It’s kind of funny how I know at least two people who have died as a result of riding four wheeled ATV ’s. But there I was in the wild forest last Sunday with lions, tigers and bears, squirrels, snails, slugs, fungi, and shet all around. ( and no helmet )
The Crew had cleared a trail Saturday while a record breaking snow flurry was hitting the North Coast real hard.
We rode ……hard…… we rode long……. we rode…. …………………………………Well you get it ….we rode. And it was cold. Then MF exclaimed his son was in intensive care, then another said his daughter was having a Fancy Nancy party, then another said their mother was calling.
It was hailing, it was snowing, it was raining. What was I to do? Most would have called this mutiny,,,,Incidentally there was another group of club riders who did a manly ride in the face of these horrors I have described.
Then Sunday the most beautiful day awoke Trinity and myself parked at the coldest place on earth ( Barry Creek ) Truth is, it wasn’t that cold.
We cleared Barry creek trail + a little. Then rode over to The Humboldt trail from the direction of the corral east.
We both started in, I quickly assessed that the 660 Grizzly with baskets, rakes, multiple saws and instruments of destruction was tooooooooooooo much to ride on side hill single track.
I had to use the winch to turn the fukkking thing around. I should add here while operating this humungus ATV I have rolled it two or three times, so I’m very careful and conservative with its operation. While waiting I rode up the Kelsey’s and down the trail to sign board gap.
Hooked up with Trinity at the corral. Then just a reference point I took Trinity down to what use to be the only OHV sign on the six rivers. It’s what I think is the extension of the Humboldt trail and though I have heard it called the Hayfork trail and a couple of us use to call it “little Idaho” OHV marker is gone and while the CCC’s have cleared the start of this end of the trail ( 2-3 years ago ) there is a 4 + foot tree down.
So we started back. I was feeling frisky and went into a left hand gravel turn just slightly up hill , on my right was a steep hill and on my left …you guessed it a steep downhill drop as I was day dreaming about sprint car type sliding . You see the ATV Rides pretty loose, and that’s fine. But there was just the shortest of straight and then a surprising quick right hander that was off camber ( truly some very bad road engineering ) so quickly the ATV ( remember this is on an ATV ) ( a very Dangerous machine ) so speculate I was doing 30 and as it starts washing to the outside I pulled the front brake and griped the bars even tighter and………….at the same time I think I pushed the throttle, so I slide the front right off and over the edge with the throttle half open.
It’s possible Trinity had sped up an spun me out, I’m just not sure. But this last part happened really fast. The down side of this “cliff” is 60-70 ft to the bottom so I did initiate a flight plane that intersected a large 2-3 foot through where I was about to hit the fir tree. 20-30 feet down. I maintained control to the point of contact ( my face to the fir tree ) I was still hanging on the bars, Listening to trinity ask “ are you OK? ” to which I returned “ I’ve been better! “ But I did maintain control ( per club bylaws )
With me and the weight of this behemoth atv I did hit that tree with a force that should have killed one of us. ( did I mention I wasn’t wearing a helmet. )
So after getting over the shock we winched the atv backwards cabling under the atv to one point 5 or so feet up the hill, than with 50 ft of cable we got it back on the road… so ………..no big deaL
Dale “the Whizzer” Warmuth
Life Time Member of..
Sons of Danger
Far West Motorcycle Club
Blue Ribbon Coalition
Blue Lake Mud Hens
Dumb ass hall of fame
Charter member of the East Oakland Moto Bro’s
American Motorcyclist Association & Dist 36
Phantom Duck Club
Past President of the Eureka Chamber of Commerce
Past president of WECARE ( a resource group )
Past president of ALTA California Allance ( a political action committee )
Awared w/Colorado 500 Iron Man award
Awarded w/ Malcolm Smith Adventures Iron Man Award
Often awarded w/ Far West Motorcycle Club “Candy Ass award”
Gofor guy at Leon’s Car Care Center
Champion for Boys & Girls Club of the Redwoods
Hobart Brown lifetime achievement award
New helmet owner