It's startin to get late by now and we're gettin tired of our fight with the mud all day.
Photos are beginning to be of less priority and escaping the clutches of Big Bend is what we're thinkin about.
We venture into some more terribly muddy terrain and I'm thinkin this is where Gary's KLR starts having clutch problems, it was all starting to become a tragic blur to me.
I can't remember why Gary is sittin all alone on this hill, but it's pretty close to where his journey ended.
It was hard to go very far without a stick stop and wasn't that fun anymore.
The big red KLR wasn't wantin to go very well and Gary was cussin his 16 toother a bunch.
Man!
We gotta get outta this mud valley!
It wasn't a pretty route we had to choose from, but no way we could get all the bikes out the way we got into this area.
Gary's clutch was diein but after cooling a bit, it would move the bike.
After performing some sort of exotic gymnastic moves in the mud on his KLR Gary thrashed his hip or leg or somethin.
Bill volunteered to ride the big red KLR up the steep loose embankment we had for an escape route.
Don't know if it was fatigue, muddy feet, or what, cuz Bill can outride me blindfolded, but soon as he took off, down he went.
I hurried to put my camera away after this shot!
Dave got his bike up and out.
Bill did a great job with the big KLR slippery clutch and all.
Hoss was lookin pretty knarly with mud and I hadn't done any stickin, (I should have) but he got me out too.
I was worried about my clutch cuz I felt such a drag from the mud.
When I got to the top of the hill I smelled somethin like burnin rubber, or burnin CLUTCH?
OH NO!
I hopped off to smell Dave's KLX bein the optimist I am.
Nope, wasn't his.
Walked back around to the port side of the Hoss and OMG!
No wonder I felt draggin, the mud had anchored some rocks between the swingarm and tire and smoked it!
Spare the stick, spoil the ride I'm thinkin.
Here's what I dug out.
I looked the Hoss over a bit more to find the big 4.80 was windin my forkboots up tighter than dick's hatband!
Funny thing, the lil front wheels were the ones lockin up from the mud, don't know why for sure.
Never seen anyone ride in the mud without the front wheel turnin, you da Mane Dave!
Anway, Gary's bike toasted the clutch for sure shortly after our descent from the hill and Bill stayed with him cuz he wouldn't leave his bike.
Dave and I were to be the heroes who fought our way out for help.
This was startin to look like a Bad Deal!
I don't think we had two hours till dark.
I just wanna go back to the cabin and have a nice hot cup a java, darn it!
Can't we just change the station to a less suspense filled program?
How the heck we gettin outta here, I wanna follow my breadcrumbs the way we came.
Dave tells me to Pay Attention!,,,we can't make it out the way we came in!
Well Ok, you lead the way.
We wandered around somewhere over by the Three Bar Ranch and stayed somewhat on high ground when Dave looks at his GPS and says it looks like that road down on the flats will lead us to a main road,,,,,,,he thinks.
Zrod, you go first.
Well, allright.
Man, I took off down the hill and out over the flat road of the nastiest deep rutted mud I've ever encountered.
Unbelievable how well this big front wheel does in this shtuff, I'm thinkin.
I roost about a quarter mile down this thing and glance in my mirror and Dave is back there Stickin!!!!!
Oh No, we're never makin it through all this as I look ahead and it goes on forever!
My nerves are goin fast and so am I,,,,,,Too Fast!
I don't know what my problem was, I kept lookin back to see if Dave was makin it, lost my Chi, started wanderin across the ruts and Wham!
I went down pretty hard, took off both my pretty tool tubes up front.
Tiretube, babypowder, tools, tiretool, propstick and shtuff everywhere in the mud.
Man this REALLY IS a Bad Deal!
I instictively try to hoist the Hoss outta the mud, you know, before the cameras start flashin, no way!
He's stuck in the mud hard and that's why my back is still hurtin.
This was the first time in 34,000 miles and a dozen tipovers I couldn't lift Hoss back on the rubber.
I look up and Dave comes cruisin up and his front tire ain't even turnin!
This sucks mud big time, we ain't makin it are we!
Dave helps me lift my scooter and tells me we have another 4 miles of this to get to the road.
Cool, we leave nervous wrecks back the way we came to the safety of the high ground.
We know we are loosin daylight fast and if we're still gonna be the heroes, we'll have to find a way out fast.
As we're blastin across the highground we contemplate the locked gate at the Three Bar Ranch but decide against it, somethin about gettin shot or somethin.
Down the road Dave spots a road headin down to another long flat similar to the one that snatched me to the ground.
We stopped at the top of the hill and Dave told me to stay up here while he went down to check it out, a decision I had allready made soon as I saw where he was headed.
I turned off the motor and listened as his engine sound faded to nothin.
I waited for around what seemed to be a half hour.
This was a Drag!
I noticed the mountain next to me had a nice flat top and might be a good vantage point to see where the heck Dave had gone.
I climbed and then walked for sometime before seeing what I dreaded most.
Dave's stuck way out there.
Here's a couple photos at full 10X zoom of Dave takin off his gear and walkin his bike over to hide it in the bushes after quite a bit of stick work.
He had smoked his clutch.
Did I mention this was a BAD DEAL!
It took him a long time to walk back up to the top of the hill, huffin and puffin.
We hopped on Hoss with all Daves gear and started our search for a place to survive the cold, we weren't gonna be the heroes this night.
We found a cabin with no door or windows that had some chunks of lumber layin around and at least had a roof.
Dave hunted for some kindling to get the fire goin and almost went off a cliff in the dark.
I had givin my flashlight to Bill and Gary along with a lighter and half my water before we left them and found out later they had two of everything.
We did ok cuz at least we had some lumber layin around.
We felt sorry for those guys with nothin but sticks and sleepin under the stars.
What a feeling as you watch the sun go down knowin it's gettin down in the 20s, and you're in wet cloths and boots.
Goodbye mr Sun, hello mr Moon.
Dave started a lil fire to dry out some cloths and warm us up a bit.
We found an ole pallet we elected to lay on the concrete floor instead of burning.
The concrete floor didn't work, it soaked the heat right out of us.
We found an ole nasty tarp outside on the ground later in the night, cuz we were freezin and couldn't sleep.
We finally crashed out from exhaustion wondering if we were going to be able to escape this place the next day.
Man, that makes Ya sleep good!
I think we maybe got a couple hours sleep, more than I heard the other guys got.
We were up runnin in place and waitin to spin around in the rays when the sun finally came up.
We didn't hang around long for the uncertainty of our future.
I beat the ice off the Hoss's seat and.....
Hey! Where's my cool tool tubes!!!!!???
What's with all the mud on the port side!
We hopped on board and off we went, the way I wanted to this time!
Hey! What a concept, the roads are somewhat frozen, we make it just fine, with David only walkin on the steep muddy hills.
We get back to start callin tow companys.
The lady at the Minin Company says Kevin (Oneshot) reported us missing before he left, thanks Bro.
I spent over an hour callin different tow companys, who all said not a chance they were gettin thier shtuff stuck out there, it'd be a day or two.
Sheesh!
I'm about to dial 911 cuz I'm wonderin if those guys could even survive without any real firewood.
No kiddin, I was askin for the phone in the office when Gary and Bill show up on Bill's lil KLX.
YEEHAAA!!!!!!
At least we all made it!
Next, The Recovery!
Rod