then they did this

On the weekend my brother flew up and a childhood friend drove down and the three of us plus my son went ATV-ing.

Now ordinarily I'm more on the side of peace and quiet -- you know, nature pure and unspoiled, etc -- rather than on the side of fossil-fuel-burning machines tearing up the countryside, contributing to erosion and emitting noise and exhaust. In fact, the first day we just went hiking (first pic).

But I do have to admit this: ATVs are a total blast. An hour or so away from us are several square miles of mountain/forest that by general agreement have been set aside for dirt bikes, quads, and four-wheeling. We went tearing around, thru mud bogs, mini lakes, dirt trails, sand/gravel roads, down dry creek beds, up riverbeds with the rivers still in them, everywhere. My son and I have done it a few times before, but this time we pushed it a little harder. And those machines are amazing -- they're durable, flexible, nice balance of power and speed, and they chug thru two feet of water (or more) like they were made for it.

On our last run of the day, we passed a young woman on a pretty fancy quad going the other way. After a few minutes, we ended up going down the same path she had taken. In the middle of a little ravine about 8' wide we found her pinned under her upside-down machine, with her feet poking out one side and her helmet and one hand sticking out the other. She said she just couldn't get the leverage to shift the weight -- she'd been stuck there for 5 or 10 minutes by the time we came along.

We got her out and her machine going again -- she seemed okay, just a little bruised and a lot scared. So all's well that ends well -- she was all right, and we all got to perform manly rescuing maneuvers, which pleased us. A happy ending to a great weekend.