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Polecat's RetirementChilliwack AreaApril 9/05 Written by Storm (with help from Greg) Photographed by Storm  Group Shot (left to right): Claude, Ozark Girl, Greg, Jas, Rich, The House, Kpal67, Oweee, Glenn, Polecat. Storm isn't pictured as he was taking the photo. Our trip began at the Pointa Vista restaurant on Chilliwack Lake Road, where we met for breakfast at 9 am. The last of us left at 9:45 and went to the trailhead of the Chilliwack-Foley Lake Forest Service Road. After unpacking the quads, we took a group shot in the usual parking lot and then headed off to the gravel pit for some hill-climbing and playing around. Rich descended a hillside at speed, but when he began his ascent on the other side he lost control, realized he was heading directly for the bush, and bailed as his quad rolled completely over. Oweee, Glenn, The House, Jas, Kpal67, and Greg rushed up to make sure he was okay and then helped him right his quad, while I provided photographic proof that Rich had rolled his quad once again. When he first started it back up, a big cloud of smoke filled the air as the oil had washed into the cylinder and was being burnt off. 
 Oweee led us through one of the forest trails, where some of the riders received a bit of coaching and many got a tire in the air through some particularly tight spots. Oweee and I had a close call during a rather steep and off-camber section -- the front end of Oweee's quad rose up and Oweee bailed to the left, leaving me to fend for myself. I took my cue and exited stage right onto high ground, where I landed on my feet in some nice soft moss. The now-riderless Kawasaki rolled backwards downhill a few feet, where it struck the front of Mike's Honda. Further on, we thought we spotted the legendary Sasquatch foraging for food, but upon careful inspection of the photos we realized it was just Oweee doing trail maintenance. Oweee managed to crack his visor after putting it down at the side of the trail, although we're not sure whether it happened as a result of him riding over it or dropping a rock on it. 
 During a relatively steep ascent, Ozark Girl caught a root, got sideways and tipped her quad over. As she hollered for Mike, Greg turned around, spotted the quad on its side and ran down the trail. Fearing that Ozark Girl was trapped under her quad, Greg yelled "I'm coming" to reassure her that help was on the way. Upon arrival, Greg found that Ozark Girl was fine. Meanwhile, Oweee, seeing the yellow quad's dirty underside, also ran to help out his wife, while yelling to me, "Grab your camera!" After examining the situation, he said to Ozark Girl with great relief, "I'm glad... the quad isn't damaged!" We continued on to the top of the first forest trail and stopped for lunch where we battled numerous mosquitoes. 
 Eventually, we arrived at a second gravel pit, where we encountered a small group of quads and dirt bikes. It turns out that I had already met one of the quad riders at Hunters Sporting Goods in Surrey, and had mentioned Quads.ca in passing. We played on the gravel pit for a bit, and Oweee took this opportunity to practice his wheelies yet again. We decided to see if we could make it to the lookout but we got stopped by snow. While we were turning around, another group of quads arrived. We chatted with them for a bit and checked out the new Polaris MV700 that they had. 
 We ran some more forest trails, during which a branch whacked my right eye and knocked my contact lens out. I peeled it off my cheek with my gloved hand and told Polecat that we needed to stop so I could put it in my pocket. While descending a long, steep trail, Polecat detected something amiss with his steering and stopped to see what was wrong. He discovered that his right front tire was totally deflated. Wishfully thinking that it was just a temporarily-broken bead (NOT due to my extra weight on his quad), he attached his air compressor and attempted to inflate the tire. Hearing the hiss of escaping air, we examined the tire and found a large gash in the sidewall. Polecat installed a few plugs and figured that would do the trick. He hooked up the air compressor again and, much to his dismay, still felt air escaping from the tire. Meanwhile, I took the opportunity to rinse my contact lens off with some borrowed bottled water and reinstalled it. Claude lended his assistance by holding up my Pocket PC screen as a makeshift mirror. As the tire repairs looked like they would take a while, I grabbed my second sandwich from Greg's sports bag. Claude also decided he should have something to eat, so he opened his insulated bag to retrieve his lunch. He then found out exactly why Greg always recommends that everyone pack their lunches into Tupperware containers as his sandwich had been smashed into a paste by his drink containers and his frozen cooler pack. 
 At that time, Glenn, The House, and Jas rode back up the trail to find out what was keeping us, since the rest of the group had not been aware that we had stopped. I walked down to the curve in the trail to meet them and let them know where they should turn around, as the trail was pretty tight where the quads were parked. Back at the disabled quad, Greg suggested that Polecat should use the glue in the repair kit, so Polecat glued several more plugs into the hole. Fortunately, that seemed to do the trick. Unfortunately, the air started escaping from a second hole that had been previously undetected. Polecat installed a few plugs into the second hole and again hooked up the air compressor. As the air was still escaping, Greg mentioned that one could actually buy tire slime to help prevent this sort of thing from happening. Rich then remembered that he had a can of "Inflate & Seal" so we decided to give that a try. Polecat hooked up the Inflate & Seal and pushed down on the button to release the goop. We could see the goop travelling through the clear hose but the tire did not seem to be inflating. At that time, Rich mentioned that the can was about a year old and perhaps it had lost its potency. After several minutes of holding the inflate button down, Polecat complained that his finger was getting tired. Greg gallantly offered to hold down the button for him. After a few more minutes, Greg's finger was getting tired and then Jas commented, "Maybe the button will stay down on its own if you let go." Greg let go and, sure enough, the button stayed down! Who knew? We eventually determined that we had emptied most of the can and the tire was not going to get inflated by the so-called "Inflate & Seal." Polecat once again attached his air compressor and was able to inflate his tire. Although the tire was still losing air, it was at a slow enough rate that he felt confident that it would get him back to his truck. Finally, we were on the way.  I rode back to the gravel pit with The House, while everyone else followed Greg. They took a slight detour along a trail we had originally come out of because Greg didn't know any better. While waiting for the others, I persuaded Oweee and Ozark Girl to do some donuts in the gravel pit in the hopes of getting some good action shots. Greg and Glenn showed up shortly thereafter, but the rest of the group was nowhere to be seen. Glenn eventually went back to check on them and they all returned a few minutes later. It turns out that Polecat had discovered a third hole in his sidewall and had stopped to plug it. The tire, now looking like a Chia Pet, was finally holding air. Total tire plugs: 20! 
I managed to capture this next little sequence thanks to the "burst mode" in my camera. Polecat was doing a doughnut, thought his quad was going over, and bailed. Pretty funny! 
 Once we finished playing in the pit, some of the group decided to call it a day and head for the trucks. We were now down to Greg, Jas, Rich, Claude, Polecat and me. Polecat felt that his tire, with its 20 plugs, was good enough to let him ride another trail. While helicopters flew close by, we headed back to the 4-km point on the main road and then got onto another forest trail known as "Figure 8s." Greg managed to get a two-inch thick branch through the front of his quad, where it tweaked his steering and popped out a plastic rivet on his left-front fender flare. We ran the "Check Your Brakes" trail from the bottom up, and then attempted to find the "Thurston Mountain" trail. Greg, who was leading, missed the turn-off and we ended up in a clear-cut via a very rough debris-strewn path. Greg and Polecat took a short hike in an effort to locate the actual trail, finding it just over the next rise. We turned our quads around, went back through the debris-strewn path and found the missed turn-off. After following the creek for a little while, the trail crossed over the creek and entered the clear-cut a bit further up from where we were previously, before continuing back into the forest. The trail led us to a little ATV bridge, where we stopped for a quick break. We then continued on, eventually exiting back out to the main road at the 4.5-km marker. From then on, it was a high-speed bombing run back to the trucks where we met up with Sprinter-X and Triwreck. It turns out that they had missed us in the morning by only fifteen minutes and had spent the day looking for us. Overall, it was a successful run with good weather, no major damage, and everyone had a great time. The next day, Polecat mentioned that his plugged tire was no longer holding air. Time to re-tire! 
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