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ZookiMelt ’02: Purgatory Group A
Story By: Bob Norman
Pictures By: Mark Quisenberry, Bob Norman
Sometimes you just get lucky. That is how I feel after having the privilege to lead this, the first group through Purgatory at ZookiMelt 2002. Following down the trial were Mark Quisenberry, Jayson, “Mr.” Dave Parker from Barn Works 4×4, and Steve. 
The trail leaders ran the trail the day before, but it changed considerably overnight. Thanks to Troy Meyers for keeping the trails interesting. This made the lines through the obstacles a bit interesting. …so interesting in fact, it got the best of Mr. Parker. The line through this obstacle was to go high on the rock on the right in the picture. It gets REEEAAALLLY tippy up there, and the rock then decided to get a little revenge upon Mr. Parker. 
After our last rig got through the earlier section, it was time for the second group to try. Jeff Pollock kept us busy for a while after he slid off the line and got in all kinds of trouble.
Besides Mr. Parker’s incident, the lower half was exciting, but really uneventful. The rocks are in your face the whole time, so we took this opportunity to take a breather. From here, there is a downhill with more lines that you can imagine. I got too close to going over forward for my liking while trying the ugliest line I could picture. Little did we know, but we were going to stop on the trail again. A Great Horned Owl perched on the highest rock on the tough climb formerly known as Dirty Steve’s Trail. We waited him out and finally he let us have the trail back. 
Now it was our turn to have the trail back, we each took turns on the obstacle. There is a huge hole on the right side, so you have to get up on the wall on the left to keep from getting high centered. Jayson slipped his right rear into the hole but still managed to make it through after a bit of work. 
Mr. Parker also made it through and bounced his way through the hole. After we all got up through the tough climb, we went around the old “Expert Only” section around the pond and came back out into the play area in the pit. It really was a great time and when accompanied by this great group of guys, it really made for an excellent opening to Zookimelt 2002!
08/11/10 15:31
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