The six of us decided to go to Wellsville, knowing there would be snow on the ground. Under the canopy and on the sunless sides of hills, the trails were rather treacherous: the snow was not deep (a few inches at most), but there was plenty of ice to deal with. The creek had 4-6" of ice, and we found ourselves breaking through many places, but it was fun. Many of the holes in the trails were filled, making the ride relatively smooth.

We experienced some problems turning up the hill out of the creekbed, but everyone made it. From there, it was on to the Powerlines. The Powerlines were covered on the sunless side with the slick stuff, and on the sun side it was just "Wellsville glop". I decided to give them a try today, and the ride was complete and total pucker going up and coming back down. The others elected to find an alternate route to the top.

While scouting down an alternate route, Ken sheared the front pinion on his Ranger's Dana 35 center section. Considering the conditions, we quickly decided to work our way back out the way we came in order to get Ken off the trail. This is where the real fun started: with only RWD, Ken's well-built Ranger just couldn't make it up some of the hills. At one point, we had a 30-ft. strap from my truck to Ken, and another 100-120ft of looped-together straps from Chris's 4Runner (where Chris had traction up the hill) down to my truck to get Ken up a hill. Our little train finally made it.

Note to self: Remember to take more action shots! Also, all pictures open in a new window.