Cold Knob 3-13-11

Finally got the atvs back together and the weather cooperated enough for us to load up and head up on Cold Knob today. It was our first trip to the mountain since our ill fated Labor Day ride. We parked along Rock Cliff Road on the western end of the mountain. Since we had planned to ride mostly on the roads we decided to travel light meaning I didn’t bother servicing the chain saw and bringing it along. It didn’t take long to regret that decision. We hadn’t made it more than a couple miles from the truck when we ran into a few downed trees that we had to cut with the hand saw to move. Doesn’t take long to find out how out of shape you are when you start pulling on a hand saw.


P3130007 by gbobbrown, on Flickr

I will say that my wife is not shy when it comes to helping with the manual labor. Good thing or I think we would have turned around a couple of times today J

It was cool but not uncomfortable as we made our way to the top of Cross Mountain. They have logged on top and I’m sure they have blocked the trails again so we just stayed to the roads.



P3130006 by gbobbrown, on Flickr


We made our way up towards Cold Knob via one of our favorite trails. Luckily we only ran into one downed limb that we had to saw thru. Did I mention I will never leave the house without my little Stihl strapped on board again.

We decided to run one of my favorite rides backwards today so we headed to Beckys Run. We ran into a large group of riders but there was no one I recognized so we just waved and rode on. Every stream was full and the green water this time of the year is beautiful.



P3130027 by gbobbrown, on Flickr





P3130008 by gbobbrown, on Flickr


As we started down Beckys Run I sensed a problem as there were no tracks in the snow. Sure enough just about the time we got to one of the first stream crossings there were two huge trees blocking the road.


P3130019 by gbobbrown, on Flickr

We decided to eat a snack and decide a re route.


P3130022 by gbobbrown, on Flickr

We did manage to find an open route down to Cherry River and the water was beautiful. We crossed at a low water crossing to shorten the trip home and made our way back to the vehicle via the old railroad grade.



P3130029 by gbobbrown, on Flickr



P3130028 by gbobbrown, on Flickr


All in all it was a good day and we managed a relatively easy 75 miles.


P3130030 by gbobbrown, on Flickr

How Cool!!! Sounds like you had a nice day, just the 2 of you. Nice, very nice.

Looks like it was a GOOD day , but then again any day is GREAT when you are NOT at WORK. See you guys soon.

Good to see you guys finally made it out.

Glad you all got out and had a nice day.

WOW! Spring must have sprung since those huge snow drifts have melted!
Glad you had a good time.

Nice pics, G Bob

Great pic's -- thanks for sharing.

Excellent report, Tall Guy. All the wrench turning finally paid off for you and Jo. Glad you two had a nice day together. Thanks for the pics.

Enjoyed the pictures and the ride report.

Thanks Bob! I needed that. Now I just might make it to April!

Great pictures, as always. Glad that you got both atvs back together and were able to enjoy a great day of riding. Looks like I still have eight more weeks of therapy before I will be able to ride my atv but hopefully that time will go fast.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/geebob/sets/72157626242027961/

back to the mountain to ride in what we hope to be the last snow of this spring

Looks like a really FUN day!

Looks like a fun day

I see you took the Stihl this time.

Looks like you had a good time. Hows that go again? Oh ya better than sitting on the couch.

I liked the barn and the lake one with the nice reflection.
Looks like a nice, albeit "cold" Cold Knob ride!

Real nice pics G. You have temporarily given me a reason to not hate our lingering winter.

great pics!

Should have known with the big Easter ride coming up we should have stayed at home today. Decided to take a ride on Cold Knob. Somebody has been busy opening a few trails waaaaay back in the woods and we were having a great time exploring. We were riding some familiar trails in the opposite direction and I had a Ruger-esk day in mind..you know 100 miles or so. We had put in about 45 miles when I noticed a weird clanging noise from under the brute. We stopped to check.....not a pretty site. The sway bar was broke completely loose from both sides of the atv. I had two large sticks on either side of the back a arms. One had horrible deformed the left inner cv boot and the one of the right had tore the inner cv boot .....just what I needed....arrrrgggggg. Luckily I've had plenty of practice working on atvs lately and had the axle out within 1/2 hour of getting home. The good news is I can ride without the sway bar (apparently a lot of people take them off the brutes anyway) The bad news is I'm afraid the one axle is shot. You can see inside the hub where the bearings have jumped out of the grove and have scored the inner hub and a couple of the bearings seem tight even after a good cleaning. So I ebayed a replacement from the closest source (Maryland) and hopefully it will get here in time for next weekend. If not I guess I'll reassemble the old one and hope for the best

YOU CAN DO IT!!!!

G BOB-

Hope it works out for you so you guys can ride this weekend.

Did yoy get from the Guy from Jessup Md (CV restoration)

Danny the CV Man!!!
Assemble it as soon as it gets to you. They have been known to ship the wrong part. Not always, but more often than they should. Just sayin'!!!

G Bob how does the old saying go' if it wasen't for bad luck you would have no luck at all. Good luck on repairs.