Adventures in ATVing

I got to go on a nice long ATV ride on the 16th, my birthday. Rode out to the DMV over in Palmer to renew my driver's license. It was not easy to sort out getting from Wasilla to Palmer on an ATV, at least not when following the Parks Hwy. The overpass out at the Palmer cutoff was the stumbling point, although there was this one hill just before Wal-Mart...

I was cruising along following the ATV trail when suddenly the little ATV realized it was no longer on a reasonably angled slope. I ended up shutting it down as I pondered what to do. I was committed, could not back up, could only go on down the hill, but the trail had been cut in a set of grooves and trying to let the bike go either way caused a worse tilting in the angle it was at (already had rear uphill facing tire hovering a few inches off the ground). So, I finally ended up kicking down to neutral and sitting back on the cargo rack and over to the left all the way, as far in the uphill direction as I could get. One foot balancing me, the other braced down on the foot peg. One hand holding in the front brake on the left handlebar (could not reach the right handlebar. Even with brakes full on the bike wanted to creep down the hill when I put it in neutral, so there I am, hanging off the side of the bike keeping it from rolling, and braced to leap back if it did, creeping it to where it would roll safely down the hill.

Took about five feet before it began to level out, then I got more firmly onto the bike and let it finish going down the hill using both the hand and foot brakes (much easier to control). When I finally reached the bottom and got it stopped it would not start. ARRRGH!!!!

It only took me a few minutes before I realize in the weird acrobatics I had done to keep it from rolling I had accidentally flicked the ignition kill switch. Flicked that back into the start position and ATV fired right up.

Other than that, and a few "not this way..." back-up and try again entanglements I made it to Palmer without much trouble and got my license renewed.