2022/07/22 "Sucker" tracks. Survival exp / Summit to Stirling (Pt Alberni)

We often run into “sucker” situations that lead us into
conditions that we did not expect. Some of those are simple, like
that 1/2 hour of good weather that sucks you out into a day of
showers. Other times, as with this track, you tell yourself that
you’ve already had a long day, and you’ll just turn around if
the going gets hard.

I’d had a reasonable day’s exploring in new turf. I’d found some
very nice “lightly used” tracks, and also pushed through a
couple kilometers of overgrown stuff.

So this starts off as a normal “interesting” track for a
reasonably competent rider on a light bike with good tires.

A “road deactivated” sign! You could take that many ways, but
I’ll go for “You’ve officially got my interest.”

This track starts off fine, no cause
for alarm. There are quad tracks and cut logs that indicate
someone has been down it “recently”. Yes, it’s overgrown and
that makes it a bit slippery.

But every bit farther you get into it,
it gets that little bit harder.

And then you come to a challenge,
and find yourself wondering if you really want to quit, (you were
here for a reason…), turn around and undo the 30 minutes
you spent getting here (knowing it will harder going UP HILL).

It’s human nature. The more you have invested in something, the
more you want to see it finished.

We’re responsible for our choices, but sometimes we don’t
have the right information to make good choices. I thought/hoped the
track would open up when I got to the road marked “200” and I
had not spent enough time estimating distances (hard to do on the
1.5 inch GPS screen).

—-

Despite the overgrowth, in many respects, this is an amazing piece of
track, hard enough to be “not boring”, definitely
“out in the woods”, and for lack of a better description “quite pretty”.

Keep in mind, This is exploring. I do not know that I can
get out the far end.

——-

So here I am at semi technical creek crossing. I’ve spent 30
minutes (about 5 kilometers) getting here. I didn’t want to
do any more hard riding, but I don’t want to turn back either.

—-

So the camera runs out of batterys before I get out. The last
challenge is the worst… but I’m pretty damn committed at this
point. The logging company is working at the far
end, and apparently there is no gate to block the road. So they
use their excavator to make a barrier of trees.

Fortunately they’re trying to block their own vehicles, e.g.
trucks. Many barriers don’t cover the ditch well. With a folding
saw to trim back some roots, I can ride the ditch. With brute
force I can remove one small tree trunk from the far side, and then
it’s just one 12 inch trunk between me and “escape”.

Obviously I don’t have any magic answers, or I would not have
written the narration this way. There are “sucker tracks” out
there, that look like one thing, but end up being another.

But of course, these are even more common in the real / human
world, where people make things intentionally misleading.

All I can say is fact check where you can, think/plan ahead where
you can, use your common sense… but don’t live in fear either,
otherwise you’ll never get out of the driveway.

Best wishes, I hope to see you riding, don’t forget that like and
subscribe thing! And THANK YOU for watching.

—
footnotes: Still not very happy with this video. This is version 2. version 1 had a better interplay of the narration and wild sound, but I didn’t like the script and thought the whole thing was too long. Still not happy with it, but I’m done editing it. There is other footage I should be working on. Only question is whether I’ll consider it good enough to make public.

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