We started on a Sunday, made it about a half mile down the river when we encountered bad ice. I put a foot through, so, since it was late anyway (it was a slow start), we decided to set up camp there. Then Matt fell through nearly completely while scouting just ahead.
That night we got down to 16 below zero (F). That was just a little too cold for some of the group. You have to have a little body fat on you to enjoy winter camping. We decided to abandon that route, return to town, and re-evaluate the situation (a warm front was due in).
When we got to the vehicles we packed up, and started to turn the vehicles around. Allen's truck slid off the road into deep(er) snow. Matt went for help. He convinced a tow truck driver (no small task in itself) to drive down the snowed-in 4W-drive road. As it was, the tow truck driver had to winch himself out when he turned around.
It all ended happily, and we tipped the driver pretty well. The MORAL of the story is that 4WD is useless unless you have a winch in front & back of your vehilcle, and a lot of cable. Then you can get out of anything.
This short trip was still fun, though it was a learning experience for some. One interesting point is that when we went in we were paving new tracks on virgin snow. When we left the next day there were wolf tracks in the path we'd paved. There were two or three wolves, and they'd walked past us by no more than twenty feet or so. It was pretty neat.
Packing.
A nice start down a nice trail.
Bad ice.
Matt's Folly.
People discovering that camp fires don't help much in the winter. :-)
Matt's Folly next day.
Allen's Folly (The *TOW* truck even got stuck here!)
|
Go back to Mellman's home page.
|
Go back to Mellman's personal page |
|
I do all of the work on my web pages on my own time. Everything on my personal web pages is my own opinion, and not necessarily that of my employers. |
|
|
Bill Mellman, email me from this form |
Last update: July 2, 2005 |