What would you do?

[Tradewind]

Just post up pictures of your buck before I lift them off the book of faces and put it on here. You are dragging this story out in a fashion very uncharacteristic of Oak. As far as the truck goes, have Dink line up his four little smiley faced friends on the tailgate and get a picture before winching it out of the way.

Have lunch. they're going to milk this for a while

 

[wytex]

Snatch block and winch will move it right over. Sometimes you never know why or how this happened but maybe the guy needs some help, not vandalism. I agree send your friend walking down the road a ways to look for him and do some hunting while you try a few things to move it. Makes for a good case of what would you do if it happened to you. Hard to leave a truck in the forest unlocked. I would leave it in neutral and locked just in case someone came by that could move it over, or make a passable spot to the left in case someone needed by.

 

[Duck-Slayer]

as stated above, drink more beer - than pull the hitch off his truck, throw it in back of his truck, put your truck in 4 low ease up to his rear LOL and give it a shove....... problem solved.... than run to town and get more beer...
Matt

 

[Oak]

So here's how it went down. The pictures might be deceiving, but there was absolutely no way around that truck with a full sized vehicle, or even a compact truck. An ATV would have barely fit past it on the left.

As it was, if we stood in a certain spot an held our mouth right we had cell service. We first called the closest family and started them on the 2 hour trip to our location. Since we knew we were not going to be stranded, I was not inclined to make great efforts to get the truck out of my way. I generally don't carry much recovery equipment, choosing to instead avoid situations where I need such after a costly youth. Tire chains, jack, tow strap, shovel is about it.

After notifying family I called the sheriff's department. The deputy I spoke with said that they do not have jurisdiction to have a vehicle towed on NF land. They said it was up to the NF to remove the vehicle. He asked me if there were other routes out, and when I said no he asked how then had we gotten behind the stuck vehicle. I explained that we had been camped up there for 4 days and were just heading home. He said that he had contacted the FS, but that they did not have an officer in the field that day. He was expecting a call back from them and would have them call me. He said that they had no contact information for the vehicle owner except an eastern CO address.

About 20 minutes later I get a call from a USFS officer from a neighboring ranger district. She said that the officer for my district was out of the state. She said that based on my location, it looked to her like there were several other routes for us to take out of the forest. I assured her that while there may have been other roads at one time, they were long since closed. She then admitted that "my map might be a little bit out of date."

She then said that the FS does not remove stranded vehicles...it is the responsibility of the owner. So I asked her whether the FS would just leave the vehicle there indefinitely if the owner chose to abandon it. She laughed and said no, the FS would have the vehicle towed. :W: She said that she had left a message with the local FS office to check with us the next day (Monday) and possibly have the vehicle removed if it was still there.

So we waited for family to arrive. About the time we expected them, we heard a vehicle coming up. Turns out to be a 3rd party just out for a drive in their 4Runner. It was a nice pair of brothers that were fully equipped for vehicle recovery (snatch blocks, kinetic straps, winch, etc). We were marveling at the situation this person had gotten themselves into and they were offering to try and snatch the back of the truck to the right so that we could get around it. About this time we hear another vehicle coming. It is the family, so I told them not to worry about it and we would let the FS deal with it the next day. Since I had spoken with the SD and FS, I didn't want to damage the vehicle further and be responsible for it.

So we started transferring our valuables from my truck when we heard yet another vehicle approaching. This Suburban had the owner and the help he had wrangled to get him out of his mess. Amazing that we had been there 3.5 hours alone and everyone arrived at the same time. So we asked them what their plan was to get the vehicle out. They said they were just going to pull it out, put a spare on it and drive it down. I pointed out that there was no way they were going to get around it to pull it out, and they asked, "whose truck is that? (mine)" I asked them if they had a spare and they said, "we will just use the one from this (the Suburban)." When I explained that the Chevy bolt pattern was not going to work on the Dodge, they seemed amazed and mystified. This information was not accepted...it took confirmation. A quick check confirmed to them one 5-lug pattern and one 6-lug pattern. Dang the luck. :W:

So I finally agreed to at least try to get them out of the hole so that they could work on the truck, with the caveats that Dink was driving the stuck truck and I was not taking the time to chain up. If it didn't work, tough. We got it hooked up and started pulling with little luck. Dink noted later that the cab of the truck reeked of MJ. One of the Toyota brothers who was watching noticed that the front left tire of the Dodge was not turning when Dink turned the wheel...broken tie rod. So I just jerked the hell out of the Dodge until the ass of it jumped to the right and I had just enough room to squeeze around it on the left. We left the knuckleheads there to solve their own problems as the sun set on deer season.

The point of the post was to point out that the agencies involved seemed not prepared to deal with such a situation, and only wanted to pass the buck. Apparently we needed to have some sort of emergency in order to get help. Otherwise we would just need to wait for the owner to resolve his own situation.

 

[Joe Hulburt]

Wow, what a deal!

 

[jryoung]

This is the type of chit that gives FS workers a bad name. Maybe if you told them you were only down to a few beers and it was a damn emergency. Too bad you didn't have one of those Constitutional Sheriffs willing to exercise their rights as supreme enforcers on the law in their county.

 

[Elkmagnet]

I bet those guys wonder why this stuff is always happening to them.
Honestly next time don't call anyone, just jerk the piece of crap out of your way and carry on.

 

[406LIFE]

Thanks for follow up Oak. There's a lot of roads like this in MT and I haven't had the experience you've had, but I've had to yell at people who hopped out of their truck to chase an elk/deer while road hunting to get them to move their truck out of the middle of the road. Frustrating and inconsiderate.

 

[Elkmagnet]

I live in Owyhee county. It's a rural area with limited resources.
One day I was approximately 6 miles from the Sheriff's Department fishing on the bank of the Snake River what I've observed a guy drive up with a pickup load of trash bags and proceeded to start throwing them out on the bank of the river. I tried to nonchalantly pick up my stuff and leave as he was throwing out trash I went straight to the Sheriff's Department and notify dispatch of the situation. I was told that it was Sunday evening and nobody was going to be able to respond to a call like that on a Sunday evening.

 

[Dinkshooter]

You wouldn't believe how far they drove on the rim over some of the nastiest rocky 2 track around.

We saw the mark in the road but I just figured it had to be a ATV riding on the rim, not a full size pickup. Wonders never cease to amaze.

 

[RobG]

Some winners there.

FWIW, I once got stuck in gumbo and couldn't move. I walked 8 or more miles out before finding someone to help. By the time we got to my vehicle it was late and the gumbo had frozen. The guy didn't even have to put it into 4wd to yank me out.

 

[RobG]

You wouldn't believe how far they drove on the rim over some of the nastiest rocky 2 track around.

We saw the mark in the road but I just figured it had to be a ATV riding on the rim, not a full size pickup. Wonders never cease to amaze.

So can we assume these guys where flying down the road drunk and stoned, not realizing the tire was flat, and when the rim hit the mud it grabbed and broke the linkage?

 

[Dinkshooter]

No I think they knew the tire was flat/gone, however they didn't have a spare tire so they were pressing on!

 

[RobG]

No I think they knew the tire was flat/gone, however they didn't have a spare tire so they were pressing on!

Texas accents?

 

[noharleyyet]

Texas accents?

Weed gives Texans Colorado accents...so I hear.

 

[Oak]

Texas accents?

Weed gives Texans Colorado accents...so I hear.

Bait barely hit the water!

 

[Baerman]

good call on leaving them! I came across a truck that had rolled over on a back road about 11 pm one night after harvesting a deer. As we pulled up the guy comes up out of the willows. Not thinking much about it and more concerned that he was ok, we spoke a brief moment and then he said if we could just get his truck on it's wheels, he thought it was still drivable, it was on it's side. we tried pushing it over but were one guy short of having the muscle to do that. we then pulled his speaker box out of the truck. placed it on my hitch and against his truck and I backed into his truck hoping to push it over. Speaker box broke and dented my tailgate. Before said attempt, I asked if we damaged my truck that he had insurance and would repair any damage. I was an idiot and took his word. Ended up that his insurance would not cover the damage because I caused the damage, not him. After giving up, I gave him a ride into town so he could call friends/family. On the ride home is when I finally realized he was drunk and wreaked of alcohol. I should have taken his a$$ to jail. Lesson learned is that I don't interfere with other peoples crap or troubles anymore. I still have dented tailgate as a reminder.

You made a good call to get it out of the way so you could move on.

 

[JLS]

if you told them you were only down to a few beers and it was a damn emergency.

Most logical thought so far.

 

[Oak]

Since this is the deer forum, here is a buck video Dink took the day before the truck debacle.

 

[RobG]

Hey look, another Dodge from Texas