Well, GrizRick and I returned safely (barely) from our recent ride up outside of my elk camp area, over this last weekend. It was an adventure for sure to say the least, as we faced a few difficulties along the way. We rode a little on saturday evening, gave Rick a small taste of the next days adventures, then spent all day sunday, and most of the night attempting to return to camp.

Unfortunately it was extremely dry, and very dusty out. A lot of very fine powder dust and ash to ride in, as well as extremely loose dirt and rock, which proved very difficult in gaining forward traction climbing hills. The winch's got a good workout during several times of the day, and we often found ourselves in precarious positions, narrowly escaping rollover several times. We had a lot of very steep uphill climbs through this various rock/dirt/dust combination, and eventually found ourselves on the very top of the ridgeline-the highest point of the mountain range, looking down at the beautiful view of the world below. This was particularly exciting for me, as I'd always wanted to find a way up there, yet had never been successful before. I think Rick had a great time too, as he'd never seen the area before, and was his first time riding in Washington. We stopped to catch the view several times in "awe" of our recent accomplishments, pondering how in the hell we traveled so far, and made it up such steep terrain without accident or injury.

Our first problem occured when we discovered a torn CV boot on Rick's Grizz. Lucklily with a ziploc freezer bag, and a roll of waterproof first-aid tape, we quickly remedied that problem, and were on to new adventures awaiting ahead. Our next issue was making it back to camp by 6:00 pm to have dinner with my elk hunting partner who was coming to visit, and bringing steaks for Rick and I. Unfortunately, 6:00 pm found us somewhat misguided according to our map of the area that is apparhently labeld wrong-seriously, as the road we had wanted to take, went a differernt direction than what the map had stated. So, on to our instincts to lead us the rest of the way-great! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] Anyway, our 6:00 pm deadline was non-existant, we never got those steaks [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img].

Next came the goal of making it home before dark-shaw, RIGHT! We still had some 35+ miles to go in some of the worst terrain imagineable, not a chance as it was after 6:00 already. So, needless to say, we found ourselves very nervously negotiating a very steep and nasty downhill path following a ridgeline down through the rocky terrain-after dark. My what fun. We were constantly at the "seat of our pants" so to speak, doing our damndest to avoid an accident now after dark, and in terrain neither of us had seen before. Suddenly, the dreaded thought occured-we hit reserve! Now, as the daylight issue was no longer feasible either, our next mission was making it home before we ran out of gas! This really made things nerveracking, as we had no idea how we'd make that one. Luckily, third times a charm, so this one worked, we did make it back, but on fumes basically.

Once we made it down out of the nasty terrain, we had roughly 10 miles of gravel road to negotiate our way back to camp with, in the dark, and on what I'd seen only once before during daylight. There was a huge fire in the area, which destroyed a lot of land, as a result, the forest service has done a number on all the roads up there-they've widened everything, leveled it all, and nothing looked the same as it did the first time I was there a couple months back. Needless to say, I lead us down the wrong road a couple times, and was attempting to test Ricks patience with the gas issues! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] heh heh heh, just joking, we made the best of it, did what we could with our ****-poor map, and finally made it back to camp late that evening. Rick did admit though he breathed a sigh of relief when he realized I knew exactly where we were at, and how to get us home. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] Let me tell you what, the beer never tasted so good as when we finally got back and were able to relax at the fire-what a day!

Anyway, I've added a few new pics under "ride with GrizRick" to illustrate some of what we went through. Soon as Rick has his developed and sends them to me, I'll post those too-should be some great view pics coming of on top of the ridgeline, as well as Rick's "locked" Griz in action.

Anyway, just thought I'd share for those who are interested, Best of Luck,

Mike

-And, Thanks Rick for such an awesome time, it was definately a great adventure!

 

Cowboy,
Thanks again for an awesome ride! I got my pics back and you should have them by now, I hope. Been having a hell of a time with the e-mail and sending those pics. The "pucker" factor was pretty high at times, thats for sure! I'm estimating that we were at about the 2000ft level when we left camp? Then, what was it, about 20-30 miles later we found ourselves at the 6500ft level. What a spectacular view! Then after being lost for most of the afternoon, we finally found "short and dirty", the trail back. Then we proceeded to descend back down to the 2000ft level in about 3-4 miles! Talk about some SERIOUS down hill negotiating!!! Did I regret it? Not in the slightest. Would I do it again? You betcha! The only thing that I would do different is top off the tanks before we left. It seems like one of us mentioned that before we hit the trail, but I won't say who because it would make me look bad[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] When we finally made it back to camp it was a 52 mile ride! I agree, the beer never tasted so good.
Looking forward to doing it again, only when its not so dusty.

Rick

 

Great pictures guys, looks like ya'll had a lot of fun.

 

Your pics are cool. I often get home and look at my photos and it always seems like they don't do the situation justice. Texascat and I went out one time and always got stuck in this one area. My folks watched the video and saw the pictures and they laughed at me for getting stuck. Then they came with me one time and actually saw the area. Neither of them would even go close to it because of the steep angles and slippery sand. I'll be posting some new pictures after this weekend too so keep and eye out. I may even have to split up my web page because it is getting pretty crowded. Good luck up there in elk season.

Dakota R/T

 

Just checked out the pics. Looks like you guys had a blast.
Next time, bring extra gas, though. I would hate to have to read about you next adventure ending in a hike! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Some wonderful scenery around there, too. Except where the fire wiped it out.

Keep posting the pics! It is one of the few ways a farm boy from NE can see the mountains.

Farmr

PS it is a zoo around here right now. We are about 2 miles as the crow flies from 'the concert in the middle of nowhere' they started holding outside of Comstock. Check out www.windmillfestival.com to read all about it. Trust me, it truly is in the middle of nowhere. The nearest town doesn't have a pop machine or an ATM. One of the guys in a band that was there this spring couldn't believe how far the bus went without seeing anything but cows (must have come from the NW). Anyway, take care, and drive careful!