If you have been following this story, you will know that we have been doing things that may be considered “unusual” by most people (at least here in the NYC area…). Unusual, but not reckless. Well……..
We discovered a trail in September that really got us interested. As you know, our property is remote with no road access. We park on our neighbor’s property and hike close to 1 mile over her land to get to our spot. We actually love doing that; it gives us a feeling of solitude and wilderness without being totally out of range in case of some sort of emergency. However, we are always on the lookout for a way to accomplish a direct way to get our vehicle onto Four Corners.
The trail we found in September leads DIRECTLY from the dirt road we normally take to our northeast property line! The first half (about 1 mile or so) of the trail is a drivable dirt road. The second half is an ATV trail. I checked it out in September and decided that, although it is rough, I could get a vehicle down it. There was one little rough spot that had me a little nervous…..
We will get back to the trail a little later….
We went up on a Tuesday, knowing that Tuesday night and Wednesday would be a complete washout with about 1 inch of rain coming. Personally, I was looking forward to the rain. I had been burning on afterburners for about 8 weeks and was welcoming a couple of lazy days to catch my breath. Ashley was looking forward to relaxing, but was not thrilled about camping in the rain. Understandable. So, I determined to make the campsite as comfortable as possible in order for us BOTH to enjoy the down time.
Hilbilly Hilton
I set tarps up over the cooking area and also the entrance to the cabin. The cabin tarp also kept the rain off of the fire, so we were able to keep that going with no problem. It ended up quite comfortable and cozy. I brought my Bible and caught up on some much needed reading — good for the soul! The tarp setup was very useful because we got rain on and off for several days.
Tuesday night we went to bed about 8:30PM and got up at 10:30 AM. I cannot recall the last time THAT happened!
If one word can be used to describe this visit to 4C’s, it would be “LAZY”. Yaaaawwwwwnnnnnn……..
Back to the trail…..
We drove in on Tuesday afternoon full of excitement and expectation. FINALLY! A road to Four Corners! How cool is that?? I was actually planning on taking our GMC Jimmy because it has better tires than the explorer, and is a bit smaller. Unfortunately, the Jimmy is not running right, so we decided to take the Explorer after all. So now I am a little nervous. It has highway tires, lower clearance, and wider wheelbase than I had been planning for. I brought along a good strong rope, and a heavy duty hand winch that I used when I was a tree guy. We would use the winch to pull over big trees. I had these available so we could (hopefully) pull ourselves out in case we got stuck.
The first half of the road in was fine, no problem. As we got deeper into the woods, the road got narrower, rougher, steeper. It gradually changed from a road to a trail. Occasionally, we would hear a rock scrape the bottom of the vehicle. We went through a couple of muddy sections, but emerged and continued. In my mind, I am realizing that I am crossing over that line from “unusual” to “reckless”.
The trail is now too narrow to even think about turning around. We are committed. I slowly pick my way along, avoiding the higher rocks sticking up. We come to a birch tree laying across the trail. Ash says, “what are you going to do? Are you going to drive over…”, before she could finish her sentence, we were over it and on our way….
We approach that worrisome rough spot. There are large rocks, and it is torn up from the ATVs. My worry is that we will get hung up in one of the ruts, or stuck on a large rock. I carefully pick my way through…………..DONE! We made it!
A little further along, we are going downhill. I say to Ash, “man, this is STEEP!”
Parked on 4cs
Before we know it, we are PARKED ON OUR OWN PROPERTY!!!!!
Although thrilling, I was now very concerned about getting OUT. The trail in was mostly down hill. Heavy rain was coming. We are now looking at trying to go UPHILL, very steep, rocky, rough, highway tires, not the best clearance, wet, mud, WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN US INTO????????????????
I wanted to just turn around and immediately get out. But, we had all of that rain coming and needed to set up camp. If I did get stuck trying to get out, our camp would not be set up, we would be miserable, AND the explorer would be stuck, possibly for days. We decided to chill til the rain stopped and deal with the trail in a couple of days.
Friday morning, we got up early (8:30 AM haha), determined to DRIVE THAT FORD OUT OF THE WOODS. The ground was still wet, but not completely soaked anymore. On our way…..
Drive for a while, no problem. Then, that STEEP section. I had been worrying about the steep section, and the rough section. I knew that if we could get past these two spots, we would be golden.
We were proceeding slowly, trying not to beat the thing to death on the rocks. I had to speed up to make it up that steep hill. Got about halfway…….stopped, with wheels spinning. Uh oh. Backed part way down the hill and tried again. Didn’t even get to the same point. UH OH. At least I have my rope and winch. I tell Ash, “we are going to back all the way down the hill, get good speed, and give it one more shot. Otherwise, we will be winching this sucker up the hill…”
I back it up to a level spot. Drive over some leaves, trying to get as much mud as possible out of my highway tires. Put it in low gear, swallow hard, hit the gas…..
Up the hill. Past the spin out spot……are we gonna make it???…..a little further……the tires begin to spin out……DO NOT LET OFF THE GAS……..they bite a bit more….we keep momentum……………..crest the hill!!!!!
One obstacle down, one to go.
muffler
When we approached that rough spot I stopped and got out. I wanted to pick a route through, because this spot was actually more treacherous than the steep hill. One of those ruts, or one of those rocks, could do serious damage to the underside of our vehicle. As I got out, I looked to my left and saw an entire exhaust system hanging in a tree. Not a good sign!
We got 3/4 of the way when the wheels spun out again. So close, yet so far! I got out, reassessed the situation, backed up a bit, minor adjustment……..hit the gas……………
WOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!!
We made it out unscathed!
I am buying an ATV today.
beaver pond
eggs and hash
our hills
the magnificent timber dog
