New Years 2012/2013

I swear we almost died!

We went camping in California City with a group of friends. It was alot of sucky fun! Sucked cause saturday night we ran out of propane for the trailer... UGH sleeping in 20° is not fun at all. But thats the least of the story... lets just skip right to monday! NEW YEARS EVE!! It started out a nice day. Some of the people we were camping with wanted to go to the Burro Schmidt tunnel. Sounded cool. They asked if we wanted to go, we were planning on leaving later that day but Ross wanted to go and since they said it would only be 2 hours he said okay, I wasnt going to go at first cause my quad had a flat tire, and they said no problem we could use their polaris razor. Sweet. So since it was only going to be a couple hours, I put on my heavy sweatshirt, scarf sunglasses and helmet and boots and off we went. After about 2 hours we finally got to the mountains where the tunnel was. our friends Gil and Becky stayed back cause Gil hurt his back, they said they would wait for us thinking we would only be a hour at most since we were only a mile from the tunnel.  Well we had to climb what we thought at first was only a hill, boy were we wrong it was a mountain! not one but many mountains! We climb and OH BOY we are now driving along the ridge of the mountain HOLY CRAP SHIT BALLS I am deathly afraid of heights. it was a good 500-1000 ft drop on either side of us, SON OF A BITCH I HATE THESE PEOPLE  CRAP... I think i pissed my self a couple times. My language was very pretty. FUCK THIS SHIT IM DONE I WANT TO GO HOME I HATE THIS! Yep that was some of We get to a point and they say we are almost there. Finally. We find our next trail and go down a mountain and around a bend and THERES THE TUNNEL!!! Next I know we are in the tunnel oh yah im clausterphobic too. But I did it. 2 fears in one day! actually 3 the fear of dying too. the tunnel was cool. then it was time to go back to camp, both Mary and I veto'd going back the way we came... again FUCK THAT SHIT! we knew there had to be a easier way out after all there were freaking cars at the mine ( okay so they were all 4x4's) but still. So we check the trusty map and well Last chance canyon will take us out to right where we left gil and becky. Cant take us more than a hour to get thru and we are on our way. WRONG! Took probably 2-3 hours to get thru the canyon. Rock crawling driving thru creeks oh my! At one point I told Ross I was over it all I just wanted home and my bed. Then first Kurtis ate it, not bad though then 30 minutes later Jeff rolled down the last part of a verticle drop we had to go down, then not even 5 minutes later his wife mary rolled down from the top, surprisinly both quads had no damage, only bruised egos! Then Ross and I went down, though we went down the right side, still verticle but not as bad. When we got to the end they said your turn to roll over, I told them to SHUT UP!! We still had a couple more miles to go to get out of the canyon and the sun was setting fast! After going thru a couple washouts more rock crawling we finally made it out of the canyon OMG I have never been glad to see a highway more! Kurtis and Jeff went up to where we left Gil and Becky and they had gone back to camp already, So we all got on the highway to head home. Very illegal btw but we really did not care at that point, we were now 6 hours into our 2 hour trip. Its now DARK and the temp dropped to 20° AGAIN but since we were doing speeds from 35-65mph with the windchill factor the temp was anywhere from 3°-7°. Now remember Im only wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, my summer riding gloves and a scarf and sunglasses. Not only was the wind blowing but we were also making wind driving so fast and we were the last in line so we were eating dirt. My eyes were so caked with dirt it wasnt funny, We finally get back to where camp is supposed to be and we cant find it, by this time, My hands and arms were so frozen they no longer hurt, and people thats bad, thats the begining of frost bite and hypothermia. The tingling OMG never felt somethng so painful. We finally found camp, OMG I was so happy I started crying except I had no tears. they were frozen to my face. I hugged Gil and Becky so tight. They first got me inside the trailer and everyone followed soon after I was the worst off cause I was wearing the least amount of clothing. I drank 3 cups of HOT coffee in 15minutes. The heater was my best friend, as were hot washclothes to get all the dirt off my face. After a couple hours I was able to take a shower and then I WENT TO BED! We didnt ring in the new year, we slept thru it. Even with the heater set at 80° I was still cold. We woke the next morning packed up and said goodbye. Our 2 hour trip turned into 8. It was scary but fun. And I wont ever do that again!

Ross and I about halfway up the first mountain Shortly before the Cussing began

Me walking thru Burro Schmidt Tunnel

The mountains we drove along To the left just out of the picture is where we started... Way over to the right outside of the picture is where the mine is HOLY CRAP SHIT BALLS!!

And me... Trying to put on a happy face. Really trying. I WAS DONE! But so relieved to be back.