Let me start by saying... it wasn't my fault. :)
Gotta love when you have to start off a story that way. Soooo...anyway, I was trying to go from Point A to Point B on the forest the other day, that wonderful 1.6 million acre forest of mine mind you. There are two routes that take me to my final destination. One route is the paved route, that takes you 61 miles along the highway and skirts around the forest. It is also a road I have traveled a dozen times.
....OR....
I could opt for the other route which is only 44 miles along
a sometimes unimproved dirt road. It passes through some of the most beautiful
country in all of North America but travel is often slow and bumpy.
There really was no decision to be made.
This is where it gets fun.
When I left the Jemez Ranger Station there were bright blue skies so I decided to take the top down on the jeep and enjoy the Rocky Mountain sunshine. Though the homestead was experiencing 90° weather since I was at 7,000 foot elevation it was only in the low 80s. In other words, the weather was perfect!
As I snaked along the road less traveled, I took a slight detour along a parallel road just to see what I could see. Only having a road map with me I could not see the contours of the terrain. This road decided to climb.
Before long I was just over 9,000 feet and the vistas were
incredible. The one thing that was concerning me however, was a small dark
cloud that hovered near the top. Low and behold as I crested the ridge the
thunder rolled...but it was unlike any thunder that I usually hear. This
thunder surrounded me. There was no direction. I was in the cloud that was now
growing angry.
Needless to say it was thunder's counterpart, "lightning" that concerned me most. As if not to be outdone, hail soon joined the party uninvited. I had to make a mad dash to the overhead cover of a fir tree so I could get the top up on the jeep and save my arms from the pea-sized hail. Fortunately it was nowhere near as bad as my previous golfball-hail episode. Needless to say I was in bad straights and had to get off the mountain quickly.
A quick look at the road map directed me to make my next left to make a beeline to the main dirt highway, one that I knew to be much lower in elevation.
Well, guess what? Hail turned into torrent rain.
All from one measly little black cloud.
The crazy thing was I saw a blue skies in every direction just a few miles away.
Well my spidey-senses should've kicked into overdrive when
that little left-hand turn was marked by a "Unimproved Road Ahead - Travel
at Own Risk. Good thing was it was only about 3 miles to the main dirt road.
Fortunately, after about 10 minutes, the rain had stopped but everything was soaked. Especially the road. No longer was it dirt, rather it was now the consistency of a muddy soup.
The first obstacle should have gave me pause. The wheels sank and the road scraped the undercarriage but the four-wheel-drive kept plodding through and I emerged unscathed...muddy as all get out...but unscathed.
Let me just say the next two miles totally sucked. I had to get out and walk a few hundred yards to scope out each mud pit and map my hopeful trajectory. There were pits and ruts that if I fell into, I simply was not getting out. Also, each trek outside the jeep added layers of mud on my hiking boots. It literally felt like I was walking with 50 pound weights on each foot. Needless to say the carpets within the jeep weren't too happy.
After an hour and a half I had only traversed two miles but I was still moving and I only had the last half-mile before me...the steep muddy downhill.
I found a level spot, parked the jeep and committed to my routine of scouting my path before making the pass with the jeep. It didn't look good.
The road was so slick I had trouble walking on it. I literally couldn't stand still without sliding down the hill. What made matters worse was there was a deep trench on the right-hand side of the road, at least two feet deep, enough to trap the jeep tires. To add insult to injury besides the steep downhill, the road slanted to the right drawing everything into the trench.
And there was absolutely no going back. I had to give it a go.
I had to have all four wheels moving while keeping the tires pointed left, toward the upward side of the slanting road.
Yeah... that worked real well. {{{rolling eyes}}}
It's also why I'm writing the story.
The jeep got sucked towards the trench. Even though all four wheels were spinning they were simply sliding tractionless on the mud and gravity was taking me down. Fortunately I hit the top of the trench and came to a stop.
After assessing the situation I realized that any slight attempt by me to move the jeep would send it deeper and deeper into the trench.
Did I mention this forest is 1.6 MILLION acres?
I slugged the last of my water and began sliding downhill on foot.
Fortunately the main dirt road was only about a half mile away. It too was a mud bath and there were no fresh tracks, nor did I think there would be. This 44-mile stretch of road doesn't get much traffic even in-mid summer. So the walk began.
As luck would have it, I encountered the house of a homesteader off in the distance. And yes, there were telephone lines running to it.
All I want to say is Carolyn was a godsend. She gave me a ride to the district office where I was offered assistance by one of our fire crews. A few hours later, three trucks made their way up the hill to help extricate my jeep from its precarious situation. And yes, even some of the heavy-duty trucks needed help making it through that pass.
After about a six hour ordeal, I had all four wheels back on
solid ground.
Lesson One: Weather can change on a dime in the Rockies.
Lesson Two: I really need to stay away from these Point A to Point B exercises!
I so love my job!
Gotta love when you have to start off a story that way. Soooo...anyway, I was trying to go from Point A to Point B on the forest the other day, that wonderful 1.6 million acre forest of mine mind you. There are two routes that take me to my final destination. One route is the paved route, that takes you 61 miles along the highway and skirts around the forest. It is also a road I have traveled a dozen times.
....OR....
There really was no decision to be made.
This is where it gets fun.
When I left the Jemez Ranger Station there were bright blue skies so I decided to take the top down on the jeep and enjoy the Rocky Mountain sunshine. Though the homestead was experiencing 90° weather since I was at 7,000 foot elevation it was only in the low 80s. In other words, the weather was perfect!
As I snaked along the road less traveled, I took a slight detour along a parallel road just to see what I could see. Only having a road map with me I could not see the contours of the terrain. This road decided to climb.
Needless to say it was thunder's counterpart, "lightning" that concerned me most. As if not to be outdone, hail soon joined the party uninvited. I had to make a mad dash to the overhead cover of a fir tree so I could get the top up on the jeep and save my arms from the pea-sized hail. Fortunately it was nowhere near as bad as my previous golfball-hail episode. Needless to say I was in bad straights and had to get off the mountain quickly.
A quick look at the road map directed me to make my next left to make a beeline to the main dirt highway, one that I knew to be much lower in elevation.
Well, guess what? Hail turned into torrent rain.
All from one measly little black cloud.
The crazy thing was I saw a blue skies in every direction just a few miles away.
Fortunately, after about 10 minutes, the rain had stopped but everything was soaked. Especially the road. No longer was it dirt, rather it was now the consistency of a muddy soup.
The first obstacle should have gave me pause. The wheels sank and the road scraped the undercarriage but the four-wheel-drive kept plodding through and I emerged unscathed...muddy as all get out...but unscathed.
Let me just say the next two miles totally sucked. I had to get out and walk a few hundred yards to scope out each mud pit and map my hopeful trajectory. There were pits and ruts that if I fell into, I simply was not getting out. Also, each trek outside the jeep added layers of mud on my hiking boots. It literally felt like I was walking with 50 pound weights on each foot. Needless to say the carpets within the jeep weren't too happy.
After an hour and a half I had only traversed two miles but I was still moving and I only had the last half-mile before me...the steep muddy downhill.
I found a level spot, parked the jeep and committed to my routine of scouting my path before making the pass with the jeep. It didn't look good.
The road was so slick I had trouble walking on it. I literally couldn't stand still without sliding down the hill. What made matters worse was there was a deep trench on the right-hand side of the road, at least two feet deep, enough to trap the jeep tires. To add insult to injury besides the steep downhill, the road slanted to the right drawing everything into the trench.
And there was absolutely no going back. I had to give it a go.
I had to have all four wheels moving while keeping the tires pointed left, toward the upward side of the slanting road.
It's also why I'm writing the story.
The jeep got sucked towards the trench. Even though all four wheels were spinning they were simply sliding tractionless on the mud and gravity was taking me down. Fortunately I hit the top of the trench and came to a stop.
After assessing the situation I realized that any slight attempt by me to move the jeep would send it deeper and deeper into the trench.
Did I mention this forest is 1.6 MILLION acres?
I slugged the last of my water and began sliding downhill on foot.
Fortunately the main dirt road was only about a half mile away. It too was a mud bath and there were no fresh tracks, nor did I think there would be. This 44-mile stretch of road doesn't get much traffic even in-mid summer. So the walk began.
As luck would have it, I encountered the house of a homesteader off in the distance. And yes, there were telephone lines running to it.
All I want to say is Carolyn was a godsend. She gave me a ride to the district office where I was offered assistance by one of our fire crews. A few hours later, three trucks made their way up the hill to help extricate my jeep from its precarious situation. And yes, even some of the heavy-duty trucks needed help making it through that pass.
Lesson One: Weather can change on a dime in the Rockies.
Lesson Two: I really need to stay away from these Point A to Point B exercises!
I so love my job!
No comments:
Post a Comment