So I would like to tell you about a "fun" trip I had yesterday. It all started out when Gabe Patterson called me up and asked if me and Ted wanted to go on a ride after work, I told him heck ya, I had been aching to take my cycle out for a long time. So after work it was all cold and snowy on the mountain (isn't it supposed to be spring??? ohhh thats right we live in wayne county) We decided to go anyway. So me, Dan, (len's dad) Ted and Gabe took off (dan rode on back with ted) and decided to go up the saddle pass trail and see how far we could get. We hit snow just past the old sawmill but it was fresh snow that had just fallen yesterday and it wasn't too deep. after a while, we started getting into the deep snow but it was so cold that we could just ride over the drifts. It was soo beautiful! It was snowing a little and the sun was peaking over the table from the west through the fog, I've never seen the back side of the mountain in the winter because of all the snow, but there we were just riding over huge 5 foot drifts like we were snowboarding. So Ted and Gabe had it easy with their big 800 4 wheelers, Me on the other hand, I had the old Beta motorcycle, and it wasn't so easy to control in the snow. I soon figured out that if I went first and blazed my own trail, I was fine and all I had to do was keep all my wait on my back tire in order to keep from sliding around alot. Well, after 2 hours of this, my back was killing me! So we made it to the trail that heads back to Neff's and decided that we'd made it this far without any problems, so we could surely make it back to lyman through the neff's trail.. So we took off, and what do you know, not 100 yards from the trail head, we hit a soft drift that was about 50 yards long. I didn't have a prayer, I just had to try and push my bike through it all, sinking to my thighs in snow. but Dan helped me out and we were able to get through. Ted got stuck too and we had to help him out. So thus began our (especially My) struggles. every hill we approached I would have to bail off and try to keep from sinking to deep and just push with all my might. Ted would get stuck too, so Dan would stay back and help him. Punk Gabe didn't even get stuck but he would have to help ted too. So here I was in front of the pack, I'd just get my bike up a hill and go a few yards and I'd have to push it up another one. I thought I would die! my arms were burning, my lungs were out of oxygen and my legs were soaked! Well by the time we made it up the hills and the land finally leveled out, it was dark and I had no head light (another story), so I had to have ted behind me shining the way. We finally made it out off the timber and to where you have to cross the creek, I being in front was the first to cross and as I gassed my bike in order to make it through, my front tire hit ice on the other side and I stopped right in the middle of the crick. so there I was stuck in the drink and I couldn't lift my front tire up on the ice and it would'nt break either, so ted came and helped me and we got it out. By this time I was cursing under my breath... wait, no I was just cursing... and we finally made it to red canyon where the going would be easy. RIGHT! little did I know this would be the worst part! so I was trucking along down the clay hills and all the sudden my front wheel locked and turned a 90 and I jumped off and the bike went down. WHAT the. So all the wet clay was getting trapped between my tire, fender and front forks and it was just like someone was grabbing my front brake the WHOLE way down the freakin mountain! It was all I could do to keep my tire from turning to the left or right, and I had to push with both arms equally hard or it would do so. One time it was so bad that my bike just stopped and my engine died! so Dan got a stick and helped clean it out (oh ya, Ted and gabe were behind me the whole way down going like 5 miles per hour, so by this time I'm sure they were sick of my predicament) So finally we made it down to horse valley after a couple more crashes and cleaning out my tire, so we sent gabe home and I had ted follow me and light the way... SHWEEW, I thought that was the end of all my struggles. it wasn't I ran out of gas on the last straight away a mile from town. HOLY SHICK. I just wanted to throw my bike down and sleep right there because I had nothing left. my arms were jello, my hands were locked around my grips in a death grip, besides being frozen and my feet were soaked. Well, I sent ted and dan home to see if there was any more mixed gas at dad's house and I started pushing the bike home. I made it all the way to seth chappells before the got back to me, bringing a jug of non mixed, so I just told them I would push it home. By the time I got home and parked the bon of a sitchen bike, it was all I could do to keep myself from laying down right there on the cold cement just steps from the house, but I forced myself up the steps and through the door. Man, I've never been so tired in my life! You know how sometimes you just say that because your tired? Ya, this really was the most tired I have ever been in my life. We started riding at 6, and when I walked through the door it was 10pm! So me and dan proceded to tell each other how that trip was the craziest thing we'd ever done and that neither of us would ever forget it! So sorry this was such a long post, but I just thought you might want to know that we were the first ones to make it around Thousand Lake this year!!!!! Yippee! Was it worth it? HEll NO! excuse the language.... (please)
