Well we finally managed to un thaw the trailer and joined up with a group that was trying to get up the Trout side of Cold Knob for the second (or third) week in a row. After a quick breakfast at Shoneys we headed out to the Cochran farm to unload. I managed to get Jo’s pickup stuck in the snow before we even off loaded the atvs so we had to unhitch the trailer and move it with the atv and then Matt Dixon was kind enough to pull me out of the snow.
I think we ended up with 11 atvs with every major atv manufacture represented. Some of the guys were getting serious about this snow riding as there were several atvs equipped with chains. The weather was almost too warm and it wasn’t long before Jo and I were shedding clothes. My usual snow gear ended up being way to much clothing for todays ride.
I was surprised that the county road still has not been serviced and we were only a couple miles up the mountain when the snow drifts on the road exceeded the atvs ability to make it thru them.
Several of the riders attempted to go further up the road but eventually the snow would give way leaving the atv buried up to the frame in the snow. After they played around in the drifts it was decided to try a different trail to the top of the mountain and so we headed back down the mountain to give the infamous goat trail a try.
The guys had made pretty good progress getting up the goat trail last weekend and they probably extended the path another couple hundred yards before the deep snow won out. We were within site of the first intersection with the road but since it hadn’t been plowed there was no relief there.
Despite not having chains Shannon’s Can-Am renegade proved to be the most capable performer in the snow. He spent most of the day in the lead breaking the snowy trail. Near the top of the Goat Trail, Matt and Craig were hooked together leap frogging up the trail with the help of a winch but even that soon lost its appeal and we decided to turn tail and head back down the mountain. At this point we had been on the trail for a couple hours and had managed a whopping 7 miles more or less. Jo and I were languishing in the middle of the pack and I can say these rest of the guys were putting way more effort into trail breaking than we were interested in doing.
We could hear machinery running across the hollow and we thought that maybe they were coming down the mountain with snow clearing equipment but we made a quick run back to the main road only to discover that if they were indeed clearing the road they hadn’t got down to the bottom yet.
In the end the rest of the group tackled a hill that Jo wasn’t comfortable trying to we decided to call it a day. We managed to pry our way into the car wash and 5 bucks later we headed home with the atvs somewhat cleaner than they were when we left this morning.
Pics at the link below
http://www.flickr.com/photos/geebob/sets/72157623574685840/ 
Subject: Cold Knob 
Sun Mar 07, 2010 7:27 pm
