3rd Annual NM4W Rockin’ New Year’s at Gordy’s Hill
By Lauri Rector (Trail Tales February 2008)
If I had my say on this annual event, it would be called the NM4W Polar Bear Run. It would have been great weather for this time of year, if New Years had come 1 day earlier. The originator of this event is Mark Werkmeister. However, since the 1st year, he has managed to not attend for one reason or another – like too much snow, just completely cancelled the event (good idea) and then something about running a fever and being really sick – he called us after it was too late to cancel the whole event (ok, good idea that he didn’t come – at least I have stayed healthy so far this winter). Some of the frozen attendees for the day on Saturday were Jeff & James Boggs, Joe Wilson and his friend Russ and son Chase, and Russ Kas & Glenn Giboney. Then on Sunday we had a whole new crew come and join us – Glenn Bontly and Jan, Mark Berglund and about 3 people riding with him, Justin Simenson and a out-of-town relative (from Minnesota, complaining that it wasn’t cold enough) with his son, and Paul Caskey. And the people that chose to camp there were Jeff and I, Keith Chapin, and Heath Hislop. We were all there for the whole dang weekend. Mark and Joan Wolf were a little smarter and didn’t join us until sometime Sunday afternoon. Paul Caskey’s dad drove in Sunday afternoon as well, and they got motel room in town. Clint Cates (RDY2ROK) and Kevin (never got his name, he’s a good friend of Clint’s) got there first on Saturday morning, but pulled out before the runs on Monday. When Mark called to say he wasn’t going to be able to make it (I don’t recall that he really sounded that sick – was he just making it up?), he said that I was in charge – so when in charge, delegate. Heath Hislop seemed more than happy to lead the trails and Keith Chapin tail gunned. Heath also picked the trails that the big tired people would do (Jeff, Clint, and Kevin) and Jeff led that group. Heath did an awesome job on picking the trails!!!! He took everyone to their limit, including those with the big tires – and consider Heath’s rig is a Samari. Even though we weren’t on the trail with everyone else, it seems that we all just all had a ton of fun!!! Heath had a good map, but no one had a list of the trail names. So, I’m not positive on the names of some of the trails described below.
Saturday we did Pucker Falls - all 8 vehicles. Some had to stop earlier than others. Jeff made it up with a winch after he broke the left hub. Clint made it up with a winch in his little Jeep, and Kevin made it up beautifully – all by himself. Everyone had fun watching, even if they knew they weren’t going to be doing it. Heath led everyone back & then up on the ridge and back down into the valley. Jeff worked on changing hubs as soon as he got up there and then the 3 of us went on and did the great escape and waited on everyone one else. Pucker Falls was dry and only 1 rock was moved. Then we spent the afternoon doing Cat Fight, except for one Jeep. Russ Kaz, with only a limited slip in the rear, and a manual shift in a TJ finished it with us – which was really awesome.
On Sunday we had 9 vehicles. Heath took the big tires guys down to what we think is Edge Canyon – where Coyote Hills comes out. Then Heath went back and took everyone else up Coyote Hills. The big tired guys had a blast that morning. We waited back at the end of Coyote Hills for everyone and then decided to run it backwards and catch up to everyone.
Everyone was still in the canyon with about 2 or 3 more ledges to climb. We ate lunch and then went up the last little bit of the canyon – playing around waiting on everyone else. Then we decided that we should have plenty of time to go back to the end and went to the start of the trail and brought up the rear as the smaller tire people (sorry, I’m not saying that they are wimpy or that they have small tires) as they were going up the last ledge. What a fun trail!!! We had to bypass the 1st ledge (or move rocks or get out winches to make it up). Then Heath took us (those of us who weren't done yet) out to Pucker Falls the hard way (I don't know the name of the trail). The 1st water fall has become really easy. The next one looked much easier than the last time we were on it, but Jeff and Clint couldn't make it up. Kevin came right up. Then we ran Squeeze Canyon. That was fun!!! It looked like so much fun that Keith and Heath decided to follow us on up – but Keith immediately broke an axle. So, we all just headed back to camp.
No one came out for the day on Monday (could they have blown away?)– it was only the people that were camping or in a motel. Wolfie didn't want any ledges at all, so we did Cat Fight (Heath left 2 tow straps there on Saturday, this allowed him to get them) and then we went to the North end of the OHV area and did this trail that went way up and way down over a lot of hills, but I don’t think it was the woop-ti-doo trail. I can’t tell you how windy and cold it was – it was like you were on the frozen tundra of the Antarctic or something. We ended up where the waterfall is and went and played around in there to get me and Jeff out of the wind for a little while (and all I can think is that full doors on his Jeep would do that too). We had our 3rd break of the weekend at the waterfall, Heath bent a tie rod. While it was being fixed, we decided that we would carry on with the potluck – despite the wind and the cold and my whining.
We had the potluck in Keith’s enclosed trailer with 2 tent heaters going in it. We had dinner at about 6:30 – Joan made this delicious Chinese type of meatball & rice dish. I had Carne Adovado with tortillas, and there was a lot of macaroni & cheese, potato salad, coleslaw, and egg salad for side dishes. The food was so good, we were out of the wind and it was very warm in there too. We told a lot of stories and had a lot of laughs after we got done eating. We decided that we would skip on the bonfire, even if the wind had dyed down some – we were doing good just where we were. We didn’t make it to the Nova Scotia New Year though, At 10 after 8, Mark asked who was staying up until midnight and everyone went - NOT ME and we all left and went to bed. Jeff and I woke up shortly after 2008 came in to the sound of the CO2 alarm, due to dead batteries again. Then a few hours after that, we emptied out one of the propane tanks and had to change that. Not my idea of getting the new year off to a good start – but boy, did we send the old year out in a very fun way!!!
