COMPLETED: WHAT NOT TO DO! (Pinyon Mt)

[DirtyBacon04]

Well, i guess Roadie was waiting for me to admit to my own mistakes on here.
SO here it goes. I woke up at 11am and didnt want to waste the day. So I figured a nice easy trip down the backcountry roads would be a good use of the day. So as I'm driving around past Julien, CA i remember there is a nice trail not far. So as i'm going down the trail i'm mentally telling myself all the shit i'm doing wrong here. A)Told no body where I was going. B) I went alone. C)Did not have proper recovery gear. D)Did not bring food or water. E) Attemped obstacles WAY beyond my ablilities. and F) I went unarmed. I'm admitting all this to myself but i figure the risk is low for the trail and plan in mind. I was planning on driving to the "Squeeze" take some pics/measurment and turn around. Well, I cant seem to bring myself to NOT try an obstacle at least once. So I went through the squeeze almost flawlessly. Minor scratching on the driver/pass door. Proud of myself for my accomplishments (as evident in the video), I continued down the trail just to find out that it gets 5x worse. Way beyond an obstacle that I even want to attempt. (The shattered glass and mirrors on the ground was an effective deterrent). So i turn around just to find out that my open diff and lack of winch prevent me from getting UP the squeeze... UH OH! I fidget around for about 3 hours and after sunset. Finally i give up and I can only think of one person with the resources and the "know what its like" to come get me. I summon the Roadiemobile. BUT i have no signal on my cell phone. I pack up my flight bag, which happened to be in the back of my truck, with the limited food i had. Grab my flashlight and extra batteries. Throw on my light flight jacket and head on down the trail in search of cell reception. (FYI the distance from the squeeze to the highway is 7 miles) I walk about 45 min before i can get in contact with Roadie. He says its going to be at least 4 hours before he can get the truck reassembled, packed up, and arrive. Long story shorter... I hike down to the highway (7 miles) left chem sticks in the direction i was headed, then walked all the way back to the spot where I had cell reception (another 4 miles). Its 24 degrees at this point, im walking through the desert, at night, by myself. Luckily the moon was full so i could save my flashlight batteries. Had a fashioned up spear incase of coyote/mt lion attack. Then i made a survival fire and tried to keep warm while awaiting rescue.
I started walking away from my truck at 6:40pm. I finally see the Roadiemobile at around midnight. I tell you, I had never been so happy to see Bill. Seeing his assortment of lights in the distance instantly comforted me. Once we get situated at the squeeze, it only took about 45 min to get me out. Significant body damage on the driver side rear qtr panel.
I guess the moral of the story is if you know what your doing is wrong... dont do it. In the words of Roadie, "It's okay to shake your fist and say 'Ill be back!'"
Here are the pics/video.

Started off all calm and scenic!



Arrived at the squeeze


The video of the descent


Then the pics of my failed drive up




The resulting damage after recovery


Small price to pay for valuable lesson learned.

And I belive Bill has more pics of the recovery process.

[bartonmd]

Wow, man! Glad you made it out OK!

Live and learn! You aren't the only one, for sure! Kyle and I, I know, just don't have recent stories like this... because we did our main F-ups like this, and like Bill's first "getting stuck by himself" when we were 16-18...

Thanks for manning up and telling all of us about your mistakes, for all of us to learn from!

Mike

[TSAdventurez]

I had a similar accident with my friends Tacoma. We had ventured off the main trail deeper into the woods with no supply's one truck and I had sandles on. We got stuck in a deep hole the constancy of jello and i had to walk 5 miles bare foot before I found anybody to come get us out. Its experiences like these that keep us from making even worse mistakes in the future. I now carry the gear with me at all times to do a self recovery. Btw I like ur lil celebration once you made it through

[steveroche]

Glad you were able to make it out ok. Damage doesn't look bad at all...I've got the same exact dent minus the scratches on my passenger rear door/quarter panel...sorta gotten used to it by now.

[The Roadie]

My camera is in work, so I can't post until later. And the extraction was really about 2 hours + including packup. But Michael has no idea how much more difficult his night could have been. I've been working 12-14 hours a day on a late and high profile project at work. So hot that the CEO is demanding daily progress reports of the six folks on the team. From the project architect (me). And my Mom's been in and out of the hospital in Massachusetts and I just paid my brother's way out from Wisconsin to help her out because he was closer and had the time but no money. The stress finally got to me and I stayed in bed Thursday with a massive headache, and had to sneak my wife's migraine meds to get some rest. And by 5-6, I was feeling good enough to get out of bed and considered opening some wine but the meds precluded that. But the thread isn't about me.

Then Michael called.

There was no question I had the minimum amount of gear for his situation and knew the exact location because I've researched this trail for years, talked to folks who have gone through, and decided it's not worth the risk for me personally. Teebes was even on the trail once with his bike on a search team looking for the body of a teenager in this incident:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010 ... rt-search/

But there was also no question I had get him. Many folks have helped me, and all I can do it pay it forward. As I told Michael when I got there, first let's get you out, then I can berate you. And berate myself for not effectively inoculating him from the lure of the unconquered challenge. Actually, I said "beat", but what chance does a 59 year old fluffy guy have against a wiry young Marine?

I hadn't driven the Roadiemobile since getting back from Vegas, and partially repairing it from the wheel hub carnage. I had given up on the rainy day Michael came over to install his new rims and spacers. So I had to finish the brake pad and rotor install on the side that didn't need a wheel hub, then pack food/water/clothes as if *I* was about to get stuck overnight and have to stay until daylight and see if we needed more gear for the extraction. Knowing if I wasn't back at work by 9 there would be hell to pay from both levels of management above me.

Got on the road, two hours to the location, cost Michael 45 minutes by overshooting the turnoff in the dark and not figuring it out for a while. Felt guilty for that. It was cold, but not windy. Thank goodness. As long as Micheal was able to get back to the vehicle, I wouldn't have to call out the rangers, although I had set up my SPOT beacon to leave a bread crumb trail in case. And I had left a flight plan with two friends and with ORTB here.

Met Michael on the trail, got him some vehicle warmth and water to suck down. Back to his vehicle for the recovery. With only OEM tow hooks on the front for recovery, I was skeptical of breaking them if we only used one. Used my shorter tree saver strap around both of them as a yoke. Was too short, increased the force, and the strap had a nick anyway. It broke. Not willing to use chains. Next tried the wide Wheeler's Offroad strap I got from Johnny, even though it was a recovery strap and therefore stretchy, I thought it was wide enough that 5000-6000 pounds force from my 9000 lb winch would not stretch it too much. Winch ratings are for the smallest layer on the spool anyway, and he was within 60 feet of there I could get a good footing, so that was going to work.

Then it was straight winching. Except: I didn't have a good way to hold all four brakes on the Roadiemobile unless I kludged up a stick. But brakes on sand aren't a good winch platform anyway. While Michael prepared his truck for movement I tried to plan a way to brace myself from being pulled forward, but I had neglected to pack the Pull-pal. But there were dozens of huge boulders to tie myself to, if only I had another of the wide Wheeler's straps. But no. (Johnny, you're going to get another order.) So I found a couple of big rocks to park my front tires on that, combined with a down-angle of the pull, would tend to force me into the rocks tightly and not let me roll up and over them. That tactic worked. SO I started pulling, and stalled the winch and started to move the rocks I was on.

Michael correctly identified the too-steep rise in front of his driver's side tire, and asked if I had my bridging ladders. Of course! He arranged them in two layers, since we only needed 3 ft of ramp built, but it would be dumb to let one piece of grating break with the other one not being used, so he layered them. Not an ideal angle for the pull, but if the ramp slipped I'd be pulling him on his frame or the rocker panels, and I figured he needed some "encouragement" to get rock sliders anyway. The pull went OK, 6 inches at a time, with some jamming because the driver's side tire sidewalls were being used as rock sliders, but the wall was relatively smooth from years of use and weathering, so we didn't have to put down rub material like blankets on the walls. That was a possible enhancement we could have done. His rear wheel well sheet metal took some rubbing, but that's actually an amazingly low amount of damage for a transit through the squeeze without having 1-2 extra people to push on the body as somebody goes through. Except for narrowbodies, NOBODY gets through the squeeze scot-free. So then we're out of the worst part, and Michael only needs a strap assist twice more on relatively flat parts, but a combination of sand and rocks, to make up for the lack of a G80.

Michael's video of descending the squeeze makes it look deceptively easy, although the rock ramp and the side walls have been changed over the years since I saw it first.

Two reasons I would never go through the squeeze alone are:

It's one-way. Nobody except 35"+ Jeeps that don't touch the sidewalls can get back up it without being winched. Nowadays I could self-winch up it, given the number of good boulders to tie to. But there would be no purpose.

If you continue to the east to get out, it gets worse. The worst obstacle is named Heart Attack Hill for a bloody good reason. People die here. Rollovers are common. Folks need strap assists to keep from rolling over. They need experienced spotters, experienced drivers taking spotting directions and descending steep moguls, and effective communication.

An example where the driver got a broken back and had to be airlifted:





It could have ended so poorly. You're one lucky duck, Michael. Use this to inform every future decision you make and you will have a much better relationship with the trails.

I will post up later on the improvements Michael and I could BOTH make in our decision-making.

[HARDTRAILZ]

Well Done on the recovery. As Mike said, I have plenty of dumb stuck stories, but it was before i even had a cell phone to take pics and most printed pics have dissappeared over the years.

Glad everyone was OK!

[djthumper]

I am glad you are both ok and the rescue went good. If I were closer I would have made the trip with you Bill.

I guess you can say the roadie saved your bacon... dirty as it may be. HEHEHE

[fishsticks]

I would be lying if I didn't think a bit (and get a little intrigued) about packing up the TB and heading down for a LONG ass recovery trip if neither of you reported in.

I would have needed to pick up an intermediate shaft along the way.

Speaking of which, I owe Mike some monies...

[Trail X]

Glad everything turned out well, guys.

Could have had a different ending if Michael didn't keep his head about him and let his survival skills kick in.

Bill, the one question I do have. Would it have been better to wait until sun-up to go rescue him? He could have waited in the safety of his vehicle until morning, and you probably would have encountered less risk of your own.

I've seen that heart-attack hill video before. I think we have a thread here about it. But wow - talk about what NOT to do when spotting someone. Maybe we need to make an article about proper spotting.

[The Roadie]

...Would it have been better to wait until sun-up to go rescue him? He could have waited in the safety of his vehicle until morning, and you probably would have encountered less risk of your own....

Indeed. Less risk all around except to my job. My CEO would have come down on me like a ton of bricks and I would have been working all weekend to make up for it. Oh, wait. I am ALREADY working all weekend to try to make up for the general lateness on the project! Working for 4 months steady 10-14 hour days and two systems MUST ship in five days or else the customer has to go back and get 2012 FY funding and loses 2011 money. I didn't get to set the insane schedule - the CEO's buddy the sales VP did. When they first told me what they had sold I said "there's six people for a year." As if they listen to me.

[The Roadie]

Sorry for the delay. Pesky job, you know.

Past the Squeeze:



Setting up with the too-short strap



Line run with blanket for a safety break device



Braced with rocks in front of tires



Suitable Johnny Strap in use



No pics during the pull. Aftermath carnage



Better pic



Not JUST a rescue, but a CATERED rescue.

[dirty anton]

(heart attack hill) the driver seemed to be doing ok till the spotter re-directed. man that jeep flipping put a pitt in my stomach!

[Trail X]

Nice recovery Bill. Did you notice having the dynamic strap inline? I can imagine in some ways it helping, but in many others it could make the recovery less controlled.

[The Roadie]

I used the wider one of the two I carry hoping it was less stretchy, and it was just what I was looking for. In a triangle, I could still almost stall the winch and it only stretched 2-3".

[v7guy]

That looks TIGHT. I'll give it to Micheal, he's got some balls. I wouldn't have tried it.

Glad you guys made out ok.

Thanks for sharing too, guys need to share their epic fails so we can have a frequent reminder of how bad things can really go.

[bdp1978]

Thanks for sharing too, guys need to share their epic fails so we can have a frequent reminder of how bad things can really go.

Arent those what Fishsticks trail reports are for?? J/K - those are the "Epic Breakage Carnage Reports"

[fishsticks]

Thanks for sharing too, guys need to share their epic fails so we can have a frequent reminder of how bad things can really go.

Arent those what Fishsticks trail reports are for?? J/K - those are the "Epic Breakage Carnage Reports"

Ouch.

[The Roadie]

[DirtyBacon04]

To this trip, all I have to say is a quote from JFK.

"Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly."
-John F. Kennedy