After watching it rain all week and people change plans by the minute, we finally got to Wellsville Saturday 4/7 for what turned out to be a wonderful and entertaining day.

Shane came up from the Cincinnati area, Michael from Athens, and we met Ed Herman, Brian Studer, and Dana Burns from Loose Cannons. While on the trail, we also picked up two families in their Jeeps, and met Bruce (Bellyup) at Twister.

After my initial and expected failed attempt at orienteering us toward the trail that drops into the creekbed, I met some ATV riders who pointed us in the right direction. On the way to the trail, we all slid down a near-vertical greasy hill with the brakes locked up; then some of us found our way through a very large and deep mud hole. We descended to the creek to find several inches of furious water sweeping over the rocks, but no-one had a problem.

We turned up out of the creek along the trail that straddles a hillside, until we reached the base of the Powerlines. The Powerlines were still a bit slick from all the rain, and despite one or two drivers being challenged, again everyone made it under their own power. We ate lunch at the Powerline plateau and enjoyed the sunny 70+ day - quite a relief after this winter.

We then started down the Powerlines to head towards Twister. The trail was tight in places, and climbed and descended slick hills, but again no problems. That soon changed: just above the rough spot above Twister (I guess we can now call this "Upper Twister"), I slid off my line into a rut. Michael was following me, and to compensate he went a bit more left than I did, and he slid into a wall - his first body damage on his '94 4Runner. We anchored him from the rear and he winched from the front and avoided any further damage. Everyone else made it without incident, but then we all stopped to figure out how to complete this last section of the trail. By all accounts, this is much more challenging than Twister is (see previous Wellsville reports for Twister photos and description).

Coming down, there were three lines: high to the left appeared to be a guaranteed roll. The right side looked treacherous. To my jaded eye, the center line with the alternating 2-3' drops looked best, so Dana spotted me down. Despite the severe pucker and airtime, I made it, as did Michael and Shane. I believe everyone else took the right line, which provided far less drama.

From here on out, Dana put on a show for us. Well first Brian climbed back up in his rusty CJ7 with open diffs. So then Dana got on it and tried the right (down) line, or left going back up. After all sorts of contortions and sliding and wheelspin, his CJ5 had had enough and decided to lay down to rest. It was at this point we discovered his leaky gas cap, so his fire extinguisher was brought out as he recovered. He ultimately was righted and made it up. Bellyup came up next in his trick TJ (tons o' flex and dual lockers) and he too struggled, all the while putting on quite the air display. He made it up, then came back down to watch......

People started going up and down Twister - well, just Brian in his CJ7. Dana lined up at the top to start down and promptly rolled again - how I have no idea, but he was chuckling and there were no injuries and no damage. He was righted with Michael's winch, and we all headed out.

From here my story ends as we just went on out. Bbrian, Dana, and Bellyup stayed behind to help out some other wheelers and got into all sorts of fun - Bellyup's front ARB grenaded, Dana blew a u-joint towing, etc. All in all, another great day, with some of the best entertainment I've seen on the trails.