Quote:
Originally posted by Hanno Spoelstra
What happened? Pictures, please!
H.
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No pictures as yet, McSpool, and certainly none of the incident itself, which in retrospect, is somewhat comical, albeit not to the ATV rider. Short version follows:
Part of the West End BBQ (a very nice little get-together!) involves a trail ride on private property, with us having exclusive rights to same for that purpose. We had three carriers in trail, along with a couple of jeeps, on a lovely winding dirt track through nice bush. It was exhilarating! There WILL be pictures of that upcoming, BTW (Chris, develop & scan please!).
Anyway, we drove in convoy a mile or so down the road from John's place to the property entrance and let ourselves in through the gate with a key provided us by the owner. There were two ATVs and riders on the other side of the gate (trespassing as it turns out) who were fascinated with the carriers in particular. Now... Charlie had had a bit or a problem with his carrier overheating at the very beginning, so the rest of us went on while he did whatever he had to do and took a different track to meet up with us. We caught up to him stopped at an intersection in the woods... and it suddenly got really interesting when he strolled back to talk to us (I was in the commander's slot in Stewart's carrier), covered in blood. His own, I hasten to add. Tiny little cut on the forehead which bled copiously. Hmmm, thought I, this promises to be interesting...
It turns out the ATV guys (not kids, young adults), came through a back trail at a high rate of knots to come upon Charlie's carrier, which was stopped while waiting for us. Suffice to say, one of them didn't stop in time, lunching his ATV against 8,000 lbs of good Canadian armour plate and launching himself into the rear compartment. He received what we understand is a broken arm from the assault. Silly bugger won't do THAT again.
The driver was evacuated to John's via jeep, wherefrom an ambulance was called. The police in attendance were quite good about it, given that WE had permission to be there and the others were trespassing. End of story. Damn good thing the lot of us weren't motoring along at 20 mph when the ATV guy did his thing, though...
Worst of it was, it cut short a damned good trail ride (carriers are a hoot in rough country!). Mind you, Charlie now gets to paint a little ATV on the driver's side of his carrier...
Sorry, Charlie, but you have to admit this ranks high up on the scale of military vehicle adventures...