Today started out like most others. Get up, get out the Ibuprophin and head out the door. Today we added a decent hotel-provided breakfast at the Richfield, UT Comfort Inn. Then Dman and Mako are off to the metal fab shop to create some sort of tow apparatus to attach to a militaristic (kind of a theme on this trip) 4x4 ATV. We discovered a bunch of really quiet, but talented and obliging welders at the local shop - Boylar Welding Company, across the street from Mike's Towing (the SAR guy) so he let us ride his ATV over there to be able to fab the bracket.

The welding guys let us go throught their scrap pile and then cut some metal, drilled some holes, bent some stuff on their metal brake and then welded it all together and out the door for $80! Mind you this was a deal that fits in the hitch socket and provides two cradles for two bikes front wheels to tow them out. Great idea, but it only worked somewhat. If you are in Richfield, UT area and need something welded or fabbed, these guys are Highly recommended.. We were gonna just get some iron and go back to Mike's Towing who had offered us his MIG welder to make this thing up for his ATV so he could help get us off the mountain. Mike was the owner of the Swedish 6 wheeler who hauled our asses down off of the hill yesterday.

But I digress.

Joe and I rode up on the racks of the atv in hopes of the road being dry enough to ride two bikes out and to tow the others out. When we shut things down yesterday, there was concern that Vinnie's DT400 had it's clutch for BBQ. The other bikes were presumed operable, but Dman (who had his knee replaced a couple of months ago) felt best not to try and ride it out if the conditions were bad. Amazing what no rain and 4 hours of sunshine can do to make the gumbo mud hard.

So we went to hook up the bike, but it would not roll, even when attached to the ATV Looking closely, it was apparent that even though we had rolled the bike off the road by hand, the mud that was stuck in there had turned overnight into a substance resembling hardened adobe! Two tire irons and 20 minutes later we break it loose and hook it to the ATV rack.



What we thought was an ingenious setup needs a tad bit more R&D, and it turned out it did not work as built (thought the theory is fine with a bit of fine tuning!) We left the setup with Mike at Mike's towing, so if you get stuck he may be able to come up and get you out!

Joe and I rode two of the bikes out, (the little peg on my helmet is for my camera)



then Vinnie and I went back up to retrieve our bikes from the mountain. Both came out under their own power and it was clear that Vinnie was a lot happier with his bike in hand!



A successful extraction of the expedition's equipment from the clutches of Watts Mountain!

The silver lining to this cloud is that our bikes seem to have weathered the punishment we put them through in the mud and the riders made it through all the crashes with minimal injury. Everyone should be back riding tomorrow.

What we are all trying to figure out is how such a crappy day can be followed by a day like this:



The difficulties we have experienced from the weather and terrain means we will be short cutting some of the upcoming sections to get finished within our mandated timeline. Tomorrow we will be leaving Richfield and shooting for AT LEAST Eureka, and possibly farther. More tomorrow when we get wherever we get to! Kickstands Up at 0700!