked the slopes and over a dry streambed to find a route which might be passable…. But my friends this is a story for another day. We ended our trip happy to have gotten as close to the top as we did. We will come back another day to the Fish Bowl and begin where we left off….. This was a great ride!
