In Attendance:
Joe
Brian
Tom
Martin
Gil
Curtis
Frosty
Gordon (Leader)
From Gordon:
I ended up feeling better Friday morning, so I met up with the group at the schoolhouse. We headed out just after 9:30 a.m. with Tom in the lead, heading to Black Mountain. Tom led us past the gate, then handed the lead over to Curtis in the Bucking Bronco about a half-hour later. The snow was deep and made for slow going.
We had lunch at a cold and windy flat area just below the next hill challenge. The trail dropped down into a small bowl before heading back up, making it a bit of a challenge. Gil took the first stab at it, while Brian looked for a more level bypass. Gil wasn't making much headway, so I gave it a shot. I was able to get up the hill and continue onto the trail leading up to Black Mountain. The trail was steep and tough going, and I had to turn around due to the amount of snow and the steepness of the next hill.
Martin continued on, heading to the trail that led to Twin Lakes—or so he thought. He had missed the turnoff, so part of the group had to either turn around or go back. Since I had just run it a few weeks ago, I cut across a flat area and proceeded to the lakes with Joe behind me.
The first part of the trail was downhill with an off-camber section, where I buried the driver's side up to the door. As I stepped out of the Jeep onto flat snow, I could see Joe buried up to his bumper. While they worked on getting Joe out, I started shoveling snow from around and under my Jeep. I was planning on being pulled out backward, but Joe was still stuck. Several Jeeps tied together and a double winch line weren’t enough to get him out.
Martin came down to give me a hand, and we decided to try going forward to see if I could reach a place to turn around. I made it out of the hole and tied onto a dead tree so I could turn around. I was doing well inching my way back up when I got a little too excited and heavy-footed, causing the right rear tire to come off. Meanwhile, Joe was still stuck. Martin and Tom helped me get the tire back on, and up the hill I went. Joe was still stuck.
We headed back down the hill once Joe was on level ground. Of course, this wasn't enough excitement for the day. We decided to head out via Sailor Point. Brian buried the right side of his Jeep trying to take a bypass around a huge, muddy, slushy hole that I think one of the guys got stuck in. I was in the back, so I didn’t see it all go down. Thankfully, we had traction going down the luge. We just dropped it into low and crept our way down. I believe we were off the snow around 4:30.
From Brian:
Great run Gordon. I think we all had to winch or strap at some point. Also the dogs loved the snow. Thanks for heading this run up.