OK OK OK. . .I got a little stuck a long ways from a winch point. . .
The comedy that ensued was priceless. Rich broke an axle, Chris broke a hub, and Tim broke his winch. . .oh yeah. . .I lost the battery so I couldn't really winch myownself.
Here's the story: It was a dark and stormy night. . .wait. . .wrong story.
We had Tim, Chris (Yoter and Timmay's guest (should put in papers. . .kewl dude)), Dale/Dad, TJDave, Rich/Laura, Lee, and our fearless leader in the Tobicon. . .We headed up from the snow park at about 9ish AM and were at 6500' by 10:30. We stopped to sled and Lee stopped to get stuck. The sledding was epic (video? later). Anywho, Tim pulled Lee's valve cores and we were back underway. Determined to summit Darland Mountain, we slipped, slid and skipped along the ridge of the superbowl. Just before the last hill, I missed the line and, contrary to what most would consider a "good idea" I kept on going backwards, because, well, backwards is NOT stuck. Then, well, I fell in a well and got STUCK. . .maybe 100 yards from the nearest firm anchor. After proving, beyond a doubt that upwards travel was not possible, Chris drove down anyway to give me a jumpstart (refer to the aforementioned dead battery). This, of course, left both of us nearly hopelessly stuck and now with a broken hub). So. . .we started winching up using Timmy (also stuck) as an anchor, pretty soon, we found ourselves disconnected from the cables and not really knowing what was going on. . .so. . .we hooked our rigs together with a winch cable AND jumper cables (between the batteries) and made a little forward progress with my winch to a big tree. . .but. . .one winch was not enough.
Meanwhile, back on top, Rich broke an axle u-joint rendering him a 3 wheeler. We were starting to gather a rather large audience of snowmobilers (they seemed to think we were kinda nuts
. Finally, Toby's winch plus Tim's winch got us to the top. Right at the top, Tim's winch made a fatal "POP". Yeah. . nice.
So, it was now dusk. Toby graciously offered for my kids to ride in the Tobicon (functioning heater and all) down to camp. Well, that and I didn't want to use my headlights so I was flying blind (kind of fun really).
Back at camp, the group disbanded except for Tim, Lee, Chris/Chris' GF, and me/kiddos. Dutch ovens and BBQs made us some excellent chow, the drunk kid from the next camp over made for great entertainment, and the day's events made sleep come easily despite the sub-freezing temps.
This morning, we dined on the finest man quiche (turkey and steak. . .mmmmmm). So as to not temp fate, my clan packed up and headed for home at the same time as the rest of the group headed back for the hills. . .so, I'm guessing this story's not over.