Not quite as good eatin as Flatheads, Blue Cats or Channel Cats, but a lot better than Bullheads! Well, not exactly. This wasn't a fishin story. Me and BBC went up to the lake today seeing that my employer was kind enough not to make me work memorial day. We hit the mud bogs down below the dam. What a time! Only one real good spot in this area about 40 yards long on and off with some deep spots and shallow, spaced out pretty good. We dug up a spot that we felt more confident in for about 45 minutes. It got more fun the more we wore it out. Finally, I had to test the cat in this massive hole that i saw a guy on a 450 with Vamps go through a month ago. (worse now probably, we had a massive rain)

Well, we tested it with the stick test(as far as we could reach out without walking out in it) and just a few feet from solid ground, it was over 2 ft. deep. About a foot of water, and the rest mud and leaf crap. BBC got the winch ready (cause with my worn down tires, I had no real intentions of making it through) and I got the nerve up to hit it. Went in at an ok speed and the front end just buried on me. The tailpipe went under and was popping in the water. I spun it and rocked and reversed and found that there was no future here so I grabbed the winch cable and hooked it to the hitch and got my *** pulled back out.

We thought about it for a while, and I decided the hell with it, I'd try again. This time I went a bit faster and got in there real good, but buried it again. This time I rocked it and reversed it enough to get it sideways, then after about a 2 minutes, I was able to back myself out from a different angle. I was pretty tired from all the rocking and crap, but still jacked up because I didn't have to get towed this time. So, I said one more go.

This time, got a different angle and hammered down. The front went under and then caught a bit and raised up, and started jiggling the bars good. Slowly I could feel it crawling out the far end, and by the grace of god, I made it through there. Took a victory lap, and hit a water hole that washed most of the proof off the quad. No good, had to get it muddy to take home. One more try, same angle, even faster, and bogged through it no problem(though it wasn't like I just zipped through). End of the day count= Mud hole- 1, Me-2, 1-tie. We were both pretty nasty coming out of there. I had solid mud on one side of my face that made me look like William Wallace. Took over an hour to spray them both off with a pressure washer too, but it was damn worth it.

 

Andy:
Sounds like you had a hell of a day! And, nice visual with the William Wallace part. Wasn't sure if I was the only one to watch that entire movie or not. Heh heh heh.

Mike

 

Andy's CAT came out almost grey when he popped out the other side of the swamp. You couldn't even tell he had a green bike. I stayed more to the shallow more confident bog where the only chance of getting stuck was to get hi-centered on the ruts we were digging up. We ended up drawing a crowd at the top of the dam. None of them wanted to come play with us. William Wallace was solid mud especially on the left side. Other than William Wallace if that mud had been blood he would have looked like Bruce Willis in any of the Die Hard movies. He wasn't too sure about going through the big mess, but he had to see what it would do. His near downfall was going through the first time he made it about halfway through he did a little victory point and almost bogged it back down, but a quick throttle push and he was on his way through. I was no wheres near as muddy as William Wallace was.

 

BBC:
Man, wish I was there to see that, bet it was something. I love playing in the mud, but still a little weary about taking the 'Cat in something that deep, being so new and all, and belt driven. Don't know if I'd have slippage or not, but with my luck, probably would. Have run in very deep snow a lot with it, and even dropped the front end into a water hole that was over the rack deep, up to the handlebars, but ended up backing out. Not sure if I sat there long enough for water to get in or not, but didn't have any troubles, and haven't as of yet. Over all, very happy with the Auto 'Cat. Even towed both my suburban and my grandparents minivan up a muddy hillside on our property. (They came up to see what kind of work I was doing, clearing all the fallen logs and stuff) And, drug between 50-60 logs with it, between 20-50 feet long. Worked great.

Got to use my new atvstuff rear rack bag for the first time, man you can fit damn near anything in that thing, it's great! Ordered my custom seat cover this morning. She's making it today and shipping tomorrow, so it should be here by thursday or friday. Also should have Cabela's Tire X-Tend here by this weekend as well, I hope. Don't want any more flat tires, and can't afford new ones just yet.

Ah yes, Bruce Willis. Probably the only other butt kicker comparable to William Wallace. Good point. Speaking of which, has anybody seen that new Gladiator flick? I've heard it's supposed to be another action packed, butt kickin' show.

Good luck with the upcoming weekends ride. I've got to work again.

Mike

 

BBC- You watched Die Hard on HBO last night didn't you. I did too.

Cowboy- I haven't seen Gladiator, but I bet it is awesome. That rack bag was used to carry my sunglasses back out of the muck after I was too muddy to wear them. It is currently on the front porch with the cushion out of it drying. I guess I need to go get it and put the thing back in, it was out there all day. BBC is right about the victory point. I felt the front rise and start up out and I hollered and pointed real big and about that time I sunk the front end in another unsuspecting hole and damn near bogged. No problem though, this hole wasnt half as bad. I'll be getting pretty antsy around Thursday, the tires had better get here this week, its only a 5 hour drive to Shreveport.