Well, school's out for fall break so I thought it would be a good time to break in Austin's new Polaris RZR. After a few modifications we have the 800cc Mountain Goat ready to go. They added a winch, a belly plate, 4 point seat belts, steel doors, front and rear bumpers, etc. With this much armor and a "Robby Gordon wanna-be" for a driver we should have a great time in the mountains. Weather forecast = perfect....
More pictures and hopefully videos coming soon.....site under construction.
Well, lots of videos but can't figure out how to upload them into the blog.
Here we are on top of a mountain in the Cumberland Plateau Range.
This was considered a good viewing spot looking out over the entire range. We could see Jellico,
Tennessee from here, over on the far mountain.
Austin's first creek crossing in the new RZR. The boy has a nack for mud and water. More difficult mud holes are yet to come. Notice how nice and clean the machine is now.
His grandpa worked this mine in the 30's. He would walk up the mountain every day to dig coal with a pick and shovel. The workers would then load the coal into 5 gallon buckets, bring them out of this opening and load it into a buggy to take down the mountain. The opening back then was about 2 feet taller, it has since filled in with dirt.
The dark area just to the right and left of Austin is a vein of coal and is still left to support the opening. Got lots of video of us in the mine but can't get them uploaded. Austin brought out a piece of coal to show us his mining skills. We then headed down the mountain for more trail riding.
Yeah, we got a little muddy this time. Seems we found a big old mud hole that got us stuck for a while. Had to use the winch to get out.
It's a shame we can't show the video of Austin busting the mud hole. It was cool.
It was a rough night for sleeping. We were bedded down in the race car trailer and the heater we had was a bit small for the 40 degree night.
Oh well, the coffee pot worked and we managed.
We rode a little over 100 miles in two days. The camp ground here at "Ride Royal Blue" was worthwhile. We will come back again some day.
Here we are getting ready to go thru the "Redneck Car Wash". It's a section of Stinking Creek that has a solid rock bottom and ranges from 1 to 3 feet deep. The faster you go the cleaner you get.
By the way, it doesn't really stink.
We have video of Austin running up and down the creek to turn this buggy back to red. Click on the arrow below to view the video.
Stinking Creek is called the "Redneck Car Wash"by the locals here in the Cumberland Mountains. We had a few problems with the new RZR here due to a wet drive belt. Seems the factory didn't get enough sealer around the belt housing and it took on some unwanted water. Austin got'er out but couldn't go fast enough to clean the machine. We'll fix this problem and come back some other day.
Well, this picture says it all. The boy had a busy and fun filled two days in the mountains with Pa.
Or maybe it was the lack of sleep last night.
Been looking for that old mine opening for years! Any hints?
ReplyDelete