Submitted by Jodi Beyer:
For the weekend of July 30-August 1, Members, Mark Wing, Jodi and Chris Beyer along with friends of the club, Max Anthony with wife Hayley and Paul Heaps wheeled at AOAA. The weather was perfect both days making for full days to explore many well-known as well as many unknown parts of the park.
Saturday was filled primarily with the Eastside trails. We successfully navigated mostly blue and some black trails. Near the end of the day, Max Anthony of Climax Crawlers ended up in a massive pile of rocks in his Roxor for an exciting and challenging winch assist.
Even though there was a high threat of rain overnight and throughout the morning, the weather ended up perfect for a near-full day of wheeling on Sunday. We wheeled primarily on the West side of the park taking the new Bootlegger Trail all the way to the park's property line. This made for an unusual and unexpected return on the road. Once we uneventfully arrived back at the gate we traveled green trails back to the Whaleback for lunch. We all agreed around 2PM that we should end on a positive note.
On the way back to camp, the group was separated, mostly because Max is a speed demon. We had agreed to take the pipeline trail back. While I was at the wheel of our Roxor, I decided to attempt a steep incline thinking it was just the path back to the trailhead. Once we crested the hill, it became immediately obvious that there was an unmanageable drop off just on the other side. My instinct was to stop and it's a good thing I did. It would have ended badly for both of us since it was not fit for full sized vehicles and we were not properly strapped in. After an "Austin Powers" backup maneuver, we safely descended on a more gradual hill.
Although we heard that Mercy Flight was called to the park once we had already left, we all felt very fortunate. We had no injuries, no major repairs needed and we lucked out on the weather. It was truly an excellent weekend with good food, good friends and fun times.
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Best Regards,
Jodi Beyer
