Reunion Ride

Today’s ride was a special occasion, in that it was a reunion of sorts. Ben was back in town for the Thanksgiving Holiday, and wanted to get together with me for an ATV ride. Well, it just so happened, that Jeff’s step-brother Mark was in town also. Not to mention, Jeff’s ATV was actually up and running, well, for a while at least, more on that later.      We all met at Jeff’s house around 11pm and for the ride started. We rode through the normal local spots and then decided to go ahead and make another trip all the […]

Ridge Trail Hike at Coopers

It has been quite a while since I had been out hiking, and wanted to get at least one more in before winter had set in. Sam and I decided to go to Coopers Rock for a hike, as the leaves were just starting to change to their fall colors. We looked over the maps the night before, and found a trail called Ridge Trail, that had not been on before. The name was very fitting, as it basically followed the ridge line north-west, till it gradually slopped down to the river, and a joining valley. This map is hard […]

Sinks of Gandy 2006

This was our 4th annual vacation to the Sinks of Gandy. You can read about the 2005 trip here. As before, Sam and Ben went along with me. Ben was not sure if he was going to able to make the trip this year. He had job interviews a few days before the trip, and was not sure where they were going to lead. Turns out, that they were not going to get in touch with him till later that week, which was about the time we were planning on returning. I was worried that our favorite camping spot would […]

I Finally Rolled It

Today started out nice, the sun was shinning, it was a nice warm day, and Ben even got his dads ATV out for a ride. Jeff had to work on his riding mower, so he wasn’t able to ride with us today. We saw him out at The Island, and talked with him for a while, he was just killing time till someone got back with the parts he needed. A couple ATVs came riding by, and stopped to talk to us. They asked where we were planning on riding, which we really didn’t know. We didn’t really feel like […]

To Ash Dumps with Mark

Distance= 72 Miles Ben and I were out pretty late the night before, so I was very surprised that we got such an early start. The plan was to get up about 9 AM so that we could get an early start. Then Ben ended up calling me at 8 AM. He had stayed at a buddies house, and happened to wake up early. I guess he felt I should also. So we ended up heading out on our ride by 10 AM. We figured we would stop by Jeff’s place on our way through. I didn’t figure he would […]

Brent goes to the Ash Dump

Distance = 52 Miles I had plans of riding today, even though I had not got in touch with Jeff yet. I would have rode alone if I had to, but Ben’s dad (Brent) called me up this morning and asked if I wanted to go riding. Brent had just bought some new tires for his ATV, and I think that revived his interest to ride again. I don’t think he has rode much lately, being busy with things at work and at home. I ended up getting a hold of Jeff on my way up to Brent’s, and he […]

First Helmet Cam Day

Today was a beautiful sunny warm day, and the first day I got to try out my new Helmet Cam setup.    I wasn’t sure if Jeff was going to be around, since I couldn’t get a hold of him that morning. So I just stopped by his house on my way to Indian Creek. He was home, and just waking up, but he was still up for a ride. We headed out to Indian Creek first as usual, and sure enough, saw a few people down at the Island. I didn’t see anyone I knew, but Jeff talked to […]

Camping & Caving at Bowden & Hamilton

This will be a 3 part trip report, that takes place over 3 days of camping and caving. This trip started out Friday afternoon after I got home from work. Ben, Sam, Ezra, and I were on this trip. Ezra is an old time friend, and had not gotten the chance to go out with us in a long time. He had only done one other caving trip to Sinks of Gandy Cave a couple years ago with Ben, and was excited to go on another caving trip.      Part 1:   Camping out near Bowden      We all met at […]

Through the Water Tunnel

We got a fairly early start today, having camped near the cave the night before. The main entrance to Bowden Cave was only about a 15 minutes drive from our camping spot. We had been in this cave once or twice before, but it had been quite some time, and we were excited to explore it again. There is a small passage into the cave after you crawl up over a rock face. This used to be gated off a few years ago, but now there are only a couple pipes left. For the most part, Bowden is walking passage, although […]

Camping at Bowden

It has been a long time since we have done any camping or caving trips. We mainly wanted to do a caving trip back to Bowden, but we also have been wanting to get some more camping in. So we figured we would camp out Saturday night, and hit the cave early Sunday. Sam was starting his new internship on Monday, so he wasn’t willing to go this time, so it was just Ben and I this time. We were able to pack fairly light, and we were planning to camp at a camp ground above the cave anyway. We […]