Tough Crossings

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dcarver

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I'll start with one by Wheatie! Wheatie, whats the story here?

"Hey, uhhh, just how deep *is* that water running?"

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One week after wheatie took the above pic my wife and I ran across this one just west of Bonne Terre

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We pussed out after watching a truck make the crossing, water was probably only a foot deep but it was moving fast enough that I was not gonna try it with my wife on the back.

I would have never heard the end of it had it gone bad.

 
I'll start with one by Wheatie! Wheatie, whats the story here?"[SIZE=14pt]Hey, uhhh, just how deep *is* that water running?[/SIZE]"

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My exact words...how did you know? ;)

The guy in the truck was smiling in the picture cuz he just asked me, "if we were gonna give it a try." :lol: He had just turned around his truck with the chillins in the back down at the bottom of the hill :blink: (Notice the higher water encroaching more and more on the right side of the road!) If that had crested the road, he and his family would have been part of a very sad story.

Murph and I were on our way from Bonne Terre, MO to Clinton, AR halloween weekend for the 1st running of the AAD (500 miles of twisties). We had this route all planned using Smitty's backroads assuming good weather and all. We were on this county road for miles with a river encroaching more and more on the right side. We were on some roller coaster hills at speed and had just crested the hill, when HHHHOOOOLLLY CCCRRRAAAPPP!!!...put on the binders in a hurry with wet leaves and stuff in the rain. I was just glad 'ol murph was being vigilant as well!

After talking to the local, we decided not to wade through the loud, muddy, roaring river. If you look in the background, you can see the small bridge and the small river channel being spanned by it. We got ourselves tuned around on this slick hilly road. No sooner had we done that, when wooosh!!! another PU truck crested the hill and put on the brakes...right through where this photo was taken. :huh: We would have been dead on the scene...as fast as he was going.

As it was, we were about to turn off this little county road, just had to cross this river for our turn about a 1/2 mile ahead. You can see the emergency workers in the roadway on the opposite side of the bridge. They hadn't gotten to this side yet. Quite frankly, I think they positioned themselves poorly over there...I think they should have positioned themselves at the crest so traffic would see them more quickly.

As it was we had to back track about 10 miles or so to get a more major road to cross this river. When we did cross it, the water was just about to the bottom of the bridge beams.

Six inches of rain in 24 hours works wonders on these little streams and rivers. This photo was taken on a Friday by murph. Saturday, in Arkansas, there was not a cloud in the sky.

So that's the story of that picture...one of many pictures and stories from this past year.

Not a tough crossing as we didn't cross there. A little less sight distance and the story may never have gotten out.

 
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I made this one, ...but it changed me forever. Still have nightmares.

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And it was damn difficult looking across the table at this. I turned away quickly.

(The whole discretion/valor thing.)

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Next?

 
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Good call, Michael. I think you just might have been able to cross over into the oncoming lane and traversed that, but even so, it would have been touch and go. Even if you were successful, you would have had to deal with those evil looking rain clouds in the picture.

 
Rain and fog were bad enough but the Logging trucks slinging mud and using our lane on the twisties made for one harrowing ride. We left Middlesborough, KY in the morning rain. Hit this part of RT119 on Pine Mountain a few hours later after dodging a wild thunderstorm. We arrived at Deep Creek, MD about 10 1/2 hours later. This was from our trip in June so at least it wasn't to cold.

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I don't have pictures cause it was dark as hell but going Over Sherman Pass (6000 ft ) in northern Wash. while doing Iggys SS1000 was ugly. It was snowing hard enough that the driving lights were useless and It was building up on the road at an uncomfortable rate. The only choice was to zoom in the GPS as far as it wuold go and fly on instinct for what seemd to be lots of miles. To add to the misery my controller for Mr. Gerbing took a **** so I t was really ugly.

This is the ride that WC said was as much fun as a prison rape. How he knows that is up to Dale to talk about. :rolleyes:

 
I was the bike immedaitely following the rider recording this video.

Rainy PNW ride - go figure...

Probably the most puckerful day of my riding life. Actually did manage to get wet, as this segment represents a few minute sof the 2 hour ride that day. The guys at the Mexican restaurnat we had lunch at had to mop the floor under our gear twice... we tipped them very well.

Mythical beast right here - head of a man, body of pie... best be careful Neihart never sees you in person!

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One week after wheatie took the above pic my wife and I ran across this one just west of Bonne Terre
100_0587.jpg


We pussed out after watching a truck make the crossing, water was probably only a foot deep but it was moving fast enough that I was not gonna try it with my wife on the back.

I would have never heard the end of it had it gone bad.
That was a tremendous amount of rain in MO at the end of October. Wheaton and I were fortunate to get out of dodge before most of the flooding happened since, as we rode SW out of Bonne Terre, we could see the creeks raging and rising over their banks. It made for a patience-trying ride that morning and Wheaton and I looked at each other several times wondering what we were doing out there (the enticing roads of Arkansas served as the "carrots" dangling before us). Still, I'm surprised that some of the flooding lasted over a week, long enough for you to take that photo.

Good call not trying that crossing. ;)

 
I don't know if this is considered a crossing but it fits under a tough moment.

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I ran into these guys on Colorado 92 last summer.These are the stragglers,the main herd of about 700 head already went by,I didn't have the nerve to snap any pics when I was sitting in the middle of a cattle drive.

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This is about one third of the herd,the rest are already over the hill.

 
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