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K BAR RANCH

Friday afternoon, John met me out at my shop as I was scrambling like normal to get my shit in a pile, to head off towards the Kohler property, we were only going to be gone for a day, but who knows what might happen. We were only going to be a short 40 minute drive from the shop, but I hate leaving things behind, and not having the supplies to fix when things go wrong. After a short loading delay, we were on our way with John on point with his ’71-40. We were very fortunate to not get caught in any of the severe weather that seemed to be going on all around us. The light show provided by Mother Nature seemed to have no end.

We pulled across the cattle guard and entered a place that seems to have come direct from a dream. Across from you stands this beautiful old style home that I learned was moved there, AFTER they moved the old caboose to the property. You could live in the caboose, which is what John’s family did, when they were setting the house up, that was moved there from Red Wing. What an incredible set up. There are out buildings that have ample storage for the vehicles when the weather turned VERY WET later that night.

We decided to take a quick look at some trails before it got much darker, and the storms really hit. Even though there was poor light, I was very excited about Saturday morning.
We got a quick look-see, and headed back to the house to re group and head over to the bar for some dinner. Tim Pfaff was not able to roll with the group, but he pulled in as we were heading back to the house. The group was complete now. We went to dinner and talked about a plan of removing the deadfall and other trees in the draw. After some entertainment provided by the locals, we went back to the house and John offered up the bar. We carried in our bottles and mixed up some bombers, and watched the rain. At sometime a lot later, we decided to end this day of radio broadcast and turned in.

People started coming back to life around 7am or so. After sharing some chips a hoy and some green pop we loaded up and were in the woods by 8 or so. There was some serious wood that needed to be moved. Steve Bennett, Tim Pfaff and myself started in with our Stihl’s with John, Chad Martin, Ben Bargabus, and Chris Miller pitching the cut stuff out of the way. The fallen logs, and large trees growing sideways across the draw never seemed to end. I can honestly say that I had a chainsaw running in may hands for over seven hours, and I still feel it today, two days later. We finally got to the top of the draw, and Chris cut his way from the road into where John, Ben and I were clearing out the last mess of logs. John could not believe that we were able to open up the whole draw in one day. I too was surprised, but I do know the quality of the people that I operate with.

The trail is great! I was driving the red truck VERY HARD through sections of the draw. The stones were covered in thick green moss, and the rain the night before had clearly flowed through the area, and was still flowing in the lower section when we got out there Saturday morning. The amount of moisture in the area when we were there proved to be a very interesting variable. Traction was at a minimum. A characteristic of these limestone boulders is they do not “ dry off “ like a slab of granite would after your tires slip on it for a while. They just retain moisture and provide no traction! It creates a situation where you need to either drive harder, or winch. Both worked to get me through. The winching was clearly the best alternative, but sometimes throttle was the answer too.

Tim Pfaff and Steve Bennett both had to leave due to family issues, and were unfortunately not able to reap the pleasure of all their hard work that day. Chris Miller had broken a Birfield earlier in the morning and destroyed a lockout, which no one had a spare, so his day of wheelin’ was over, save the Polaris 4-wheeler. Chad had started into the draw and got behind Steve Benson who had showed up in the late afternoon, but decided to turn around and head out backwards. We found him crashed in the front seat of the Sammi out by the cornfields. The day took its toll on all. We headed back to the house to clean up and get some grub at the tavern again.

Saturday night’s dinner was a struggle to stay awake, and the trip back to the Kohler farm was no different, even in the red truck as cool as it was out. We opened the bar again and shared conversation around the pool behind the house while watching satellites race across the sky. What a great way to end the day.

I cannot say thank you enough to John for allowing this great group of friends of mine the opportunity to experience this awesome area. He is a very generous host. I hope to have the chance to go back soon. There are very few places that I really enjoy going to, and this one currently tops the list of areas that I love. I felt so “ at home “ there and comfortable, John and Cathy are great people.

Thank you,

-poser

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Posts: 5484 | From: St. Paul, Mn | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged |