Royal Blue / Windrock March 8-12

[Randy_R]

How was trip? Any pics?

I’m in week 2 of a 5 week trip. Can’t wait to ride in May - maybe late April.

[Larry M]

Went 21 miles on our 1/2 day ride on Wednesday, March 8th at Royal Blue. The Royal Blue trails were muddy, slick, had deep, deep ruts, and deep lakes instead of puddles. The trails have not been groomed in months or years. I got stuck twice. We saw a wonderful waterfall (Cascade waterfall). On Thursday, March 9th, we went 44 miles for a full day of riding at Royal Blue again. Carver Olson led us on some very challenging trails. Some were pucker factor trails going up trails with rocky ruts. Ate lunch at a hometown restaurant in LaFonette, TN. The highlight of the day was seeing a herd of elk. Saw one huge bull elk and 21 other elk. No major issues. On Friday, March 10th, we rode Windrock. I was leading and came up on a tractor and pickup that completely blocked the trail. He asked me if I could jump his tractor. He said his truck was broke down and wouldn't move. His tractor weakly turned over when attempting to start it. Since he asked me to help him start it, we got out our jumper cables and hooked it up between my battery and his tractor battery. When he tried to start it, my SxS stopped running. I had it running to give the electrical connection more umph. When I tried to start my SxS, nothing happened. We checked all the fuses and relays. We couldn't find anything wrong on the SxS. While everyone was troubleshooting my SxS, the guy got his tractor running. It turns out he had a bad terminal connection at his battery. So, I asked him to pull me to the nearest road. We went about 15 miles with him pulling me with his tractor. I couldn't seem to keep the tow rope tawt. He would slow down for ruts in the trail then would speed up again. I managed to break two tow ropes and a chain. Yes, we managed to break a chain too. At times, I had to use my brakes on downhills. The brakes got hot and I had to pump them to slow down. Just before we got to the road, we had a long downhill stretch. We towed from behind. I hooked one end of the tow rope to my backend. Charlie hooked the other end to the front of his rig. So we rode that way all the way down to the road. It got a lot scarier when I completely lost brakes. When we finally got down to the road, Tom and Charlie went back to the Windrock trailhead and brought trailers. Charlie had a very short tow rope. With it, Tom was able to pull me into his 20ft enclosed trailer. I looked for a SxS service department that would be open on a Saturday. Sure enough, I found one near our hotel. Brought my SxS to them at 9am. They fixed it by 11am. Turns out a fusible link had blown near the battery. A fusible link is a fuse that is inline with a wire near the battery. When it blows, another fuse can't replace it. You have to a) know where the fusible link is, and b) know how to replace it. The service guy replaced the fusible link with a replaceable fuse. The good thing is that the link likely saved my SxS from more extensive damage. I think the tractor battery was a 24 volt battery, not a regular 12 volt battery. That's why it blew the fusible link and saved me from more severe damage. Still, all in all, I enjoyed the adventure. Thank goodness for great friends who helped me. Did I learn a lesson? Sure did, I'll never jump another vehicle again. Maybe another SxS, but nothing else and especially not a tractor. How does the saying go? A bad day of riding is much more fun than a good day at work. What am I saying. I'm retired. Every day is a Saturday!

Larry

[Lonnie W]

To much amp draw from a tractor to jump it from a SxS, if it was a diesel ain't no way you could have jumped it off. Sure am glad it was nothing major though.

[davyw]

Wow Larry, what a ride report..... Sounds like a great adventure and glad nothing major happened. Great pictures of the elk and the views... Thanks for sharing...