I fired up the Scout and headed towards County Market.. dropped a DVD off at Hastings, drove across the street to Cenex for gas.. noticed Ryan was already waiting in his FJ40. I then hit McDonalds (surprise! there was no line??!!) and hiked over to County Market for lunch stuffs... while we waited for the others to show.

I heard over the CB that Mike n' Loretta had shown up.. I looked across the street to the Cenex station to see a blue Bronco.. Did Mike get a new tub?.. then I saw Mike's yellow '74.. with the hood up! He'd blown an upper radiator hose! I quickly grabbed my camera to snap a shot.. I already had the caption, "He hasn't even made it to the parking lot, and Mike's broke.." but apparently I hadn't advanced the film far enough.. drat it!

We gathered about in the County Market parking lot and gabbed for a bit.. and pondered on where to go. Don Gordon was a no-show.. he had some Land Use things to attend to, so it looked like it'd just be the four of us...

After some chat, we decided we'd try to make our way over the trail that runs behind Marysville. We fired up the 4x4s and headed out Birdseye Road, hit Lincoln Road, then headed west and made the turn by the Silver City Bar and headed towards the ski hill and Marysville.

We reached the turn off from the plowed ski road to the trail we were after. Mike turned off the road, crashed the snow drift, and motored right up the trail, radioing back that the road was "fun."

Ryan was second in line and had a hard time getting the open/open LandCruiser over the big snow drift.. after a few tries he finally managed to bust over the drift and make some forward progress and started up the hill.

I put my Scout into 4-low, turned the wheel, and drove over the snow drift and up the hill after a little bit of sliding.. I was in 1st gear - too low for the snow, and the locker pushed me a bit out of the direction I wanted to go, but I made the turn and headed up the hill.. and watched as Nate's Bronco revved up and powered it's way up the snowy climb.

We motored along for a bit.. the road was rutted, and it was certainly "fun." We were all bouncing and hopping along as we rolled into one dip and out the next. Ryan stopped ahead of me, momentarily stuck. He took the opportunity to air down and I got my tires somewhat aired down. Ryan motored on, and Nate n' I followed.

I was having a hard time keeping the Scout going straight. The front Lockright combined with power steering makes snow driving a bit interesting with the limited feedback you get from the steering wheel. Before I knew it, I had been sucked into the ditch on the side of the road. I tried more throttle and cranked the wheel hard, but it was too late. Nate followed me right in.

Too deep for 33s!Nate's stuck, too

I started shoveling my way out. Nate and I shoveled and tried working ourselves out while we waited for Mike to come back and help.. finally Mike pulled up with his 8274 at the ready.

C'mon, Mike, I need a tow!Hmmm.. is the Bronco winching me out, or am I winching the Bronco in?
Finally, I'm free! I pulled forward close to Mike, and we used the same winch line and snatch block..To pull Nate out

I took the opportunity shortly thereafter to air down some more.. I hadn't hit the 12psi I was aiming for.. and I probably should've gone lower. I have run 10psi in the snow before and it works pretty well.

We then pulled forward to find Ryan stuck in the snow and about to run his winch cable out again...

naturally, Mike decided he'd just drive around Ryan and give him a tug from the front...

He made it around.. only to get stuck a little farther ahead. Yep, the Bronco was buried!

It was somewhere around here that Ryan's winch puked it's front driveshaft out. He was reeling the cable in and trying to pull it back before Mike ran over the cable.. Bronco tire ran over cable, shock load, and out came the driveshaft.. spit.


Mike reviews the situation.

Mike worked the Bronco out of it's stuck.. and hooked the strap up to Ryan's FJ. He worked the little Bronco about a for a bit and gave Ryan a tug or two..

Mike pullin' on the FJ
Mike got the Bronco stuck. Good.Look at 'im, Hammin' it up.. have you ever seen someone so stuck yet so happy?

Well, with the Bronco stuck, the LandCruiser stuck, and Nate running on 31s and open diffs, who do you think had to come to the rescue?

I pulled up behind Mike and put the strap on him..and gave him a tug backwards.. which was all the little Bronco needed.
It was about this time we decided we were not going to make it over the top today.. so we started to turn around. Mike played around in the snow working the Bronco about. I was between Mike and Ryan, so I turned around first.. right between the two of 'em. I worked the Scout back and forth on the narrow road shelf a few times... then fell off one side. Everyone thought I was good n' stuck (including me) but I managed to rock the Scout a little.. and drive farther off the road bed and into the deeper snow, but enough to get a little run backwards and get myself back up onto the harder stuff and make my multi-point U-turn. I then drove behind Ryan and put a strap on him to pull the FJ out of the deep stuff he was stuck in.

One tug..>Another tug!
I kept digging myself holes and not geting enough traction and umph into the tow.. and got myself stuck a few times, which required everyone to lean and pull on the tow strap to get me moved far enough that I could reposition myself. Finally we decided to try a longer strap which would give me a better spot to pull from. I drove too far forward and found that soft stuff on the side of the trail again....


And buried my Scout! Ooops!

Mike pulled out his 8274 and extracted himself from the snow, and then turned his attention to getting me out of the hole I'd dug. The little Bronco just couldn't pull me out.. and the 8274 puked while trying! At first we thought the winch had died.. but we later determined that from so much winching the battery had never caught up, and we lacked the power to use the winch.

After attempting to extract me and failing, Mike decided to work on getting Ryan unstuck. Meanwhile, I used a come-along and my Hi-Lift and shovels to extract my Scout. We Hi-Lifted the driver's front corner off the ground and filled the hole with snow, and then used the come-along to pull the Scout sideways. Around the same time, Mike's Bronco died with a dead battery.. which is when we found the reason why the winch had failed to work. A quick battery swap from Nate's Bronco had the yellow '74 roaring again.

Mike pulling Ryan outI'm buried.. and so is Nate in front of me!

Mike finally came back to rescue me and hooked the strap up and gave me a few tugs and I was free.. after all of the Hi-Lifting, shoveling, and Come-alonging.

A stuck Scout n' Bronco ahead!You can't see the hole, but my 33 was buried just a moment ago..

With everyone turned around and extracted, we headed for home. As we approached the very drifted cattle guard, I radieoed, "So, do we jump the cattle guard?" The reply was, "Wait, give me your camera!" I backed up to the Kelly's Bronco and Loretta took my camera to the front of the cattle guard. Nate's passenger Steve ran ahead with a camera, too. I jumped on the gas and did my best to catch some air over the big drift. I didn't land hard, and I don't think I had quite enough speed. When I landed I fishtailed a little bit as I got on the brakes. Unfortunately, I had just put a roll of film in, and it seems I didn't advance it enough (again!) and Loretta didn't get a pic of me jumping! Mike was second in line and he flew over the drift and looked good doing it. I have half of a picture of that..

Then it was Nate's turn to catch a little air...

You can see just a little bit of air under the passenger front tire. Nate pushed the binders a little hard (he didn't want to plow into Mike n' I) and slid off into the soft snow on the side of the road.. meanwhile, Ryan started over. I waved Ryan back, so he could wait for us to clear out.. he shook his head.. like he didn't wnat to jump it.. and instead, slowly drove over the cattle guard and buried the LandCruiser! I laughed.


We then turned our attention to Nate's Bronco.. sitting on the side of the trail.

As much as Mike tried, he had a heck of a time getting Nate's Bronco to NOT roll off the edge. We moved a good ways down the trail before the Bronco finally pulled back onto the road.

We drove to the bottom of the trail. Well, almost. I saw a side-road that I pulled up onto, then Mike followed, and we let Nate go by.. then Mike backed out and headed back up the road to help Ryan out of the snow drift he was still stuck in.

Mike coming back

We decided to try heading up the side trail.. Ryan opted to head home and let his friend warm his toes. That put me at the lead! So I turned the Scout back towards the side trail and had a heck of a time getting back on the trail. I kept sliding off and getting the Scout a bit off-camber each time i slid off the shelf and back down. I worked at it for a bit, but finally got myself a bit buried.. and I threw a power steering belt at the same time. Out came the toolboxes!

I'm so twisted, I opened the tailgate and it hit the ground! I'm saying goodbye as Ryan drives past The front view of the Scout, tipping towards the passenger side
Passenger side viewTom under the hood, putting on the new belt
After I put the power steering belt back on, Loretta came down the trail to tell us it was posted no motorized a bit farther up. No go. :-( Of course, I was still stuck. Nate put his Bronco on the end of a strap and gave me several tugs. I hung my head out the window with my arms open and made a gesture like, "c'mon, pull me!".. since I didn't feel a thing. We had to use the Hi-Lift to jack the back of the Scout up.. the bumper was a bit buried in the snow. When I lifted the rear end up, there was a perfect copy of my gas tank embedded in the snow.

Finally Nate yanked me off the snow pile I was on, and we headed down to the trailhead, blasted the snow drift, and dodged the skiiers headed home. We pulled off at Montana Al's in Silver City for an early dinner and some pool...

On an "L" shaped pool table!

We enjoyed our dinner, shot some pool, and then headed home to relax!

Another great day of wheelin' fun!

-Tom
More Trail Rides
Copyright 1999, Tom Mandera, TMComputers