| One reoccuring theme throughout the weekend was how we were frequently battling with Mother Nature. Sometimes we would give her a swift kick in the ass, or other times she would take a huge dump on our chests. Here's how it laid out: After setting up for most of the day on Friday people started to roll in around 7 o'clock. Evan and I skated the half pipe while Mike Lusk cooked everyone hamburgers. Darrell and Trav went up into the woods with Darrell's Jeep to try and move a downed tree that was blocking most of the trails. I rode the 4-wheeler up there with a hand saw to see if I could make a dent in the tree. While I was up there I heard a loud engine over and over from back by the homebase. At first I thought it was Darrell doing donuts but when I went down I found Jimmy Maloney knee deep in mud with his truck. We spent the rest of the night trying to free him but gave up slightly after dark. Matt Lessard says "Man, if this was perfectly dry, we'd be able to get him out of here, no problem." Us: 0, Mother Nature 1. Later that night more sprackers and worthless little kids showed up and nothing too interesting happened except I rode the 4-wheeler on the half pipe while Cody Schneider sat on the luggage rack. Then Jessie Guffey bent Mother Nature over and put it in her ass. Us: 1, Mother Nature: 1. Saturday morning came early, to the sound of Jimmy's dad yanking him out of the mud and people cleaning up. Ev and Jake cooked some breakfast in the hot morning sun. It was really nice in the morning but soon turned cold and cloudy. It rained a little so we made a make-shift fort with two trucks supporting a tarp either end. Us: 1, Mother-Nature: 2. In the mid-day, Jessie and Jake went to take a nap in their tent. Shortly after Ev, Gary, and I snuck over and pulled the corner poles from the tent. Jessie flipped out and chased Jeremy Baker down, even though he had nothing to do with it. We get a point for that for combating the boredom. Us: 2, Mother-Nature: 2. Saturday evening was a lot better. The skies cleared and it warmed a little. Ev and I tried to catch frogs with a fishing pole and red cloth, but we had no luck, so we rode 4-wheelers instead. Then we skated and ate some food and by then it was getting dark so I decided to break the ramp apart for firewood. I broke my sledge hammer, but I was smart and had a chain saw. Then I slammed it with my truck and dragged it to the fire. At about 10pm Ev and I were sitting by the fire when we began to hear the frogs croaking, so we get a flashlight and go out there. We still weren't having much luck so Chase caught a couple for us. I cooked up the legs and ate them. Everyone says they taste like chicken, but I definately don't think they tasted like chicken... maybe because I never skinned them. They weren't too bad though. Us: 3, Mother-Nature: 2. Final score: Us: 3, Mother-Nature: 2. Yeah, take that bitch.    Special thanks to Jeremy Schond and Lindsay for helping me tear the ramp apart, and Chase for catching frogs for Ev and I. Also, special thanks to anyone who helped babysit Jessie Guffey... Will we do this again next year? Probably not. It was too much work. Get 'er done. Preparation Carl was heavily involved with Gabe for the planning of this camping trip, except the week before it was scheduled to take place he decided he was going to go work at carnival somewhere. So in part Gabe and Sean Slayer named the campout the "Fuck-You-Carl-Fest." Preparing for the weekend was a huge pain in the ass. Basically 80% of the stuff that went up to Gabe's property was mine. Trampoline, grill, 4-wheeler, dirtbike, coolers, tools, and finally the ramp.   The ramp was the biggest bitch of all to transport. The ramp was built almost over 5 years ago and had definitely seen better days. It was unskatable in it's current state, so repairs would have to be made to make it viable for transport. A week prior, half the ramp (an 8 foot section), was chopped up with a chain-saw and saw-z-all, these pieces would serve as firewood. The other 8 feet was saved, then tipped on its side with a tractor so it could be broken into sections without having to take the plywood off. We kept one 4x8' section which we turned into to a floating raft for Gabe's pond. The plan was initially for there to be king of the mountain battles on the raft, however I don't think they ever took place.  A few days later I borrowed my Grandfather's flatbed truck and we loaded the sections one at a time onto the truck with the tractor and took them up to Gabe's property where we set the ramp back up. A quick fix for the rotting top layer of plywood was just to flip it over and cover the seems and gaps with thin sheets of fiber glass board. It turned out pretty decent for what we had to work with. The surface was very soft so you had to pump your legs extra hard to get to the coping each time. Written by Matt West on 6/4/2004 |
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