Wellsville Snowball Ride, January 19, 2002
I have to thank Bill Pizzi and the Rough Ranger Offroad Club (RRORC) crew for inviting us along on their Wellsville Snowball club ride! All of the RRORC people were extremely cool and great to wheel with, and we all had a great time.
Unfortunately I got split up from Augie (Montero) and Rob (Discovery) at a hill climb, and didn't get to see them again on this ride. This was very disappointing, I was very excited about hanging out with Augie again and chatting with Rob about his Disco and watching it in action.
We got a bit of snow en route to Wellsville and had snow almost all day on the trails - this made things quite interesting. Wellsville has tons of hills, and when it's snowy and icy, the hills range from entertaining to terrifying - and we got that and more on this ride.
Bill immediately led us to Twister, and today only Matt in the Bogger-shod Bronco II and Wilber in his 2000 Ranger w/ SSR's and open diffs gave it a shot. Matt walked it, Wilber stomped it - he left some rubber on Twister. Upper Twister was impossible, so we didn't even try.
We next found a severe hill with ruts and rocks. Matt made it up in the BII and then a couple of the Rangers went, then I walked up and Chris followed in his 4Runner. No-one else attempted or made it, so we were now split up, but agreed to meet in the creekbed. We didn't make the creekbed for several hours.....
In an icy mudhole, Wilber took the high line and tipped his rig. Damage was slight and the recovery a bit complicated, but all was well within short order and he had no mechanical or personal damage.
We ultimately worked our way to the top of the Powerlines, then down off the side and down the shale step. In the snow, it was a tricky descent, but we all made it without issue to the base of the Powerlines. From there, we took the hill down to the creekbed and this is where my day got extremely interesting.
About 2/3 of the way down, there was a gulley off to the right leading to a chute about 150 ft. down the side of the hill. My right front tire got in the gulley and a little too close to pointing me down this severe drop-off, so I just stood on the brake. For 30 minutes! The group decided to hook me to a nearby tree and try and Hi-Lift winch my truck back left onto the trail, but it didn't quite work. We went through numerous scenarios, and I had 20+ minutes to sit and stare down the hill. Would that be my fate? I thought so many crazy things, but ultimately Matt and the rest of the group came up with a great plan. Matt drove up the hill towards me, hooked a snatch block to a tree behind me, and winched me backwards away from the gulley. I straightened out the truck a bit, then they carefully lowered me past the gulley. After gathering everything up, Matt backed down the hill! then I came down under my own power. And with a lot of fabric stuck between my cheeks - that we had no personal or vehicle damage is entirely a result of the ingenuity and effort these guys put out to recover my vehicle. Amazing. Two atv's rolled all the way down the hill rather than wait for me to get out of the way.
So for me, from here on out everything was anti-climactic. The rocky hill leading out of the creekbed was an icy mess that required some caution and creative driving due to the ice-covered rocks, but our group negotiated it without issue. Once back at the gas well, we were home free and headed on out.
I'd gladly wheel with the RRORC gang any time, and hope to again soon!
