Dixie Mountain (W6/CN-006) SOTA Activation - 12/31/2011
Before you can activate a summit you have to get up onto it. That can be tricky, especially in winter. The road to Dixie Mountain's summit is about 7-8 miles long and climbs 2700 vertical feet. For maps and directions to the mountain, see my album from a later activation.
I decided to ride my Yamaha Grizzly 700 4x4 ATV as it is about as rugged a vehicle as you'll find, and on rough terrain I can travel a lot faster on it than in a full-sized 4x4. About 1 mile up the road, the patches of snow and ice that I'd ridden through turned into solid snow and ice with no end in sight as you can see above. The steepest sections of the road were still ahead of me. It was decision time: do I press on alone and risk getting stuck with no one around to help me get out? Or do I play it safe, abort the operation and go home?
I was feeling pretty good and had my winter survival gear onboard so I went for it. The basic technique: gas on, and DO NOT come off the gas for any reason, else you'll lose momentum and sink into the snow (or careen off the ice).
The snow got deeper as I climbed higher, and as I rounded a corner I saw that a tree has fallen across the road. It didn't look very big but it was hard to tell with snow and icicles hanging off of its branches. If I stopped to size it up better I might sink in and not be able to get going again. I stayed on the gas and did my best Dukes of Hazard impression as I crashed over and through the tree. Boy I wish I had that on video...
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