Wind/Brim Exploring Ride~May 5, 2007

Wind/Brim Ride Report for Saturday, May 5, 2007

I got to ICRV about 8:15 Saturday morning after meeting up with Mater in Oak Ridge and he followed me to the camp. Unloaded and headed over to WR trailhead to meet up with Chatdc and Badride. Of course we had plenty of dust control and it was raining and man that stuff hurt!!!! Got to the trailhead and headed up P1 to get the show on the road. Got over to Brimstone where we took a short break at the old Washer at the end of the property… Yoshi’s throttle seemed to be sticking some so they worked on it a little bit and I took some pictures and we enjoyed a few minutes of no rain. Headed down Trail 33 towards the permit office and did somewhat of a repeat from March’s ride and missed Trail 8 again and ended right back where we did in March. Told Eiger2 where to go and we just headed on for lunch and gas. We ate pizza at the Pizza Plus… real good food and quick service. They were really nice to us there even though we were kind of dirty and wet from riding. Filled up with gas afterwards and then headed back to Trail 2 to get to the permit office.
What a office full of folks we had… people getting daily permits and some even getting their yearly’s and smiling pretty for the camera… I was having some issues with my wheeler and Stakk was kind enough to let me borrow some tools and get it working better before hitting the trails. Stakk told me about Kountry Gurl’s fenders over at the Watermark place so I had to go check them out and get some pics… So Cool!!!! After that we headed to jail… actually behind it to the camping area and everybody looked around and a few guys were there looking at a map and talking… one ended up talking and asking questions about camping there and I told him what I knew… said he had seen me post on WR board and I asked who he was… he told me he was the person I owed a coke too! ROFL Anyway, it was Joey34768975 have no idea what those numbers are, sorry joey.

So we head up the trails for what we came there for… Let me stress these folks don’t dilly dally around at all… Im not sure if I have ever traveled that fast on my wheeler before!!!!! We head up Trail 1 and end up at the power line… took a short break and talked to the guy that works in the permit office about the trails and he told us we missed Trail 48 that we were going to take… ended up OldGriz had a flat so got him a few plugs in and ready to go.. so we back tracked a little and took Trail 48… being observant as I am, I notice the 48 is not a blue 48 but a RED 48…. I know what the Red trails are like here…Im wondering if they know… apparently they didn’t care and off we went…OH MAN what a hill climb!!!! Most all of us got up pretty good and then Powerbomb’s stalled out a little and tried it again… after another try Chat hooks to him and tries pulling him up the hill… That Rincon did a great job at it too! Got him to the top and others started following…Well Yoshi had to scare the crap out of all of us and she about came off the wheeler and she held on and kept it down and blasted on up the hill like it was nothing!!! Took a little breather and then noticed Eiger2 had a huge gash in the sidewall of his Big Horn’s with a bunch of plugs and some glue got it repaired and back on exploring we went. Seems like 48 sort of tamed on down after that first big hill and was pretty smooth sailing after that… Then we get to 49… Yep… it was my lucky day again…another Red trail… Keep in mind I have not taken a breath since we got on the red trails!!! Bama is stressing! Lol Don’t think we had any problems on 49…but u know, at this point I think I have blocked some of the stuff out of my mind! Lol Got on Trail 7… Green trail, bama breaths for a little bit then we take the trail where 23,24,25 are together a little bit… think we ended up taking T23 and then it ran into T22… Yeah u guessed it… T22 is another Red trail… figured out later on that I have ridden that one before… had some spots to take some care with and everybody was so helpful and spotting everybody…really liked how they took care of each other…that means a lot specially on Red trails. IMO Came out on 21 and headed down it… I knew it was coming… the hill on T21 that I dislike…but I got off T22 and was still alive so I just gritted my teeth and kept on moving… I survived…after some of those other trails I had been on that was nothing. We get to the area where T20 comes up and they holler to wait… Never a good sign I’m telling u right now! Lol Then of course they holler to come on… Come on Bama… I got to where I didn’t like that phase… we took the trail to the left that goes up the hill rather then the lower trail.. I think that was T21 where it continues..but again Im not sure. OH boy was it a hill and some rocks and those guys and my guardian angel was looking over me big time at that point. The way we had to go up those rocks we had to hit it just right and sort of bounce up and I was starting to bog down and was bouncing and too afraid to let off the gas… they were pushing and talking and I swear I got bruises of hand prints on my back from them pushing me trying to keep me on the wheeler and trying to get that dang Rincon up that spot… finally made it…only took a few seconds but boy it was tense there for a minute. OH MAN am I feeling alive at this point!!! Blood is a pumping, hearts racing… adrenaline is rushing…Im getting excited again just thinking about it… So the guys get back on the wheelers and tear off again… I aint going to lie to ya… by this point in the evening and all the rough spots… I have about had my fill and just ready to start heading back… its getting later and we are working our way to Trail 1. We came down some trail and at an overlook think I saw a sign that said Trail 29…. Take a break and watching the blue sky turn to darkness and we need to be heading towards Windrock… The fast guys took off blazing a trail and I go after… get to a spot and I just go by instinct that they turned left… hauling butt down 1 towards the south end of the property… As Im going I notice that no one is behind me very close and seems like somebody is flashing their lights at me… I couldn’t see the other guys in front of me and figured I better slow down anyhow to make sure the others are following… I pull over and stop and Old Grizz said that Yoshi and Powerbomb wasn’t behind him… and they haven’t been for a while… I said uh oh… that’s not good..they could be anywhere… so we go back a little bit and don’t see them, then we go back a little to where we were and turn off the wheelers and hear some coming…but from the other way… ends up its 3 wheelers.. I thought it was our guys coming back looking for us but it was some other guys…they said they had just passed our guys and tried to get them to stop for some directions but they kept on going… we told them we had lost two others behind us and was waitin for them..they needed directions so I told them were to go and how to go and they took off… At this point Im not sure what to do cause I don’t want to loose the guys in front of me and don’t want to loose the other two that’s lost already… so Old Griz and I stick together..we back tracked some and then finally decide to just sit and wait and try to listen. Finally hear something but its coming the other way…. One wheeler is all it is and all Im thinking about is Delieverance and I hope that person on that wheeler doesn’t dislike AL folks! Lol Ends up being Eiger2… we discuss what happened and he went back to where we saw them last to see if they are there… no sign of them so he comes back..we sit a while and then we decide he would take T1 on around for a few miles to see if he sees them and we would go back to T29 where we last saw them and maybe they came back there… no sign of them.. so we go back and wait for Eiger2. He comes back and no Yoshi and Powerbomb. We waited what seemed like forever all of us trying to figure out what to do next… we came up with nothing…there was no way to know which way they went and we didn’t know if they had their phone or maps cause we had Yoshi’s bag . We all decide to head back and see if we can meet up with the other 3 or if they had gone on back to camp. We went for miles in the fog and it was getting so late… we finally meet back where Eiger had left them last and they were still there… on our way to meet them Eiger ran out of gas and had to switch to reserve… my gas hand was dropping too and I was getting really concerned. Took a short break… tried to put all 6 heads together and see what we should do… We all just felt so helpless and wasn’t sure what to do next… none of us wanted to leave there specially without them but it was only getting later and we still had a lot of miles to cover before we got ourselves back. At about 12 midnight, we start towards WR… I have never felt so helpless worried and wonder if I was doing the right thing in my entire life… Man it was foggy… everyone was so tired and it seemed like it took forever. Got close to the washer and it was lit up like a Christmas tree, headed towards the way to WR and we hammered down… Felt a little at ease once we got to WR but I just couldn’t get the thought of those two being left there out of my mind. It was a hard fast ride back and no breaks, no talking nothing….. I think every one of us was pretty conscerned and wondering what to do. We parted our ways with Chat and Badride, and headed towards ICRV. At ICRV we loaded up, talked more of what to do and said we would just have to wait till daylight. Called Stakk to let him know what was going on and to get him to watch out for them and let us know if they heard anything and was just a matter of wait till daylight and hope they call.
Woke up Sunday morning to the sound of Dixie Land on my cell phone and it was Eiger2, said that Yoshi and Powerbomb had made it back and was over at their bunkhouse… I got up and headed back to ICRV to get their story and see for myself they were alright… They were good and had smiles on their faces and I have never been so happy to see two people in all my life.

I checked my odometer this morning after work when I unloaded it and washed it off and it said I had 136.2 miles on it for one days ride.