I took my #2 son, 13y/o, down to the Wagon Wheel today for his first "official" trail ride. He has been riding my Honda 300 Fourtrax 2X4 for a while now and has been doing really well. I borrowed a friends Prairie 360 4X4 for me to ride and we had at it.

Josh did really well as we rode from the WW up past the stairsteps onto several trails. It was kinda strange at first, cause it was deserted. Saw/past no one all morning. He had been chomping at the bit to get into a few mud holes, but since it hasn't rained much here lately, almost all of the holes have dried up pretty good.

When we got back to the main road at the bottom of the stairsteps, there were a couple of really deep looking, and very nasty looking, holes. Since he is ten foot tall and bullet proof, he wasn't going to let it rest until he went thru them. I tried telling him that he wouldn't be able to make it thru those holes, but them teenage hormones wouldn't let go . Finally I said go ahead, and told him the best way to try it. After you've been a dad for a while, you learn that sometimes you just have to let them learn a few lessons by themselves. As long as no blood spurts, or bones stick out, I just kinda watch the learning process happen.

He went into the hole at a decent speed, and as soon as all four wheels hit the mud, it stopped dead BAM!!!! The mud was the consistency of fresh playdough just out of the can, and it stopped him dead in his tracks. He was laying up on the handle bars looking down at the mud. I was laughing so hard, I don't think I could have pulled him up if he fell in!!!

He had sunk up over all four tires in this mess, and there is no way I could have pulled him out. I was preparing to ride down to WW and get the 4wd p/u to pull him out. Luckily for us, four guys came by about then all on 4x4's.

In the end, after about 20 minutes, it took a Polaris 700 AND a Bombardier hooked together to pull him out. It was hilarious!! The guys were really nice. I think all four of them were from around Martinsville VA, and we were happy they came along when they did.

After driving thru a creek bed to wash some of the gunk off, we went past the WW down to the creek crossings. Played around down there for an hour or so. It was also his first time crossing water that deep and he really had a blast.

Overall it was a very enjoyable day. I will be making the same trip in the near future with my #1 son, 14. He lost the coin flip on the first ride .

I took several pics that I will try to post in the near future. I didn't take my dig camera, and just used one of the disposable jobs. After Ben's ride, I'll get them developed and posted up.

Hope everyone has a safe week, and gets real muddy!

Honk

 

Sounds like great memories are being made! We laughed reading your ride report, teenagers are so much fun! Will check back to see the pics. Thanks for sharing. (Mrs. Q)