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New Years Day 2002!! Yes we go wheelin every year on new years day. It's a good way to start out the year. Since the rigs that came were set up enough for it and it was about the only place that had enough snow, we headed into Upper Buzzworm for some slippery fun!! The New Years Day was a success. We gathered at Canyon Lake slightly before 10 AM to welcome everybody. The people in attendance were Tim, Garrett and Mandy Sheldon, Steve Jones, Carol and Allison Sharp, Shane Dahlquist, Steve and Deb Berg, Marty and Brian (#1) Errea, Dave Farmer and Shannon Horst and his crew. It was a chilly but pleasant day as we milled around and discussed what trail we would tackle and make a sacrifice to the Mountain Gods for a prosperous 2002 year. There were many trails offered when one name jumped out and grabbed me. Forbes Gulch. We hadn’t been there for about a year. The perfect trail for the day. We loaded up and departed Canyon Lake at about 10:20. We worked our way thru town and proceeded onto the interstate. As we worked our way thru the woods we came upon the trailhead. Unfortunately my brain had gone into the “duuuhhh” mode. We had reached an impasse. Forbes Gulch is a seasonal closure. Winter range for the elk. As we were turning around the smoke was flying as I was trying to think of another trail we could offer to the Mountain Gods. We gathered once again and decided Upper Buzzworm was the answer. Away we went. The second obstacle seemed to be the challenge of the day. After about 2 ½ hours and more ribbing than you could stand, everybody was up and over the obstacle. As we traveled down the snow-covered trail (about 4-6 inches) there was a lot of slippin’ and slidin’ goin’ on. The drivers would pull their vehicle up onto an obstacle and there would go their front and/or back end in the opposite direction they wanted it to go. They would have to back off of the obstacle (if they could) and renegotiate. Sometimes several attempts were made. Shane ran most of the trail with out the aide of his ARB’s. For some reason when Shane used his lockers he would get stuck. Go figure. And there was Brian. For some reason the right line wasn’t. Who was #1 stock driver? It’s a good thing they had pictures. Enough said. It was a good day. Everybody made it unscathed for the most part. The New Years Baby never showed up, but that’s okay because we survived without him. Maybe next year (hint hint Mr. Sipes). With the trail over and the sacrifice made it was time to go home. What a way to start out the New Year. Hopefully next year there will be more participation and make it an even more prosperous year for the Black Hills 4 Wheelers. Paying homage is a must. If you didn’t go, hopefully there was enough of a sacrifice was made to the Mountain Gods so as to let you and your vehicle survive 2002. Happy New Year. See you on the trails, Tim S.
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