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Site 03 - Banner Mine It’s only about 8 miles from Site 20, Little Beaver Creek, to Banner Mine. But that’s where 90% of the “Adventure” in today’s ride took place. First, three miles in we came to a downed tree across the road right next to a small, steep-walled stream. It was deadfall, so we were able to break the bottom branches off the top end of the trunk and carefully ride under the top of the trunk and along the edge of the stream. Obstacle One – conquered! Discounting some operator-induced GPS issues, our next challenge was another water crossing – the result of a missing water culvert. The County, Forest Service, or someone had prepared a nice, deep, ditch to lay a 4-foot diameter culvert in. However, no one had told the water that the culvert was missing, so it had worn a nice cutting through the middle of the ditch. It was only a foot or so deep, but it was 10 feet wide and flowing pretty fast. And, the bottom was all football-sized rocks. If we hadn’t been so close, we might have bailed. But, it was the last site of the day and we were within a mile of our goal! I went first on my antique tractor, an ’89 TransAlp, and chugged across with less finesse than I’d hoped. The Hermit blasted across on the 990, barely getting wet. And his brother, not to be outdone, rode a wheelie from mid-stream to the top of the ditch. I’ll leave it to the local wildlife to decide if this was intentional or not. Obstacle Two – success! Finally, 300 feet short of our goal according to the GPS, we were stopped by deep, slushy snow. Zero traction resulted in two stuck bikes. Obstacle Three – Fail :( Not to be beaten by this setback, we left our trusty steeds to cool their heels, literally, in the slushy snow; and trudged, slipping and swearing, to the pin location and took our photos.
Posted by KaptSlow on 2022-04-25 17:56 |
