4x4 Icon - Peters Mill 1/1/02

Prologue

I hadn't originally planned to go on this ride. But when I got up in the morning I felt like doing something and it sounded more interesting. So I got the kids ready and we hit the road.

Muster

The group was planning the usual meeting at Wendy's so I figured that would not get rolling towards Peters Mill until around 9:00AM. And I reasoned that with a large enough group, activities at the trail head would keep people busy for a while. We left home at about 9:00AM and arrived at the Taskers Gap ATV Parking area in time to find everyone getting ready to hit the trail.

I let the kids out to wander around while I aired down and disconnected. At one point I opened the door to the Jeep. Tomi was too close and I heard a "BONK!". He took a slight bump in the head from the flat part of the door. Fortunately the door was not moving very fast but it still hurt, I am sure. Once I got him calmed down and was ready to go, I loaded the kids in the Jeep and the column started to move up the trail

Trail

Along the way, there were references to last years New Years Day run and the mishap that had occurred. One vehicle had slid sideways, part-way down a hill. When it caught some traction, it toppled over. It was righted and the rest of the day was colored by the event.

This trip promised to be pleasant. The sun was shining, it was not exactly warm out but certainly not bitter cold. And the trail was dry, with no ice, snow or mud. How could anything possibly go wrong?

I'm sure that's just what Ken Wood thought as he pointed his Jeep up the side of the trail and toppled over. No great drama, just flopped on its side. Ken was right out and a little strained in the shoulder, but otherwise looking OK. His Jeep sustained some trail rash on the windshield frame, along with a broken windshield, a torn soft-top, and a crispy fender up front. Hard to say which scratches were from the episode.

So Jim Cleek unwound his winch and the recovery efforts began. The first attempt brought down a dead tree that had been used as the anchor point. It narrowly missed Ken and Jim's Jeeps and the guy directing the recovery. The next attempt brought Ken's Jeep back onto its wheels and Ken allowed it to freewheel back down to a level spot on the trail.

The next several minutes were spent running the procedure for starting a vehicle that has just been tipped over. Plugs came out, the engine was turned over to flush out any excess oil, and then the whole mess was put back together and started. All of this took time.

Once this was all corrected, the obligatory "Obstacle" was run by those who wanted. We took the bypass. The kids were a little spooked by Mr. Ken's demonstration.

We followed the rest of the trail out to an opening where we all stopped for lunch. It was starting to get a little colder. The kids wanted to see the Hummers that had turned out for the ride, but slept right through the stop. From here we hit the trail the last little way to the ATV Parking Lot.

Epilogue

The fun began at the parking lot. It appeared to be a contest to see who could find the largest boulder to drive up on. I found a pebble and drove up on it. While everyone watched Ken try to roll his Jeep again, I aired up and reconnected my sway bar. When I was done with that we followed Roscoe Primrose out to the road and headed home.

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Peters Mill GPS Data

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Peters Mill Run