The roads had gotten much worse overnight — the heavy snowfall had downed several trees, and we encountered a fellow towing a trailer with a 2WD truck who had become stuck. The melting snow had turned the dirt roads under it into muck, and the going felt slow. It was determined our rescue mission would not take us back through the forest, but rather up and around the area to the eastern entrance.

The weather on this day was much better, with not a cloud in the sky, and temperatures starting to approach 44 degrees. The three of us rode the 25 miles out of the forest without much of a break, driven by the thought of warm cars and rescuing our stranded compadres. I ticked off each mile in my head as we went, making my goal to reach the next mile. Eventually, with a fair amount of fanfare, we made it out of the forest. A short pavement ride (and one last climb) brought us back into town, and back to our warm cars. The feeling of victory was upon us… but we still had to grab our friends and our gear.

We drove up through Raquette Lake eastbound towards the other side of the forest. A winding dirt road took us along the Cedar River in towards the eastern entrance to the Moose River Plains area, where Justin and Mario awaited us. We hoped they were still alive, or maybe hanging out with Ron in his dope camper. We were happy to discover both of them alive and well, and in good spirits. After quickly packing up all of our remaining gear and bicycles, we headed out back to Inlet, NY to Screamen Eagle Pizza. A few beers and two wonderful, large, hot pizzas while sitting by the fireplace nursed our spirits and our cold bodies. After time spent reminiscing about our insane journey, we departed back to our home of Rochester, NY, to rejoin the real world.