Sit-Rep #9
I've been a little bummed out recently mainly because I've lost my position where I work by a couple full-timers so my employment situation has gone way down hill. I won't get into the details about that because then you just might see the dark side of ol' Brentos and believe me, that would be way too much angst even for you! So when I woke up this afternoon I saw that it was a very sunny and dry day so I thought I'd hop in Bender, which is the name of my 1970 Land Rover now, and head out to my favourite No Trespassing area and trespass.
I came to this powerline that was put up about a year ago and all blocked off by tank traps, multi-ton boulders and pulled up stumps and thought hey why not, I've been meaning to check this out. I hadn't before because I remember the area before the powerline was put in was pretty boring. But off on the horizon I could see how the powerlines go right over this formidable looking cliff so I made that my mission, get to the top of that cliff. So I breezed right through all the obstacles via an ATV trail that has been getting progressively wider as the months have gone by and whacka-doo I'm through. I don't even know why they even try to keep us out. They sure do have nice shiny looking gates though.
So yeah the place turned out to be quite awesome for wheeling, there were lots of trails going up some steep hills and some mucky parts where the service roads ended which were filled with lots of small creeks and dead roots poking up. I had to get slideways on one pile of dirt and my rear wheels slid off into a hole and it felt like Bender was going to tip over with just two wheels on the ground. But I'm so awesome I wasn't even scared, I know how Land Rovers have the awesome ability to stay upright. Too bad there wasn't an audience. The cheering and clapping would have done wonders for my awesome self esteem. In fact I was amazed that I didn't see anyone else out there except for a couple guys on ATV's at the tank traps. It was a really nice day. The paved road pretty much follows the powerlines and there's always mountain bikers who park along the road and then take off on their bikes. There were a couple guys beside their cars as I came into their sight from the top of this one very steep hill and they were looking at me for a while as I got out to see how steep the rest of the trail was. It was frikkin' steep! Possibly steep enough to go endo when I got to the bottom. (I'd have to ride my brakes on a descent this steep...) But since they were watching I got in Bender to get to it. Then they drove away which was a relief, with no audience I could go back down to the service road the less dangerous way. ( Too elaborate, the steep part wasn't even part of the trail, it was more like the end of it as the rest of the way was just a cut-bank. But I could see how someone with a huge 4X4 tried coming up the cut-bank so if I drove it I would have been connecting the two. I clenched my fist in rage and swore that I would return! With an audience!
So after going through the maze of trails and service roads my intended goal came into sight, the cliff. Da da da-dum! The cliff was straight up rock and as I looked up my eyes followed the massive towers and lines running through the air while the half moon was right there straight up from my view. It was pretty cool I suppose. And of course there were no roads on the cliff but I decided to make it up to the last flat part at the foot of the cliff and that would sort of be mission accomplished. As I came up I saw smoke from a campfire and thought cool, an audience. But alas there were no campers to impress, just a little campfire abandoned and slowly going out. Leaving campfires going has always been a pet peeve of mine and I'm amazed that some people do that. Yeah the ground was wet and the fire was really really small, like 12 inches across but come on! It wasn't flaming but there were still some red hot spots so I stomped on it and noticed that the ground underneath was actually glowing hot. I was amazed since it's been raining for a month but it just goes to show, sometimes fires just don't want to go out. But then my rover sense was tingling!I could hear rushing water, lots of rushing water coming from the foot of the cliff! What strangeness is this? I approached the cliff and found an abandoned mine shaft filled with water. It only went in about ten feet or so but water was seeping through the ceiling and was making a real racket. I could tell it wasn't a full fledged mine shaft as the miners had just broken away the rock along pre-existing cracks. I could see a thin vein of coal so I suppose the miners were just doing some exploration to see if the vein was worth mining. This kind of thing is quite common to find where I live but it's always fun to find one.
Then I noticed that I was standing on a quite large slag-heap of coal, quite a bit more than what could have been taken out of the shaft so I guess there was a working mine somewhere nearby. Then I clued in to why that campfire was still glowing hot, the dummies lit their campfire right on top of a pile of coal! Some people's children I tell ya. So I go back to the fire and kick at it and sure as shit the coal underneath was still glowing hot. I kicked at it some more, pissed on it and emptied my water bottle on it. It seemed pretty good when I left but now I'm thinking... I should have got some water out of the mineshaft but I'm actually afraid of caves when I'm by myself. Especially ones filled with water. Don't tell anyone I said that!
Anyhow, I found a couple more places to get back to the paved road which were extremely tight and harsh and pretty much had a good day!
I came to this powerline that was put up about a year ago and all blocked off by tank traps, multi-ton boulders and pulled up stumps and thought hey why not, I've been meaning to check this out. I hadn't before because I remember the area before the powerline was put in was pretty boring. But off on the horizon I could see how the powerlines go right over this formidable looking cliff so I made that my mission, get to the top of that cliff. So I breezed right through all the obstacles via an ATV trail that has been getting progressively wider as the months have gone by and whacka-doo I'm through. I don't even know why they even try to keep us out. They sure do have nice shiny looking gates though.
So yeah the place turned out to be quite awesome for wheeling, there were lots of trails going up some steep hills and some mucky parts where the service roads ended which were filled with lots of small creeks and dead roots poking up. I had to get slideways on one pile of dirt and my rear wheels slid off into a hole and it felt like Bender was going to tip over with just two wheels on the ground. But I'm so awesome I wasn't even scared, I know how Land Rovers have the awesome ability to stay upright. Too bad there wasn't an audience. The cheering and clapping would have done wonders for my awesome self esteem. In fact I was amazed that I didn't see anyone else out there except for a couple guys on ATV's at the tank traps. It was a really nice day. The paved road pretty much follows the powerlines and there's always mountain bikers who park along the road and then take off on their bikes. There were a couple guys beside their cars as I came into their sight from the top of this one very steep hill and they were looking at me for a while as I got out to see how steep the rest of the trail was. It was frikkin' steep! Possibly steep enough to go endo when I got to the bottom. (I'd have to ride my brakes on a descent this steep...) But since they were watching I got in Bender to get to it. Then they drove away which was a relief, with no audience I could go back down to the service road the less dangerous way. ( Too elaborate, the steep part wasn't even part of the trail, it was more like the end of it as the rest of the way was just a cut-bank. But I could see how someone with a huge 4X4 tried coming up the cut-bank so if I drove it I would have been connecting the two. I clenched my fist in rage and swore that I would return! With an audience!
So after going through the maze of trails and service roads my intended goal came into sight, the cliff. Da da da-dum! The cliff was straight up rock and as I looked up my eyes followed the massive towers and lines running through the air while the half moon was right there straight up from my view. It was pretty cool I suppose. And of course there were no roads on the cliff but I decided to make it up to the last flat part at the foot of the cliff and that would sort of be mission accomplished. As I came up I saw smoke from a campfire and thought cool, an audience. But alas there were no campers to impress, just a little campfire abandoned and slowly going out. Leaving campfires going has always been a pet peeve of mine and I'm amazed that some people do that. Yeah the ground was wet and the fire was really really small, like 12 inches across but come on! It wasn't flaming but there were still some red hot spots so I stomped on it and noticed that the ground underneath was actually glowing hot. I was amazed since it's been raining for a month but it just goes to show, sometimes fires just don't want to go out. But then my rover sense was tingling!I could hear rushing water, lots of rushing water coming from the foot of the cliff! What strangeness is this? I approached the cliff and found an abandoned mine shaft filled with water. It only went in about ten feet or so but water was seeping through the ceiling and was making a real racket. I could tell it wasn't a full fledged mine shaft as the miners had just broken away the rock along pre-existing cracks. I could see a thin vein of coal so I suppose the miners were just doing some exploration to see if the vein was worth mining. This kind of thing is quite common to find where I live but it's always fun to find one.
Then I noticed that I was standing on a quite large slag-heap of coal, quite a bit more than what could have been taken out of the shaft so I guess there was a working mine somewhere nearby. Then I clued in to why that campfire was still glowing hot, the dummies lit their campfire right on top of a pile of coal! Some people's children I tell ya. So I go back to the fire and kick at it and sure as shit the coal underneath was still glowing hot. I kicked at it some more, pissed on it and emptied my water bottle on it. It seemed pretty good when I left but now I'm thinking... I should have got some water out of the mineshaft but I'm actually afraid of caves when I'm by myself. Especially ones filled with water. Don't tell anyone I said that!
Anyhow, I found a couple more places to get back to the paved road which were extremely tight and harsh and pretty much had a good day!