Lessons Learned "Can you get to your Gear?"

[1leglance]

I hope to distill the recent Continental Divide Expedition into a series of Lessons Learned so others can get something from the experience also.
Here is #1 "Can you get to your Gear?"
http://disabledexplorers.com/images/stories/CDE/lessons/gear/getgearcreek.jpg
If you don't want this to be you, trying to get your recovery gear out of that tight spot your stored it, while keeping the rest of your stuff from falling into the mud then take a moment to listen to the lessons I've learned.
To find out more read the rest on our site, click here (http://disabledexplorers.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=64&Itemid=52)

[JackSilb]

Nice. Nothing life real life experience.

Let me get to info from your link.


Really nice. What an adventure. So happy your guys managed to make this happen.
Thanks,
-JACK

[David A. Wright]

Here's my "oops!" At 11,000 feet.

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/share/oct08/oops.jpg

Near Coyote Flats, Sierra Nevada west of my former home of Big Pine, California.

I was coming down a steep hill along a steep and narrow trail on a steep hillside on Coyote Ridge. A group of 4x4s were coming up. I could see them for some distance and they could see me. I thought that maybe they'd do the courteous thing and stay put in a wide junction of two roads on more level ground down where they were (there was no place for me to back up to to get off the trail for a half mile). They didn't but kept on coming up. Nowhere to get off the road for any of us, except to stuff my truck up the uphill side. So I did and it was a hard stuffing, rear locker engaged with lots of soft dirt, sagebrush and rocks. They went by; I tried to back down and ended up getting hung up on a large rock, inflicting under cab body damage.

Those guys didn't even wave in appreciation as they passed by, they just went on by as if I wasn't there. I saw no one even look my way (I wasn't that far off the road, as my rear bumper was probably only three feet off the edge of the trail). Not only that, but I started to come off just as the last guy passed. He saw my plight and kept going, I could see him looking at me out his rear window. He hesitated, but then gassed it out of there and dissappeared up the trail to rejoin his buddies.

Trying to extract my truck off the rock, the embankment along the side of the road gave way, putting my truck up on three wheels and teetering. My wife, fortunately had already gotten out before I tried to get back on the trail and was still outside the truck, but she was in a panic and near the point of screaming when she saw the Tacoma go way over, then slowy come back. But it was still very unsteady and slowly teetered from side to side. I opened the door (very difficult due to the weight of the door and the angle of the truck) and stood hanging out (holding onto the door) to counterweight the truck to keep it from flopping over on its side in the middle of the trail.

It's hard to tell in this photo. But my feet, appearing as if they are just touching the ground, are actually about two feet above it. The road is also very steep, and I was going downhill before this happened. So I was in quite a precarious situation.

Now what? No one was around. If I got out of my truck, it would likely flop over on its side. I couldn't assess how my truck was positioned and make an escape plan since I couldn't get out and look the situation over. I was simply stuck holding onto my truck and hoping it wouldn't go over.

But within a few minutes, a young man in a Wrangler came along downhill. He was a local youth, part of the Bishop, CA volunteer fire department. But, he had no tools or extraction items in his Jeep.

Now, it is my practice to carry three tote boxes in my Tacoma. Two against the forward bulkhead, one back between the inner fender and tailgate on the passenger side. They are held in place by thick rubber straps. I keep items for the truck and trail, including a rescue strap.

Problem was, my rescue strap was in one of the forward tote boxes against the front bulkhead of the truck. The young man tried crawling into the bed to get the strap. However, it was difficult as his body would naturally slide downhill against the downhill side of the bed, which would upset the truck thus causing my wife to scream.

The young man, while I'm still stuck standing in the cab and holding onto the door, finally got one of my shovels unclipped and worked at moving the straps holding the forward totes. It took about ten minutes but he was finally successful. He worked the tote box back to him and got the strap and then got me hooked up to his Jeep. After a few yanks we got the Tacoma back on Terra Firma.

After we got the Tacoma hooked up to his Jeep and stable, but before we yanked it, I gave the situation a good look over. I might have been able to extract myself if I was able to get out of the truck. My rear differential was locked at the time I got into the mess, and so the wheel in the air posed no problem. It would have involved digging out from under the front wheel to bring the truck down to a more level attitude. I had about a foot behind the rear wheel on the ground to go back. A bit of shuffling back and forth might have gotten me out. But I didn't know that at the time.

I also learned from that experience that I better keep my strap in the tote next to the tailgate for easy retrieval. After that ordeal, I immediately replaced the strap in that rear box and have kept it there since. A simple thing, maybe, but if it were there in the first place, it would have eliminated ten minutes of worry and white knuckles.

My wife learned not to go off-roading with me, and she's still mad at me to this day that I asked the young man to take this photo of me FIRST before helping me to get out of the situation ... :rofl:

[JackSilb]

David,

As always a nice reading comes from your. Good talent my friend.

I better re-think where I leave some of my recover gear. It requires opening the back gate, sliding some boxes out, then opening the bottom box.

Also, I better get a real shovel.
-JACK