Wheeling in da Shmootz
Weekend of Damage and Recovery
| Once we had the Jeep winched out of the mud hole, it
was time to make a decision. It was growing dark and
steak dinners were beckoning. With little light
remaining and no easy, obvious way out, we decided to
leave the Jeep for the night down on the valley floor and
plan for a morning extraction.
The drive back was not
un-eventful. It was raining and the fog was rolling
in. The trails were muddy and one particular trail
had real nice deep ruts carved into it. Mike in his
Toyota Tacoma had to back up to allow room for John to
back up and get a running start on an off-camber section
of the ruts. Apparently the fog obstructed Mike's
view and he backed it up onto an embankment and as the
front tire slide down into another rut, the truck nearly
flopped over on it's side. Sort of stuck there we
tried to pull it forward, up and out of the rut but that
didn't work. Then we noticed the trench leveled out about
30 feet back. We decided to drop both the driver
side wheels into the trench and ride it backwards half in
and half out of the trench, back to level ground.
That worked. Meanwhile Lewis forgot his cell phone
in his disabled Jeep, 1/2 mile back down in the valley.
Armed with only a little LED penlight he started a walk in
the dark, in the fog, back down to get it. Paul
kindly offered him a ride and drove around a detour and
caught up to him and gave him a lift. |
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| Back at camp ... That
night we had a good dinner at out favorite steak place
down in the town with one stop light. Returning back
up to the cabin on the mountain was a challenge. By
the time we were ready to head back the fog had really
rolled in and we slowly making our way back, trying to
stay on the road. Not being able to see
distinguished landmarks, we kept making wrong turns.
Finally back, we easily knocked off the damp chill.
The temperature hovered all night around 50 degrees, far
above what we'd expect for this time of year. With
the generator going there were crappy local TV shows on
around the fireplace and a high stakes (a few bucks) poker
game going in the kitchen. |
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| Morning light brought breakfast down in town and a few
upgrades to the cabin including a new antenna mast and a
new light fixture for the 2nd night of poker. |
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| Steve brought back what was left of the outhouse door.
The outhouse has a really nice view of the woods now. |
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| Recovery
... it was time to get the
Jeep. Cloaked in the latest fashionable rain gear,
we made our way back down into the valley. |
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| Lewis Jeep was parked off the trail
next to the creek. Having a hard time backing out of
this very muddy spot in 2 wheel drive, Stephen was ushered
in to give him a yank. He proceeded to yank off the
rest of the bumper. Time for some better tow points. |
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| We hooked up the shackle instead and gently assisted
in a rearward pull. The shackle is not exactly the
best place to yank a stuck vehicle. |
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| A couple of guys scouted ahead to the creek crossing
to check it's level and see if it's any different than
yesterday. Considering it rained all night, it was
actually higher. Not a good option for a disabled
Jeep. The crossing was a narrow section that deepens
and is rushing faster at this crossing. But it's the
best place to cross on a good day. Looks like it'll
be the hill. We got all the vehicles ahead of Lewis'
Jeep since there's no way to pass in the woods on this
steep hill. |
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| So for the next hour and a half we worked our way up the long
steep hill winching from tree to tree assisting in 2wd as best as
could be expected. The odd thing was the Jeep wasn't quite running
right today. We later discovered why. |
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