Post by Larry M on May 20, 2012 20:58:08 GMT -5
We came to a fork in the trail. The trail to the left was called "Pucker 1". The trail to the right was "Pucker 2". The trail in the middle was "Misery". All the trails were marked in red. We chose Misery because the map indicated it took us in a loop. The Pucker trails were dead ends. Misery wasn't that bad. It had one very sharp switchback, but with a good lean, we stayed upright through it.
Wiley M, Kevin R, and I (Larry M) arrived at the Harlan County Kentucky campground on Thursday. We rode 60 miles on Friday and 120 miles on Saturday. Friday's ride was on Black Mountain. The trails were well marked. Most of the trails were in the blue category. The trail names were hilarious. Trails names were Tombstone.....Upper Damnation....Lower Damnation....Intimidator.....Rattlesnake. We rode most of them.
On Saturday, Wiley took us on some outlaw trails that had incredible vistas. True to the local ATV club's name, we were the Harlan Ridge Runners for the day. Everywhere you looked on both sides of the trail were magnificent views. Besides the views, the other hightlights were Kevin getting knocked off his ATV by a branch. The same branch had hit Wiley who was in the lead. The butt end of a broken branch hit Kevin in the upper left chest right where the heart is. His ATV continued to roll another 20 feet without him. Luckily the riderless ATV went sideways and turned over and was completely upside down with all four wheels pointing to the sky. Had the ATV rolled another five feet, it would have gone over the ridge. Kevin got very lucky. My "Misery" was getting a flat on tires that had less than 300 miles. It happened just as we arrived at "The Hole in the Wall". As Wiley relates it, this is the location where wagon trains went through the hole in a vertical wall of stone. Who knows, it may have been America's first tunnel. Our last obstacle was a tree that took us an hour to get around. My hand chain saw did the trick for us to get around it. We spent that much time because we really didn't want to go back the way we went. The rocks, boulders, and ledges were that intimidating. We started out at 9:00am that morning and didn't arrive back till 11:00pm that night. We all used our extra fuel packs. Below are a few pictures and videos. Thanks, Wiley, for leading us throughout the whole trip.
Wiley M, Kevin R, and I (Larry M) arrived at the Harlan County Kentucky campground on Thursday. We rode 60 miles on Friday and 120 miles on Saturday. Friday's ride was on Black Mountain. The trails were well marked. Most of the trails were in the blue category. The trail names were hilarious. Trails names were Tombstone.....Upper Damnation....Lower Damnation....Intimidator.....Rattlesnake. We rode most of them.
On Saturday, Wiley took us on some outlaw trails that had incredible vistas. True to the local ATV club's name, we were the Harlan Ridge Runners for the day. Everywhere you looked on both sides of the trail were magnificent views. Besides the views, the other hightlights were Kevin getting knocked off his ATV by a branch. The same branch had hit Wiley who was in the lead. The butt end of a broken branch hit Kevin in the upper left chest right where the heart is. His ATV continued to roll another 20 feet without him. Luckily the riderless ATV went sideways and turned over and was completely upside down with all four wheels pointing to the sky. Had the ATV rolled another five feet, it would have gone over the ridge. Kevin got very lucky. My "Misery" was getting a flat on tires that had less than 300 miles. It happened just as we arrived at "The Hole in the Wall". As Wiley relates it, this is the location where wagon trains went through the hole in a vertical wall of stone. Who knows, it may have been America's first tunnel. Our last obstacle was a tree that took us an hour to get around. My hand chain saw did the trick for us to get around it. We spent that much time because we really didn't want to go back the way we went. The rocks, boulders, and ledges were that intimidating. We started out at 9:00am that morning and didn't arrive back till 11:00pm that night. We all used our extra fuel packs. Below are a few pictures and videos. Thanks, Wiley, for leading us throughout the whole trip.