The FURY Of The Fourwheeler!!

This post will contain many things and people who have been mentioned before-- The kindly man, Stopper, who owns the farm next to Justin's parent's place; the mythical creature called a "Four Wheeler" which is an actual contraption that is used in the mountains and other rural areas to get around (think "golf cart for mountain men"); Justin, a handsome chap in a cowboy hat who moved to San Diego, CA from Bluff City, TN; Me, the author of this blog and the chick who is regularly visited by The Fuck-up Fairy (meaning that I am accident prone and that I tend to put my foot in my mouth a lot); Trees. You know, I don't think I have said much about trees in this blog... trees are underrated and there should be a lot more of them in Southern California. Unfortunately, there is a really good reason that we don't have many trees here in San Diego-- they are made of wood and therefore, when they even sense a match or other flame, they catch on fire and burn down everything around them. Every part of Southern California that is not a mountain is technically considered desert so trees are not exactly native to the area. All of the trees that cover the parks, subdivisions, and suburbs are imported. A common favourite is the eucalyptus tree, an import from Australia. These trees are responsible for producing eucalyptus oil and, in the event of a fire, they go up like they are doused in, well, oil. Suffice to say, I am really impressed not only by the amount of indigenous trees in Northeast Tennessee, but also the residents' wanton use of wood for actual fires right out in the open! But, in an area that gets precipitation of some kind nearly every day all year 'round, it is not illegal to start and maintain fires as long as they don't get out of hand.
So... without further exposition...
Trees!

While we were visiting Stopper, he mentioned that he might come up to the house on his fourwheeler on New Year's Eve. I excitedly told him that I had never ridden a fourwheeler before. I didn't think I was going to get the chance to ride one, let alone that he'd actually let me ride his. But, as the best Christmas gift ever, he showed up with a smile and offered his bitchin' sweet ride to Justin and I so that we could use it to ascend the mountain behind Justin's parent's house and climb up on top of Fox Rock to take in the beautiful view.
This is Stopper on the fourwheeler. He is about to take Justin on a tandem practice run so that his memories of riding fourwheelers will come back and he won't try to kill us when we ascend the little mountain.

The running joke throughout the whole trip was that Ronnie was going to get Justin to cut "fahr wood". I kept offering to help but Ronnie kept ignoring me and yelling at Justin and laughing. I don't think he wanted help as much as he wanted to give his son a really hard time.

This is a photo of Justin plowing the fourwheeler into the back of our rental car. 

Nah, it's actually a photo of him getting reacquainted with the controls while Stopper explains the finer points of mountain climbing in a really awesome vehicle lookithosetires!!!

Seriously-- I want one. If you've never ridden one of these then your life is incomplete here's your test back go find somewhere like Mammoth Mountain or Idylwyld to fill in the blank parts that should have contained a fourwheeler. 

This is a picture of a REAL bonfire, guys. Included are evergreen branches that Kim said something about making into wreaths... we never got a chance to though because we always ran into the problem of precipitation. Also, they didn't plant that grass there it just sprang up on it's own. Tennessee is a crazy wonderland!

I watched Ronnie shovel dog poo while Stopper continued to refamiliarize Justin with the fourwheeler. As I found out later, this was really the only time that he was going to be able to talk to Justin until they reached their turnaround point because fourwheelers are loud.
I made fun of Ronnie's pink axe (leaning against the pile of firewood) but he just brushed it off like water saying "It was red when I got it". 

Justin and Stopper proceeded to abandon me with Ronnie for the next thirty minutes. I even got cold enough to go inside for a little while.

When they returned, Stopper told me to lean forward with the inclines and back with the declines. I found that riding bitch on a fourwheeler is not only fun, but really cold and really bumpy. When we had ridden as far up as we could go, we got off and took pictures of the valley below us. 

But there was still quite a lot of ground to cover on foot. I had no trouble with this at all despite having a broken ankle... I was just slower than Justin was. 

This is the view from higher up. Notice the copious amounts of trees.

Climbing... climbing...

I like taking photos of people taking photos of things. The only thing better than that is taking a photo of a person who is taking a photo of you taking a photo of them taking a photo of you taking............

About here is where a fairly large branch got caught in the gaping maw of my medical boot. I ripped the branch up from the ground and used it as a walking stick both up and down our ascension of the actual Rock called Fox, which is that outcropping of granite up ahead. 

The branch is not pictured-- that is just a log that I thought looked cool. 

Fox Rock is quite steep. It is not named as such because it looks like a fox but because it is riddled with dens and warrens that actually house foxes.

Justin and I had to wear ski gloves to ride the fourwheeler because it was so cold. 

Those are seed pods and not bats.

The view of the valley from the almost-top.

More trees! Scientific study has shown that nature occurs in fractals. Look at this picture and then look Science in the face and tell it that it's wrong; I dares ya. 

This is steeper than it looks. One false move and you're rolling down into the valley through some very branchy trees.

The summit! We were not as high up as the mountains in the distance but we were pretty far up there to be able to look that far out into the distance. Everything is covered in trees, you know.

A view of the sky.

I now turned my camera to the other side of the valley in search of the Bristol Motor Speedway which is alarmingly close by.

Okay so look through the trees in the middle but slightly to the leftish... the Speedway is where that roundy looking tan clearing is. If you can't pick it out then you should have come on vacation with us because it looked awesome! I wish I had seen it from up on Fox Rock at night!

Justin and I descended the ridge. I was encumbered by my medical boot that did not allow me to use my still very broken ankle so he stopped every so often and waited for me. The stick served its purpose as a guide down the steep slope of the ridge and saved me from several falls-- I honestly would have had to take Justin's hand for most of the descent and that would have been very much impossible because of the way that the rocks are situated; it is very much a single file climb down with little margin for error.
When we returned, several other people had showed up to the house were all gathering around both inside and out. Stopper met us with the kind of big warm-hearted smile that only a man like him can give. I hugged him and thanked him for the opportunity to experience the fury of the fourwheeler! 
Woohoo!