The Story Behind the Pictures

The Epic Recon was, if nothing else, a hell of a lot of fun.

Rock D, Butch and I set out for Valentine on Saturday morning with three maps, a truck load of gear and bikes and one informed "I am not sure about this area here" view of the map from Butch's father in law. Before we left, we also grabbed a shovel. Ah yes, shovels are good.

We started at the Valentine Park, sign pictured in the last post, which is a perfect place to start. Overnight camping for a 5 spot, picnic tables, shelter, and a steep as hell hill to climb out of the place come start time.

The early road section was scenic, rolling and telling, as it was a lonely road very quickly. Without premeditation I turned to Butch and asked, "So if you are racing, what are you thinking at this point?" Butch replied, "That this is gonna be sweet. And that I hope I have enough water."

When we turned off the pavement, I felt some excitement. We were getting into the unsupported area and knew that here, the maps could only tell us part of the story. As we drove, the quality of the road kept diminishing, buildings became fewer and fewer and we discussed the windmills which popped up every so often which pumped out water into a catch.
Soon the road turned into two ribbons and then faint lines on the ground.

Along the way, we experienced a few navigational pauses. At one point Rick chatted with a local farmer who clearly thought we had a screw loose, but let us know the way continue down the "road."

Why is road in quotes? Because from that point on, there wasn't one. It may be on the map, but to say it exists is a stretch. We went with it anyway, following bent shafts of grass and the occasionally sand-stuffed tire track. At some point, I asked Butch for a racer's mindset again and he said, "This is still really sweet."

We made our way through a cattle guard and knew that a lake we saw on the map must but close. We were into rolling hills, without a clear way to get the truck through and got out to walk, scout the terrain and make some choices. I crested a hill to find our hidden lake nestled in the rolling hills below. Nothing around but birds, sandhills, and a surly black bull outlined against the grass on the otherside of the lake.

The problem was that we couldn't see a safe way through. Then our farmer friend showed up. Rick jumped into his atv and the farmer, with his kids in tow, showed us the route down to the lake.

We dropped down near the lake shore, relaxed as we negotiated its northern side and promptly got stuck.

Things got a bit worse before they got better. We intially used Thermarests under the tires to try to get some purchase, but they weren't enough. As Rick and Butch dug and thought through a few angles, I walked a few hundred yards to a cattle-guard and brought back some logs from the surround fence. We then jacked the truck up, returned some sand to the void beneath the truck, topped that with the logs, laid out our thermarests again along with a board from the back of the truck and Rick spun the truck back out of our sandpit and back onto driveable ground.

We looked at each other and Rick said pointedly: "We're not out of this yet."

With weather now rolling in, we made the decision to backtrack, it was nearing5pm and the sky looked questionable at best. We turned the truck around only to discover that we couldn't go back the way we came. The sandy ridge we had dropped down from would never hold enough to get the truck back up. The only choice was to move forward.

The question was to move forward onto what? No road was to be found and we ended up in an open field. After a lot of mental and physical back and forth, we found a cut path following the contour of section of hills. Just as the road had disintegrated earlier, it regained life as we went. Soon we were back on gravel, comfortably driving along the route.

We had to call the day there. We drove Butch back to Valentine. I drank a Rockstar and drove Rick and I back across Nebraska, listening to the game and watching lightening pour down from the sky.

If you are ever going to get stuck in the middle of nowhere and put yourself in a spot. Take Rick and Butch. No drama. No worries. Just thinking things through and getting it done.

Oh, and if you'd be smart enough not to get stuck in the first place, all the better.