dorocks
Senior Member
On one of my days in Colorado I witnessed one dumb fellow.
We had taken my Jeep up Yankee Boy Basin to a trailhead. My boy wanted to hike up the hiking trail to the peak. I went about half way up with him but ran out of thin air and decided to let him go on and go back down myself. When I got back to the Jeep where my wife was reading the Kindle, a side by side and an ATV pulled up in front of me. I was very close to the narrow trail and I wondered why they squeezed in beside me.
Before I knew it they started driving up the "hiking" trail. I am thinking to myself he is in trouble. I had just hiked down the loose rocky path. He made it about 100 feet maybe, lost traction on the downside wheels, countered by turning uphill, and flipped and rolled the Polaris unto its drivers side down. See picture.
I must admit I was thinking to myself, what a buffoon, and he got what he deserved. But coming to my senses I went up to see if he was OK. He got out eventually. Hard to get out of the seatbelts, when you are on your side.
But now what? I offered to take him down the hill to get help. But the park rangers would not find what he did amusing and it would be expensive to get pulled out. The three of us pondered a bit. He had no ideas so I said "well we can try to get it on its feet and you can drive it down hill and out". He said ok and I cautioned him it may roll down the hill more since it was on a somewhat flat spot but below it was not.
We pushed it. It landed on its feet. But then it started driving itself down about a 1/2 mile hill towards the lake below. We watched and wondered if it would now become a submarine but it turned at the last minute, went into the creekbed flipped again but landed on all fours.
The bruised and tired driver walked down slowly and amazingly the UTV started and he drove out. His last words to me were priceless. "I have been up here 4 or 5 times before and always thought of going up that trail." I guess it never occured to him that is was a hiking, not 4 wheeling trail.
What I learned was a Polaris is tough. It was virtually unscathed. But they don't come with brains for the drivers.
http://keithbarnes.smugmug.com/Vacation/Polaris-Fool
We had taken my Jeep up Yankee Boy Basin to a trailhead. My boy wanted to hike up the hiking trail to the peak. I went about half way up with him but ran out of thin air and decided to let him go on and go back down myself. When I got back to the Jeep where my wife was reading the Kindle, a side by side and an ATV pulled up in front of me. I was very close to the narrow trail and I wondered why they squeezed in beside me.
Before I knew it they started driving up the "hiking" trail. I am thinking to myself he is in trouble. I had just hiked down the loose rocky path. He made it about 100 feet maybe, lost traction on the downside wheels, countered by turning uphill, and flipped and rolled the Polaris unto its drivers side down. See picture.
I must admit I was thinking to myself, what a buffoon, and he got what he deserved. But coming to my senses I went up to see if he was OK. He got out eventually. Hard to get out of the seatbelts, when you are on your side.
But now what? I offered to take him down the hill to get help. But the park rangers would not find what he did amusing and it would be expensive to get pulled out. The three of us pondered a bit. He had no ideas so I said "well we can try to get it on its feet and you can drive it down hill and out". He said ok and I cautioned him it may roll down the hill more since it was on a somewhat flat spot but below it was not.
We pushed it. It landed on its feet. But then it started driving itself down about a 1/2 mile hill towards the lake below. We watched and wondered if it would now become a submarine but it turned at the last minute, went into the creekbed flipped again but landed on all fours.
The bruised and tired driver walked down slowly and amazingly the UTV started and he drove out. His last words to me were priceless. "I have been up here 4 or 5 times before and always thought of going up that trail." I guess it never occured to him that is was a hiking, not 4 wheeling trail.
What I learned was a Polaris is tough. It was virtually unscathed. But they don't come with brains for the drivers.
http://keithbarnes.smugmug.com/Vacation/Polaris-Fool
