Got off work a little earlier than expected today, wife and kids gone for the day, what to do.........
Go for a ride on the mountains behind my place. Fired up the 60, and headed out of town. Recently I had noticed that a formerly open, recently gated, and now again open road that we used to wheel on was once again open- and wanted to get up there and see what was new. This entrance is off the hard road that Jeff and John take when leaving my place to go home. It leads into a plethora of trails and roads, meandering all over the mountain. Lots of easy, open stuff and some difficult areas if you so prefer (Jeff???).
The roads were put in for access to mining areas on the mountain. The valley that live in is heavily laden with hard coal and the mountains on both sides of the valley are laced with old mines, reclaimed strip mining areas, and currently operating mines. What with the price of energy these days mining activity is as high as I've seen it in years.
First real sight off the hard road is passing an open deep mine entrance- complete with water flowing out of it and freezing on the road. Made me think fondly of the coal mine at Paragon- maybe never to be seen by any of us again. That was neat down there especially on a hot summer day. A neat steep climb on the road I always used to climb led to disappointment- it was closed at the top by large piles of rocks and dirt.
Did I say it was snowing, too? About two inches on the gound, some from today some from yesterday. Made for neat looking tracks from my BFG mud terrains, I'll tell ya. I spent two hours up there just driving around looking at all the new mining activity and just enjoying the day. Bright blue skies for the most part, and bright white snow covering the ground made it really neat. There's one extremely steep sectionoff the main dirt road, maybe 1/8- 1/4 mile long but I didn't head down it- too steep what with the snow on it, and at the bottom there is mining activity. I try to keep my distance from the operations.
On the way home, headed west into the setting sun, was really neat. The snow had a pearl white color to it and the low sun angle made the tracks from my tires look bluish. Cool. Bottom line is some of the old trails are no longer doable, while some new ones are now accessable. I can take another vehicle or two up there with me and drive all day on neat roads and hardly ever see another vehicle or even person. Lots of deer and turkey, plenty of bear, but all I saw today were several hawks enjoying the wind. Some of you guys ought to drop by one of these weekends- Jeff Dozier, the Merkeys, Steve Colavito, Matt Reed and lots of other guys have wheeled behind my place and it's fun. It's free. And it ain't far from my place if there is trouble. A great way tospend a Sunday afternoon................Gary S
Go for a ride on the mountains behind my place. Fired up the 60, and headed out of town. Recently I had noticed that a formerly open, recently gated, and now again open road that we used to wheel on was once again open- and wanted to get up there and see what was new. This entrance is off the hard road that Jeff and John take when leaving my place to go home. It leads into a plethora of trails and roads, meandering all over the mountain. Lots of easy, open stuff and some difficult areas if you so prefer (Jeff???).
The roads were put in for access to mining areas on the mountain. The valley that live in is heavily laden with hard coal and the mountains on both sides of the valley are laced with old mines, reclaimed strip mining areas, and currently operating mines. What with the price of energy these days mining activity is as high as I've seen it in years.
First real sight off the hard road is passing an open deep mine entrance- complete with water flowing out of it and freezing on the road. Made me think fondly of the coal mine at Paragon- maybe never to be seen by any of us again. That was neat down there especially on a hot summer day. A neat steep climb on the road I always used to climb led to disappointment- it was closed at the top by large piles of rocks and dirt.
Did I say it was snowing, too? About two inches on the gound, some from today some from yesterday. Made for neat looking tracks from my BFG mud terrains, I'll tell ya. I spent two hours up there just driving around looking at all the new mining activity and just enjoying the day. Bright blue skies for the most part, and bright white snow covering the ground made it really neat. There's one extremely steep sectionoff the main dirt road, maybe 1/8- 1/4 mile long but I didn't head down it- too steep what with the snow on it, and at the bottom there is mining activity. I try to keep my distance from the operations.
On the way home, headed west into the setting sun, was really neat. The snow had a pearl white color to it and the low sun angle made the tracks from my tires look bluish. Cool. Bottom line is some of the old trails are no longer doable, while some new ones are now accessable. I can take another vehicle or two up there with me and drive all day on neat roads and hardly ever see another vehicle or even person. Lots of deer and turkey, plenty of bear, but all I saw today were several hawks enjoying the wind. Some of you guys ought to drop by one of these weekends- Jeff Dozier, the Merkeys, Steve Colavito, Matt Reed and lots of other guys have wheeled behind my place and it's fun. It's free. And it ain't far from my place if there is trouble. A great way tospend a Sunday afternoon................Gary S
