As i look at these videos coming down the spine to the cutblock, i remember that when we got to the bottom of this never ending downhill that we all laughed at how insane it would be to go the opposite way and go up to the spine this way. Ironically, i did just that at the Crowsnest XC. :lol:
Thankfully, the trail is pretty straight forward to follow and we continue. We get to an open area with a creek in front of us and we see remnants of a 'flag' on the other side. We push forward. Did i mention it was hot? like REALLY hot!. My buddy from Ontario gives us the sign of death, not sure how he came up with it but basically he needs to stop and stop NOW. He tells us that he is burning up and he needs to cool his feet down. i actually picture him taking his boots and socks off to prance around in the creek, thankfully he just walks into the creek fully geared. After he is down to room temperature, we again continue. We come to a t-intersection where the singletrack ends at the quad trail. We see no flags and no signs of a trail beyond this t.
It begins to rain, no make that it begins to let buckets of water drop out of the sky. i have a perverse thought that Ontario buddy probably never needed to do the foot dipping 10 mins earlier :smirk: Hail, yep, big and many hailstones start to ping off our bikes and our gear. Some 'ow' moments for sure. Did i mention we have not found the returning trail yet? Yeah, a little hard to search for where the trail went when one is being pounded by hail and deluged by water. i made an executive decision...
i packed my high dollar camera away to keep it dry, i hope. It also means that the rest of this story can not be verified :thinking:
Ontario buddy has a GPS. Alberta buddy has no idea where we are. Me? i know the race loop works its way back but i can not find the trail! We decide to go the GPS route. We have a choice, follow quad trail to right where it appears there is no hook up to anything coming back East. Going left also shows no connections. Seriously? :crazy:
We go left, we hit a logging road and go right. We were once hot, now we are cool and it is still dumping buckets of water on us from Mother Sky.
We are now dripping wet, goggles are useless but i am a bit happy that i have heated grips, they are on max.
Still raining, we come upon a quadders. We ask if they know how to get to Racehorse Creek. The incredulous look on their face is not a good sign. They say to go to x, than y and z will take you right back. We ride away with not much confidence. The good news is that the 'road' we are on as we travel is heading away from the storm. :applause:
We meet more quadders, wash, repeat, rinse. We meet a truck, wash, repeat, rinse. What do we learn? Everyone has a different way to get back. Confidence is zero. Good news!!!!, rain is gone. Ontario buddy comes up with a plan from his GPS. It shows some connectors going East. He also lets us know battery power is waning on the GPS and i remind us that gas is being consumed. Off we go with the GPS. We stop some ways back before what looks like a low lying section that is probably a huge skeg field because the GPS and trail are no longer in sync. Also i verbalize that we are catching up to the storm that is traveling East as well. i am so done with that storm, so, so done.
i make an Executive decision. One of the folks that try to help us had made mention that we were on the Atlas road. Now, i know i have passed the turn off from Highway 3 to the Atlas staging area many times on my way down to Fernie and Kooc. Gas is a concern, this 'pipeline' that will easily take us back just never seems to appear from all the various quadders that try to help so...
i tell the boys we are going to take this Atlas Road to Hwy 3 and from there into Coleman where we can get gas.
As is said, no camera accessible, helmetcam was turned off a long time ago so there is no way to verify the truthfulness to this next part, it may never really have happened and we are already back at camp drinking brews and eating fine bbq.
Really?
Did we?
Here we go. We decide that the best approach to Coleman is by riding inconspicuously in the ditch. i look back and realize how much more visible could we have been doing what we did? Cars and trucks were gawking i am sure at these 3 dirtbikes paralleling hwy 3 :lol:
i make another executive decision that actually being on hwy 3 might make us less conspicuous. We merge in with traffic and continue to Coleman. We arrive and stop at the gas station. We may have strategically took the pump that was concealed by a big trailer. We fill up and now the boys are looking to me the leader on what is next.
Trunk road of course.
i admit, it has been some time that i had driven the trunk road from the Coleman entrance and as i continued toward it on paved roads and communities, i forgot just how far the actual road is from the highway. Maybe it just seemed far because i was on a dirtbike.
We hit the dirt finally and i do feel a tad chilled. The storm as i said was heading East so we are behind it but temps have cooled down considerably and we are tired, hungry and damp. In short, it sucked.
i am leading and i come upon a truck doing 60-70km/hr. Speed limit is 80. My first thought is that the truck belongs to 'The Man'. But i also see a different bumper sticker so i convince myself in my delerious state that the logo on the door is a 'rancher'. i decide to pull out and go around. As i get up beside the truck, i realize it is indeed 'The Man'. i do not actually turn my head and look but my peepers are pretty good (well, except for finding singletrack trails a couple hours ago :excuse: ) and out of the corner of my eye, the logo, the uniform confirm it. i go by him and ude my hand signals to pull in front. i get the bike to 80km/hr and continue. With no mirror i figure i will just wait for a 'sound' before i pull over. No sound happens but my next problem is there is a turn that takes us back to the truck and i know Ontario and Alberta buddy do not know it. i am now working on reasons, excuses, pleadings, etc that may give me a free pass when i know 'The Man' is going to pull up to me at the road i have turned onto and stopped to wait for the buds. i stop, i finally get the nerve to turn and it is not 'The Man' turning onto this road but both buds!!!!
No time to talk so i blast (at speed limit of course) down the road to our trucks 13kms away. When we arrive at the trucks, Alberta buddy said he could not believe i passed 'The Man' and decided he was not being left behind so he passed right after me and Ontario buddy did the same. i guess the pathetic energy i emanated caused a forgiving moment from 'The Man' or maybe he just did not give a crap
We are cold, wettish and we still need to gather firewood.
We accomplish the wood run and head to camp where the roaring fire produces many laughs at my expense and i am sure i will never live down my Mantracker incapability.
This story may or may not be completely or in part fabricated....
The End
