duncanstives
Member
- Sep 11, 2009
- 89
- 0
So... I got the KDX and took it on its madien voyage yesterday. Logged just shy of 50 miles in 9+ hours... It was a blast in a wierd sort of way.
It was just two of us... Myself and my friend on a kodiak 400 4 wheeler (small utility 4x4). We started out on some easy trails (the idea being that if some mechanical problems manifested themselfs I would have a chance of bringing a truck back to get it). The "trail" there was basically a gravel road with a few creek crossings but it was fun and we covered a lot of ground:
After awhile I decided a breakdown was not imminent so we left the easier trails and decided to head for a local cave some distance in called townsend cave. I had been there in the buggy once and on foot twice (although it is a pretty good hike)... We were pretty far from there and not in a hurry so we took the senic route:
The trail here was a narrow twisty trail riding on a ridge top... In places the trail was touching the edge of a 100ft+ drop... It was an AWESOME trail... Sadly it (or at least our ability to travel it legally) came to a sudden end:
The picture doesn't show it but the bridge crosses a very narrow VERY deep chasm of dizzying heights... It also didn't look terribly sturdy. Who owned it and why they went though the trouble of building a bidge like this in an area 10 miles from a real road I have no idea. But it was pretty cool.
Eventually (after backtracking a few miles) we found our way to the trail to townsend cave. It was not bad at first:
Soon however it turned into a steeping pool of misery where (as a redneck who met us on the trail warned) "a man goes in there he might never come out". The area to which I am refering is a valley into which the trail decends and then breaks up into hundreds of little branches all twisting and turning though dense weeds 8ft high. The most notable characteristic of the trail is MUD... Mud so slippery that even though the area is not hilly (its the bottom of a valley) it is litterally impossible to walk... The little paths are rutted and pretty much all one continious pit of mud anywhere from a foot to bottomless (at least as far as I can tell... the longest stick I could find was about 6 feet and would not touch the bottom in places)... The whole area was probably not more than a 1/4 mile if that but it seemed like an eternity... We inched though 5-1-ft at a time... I could not stay on the bike for more than a couple feet ot save my life and the 4 wheeler was mired constantly... We dragged it though inch by agonizing inch with the winch (where possible... There were not many things to anchor to) and occasional WOT spurts of 10-20ft. We quickly exausted our supplies of water and I was feeling dizzy and could hardly muster up the energy to move let alone keep picking up and kick starting the bike. The place was thick with insects... Sweat bees, horseflies and gnats so thick they formed a cloud in the air. Just when I thought we'd never make it I saw the exit... A steep 15 foot climb back to higher ground. I made a break for the hill plowing though the last mud pit in sheer desperation (turned out to be about 3ft deep but very short so I made it though on momentum)... I rocketed up the hill which took an immediate hard right which I semi missed landing in some bushes... The bike was held up by the bushes and I basically collapsed off in and lay in the bushes for about 15 minutes before I went back and helped the 4 wheeler though the last bit.
No pics of this area... No cell coverage combined with the distance to the road and our exaustion and I was genuinely worried about making it out at all let alone with the vehicles... Way beyond thinking to take some pics at that point.
The rest of the trail was ok exept that being dehydrated and exausted made it hard to take... I ran into a pipe that erosion had uncovered (old oil drilling area) and wasnt thinking fast enough to avoid it... I wedged the bike tire under it and my friend followed and high centered the 4 wheeler on it. I was laughing in sheer frustration... Stymied by a crappy little pipe less than a half mile from the cave (and the fresh, cold drinkable water that can be found inside it):
(continued in comments)
It was just two of us... Myself and my friend on a kodiak 400 4 wheeler (small utility 4x4). We started out on some easy trails (the idea being that if some mechanical problems manifested themselfs I would have a chance of bringing a truck back to get it). The "trail" there was basically a gravel road with a few creek crossings but it was fun and we covered a lot of ground:
After awhile I decided a breakdown was not imminent so we left the easier trails and decided to head for a local cave some distance in called townsend cave. I had been there in the buggy once and on foot twice (although it is a pretty good hike)... We were pretty far from there and not in a hurry so we took the senic route:
The trail here was a narrow twisty trail riding on a ridge top... In places the trail was touching the edge of a 100ft+ drop... It was an AWESOME trail... Sadly it (or at least our ability to travel it legally) came to a sudden end:
The picture doesn't show it but the bridge crosses a very narrow VERY deep chasm of dizzying heights... It also didn't look terribly sturdy. Who owned it and why they went though the trouble of building a bidge like this in an area 10 miles from a real road I have no idea. But it was pretty cool.
Eventually (after backtracking a few miles) we found our way to the trail to townsend cave. It was not bad at first:
Soon however it turned into a steeping pool of misery where (as a redneck who met us on the trail warned) "a man goes in there he might never come out". The area to which I am refering is a valley into which the trail decends and then breaks up into hundreds of little branches all twisting and turning though dense weeds 8ft high. The most notable characteristic of the trail is MUD... Mud so slippery that even though the area is not hilly (its the bottom of a valley) it is litterally impossible to walk... The little paths are rutted and pretty much all one continious pit of mud anywhere from a foot to bottomless (at least as far as I can tell... the longest stick I could find was about 6 feet and would not touch the bottom in places)... The whole area was probably not more than a 1/4 mile if that but it seemed like an eternity... We inched though 5-1-ft at a time... I could not stay on the bike for more than a couple feet ot save my life and the 4 wheeler was mired constantly... We dragged it though inch by agonizing inch with the winch (where possible... There were not many things to anchor to) and occasional WOT spurts of 10-20ft. We quickly exausted our supplies of water and I was feeling dizzy and could hardly muster up the energy to move let alone keep picking up and kick starting the bike. The place was thick with insects... Sweat bees, horseflies and gnats so thick they formed a cloud in the air. Just when I thought we'd never make it I saw the exit... A steep 15 foot climb back to higher ground. I made a break for the hill plowing though the last mud pit in sheer desperation (turned out to be about 3ft deep but very short so I made it though on momentum)... I rocketed up the hill which took an immediate hard right which I semi missed landing in some bushes... The bike was held up by the bushes and I basically collapsed off in and lay in the bushes for about 15 minutes before I went back and helped the 4 wheeler though the last bit.
No pics of this area... No cell coverage combined with the distance to the road and our exaustion and I was genuinely worried about making it out at all let alone with the vehicles... Way beyond thinking to take some pics at that point.
The rest of the trail was ok exept that being dehydrated and exausted made it hard to take... I ran into a pipe that erosion had uncovered (old oil drilling area) and wasnt thinking fast enough to avoid it... I wedged the bike tire under it and my friend followed and high centered the 4 wheeler on it. I was laughing in sheer frustration... Stymied by a crappy little pipe less than a half mile from the cave (and the fresh, cold drinkable water that can be found inside it):
(continued in comments)
