4 wheeling trails livingston, tn

JodyT · #1 (**permalink**) 01-09-2011, 06:42 AM

Alpine Mountain 1/8/2011

WOW…Where to start! This morning I was to meet a couple of guys at Alpine Mountain School for a nice exploring ride. I woke up this morning to a nice Fluffy 2” snow, this was going to be an Awesome day, little did I know! We were to meet at 8 AM and ride, I got a call from Jaime at 7:45 that Donovan’s bike had a Dead battery and they would be a few minutes late as they were changing it out, no problem I wasn’t punching a time clock. Well, at 8:15 Jamie called back to say they were at the gas station and the trailer had a flat, they were going to be a few more Minutes…Little did I know this was the start of a very Memorable day! Finally at 8:30 they roll up, we get them unloaded and ready to ride. Jamie is riding a 2004 Rancher 4x4 on ITP XTR tires, Donovan is on a Honda 700XX on Maxis Razr tires, and me on the Sportsman on Big Horns we had about 4” of snow to ride in, I was excited to hit the Mountain as I had not been on it in over 2 years. We decided that the 700XX could not make it up the Dirt hill with so much snow so that left the Long Rocky Hill, this is a climb that is about 1 mile long and full of basketball sized rocks with washouts and off cambers thrown in for good measure. For those that have not road Alpine, it has a lot of rocks and steep climbs, it is not maintained and is like Picket State Forest in that it is what it is! We made it to the top of the mountain and continued on the main trail, I was trying my best to keep up with that 700XX, Donovan has done some work to that bike, I was having a heck of a time throwing this 700# beast of mine around trying to stay up with him. About 5 miles into the ride we were climbing a small rocky hill and I felt a hard hit and new immediately what I had done. At this point I had fallen to the back behind Jamie, it seems the 4” of snow had hid some very sharp rocks from view. I signaled to the guys to stop, that I had trouble. Upon further inspection I had 3 Punctures in the sidewall of the right rear tire. Punctures does not really describe the holes in the side of this tire…I believe you could throw a cat though them! Well out comes the plug kit, I have used this thing many times on other riders tires, but this is the 1st time I have used it on my bike in over 2 years! 3 holes, 9 plugs, and 20 minutes later we are ready for the Air compressor…Dang! I forgot it in the RZR, you can bet your butt I will have 2 of everything I carry before I ride again. Donovan calls his Father in law who was in town, and gets him to go buy a small 12 volt compressor and bring to the school. Donovan heads back to the truck to retrieve the compressor so we can continue the ride. Meanwhile me and Jamie just hung out and enjoyed the awesome scenery we were surrounded by. At this point Jamie was walking around his bike and noticed that his right front tire looked funny, turns out he had a whole in the sidewall of his bike as well. Seems the snow and slick roads had been too much for a car coming up the mountain and the Air compressor got hung up in a small traffic jam about ½ ways up the Mountain. Finally after nearly an Hour Donovan returns with the compressor, we get the tires aired up on both bikes and decide to try and press on. I am going to take it easy and just enjoy the ride; we head out on a side trail that runs along the ridge line. Donovan comes to a creek crossing with a ledge he has to hop up on the other side. The snow, ice, and Mud proved to be too slick for the 700XX so Donovan decides to cross below the trail below a small waterfall. He starts across and his whole right side disappears under the water, and he gets wet ½ ways up his leg. We hook the tow rope to him and snatch him out of the grasp of the creek. Donovan says he’s wet but he will be fine, he’s a tuff SOB I will give him that! We head on out the ridge and down the other side of the mountain. We decide to head over to the river to eat lunch and plot our next plan of attack. While eating lunch Donovan decides the wet clothes are just too much and we decide to head for the trucks, it was 25 when we left the trucks and I believe that it has dropped ever since we left. We start back and decide to take a different trail back up the Mountain. This is the same trail that I flipped the grizz on just over 2 years ago. Thankfully there is a bypass that takes you around that section as I don’t want to tempt fate again with that hill with 4” inches of snow on it! We start up the bypass and just over ½ way up the Sportsman feels funny, I look down and that tire is flat again! I signal Jamie to stop as I got to put some air into it…upon fruther inspection I discover that I have another hole in the sidewall about 3 inches around from the other 3! 3 Plugs later and we are ready for the air again, I look up and I see Donovan come walking back up the trail to us, I tell Jamie that he has either wrecked or had Motor trouble. We get the tire aired up and Donovan shows up to inform us that he indeed did have a mishap. Seems he hooked a rock and ripped the sidewall of his left rear tire, he then clipped a small sapling and flipped the 700 over on its back! This rip is beyond repair, I can stick 2 fingers in it. We have no choice but to drive it in flat, so off we go slow and steady the 8 miles back to the truck. If your keeping track that is 4 holes and 12 plugs in my sportsman, 1 hole and 2 Plugs in the Rancher, and one ripped side wall on the 700XX, and we still have several miles to go to get back to the trucks. We decide to take the Dirt hill down so as to avoid any more rock damage. We stop at the turn for the Dirt hill to warm up Donovan’s hands before the very steep descent. Back on the bikes and it seems the 2 minutes we were sitting there the front brakes on the 700 froze completely up! The inside of both front wheels were solid blocks of Ice; we beat, stomped, kicked, cussed, and chiseled with a socket and extension until we finally got one wheel free. Donovan took off down the trail with one wheel spinning and one skid along, finally he hit a rock or root hard enough that it broke free! We continued down the STEEP dirt hill to the trucks. By the time we got back to the trucks Jamie’s tire was flat again as was mine. We only did about 20 miles, but it sure was a very memorable 20! We all agreed it was fun, but next time we plan on riding Alpine and there is snow on the ground we are going back to bed!

Ride Pictures..