The first part of the ride was good. The boys laughed with glee as I sloshed through the puddles, splashing muddy water all about. They laughed as they watched their Uncle Danny get his Outlander STUCK in a puddle, and giggled when he rocked the quad and managed to submerge himself in a man-made tidlewave of muddy water. I should mention, this was literally 5 minutes into the ride, and Danny was SOAKED.
We carried on our way, and came up to the "river". It was so shallow, the water didn't even come over the tires of the mule. We got parked and waited for everyone to cross. When we came upon the river, we ran into more friends of ours, and they decided to bring their Jeep YJ's down the trails with us. So now here we were, Me, Zack and Jesse on the mule...Tom, Danny, Shar, Tory and Frank on their quads, and then we had 4 people in 2 Jeeps...we were ready to rock!
We were clipping along, all having a good time, and we came upon this puddle. There was A LOT of water in it. There was a really mucky path to the left of it, and a very dry and smooth path to the right of it. I was instructed, by 2 people, to STAY TO THE LEFT, it is very deep! I questioned the right path, and was again instructed to stay left. So I listened to them, as they were already on the other side. I started off fine, but the mule is a lot wider than their quads, it hit a rut and sucked us into the puddle-abyss. Of course the passenger side is what went in first...where my 2 boys are buckled in! Zack's arm dunked into the water, and they were at this point SCREAMING BLOODY MURDER. I fully understand, it was rather scary! Tom, Danny and Tory were across the puddle, watching this take place, and everyone else was behind me. I hurled myself out of the mule, and got to the other side (I still have no idea which way I went, as I can't actually remember that part) I was standing in the puddle, waist deep in dark murky muddy water, while my kids were both crying hysterically. I was holding the mule up with my left hand, and stabilizing my kids with my right. The wheels were off of the ground on the drivers side, and the whole right side of the mule was submerged. I managed to get the boys unbuckled, and handed them off to the people behind me (they all ran up behind me at some point, but I can't remember that, either). I kept a firm grip on the roll cage, as that was keeping it from dumping even more into the water. I got both boys safely out, and Frank grabbed my arm and helped me out of the abyss. Tom was, at that point, in the mule trying to crank it over, to no avail. We had the Jeep behind us, and they hooked up a tow rope. Tom was in the drivers seat, Danny, Frank and Tory were standing on the drivers side (and that is what it took to level that sucker out!) The Jeep was spinning its tires, sliding all over the trail trying to free the demon-beast from the man-made lake/puddle. Finally, after the third try, it was freed. I can't honestly remember what happened after that...I think someone drove it around the right side path (the one I had intended on taking, but was told otherwise) and we got back to it. Zack was now riding with Shar, and Jesse was petrified, and crying, and riding with me.
We carried on for a while, a bit slower and more cautious, everyone riding with me in their sites, and we came to a very steep hill. I threw the beast in low and motored on. Halfway up the embankment, the crap-can stalled out. I had my foot on the brake so hard, I believed it was about to punch through the floor. I yelled back at Tom and he came running up beside me. The beast from hell had to be turned over with a screwdriver...yes, it is a fine piece of machinery. So Tom ran up and started it up for me, and then told me I had to two-foot drive it up. I slid my horribly muddy foot to the right on the pedal, so my left foot could brake while the right foot accelerated. We made it up the hill, but by this point, Jesse was hysterical. We finished the trail and came to a cut line. We all breaked for a well-deserved drink and mini-chocolate bars. There was no cohersing Jesse back to the trail, so Tom, Zack, Jes and I motored off down the cut line, back to the parking lot. We made it down the "mountain" safely, but I had to avoid all puddles, as even the sight of them made Jesse and Zack go ballistic. We made it back to the parking lot, got the boys into their clean sweats, got them into the safety of their car seats, and they turned on their Nintendo DS's. They were finally happy. Tom and I peeled our nasty muddy clothes, and got into some dry stuff. It was that point that everyone else showed up, stating that it was a good thing we didn't try to carry on with the path, as the quads were getting stuck, and the mule would have been a goner! So I suppose Jesse saved us some heartache by being a rampaging lunatic!
It was an okay day. Did I have fun? Sort of. Is it something I would do again? No. Would I do it with my own quad and no children? Hells ya! Because even though I was covered in mud, and really cold and uncomfortable, I enjoy quading! Just next time, I won't be riding with 2 screaming kids, nor will I be driving the spine-compactor from hell!!!!
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