Welcome today's guest Blogger to the Manhut Blog... Big Loo! Well the day came for the "BIG RIDE" and it was one of the most beautiful, sunny days so far. Sounds good?...You bet your ass is was. 35-38 degrees and no snow and ice...at least by the ManHut. Up the mountain was a different story. With exception to one of our brethren Quadster, The B-man who had taken ill and was not able to ride along, The Weave, Bobo and myself gathered in my driveway to warm up the Quads and go over a mental checklist of items to bring.......Water?..Check!, Rope?..Check!..Bow Saw? Check!...Chainsaw?.....Food?.... Check!...(My wife "our very own Lady Quaster packed me some PB&J sandwiches Ain't she grand). Check Check...Check Check Check and on and on until we were satisfied we had everything we needed. Hell, we we're only going on a 3-hour tour. Oh Shit!!.....I seemed to remember what happened to that last bunch that went on a tour. MaryAnn was always my favorite....but that's another story. I would like to mention before going on that for all the environmentalists out there, is that the Bow saw and chainsaw is for emergencies only or to move a felled dead tree. We DO NOT cut down tree's to make a path!! Ok, enough said about that.
This trip will be the second run up to Broken Pines and High Point for Bobo and myself, but the first time on a Quad for the Weave. He and Brad actually walked up it........Naaa what a waste!!. Points after "High Point" to "Lou's Watering Hole" remains a mystery other than Longs & Lat's that I had planned for us. What terrain we would encounter was anyone's guess at that point. So we made our way up to High Point and asked the Weave to break-out that trusty GPS since all my coordinates is in Longs and Lat's.... Yea right!!.No sooner than he got a satellite signal the dam thing went blank.........Why you ask?? Good question....DEAD BATTERIES!!..We all looked at each other and had a few laughs, but that didn't dampen our moods because we were so focused to make this trip. Beside, you really don't know dick until you get up there and see for yourselves.
Our start was short as we ventures forward and came to a sudden drop-off on all sides. A little backtracking and inching down the slopes, thru fallen tree's and over boulders we continued on out way. Move forward a little, stop, get off and move fallen logs, limbs, branches etc. Get back and keep going. and going and going. Sure wish we had those energizer bunny's...Sorry Weave, couldn't help myself with that one. One thing is certain: When riding the mountains, once you feel like you have it down and don't respect the machine, your dust!!!..Did I mention Beautiful scenery, sunny weather?...We continued on and since we didn't have GPS, I used the old way of sight triangularization. Get two fixed points, making yours the third and keep track of your movement. Works every time. Anyway, we all came up to what we thought was a house in the woods. A house?? No way, we we're to far in for that. Bobo was point man and went ahead to check things out. The Weave and I we're moving the last fallen tree limb and we were soon to follow. When Weave and I approached, Bobo was sitting in what was to be a lean-two having a smoke break. What a find that was because we now knew there we're paths somewhere that we could take advantage of. We hung out a bit, Bobo was crowned "King of the Mountain" on that hugh bolder and then we went on our way. We found the path and instead of trying to get to "Lou's Watering Hole" we decided that since B-man wasn't with us, we would just check it out the trails and next time when all of the Quadsters are present, we would all make the journey to the watering hole together. Somehow it just wouldn't have been the same without the B-man.
Well, by know we're into the ride for a few hours. I looked at my gas gauge a saw 1/2 tank.. I said to myself....SELF, if this is true, I'm reaching a point of no return since I left the house full. We agreed to head back the way we came. Now we all know that the woods look totally different when you turn around so we had another challenge ahead of us. We moved so much shit our of our way, weaved in and out so many times your head would spin, and went up and down the mountain side that you could very easily get turned around... Well, we didn't of course, not the experience Quadsters that we are. We may have had to back up a bit but for the most part we we're dead nut's on track out as it was on the way in. Amazin I guess. Well both Bobo and the Weave had commitments to do so we didn't stop in at the ManHut to pound our chest and complement each other for being the "Masters of the Universe", that phrase was taken from a movie, so we said our so longs by the ManHut and Quaded ourselves home. Take a look at the pics attached and it should give you an idea of the ride we had. Once we all make it to and back from "Lou's Watering Hole", B-man has our next ride in the works already. can't wait for that one too.
Until next time and always remember- Live to ride, ride to live.
By: Big Lou
Saturday was the first weekend day that really felt like spring; sunny skies with temps in the mid 70‘s. What could be better than an impromptu get together up at the manhut. Me and The Weave took the MG to the market for some fresh butcher cut sirloins and a mini-keg. When we got back Weave welded 1” square stock as legs to an old unused BBQ grate that I’ve had for a while (for a grill I have since thrown out). I got up the mountain first and started a fire in the pit with twigs. When it got going we threw in about half a bag of charcoal and the newly crafted grill. We popped the keg, threw on the meat and kicked back. Big Lou, G-Man, Grizz, The Weave and B-Man enjoyed the evening…. Only downer was that Bobo couldn’t make it, but we’ll do it again real soon that’s a promise…. This was really just practice for the official “Man Hut Beef Steak Dinner” coming soon. Stay tuned.
Yesterday the Quadsters took to the Mountain once again in pursuit of the ever-elusive “Big Lou’s Watering Hole”. As you may recall, earlier this month the Squad tried but failed to find the elusive wet spot. But this time it would be different since we had a plan, a Google earth printout with coordinates and fresh batteries in the Weave’s GPS thingy…. Excitement was in the air! 
The Quadsters and the Hutsters have been busy with “things” this weekend, most of them having to do with the coming of spring. For example, Big Loo & Co. took to the road for their first bike outing. G&L were off on the retiree’s version of spring break… Myrtle Beach. Bobo’s job has him working extra hard on some big projects that have to get done before the end of spring. Grizz also spent his never-ending weekend tinkering on things. And everywhere Christmas lights were coming down to get stored away.
We couldn’t have picked a better night to have our second Poker Night & Drinkfest. It was an unusually mild March evening having reached the 70’s during the day and still in the 50’s when we finally called it a night at an amazingly reasonable 12:30am. With the door and windows wide open all night we could really get a sense of what Spring will feel like on the mountain and at the Man Hut. The festivities started at around 7:00 accompanied by a freshly brewed keg of German Alt that the Weave just tapped plus assorted snacks. I enjoyed a little Jameson with my beer along with an Acid Deep Dish cigar that burned a long time. The poker action was brisk with several amazing come from behind victories from a couple of the guys. In the end no one won or lost too much (always a good thing).
Welcome today's guest Blogger to the Manhut Blog... Big Loo!
Well yesterday The Big Ride happened, but without me. I had some kind of bug that kept me home, running between my bedroom and my bathroom all day… But that’s a story for another time. 
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! 
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...
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.
