Good Ground??

[rustytracks]

I learned to not trust my buddy when he gets out and says "That's good ground PaPa".... The last time he said that we were stuck at the bottom of a cliff for 9 hours trying to get out and had to walk out about a mile and find help. Could not go anymore the other direction because of the dead end to a serious drop off into a creek below. I do the checking now to see if there is any bottom to the mud and ruts. You may can get down the hills, but it's the coming back up and out that can be the most important part, if that is the only way out. Especially if you are not equipped for the worst and we just happened to not be that rainy day. That's is a another lesson in itself - always be equiped for the worst.

Doug

[MoparNorm]

One of the first and most basic rules of off-roading is:
Never travel DOWN a trail or obstacle that you cannot get back UP. It may be a one-way or dead-end trail and you may be there a while....

[Jake]

On the other hand there is no teacher like experience.

[rustytracks]

One of the first and most basic rules of off-roading is:
Never travel DOWN a trail or obstacle that you cannot get back UP. It may be a one-way or dead-end trail and you may be there a while....

That's why I like to be in control, to keep out of those situations from inexperienced people. I told him not to go down there but he did not listen. We mostly go out now with 4-wheelers on these OHV trails around TN and the hunting camps.

[MoparNorm]

I routinely lead groups of 6-10 vehicles, it's my way or the highway. Democracies are for cities.....= )

[JimmieD]

Habit I got into a long time ago: stop, get out & walk it, come back and drive, and the same over and over again until I'm where I want to be. Things can look entirely different from the ground, and somethimes it sure helps to check around that next blind bend in the mountains. Matter of fact, it can save your life....!

[pwdave]

Herb's wisdom.

in 1978 I was working in a small steel mill in ky. we had just come thru the worst winter our area had ever had, and my 6 mo.s pregant wife had been thru a harrowing experience at home while I was at work. (power out, 20+ inches of snow,17 below zero) 62 rambler, 76 dodge RT wind 20+) you see where this is leading. in the spring I promised my wife that it wouldn't happen again. a very close friend that I worked with said he would help me shop for a 4x4 truck. for about three weeks we ran all over a three county area looking for a deal. several gm dealers had trucks that were made from some kind of unknown precious metal. the ford dealers apparently were selling trucks hand over fist because in two places the salesmen wouldn't even come out from their cubiciles to talk to us. the dodge dealer we went to gave us a truck to take out and drive.(still ice&snow on the ground) so that narrowed the brand down to one. ended with a new dodge power wagon, ordered with a 360,sure grip,short narrow bed, rubber mats,no air,no radio. until I got my F.F. it was the best 4 by I've ever owned. Herb and I went out and he taught me many things about 4 wheel drive trucks over the next several months. the thing he told me after my training was over was this, there are places you go fast, there are places you go slow, and there are places where you don't go! if you are not sure, get out and look, poke at it with a stick, see if there is a bottom, there may not be. ALWAYS carry a shovel in your truck. this advice has served me very well since 1978. Herb was my friend, mentor, second dad, and was always ready to give me help or advice. I miss you Herb. PWdave

[maineSS]

Years ago I went on an early spring canoe trip down the Union River with some fellow UMO students. We rented two canoes from the University, and drove down some dirt roads til we came to a steep downhill pitch that led to a lake and the headwaters of the river. We decided (fortunately) to walk down to see how the land lay, even though there were fresh tire tracks headed down. The road was so steep you almost had to lean backwards, and was rutted and crossed by washouts. At the bottom was a yellow full-size Ford station wagon, parked in a clearing about its own length with UMO canoe racks attached. The lake was still iced up- this was late April. We went back up and hauled our canoes down to the river banks and shoved off, seeing no sign of the Fordsters.

The water was very high, and the canoe I was in swamped in a two-part set of rips. My sternman was able to almost step out to shore, but I ended up leading the swamped canoe thru the rapids. I came very close to drowning, and if I haden't had a helmet on, my head would've dented like a tin can. My knees and elbows got beat up real good. Fortunately the other group had pulled to shore just before the second set of rips, and they tossed me a line I just barely managed to catch. I instantly submerged, rolled across the river bottom, and came up on their side. The swamped canoe got wrapped around a rock and turned inside out. We lined the other one thru, then managed to get mine off the rock. Fortunately it was ABS plastic, so it popped back into a canoe-like shape after we jumped up and down in it several times. It paddled like a twisted banana, but we made it to our haul-out point right side up. The other group arrived before us, and left their canoe on the bank to drive back and get the car we'd left at our starting point. We arrived in time to see their canoe departing on a pickup truck. A female game warden with a coal-black German Shepard just happened to drive up, and they were soon in pursuit of the canoe pirates. They caught them, and returned the canoe, which was good, because us poor studes would have been buying UMO a new canoe. Mine got fixed over the weekend in the Frat house with a heat lamp and some new gunwale pieces (we had a connection at the Old Town Canoe factory, where UMO got their rental canoes). We never did find out where the Fordsters went, or if they ever retrieved the wagon- They certainly weren't driving BACK up that slope! Since that trip, I've always scouted unfamiliar terrain or rapids BEFORE pressing on- it does save time and money in the end!