Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Return to Prentice Cooper

For her birthday I took JeepGirl for a ride in her Jeep. We first went to look at Lula Lake but found it was closed. We made a bit of a round about trip off Lookout Mountain and made our way to the back side of Prentice Cooper.

We entered the park on Halley Rd. This is the only interesting trail I have found in the park and has the ominous looking warning about 4x4 vehicles only beyond this point.

Coming in the back way we found a bit of slippery mud and were surprised by some ice still on the road.

Climbing up out of the creek, I choose to climb over some rocks rather than risk the ice that was close to the edge of the road. We heard a small scrape but ignored it at the time.

We drove on to the top of the hill and headed to the south of the park. Just like every time before we found the gate locked just past the pond. I am not sure when or if they ever open this as it has always been closed when I was there.

We were also disappointed that Lusk point was closed. That was the main reason we had drive up there.

As we were leaving the park by the main entrance we stopped to look at the map. That is when I noticed the rear fender flare was missing.

We compared notes and both realized that the only scrape we had heard all day was back at the creek on Halley Rd. So I turned around and drove back. Sure enough right by the creek was her flare laying in the middle of the road.

There was nothing sticking out that could have hit it. I am guessing that when the tire stuffed in to the fender well, it some how caught the flare and popped it off.

Back home, a few tapes with a rubber hammer to straighten the bracket and then the flare bolted right back on.