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to be included here.

We met at Skyline as normal on a Saturday morning and hit the road at 7am for the drive to Sunflower Mine however, we barley made it out of the drive before trouble struck.  I was following Jim and Sharon, they had their pickup loaded with their ATV, between Crismon and Ellsworth I saw a big puff of dust from his back left tire and it went flat!  Off the road we unloaded the quad and changed the tire, loaded up and rolled out again.  We made good time to the Sunflower unload area without further incident, unloaded, aired down and prepared to leave.  We started with 8 rigs  including 2 ATVs.

The first couple sections of this trip are easy trails and can be made by most 4x4 vehicles.  On the first leg, we passed the cap areas and went up to the round-up area that is high on the side of one of the slopes and offers incredible views of the surrounding areas.

A short fellowship time, some pictures and it was off on the trails again and heading deeper into the mountains.  Our destination for this leg of the journey was the mine processing plant and a stop for lunch.  The trek there is fairly easy but through some beautiful areas and on this trip there was a little water in some of the streamlets.  When we arrived at the processing plant, we started out with thanks to our Lord for the beauty, the ability to come enjoy it and the food we were about to eat, then it was time to eat, chat and play.  When the kids were done, they took the time to walk down and look over the plant and Ryan thrilled them with ATV rides.  Some of the adults also walked down to see the remains of the plant and all took the opportunity for pictures.

 With full bellies we decide it was time to load up and hit the rest of the trails.  Next up was the mine.  The trail leads to a junction where most people park and walk to the mine as the last bit of the trail is a small boulder field and then a short but steep climb to the mine shaft area.  Most rigs parked but a few of us ran all the way to the mine.

From the mine, we headed out past the processing plant and back down the mountain.  We split the group up at the bottom where the stock vehicles and one of the ATV's headed back to the load area and the built up vehicles headed out in search of the Sunflower Loop.  We have never made the entire loop and decided this would be a good day to map it out.

The group was now down to 4 rigs plus 1 ATV, although, the ATV would prove no match for the coming boulder fields and after a flat would be relegated to the bed of the Chevy truck.

With the ATV loaded, we started off again.  We missed a turn and soon ended at an area with the trail washed down the side of the cliff and into the wash, neither of which were passable.  After some discussion, it was decided that we had to have missed something.  A few minutes later, a couple of Rhino's showed up and we confirmed on there maps and our GPS that we indeed ad gone too far.  A short return locate the small trail up the side of the mountain and we were back on track again.  From this point on, things were definitely more interesting.  The trail is not considered a hard one, but it does have its technical points and there area few long, narrow, steep climbs which made it complicated for the full size Chevy.  At one point, Virgil let the kids con him into crawling over a boulder but as the tire came off the other side, the boulder slipped under the Jeep, stuck to the skid plate and got both right side tires off the ground.  As both axles are open, he was stuck spinning tires!!!  To add insult to his injury of being stuck, the vehicle to pull him back off the rock was the Chevy truck!?!?!  O well, he is still new to wheeling so we can give him one pull!

The rest of the run was uneventful but very enjoyable and very scenic.  We had a great time and look forward to the next time we can make this run, there is always more to see at Sunflower.

God Bless
Kreation Krawlers