Good seeing and wheelin' with you again, Charlie. And, glad your sister had such a good time Marshall. I know I did, too.
For those who didn't make it and wish you did, sorry about that!!! Like I posted...it was a last minute decision to do the run at all. My friend Marshall stopped over to show me the mud on his truck he got in Pahrump that day. He was taking his sister back home to Pahrump the next day, so I said that we could do Wheeler's and he got all excited. So did his sister. So it was then, around 7:30 pm, that we decided to go. I sat down to watch TV after Marshall and his sister left, then got on the computer when I thought I'd post it since haven't posted any runs for such a long time.
Sorry you missed out. It was rather fun if I do say so myself. Charlie, Marshall and his sister Desire, and I with Jasmine, went over Wheeler's Pass. Marshall made a right at the split, to take his sister home then met up with Charlie and me by the race track. Charlie aired up and headed home. Marshall and I decided we weren't done. I found a powerline road that ran along the west side of the racetrack, then cut across their drive and continued up to Carpenter Canyon. We went up Carpenter to the trail that heads over to Trout...one Beth told me about last time we ran Wheeler's. We got to Trout and then Lovell Canyon Road. By the time we hit the Lovell Summit , the sun was just about gone.
Marshall and I headed into Lovell Canyon and as we were nearing Potato, Marshall said he has never done Potato at night, so we did Potato. We were half way through the rock garden, heading up the left side when I saw a small light. Marshall saw it, too. As I got closer, a man, who we found out later to be named Tim, had wrecked his motorcycle on the hardline side of the wash and couldn't pick it up. It was an older BMW on/off bike weighing in over 450 lbs and the top side of the bike facing downward on the slope. He was on the old original trail bed when his footpeg hit a rock and tossed him and his bike down into the wash to the right. He had been there 30 minutes he said. Thank God he was not injured. Tim said that he hit his head on the rocks but was saved by his helmet. Marshall and I helped him upright his bike. Tim had a few problems with it starting...mainly, excess fuel in the right side cylinder. So Tim pulled the sparkplug and cranked the engine to force the excess out. He put the spark plug back in, got it fired up and we helped steady him through the rest of the rocks...on to the trail the rest of the bikes had been on.
Once Tim got his bike back to being geared up, I suggested that he went ahead of us and that if he had any more problems with his motorcycle, that we would be by shortly and be happy to help him out. He took off. When Marshall and I made it to the summit, Tim was waiting for us, thanked us again, and other than the sight of is tail light from time-to-time, we didn't see him again.
Tim was running in the Baker to LV motorcycle run. He said that a sweep team was to be coming through to make sure everyone was off the trail. I don't think anyone was coming. Marshall and I felt blessed that we were able to help Tim out. We thought...what happened if he was knocked out cold. We would have drove right past without ever knowing he was there. Or what if we decided to just head home via Lovell Canyon instead of taking Potato. He may still have been there all night long. We are very thankful that we went that way. I know Tim was very thankful, too.
Hey, I just remembered. I helped a group of motorcylists as we were heading up to Wheeler's Pass, too. One of the riders dumped his bike and cracked the water inlet on the water-cooled engine. They were able to move the hose over the crack, but didn't have a Phillips screwdriver to tighten up the clamp real good. One of the other riders remembered passig us on the way up and came back down to ask if I or anyone else had one. Since I carry tools on runs, I dug through my bag and handed him a Phillips and told him that I'd pick it up when we got to his location. They were able to stop the leak and head back to their trailer in Cold Creek.
What a great day!!!
P.S. If I plan a weekend run again in the near future...I'll try to post it a few days prior and not at the last minute. Sorry about that.
_________________ 2002 Jeep Wrangler X, ARB's, 4.5" RE lift, 35" KM2's, built to crawl on rocks
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