Shouldn’t Have Done That

[Idhikker]

You ever drive a sketchy road in the backcountry and think I shouldn’t have done that? Post your pucker stories here.

For some reason, I love hearing them. We sometimes get carried away with our hunting.

I once slid a bit towards oblivion on any icy steep road with bald tires. Big September snow storm caught me a bit unprepared. I’ll never forget the feeling. It took me forever to creep down the mountain in low gear after that.

 

[teej89]

Went pheasant hunting after a snowstorm. I couldn’t see the extents of the road, and thought I was still on it but it was just part of the drift creating a fake shelf. Ending up being sucked sideways off the road and down the bank.

With No service I walked two miles out with the dog, knocked on the first door I found and met a great guy and his dog. He had a tractor but it needed some TLC to get started. While he was getting it started I shoveled his driveway off for him even tho he said don’t worry about it after I asked. Also threw a ball for the pups.

Got the tractor down there as the dogs ran behind us(dogs became best friends) and we got the truck out after a couple tries. I thanked him, offered cash and he declined and we parted our ways.

Feel bad I can’t remember his name, Vietnam vet, we shared our thoughts on the war and he shared some stories.

I Ended up killing 2 roosters that day and took coworkers back the next day and shot 6 birds.

 

[JLS]

@antlerradar may remember the time his neighbor was kind enough to use his tractor and bucket to help me get a pickup and horse trailer out of the coulee when I didn't take the time to chain up prior to heading up a greasy two track. Fortunately, no horses were hurt in the making of the debacle.

 

[antlerradar]

@antlerradar may remember the time his neighbor was kind enough to use his tractor and bucket to help me get a pickup and horse trailer out of the coulee when I didn't take the time to chain up prior to heading up a greasy two track. Fortunately, no horses were hurt in the making of the debacle.

A don't remember that. Most of my memory's of JLS have to do with dealing with unethical people and how professionally JLS handled the situation.

 

[Duck-Slayer]

This one time...... my wife and I went outside on a deer hunt, just snowed, slide sideways off a steep steep mountain road, luckily was able to get the four wheeler out of truck drove to the bottom and borrowed some chains and got the truck off the mountain. Met the guy back in town and returned his chains, thanks.... my wife now freaks out when she sees snow on the road lol
Matt

 

[Fsmith]

This is the first year in the last 5 that this hasn’t happened to me at some point in the season. Tire chains are great peace of mind.

 

[Idhikker]

This one time...... my wife and I went outside on a deer hunt, just snowed, slide sideways off a steep steep mountain road, luckily was able to get the four wheeler out of truck drove to the bottom and borrowed some chains and got the truck off the mountain. Met the guy back in town and returned his chains, thanks.... my wife now freaks out when she sees snow on the road lol
Matt

Crazy story. Did you roll? How far did you fall?

 

[BuzzH]

Have 4 buddies showing up for late cow tags this coming week...stay tuned, usually some shoveling, chaining, and ridiculous amounts of profanity at some point.

 

[PaulRevere]

We slid backwards on hills in the truck 3 times this season.

 

[waygoner]

This just happened to me a few weeks ago while deer hunting on the Uncompahgre Plateau. I was on a 2 track road that followed a power line. Came in from the north and hunted some good looking benches next to some ag fields. Stayed out until dark and then jumped back on the 2 track. The map showed a short hop to a major county road to the south. I came up on a canyon that had some steep switchbacks and I could not the bottom. Fearing I would drop into this canyon and not get out, I walked to the bottom to scope it out. It was narrow and rocky with a big drop off on one side, but it did open up on the other side. I put the Tundra in 4 low and crept down to the bottom. I had to gun it to get up the other side. Pucker factor was high for a few minutes.

 

[EYJONAS!]

Good thread! We've all been there. Here's my top story.

I think it was November 2015 last weekend of the season my brother in law embarked on a solo elk adventure and he chased a large herd with a couple bulls into a complete shit hole. Well last hour of light he dumped a nice 5 pt. Bull knowing he couldn't get it out he calls for reinforcement..... me. I get the green flag from work for a Monday retrieval and away I go the next morning. Its negative 10 or 15 the whole way there and like with any mountain range in late November the wind and snow are definitely factors. I had my 4 wheeler and why we didn't use it I don't know but not a smart move.
We meet before daylight and get a plan, actually get permission from a landowner to take a short cut to get to the forest. With that we think ah hell we'll drive right below him couple ridges away vs 5 or 6 and we're good.......
So off we go busting drifts and cross countrying across this guy's place and get up to where we wanna park. Go in dismantle the bull and decide we're taking him all in one shot. Yes one shot and it was freakin heavy. Get back to the truck no harm no foul have a victory beer and away we go. Meanwhile the whole day the wind has been ripping 60 and some snow and it's single digits outside. Immediately we run into new drifts and my old busted trail is completely gone and now worse.
The cross country on the way out involved 3 creek crossings a half dozen huge rolling hills that we had to make more than one attempt on each one with all 4 tires chained up everytime we made one it was nothing but high fives and celebrations. With rage against the machine just blasting outta the speakers trying to stay pumped.... my palms are sweaty i'm on the edge of my seat thinking ive never wanted to be outta a place so bad in my life. Ok, here we go last hill and it's the biggest. Attempt one make it half way up, attempt two make it three quarters. My truck is shaking so bad I feel like its gonna explode..... one more try so back down we go And I open her up. Crunch smash rattle rattle almost there.......... literally 15 yards from the top KABOOM....... something broke lights are flashing that never have truck won't start truck won't shut off. I drop the biggest f bomb of my life. Get out and have to dig out the pickup just to see what's going on. Broken drive line and a completely torn out wire harness........ in the absolute middle of no where....... panic sets in then we come to the conclusion we need to get the eff outta there so we unload the wheeler get to the guy's house and tell him what happend. He laughs his ass off at us and all I can do is take it. We get a game plan for tomorrow and back to town we go. Needless to say both bosses aren't happy especially the work boss, because it was his pickup...... he instructs me to get my ass out there and get it and we will discuss details later. Great.....
Show up with truck and trailer I get to the guys place at sunrise. He just happens to have a bull dozer a half mile from the pickup. Because what rancher doesn't have a 1950ish D5 cat dozer just laying around. This thing doesn't look like it's ran since the 80s he looks at us and says hope she fires it's pretty cold out. I'm looking at my brother in law like there's no effn way. I shit you not this old rancher climbs up crawls on top of this monster and gives it a little miracle juice. She pops on the first crack. I'm dumbfounded he laughs and says "hell she ain't ran that good in 10 years I bet, maybe she just needs some cold air." We go out and get it unstuck, and the rest of the way he's either towing me or lowering me down hills as my pickup can't drive. We get outta there and I load the truck.... thinking about the damages the whole way back to town I am just shaking and sick thinking about the 10k dollar mistake I just made. Get to the dealership and tell them what happend..... they say oh shit that's not bad and hell your pickup is still under WARRANTY. They did just that. 2 weeks later and 12k in parts and labor it was fixed. Needless to say I learned a lot and was one of the largest reliefs of my life.

 

[Hem]

There was a string of ten years I was hunting spring turkeys in the Northwest corner of South Dakota. The spring storms can dump ungodly amounts of snow. Usually the ground is thawed and a mud pit anyway. Pretty much had to access my area in the coldest part of a day when things are firm.
The crux of it was after a 7 hr drive I was usually impatient to get hunting. A 4 mile stretch of farm road across the prairie to access the hunting typically would have this one 150 yd stretch filled with snow. Tried to make a run at it one year with my 3/4 ton diesel. Yep, you all know the feeling of a heavy truck making progress and then plunk, it just sinks straight down. Gave up digging after a couple of frantic hours, soaking wet ,covered in mud. Walked four miles to the nearest farm. I was a pitiful sight, and the nicest dude took time out of his day to drive this monster tractor out to pull me out. He said the good laugh was the only payment he needed.
Got rid of that stupid Dodge and now am a chicken shit about "situations".
Haven't been stuck since.

 

[midwesterncrosshair]

Just this past weekend I was hunting in county forest area. Lots of roads had very large puddles you could tell people drove through. Some that must have been really bad they dumped gravel in them. So I assumed all the roads were good... nope

 

[Gerald Martin]

This thread is a great reinforcement of why I am usually a sissy when it comes to driving further into dicey situations.

 

[rjthehunter]

There was a string of ten years I was hunting spring turkeys in the Northwest corner of South Dakota. The spring storms can dump ungodly amounts of snow. Usually the ground is thawed and a mud pit anyway. Pretty much had to access my area in the coldest part of a day when things are firm.
The crux of it was after a 7 hr drive I was usually impatient to get hunting. A 4 mile stretch of farm road across the prairie to access the hunting typically would have this one 150 yd stretch filled with snow. Tried to make a run at it one year with my 3/4 ton diesel. Yep, you all know the feeling of a heavy truck making progress and then plunk, it just sinks straight down. Gave up digging after a couple of frantic hours, soaking wet ,covered in mud. Walked four miles to the nearest farm. I was a pitiful sight, and the nicest dude took time out of his day to drive this monster tractor out to pull me out. He said the good laugh was the only payment he needed.
Got rid of that stupid Dodge and now am a chicken shit about "situations".
Haven't been stuck since.

Got rid of the Dodge and bought a Chevy I'm assuming? My 1/2 Ton chevy has pulled me through some pretty gnarly things! Surprised honestly how much it's gotten me through. Good set helps a lot too

 

[EYJONAS!]

This thread is a great reinforcement of why I am usually a sissy when it comes to driving further into dicey situations.

I'm glad i'm not the only one.

 

[choc dogs]

I’ll raise my snow weeny hand. I tend to use 4x4 to turn around and park when it seems prudent. Then it’s time to start walking. I hate to think what the tow bill would be on a one ton with a camper on it.

 

[rjthehunter]

I’ll raise my snow weeny hand. I tend to use 4x4 to turn around and park when it seems prudent. Then it’s time to start walking. I hate to think what the tow bill would be on a one ton with a camper on it.

Ah but it probably gets better just ahead lol...

 

[deer_shooter]

About 10 years ago I was out around Craig, Colorado hunting antelope and shot a buck early. With nothing better to do, I had the bright idea of poking around the mountains to see if I could find some fishing. I ended up on a forest service two track and up I go. I knew there had been snow a week earlier but the road up was clear and it was nice and sunny. After at least 1500 feet of elevation gain I crested the hill and too late realized that on the side not getting sun, there was still enough snow to turn the road into a sloppy, muddy mess. The truck started to slide and of course the drop off on the drivers side was almost straight down and at one point I was looking down at tree tops. The mud was thick enough that steering was not an option, nor was stopping so I just hung on and feathered the gas a bit to keep from going completely sideways and enjoyed the somewhat slow, uncontrolled slide to a spot level enough that I was able to stop and chain up. Pretty sure if I have gone all the way sideways I'd have gone over the edge and if I'd had a full size truck I almost certainly would have. Once chained and on semi level ground I had no more issues but it was a long and nerve wracking drive out. I'm much less adventurous now.
I took a pic once I got down of the mud on the truck but doesn't look all that bad.

 

[jtm307]

Taking a youth hunter out for his first elk this weekend in the Laramie Range. My top priority is to NOT have a new story to post here.

Got caught in a blizzard last year in the same unit. I couldn't see past the front of the truck in broad daylight. I couldn't see the road and ended up deep in a drift. When the weather advisory includes the words "life threatening," just stay home. We were lucky because we got back to the truck about 20 minutes before the wind REALLY started blowing. If we were 20 minutes later, any of the three of us could have been 20 feet from the others and still lost his way. I had OnX maps and could have found the truck, but the other two would have been SOL.