The Last Hurrah!

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Then we came to the last hill.  I was little bit ahead of the group and got there first.  Looming in front of me was a 150-yard monster of a hill covered with snow and ice and a variety of faint ruts leading to the top.  The sun had just set and twilight was upon us.  I knew this hill well from previous trips.  The trail leading up was very wide, well groomed (bulldozer) and the top had a generous "landing zone" with nothing to hit, and nowhere to fall.

So I found some bare ground to use as a runway, put the Jeep in 3rd (still in 4-LO) and launched myself at the base of the hill.   I got a good head of steam and ran up the hill without too much trouble.  I think I might have faltered a little at the very top but backed up a little and got enough traction to get onto the flat area at the top.  I got out and looked back and was taken by surprise at how high the hill was and how long.  Far away, at the bottom, the rest of the group was waiting.

One by one, each person did the same thing - got a running start and put the pedal to the metal and shot up the hill.  A few people got bogged down and had to either back down and start again, or back up enough to get traction on one side or another and continue to the top.  A couple people got hung up on the right side near the top but dug down to dirt, which helped them and those that followed to get up to the top.  At some point, somebody moved my Jeep so it would not be in the landing zone.

While we were still moving people up the hill, a small group started heading for the pavement that leads to Flagpole Knob.   They didn't know the way out but wanted to move ahead to pavement where they would wait for us to catch up.

Eventually, everybody got to the top.   It was now dark.   We had already decided against descending via Dunkle Hollow.  There was no daylight left and that trail would be worse than what we had encountered coming up.  There as no point in taking foolish chances at this hour.   We'd already had enough "fun" today.  The remaining people fell in behind me and we started down the last segment of trail.  It was interesting.   Unfortunately we didn't want to take the time to turn out onto the summit proper of Flagpole Knob, but we were able to glimpse the view through the trees as the sun finished setting.

We got to the road and caught up with the rest of the group.  About that time Carl and Jim called ahead to say that Charles had gotten a flat tire and would need to stop. 

They took care of getting back on the road and since Jim had GPS and (I believe) my GPS waypoints, the lead group continued down the mountain on pavement.  I managed to load my GPS Route for Flagpole Knob via pavement and was able to hit the turns that got us back to Route 33, and from there back to Sheetz.  It hasn't felt this good in a long time to air up and reconnect!

Epilogue

I made my rounds checking out with everyone to make sure they didn't have any problems and knew the way home.   I invited everyone to join us for a bite up at Golden Corral on the other end of Route 33.  Then I herded the kids up and we went for something to eat.  Katy and Harvin, Carl, Wayne and Geoff all came in a few minutes later and we had a good meal before hitting the road for home. 

Aside from some trips down to Potts Jeep Road and Big Levels, this was possibly the longest one day trip I have ever made.  It was also the most complex owing to the conditions and unfortunate problems we encountered.  But it was by far the least problematic.  I can't tell how many trips I took with my CJ-2A that had bad outcomes because we were not prepared and made bad choices.  So in that sense, I am very happy with the way this trip came out.  My sympathies go out to Wendy and Joel for what happened to their Jeeps.  They will no doubt get them fixed again like new.  I hope they will come again!

Thanks to Jim, Joe, Geoff, and David for making the photo coverage for this trip much better than usual!

Prologue and Muster | Trail/First Climb | Lunch | Second Climb | Third Climb | Fourth Climb | Bump in the Road | Meadow Knob | Last Hurrah!

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