Pickett IR-G ride….
I had some guys from work and a couple of Clients that wanted to come up and ride Pickett. We tried to do it a couple of months ago but the snow prevented us from getting it done. These guys are all from West TN where the tallest hill they have is a Plow furrow. We pulled out just after 9AM from Black House MNT Rd, We made pretty good time over to Carpenters Rock house, after a short break we moved on. On the Way to the Preachers Rock the Polaris Sportsman rider started developing an issue that proved to be to be to much to fix on the trail. After over an hour of beating, cussing, and thrashing we parked it in the woods and he got on the small 300 Rancher and that rider got in the SXS with James. We moved out and were making some good time when Murphy reared his ugly head again. This time it was James’ turn for the bad MOJO, coming out of Trail 52 the radio cracked, James had a Flat. We spent some time installing multiple plugs in the right rear Mud Lite on his ride. After we were done James decided he could go where no Man or Machine had gone before. With the help of a very Strong winch he made it! Back on the trail again we headed up Trail 51. Almost to the end of 51 the radio cracked again, James has a Flat. I thought well he rubbed a rock and pulled the plugs out of the rear tire. NO! He had a flat on the Left front; upon further investigation he had a horrible cut right at the bead in 2 places. Turns out he had let the air pressure down to 7# the night before to try and get better traction and less wheel spin. It proved to be a very costly Decision. I lost count at the # of plugs we put in it, somewhere north of 10! We finally got it to where it would hold air reasonably well and headed for the sand mine Shed for lunch, once there James put a bottle of slime in it and more air in the rest of his tires. After lunch it was Mud Time, we headed out 3 playing in all the Big wholes along the way to 9. The little 300 Rancher got stuck in one whole and James being the Teaching rider he is decided to show us rough and un kept guys just how you to keep your skin and other unmentionable areas of the body soft and smooth, I think Rooster got this Teaching moment on Film for all of humanity! The mud Trails were pretty fun, the 2 wheel drives just couldn’t hang, but they had fun. Most of them by the end of the day were saying they were going to be getting 4x4 machines….LOL. Well, me and the Polaris guy separated from the group at the end of 21 to go retrieve his ride. It was drivable, just not on the trail with a broken CV. We started for the trucks, by then we met up with the group at the exit of 21 they were putting air in James tires again. Ron told us to go on they would catch up with us. We went on, the Polaris doing amazingly well despite its issue. We averaged about 12-14 MPH on the way back to the truck; I kept expecting the other group to catch us any time. We were almost back to the truck when the radio cracked, it was Rooster, but he was to far away and I couldn't understand what he was saying. We made it back to the truck and was loading our 2 machines when Rooster came Flying in. Seems James had rolled the front tire with $20 worth of plugs in it completely off the bead, and there was no getting it back on. We were hoping to take a Wheel off of something else and take back out there to him so he could get in. After a quick call to the only person that would know the bolt pattern for a T-rex, we were crushed to know that we didn’t have a thing that would work! Rooster headed back in to see what we could do. I called James on the phone and relayed the bad news. He said they were already cutting the tire off the rim and he would drive it in the last several miles on the rim, and that’s exactly what he did.
It was a very interesting day, I had a blast with these guys. Ron and James thank you very much for all your help today, I couldn’t have pulled this off with out you guys….
As one of the guys said it was more fun than a TICKLE BOX!!!
Pictures and video to be posted in that section.
Mon Mar 15, 2010 7:29 pm
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