Before you read any further, know that:
1. It never stopped snowing.
2. It was always between 26 and 29 degrees.
3. I do not have the best of tires. (See other post about a roadtrip to IN.) They're better than OEM, but not much.
This was taken Saturday morning. It had been snowing since 10pm the previous night.
Another pic, taken after I trudged through the snow to get the Jeep started.
After meeting up with my friend Kip and his friend Doug (in Kip's Toyota, pictured above, directly in front of me) we had to stop at Walmart. I had a broken wiper blade from the ice, and Kip had no blades worth using. So I bought a compressor that I've been looking at for a while, and one new blade. Those things are $20 each! But more than worth it. Oh, and we both got 2 big bottles of spray de-icer. Which helped immensely. You ever watched ice crystals form on your windshield between each sweep of the wipers? It's scary. We had to pull over probably every 20 minutes or so to de-ice our wipers. Of course, everybody on the road was doing that as well. Visibility was down to 20 ft or so in some areas.
This is normally a 2 lane road. A very simple road. It used to have trees on either side, but they wiped out all the forest on the right had side last year. But, it's one of only 2 ways out of the neighborhood area.
Note: There are 2 more pics missing in between these two. I'm sorry, but the phone simply didn't save them.
After taking a break from yanking people stuck on the roads all day, me and Kip decided to try the only "trail" near by. It's a gravel road, but very steep and some off-camber sections. Easy in the dry, but much tougher when wet/muddy. Snow however, proved to be too much. (See pic below) The dog you see in the back of my Jeep, is one that I found on the trail! She's a very big nice German Shepard named Geisha. She was quite friendly, and very lost. Couldn't smell her way home, I suppose. I called the number on the tag, and found that the owner's family had been out for hours trying to find her. They lived just a few miles back. Sad part was, I found her while she was still walking in circles, but going the wrong direction. I do think she would've just died eventually. She was quite happy when she found the heater vents in the front (seat).
Note: This picture was taken with me standing on the upper part of the hill, which is a bit more level. It goes up steeper, but not off camber. Where my Jeep is (in the pic) is about 8-9 degrees over (leaning to the left). Unfortunately, minutes after getting going again, I got stuck. And so did Kip, right behind me. It's a cliff face to my right, and a sheer wall to my left (Only 6.5 ft high, but not a good place to be)... With a ditch on both sides. Not enough room to turn around even if I wanted to. I aired down to 20psi on all tires, and that didn't help much. Luckily, the dog's owner came up the trail in his Bronco. Who proceded to get his dog, and leave! WTF?! By the way, it is very hard to get in a vehicle that is leaned over that far. (just an after thought).
(((Note: I took a picture of my friend Kip's truck who was stuck much worse than me. Once again, the phone didn't save it))) The trail you see is not very wide. It's actually wide enough for maybe a full size PU. But with the 2ft deep ditches on either side... it's not the simplest of tasks. Sure if I were in a Rubicon with armor on the sides and MTR's I would'nt have cared. But I don't have one of those. Speaking of which, those trees you see to the left? Those are sticking in the ground... about 5 ft below the snow-line. It's a cliff. lol
So here I am, still stuck, and Kip's truck is 8-9 ft behind me, stuck in the same ditch (just around the turn). Although he was stuck a lot worse. His whole truck was laying against the mountainside. Eventually, a couple of hillbillies (no offense) in a big Chevy came up the trail, and helped out. They had to drag Kip's truck down the hill, against the wall.. as he couldn't get enough grip to get on the actual road. Eventually though he did get back on. They both had to reverse to a place they could turn around at and then the hillbillies came back up for me. I aired down to 10psi, and that definitely helped when it came time to get me out. They could only pull me further up the hill, as going down would've caused massive damage. On the flip side, every time they tried to pull me, they got stuck more and more! Every time their tires spun, they compacted more snow, which made it slippery as crap! Long story short, we did get unstuck, and back in the middle of the trail. I have to thanks them for getting me at least 3 feet up and out of the ditch. They then asked me if I would unhook from them, so they could try to get themselves up the trail to turn around again. Those poor guys had to move 5 feet at a time all the way up the hill till they got to fresh snow about half a mile up. I meanwhile, had to fend for myself at this point. If I got stuck again, I'd be stranded. I had to back down the trail the whole way. That's 3 miles of reverse! And let me tell you. When you have to have the rear hatch window open, and the reverse lights aren't meant for seeing behind you.... It's scary. Kip wasn't about to come back up the trail, and I had no other humans nearby. Yes I have a CB, and a cell phone with a charger, and a solar charger... but it could've gone bad. One unlucky turn of the wheel, or too much brake or gas and it would have been the end of my Jeep without a doubt
I did a whole 5mph in 4Low going backwards. Luckily, I did make it down to where Kip had turned around at. A 10 by 10 foot circle of space in the trail. So we both headed out.
Note: This picture is misleading. You are actually looking at a downhill, about 5 degrees. The part that goes up is about 8 degrees. This is what the trail heading out looked like. It's the easiest part of it all (the head). Luckily it's mostly downhill. Except for this part. The truck in front of me is one that just got himself unstuck as me and Kip were passing by. The truck in front of him is Kip's truck. Who is stuck behind another truck further up the hill; who keeps laying on the gas to get up the very steep hill, and getting himself stuck. So, 3 times we all had to keep backing up, to give the guy up front space to get a running start. After 3 attempts the guy made it, then we all agreed to wait 5 minutes each to give each other time to get up and get clear. I asked Kip to radio to me when he saw the last truck go by, so I could get a real running start. 35mph was what it took. If I had gotten stuck, and slid anywhere, it would've been death to the left, or stuck to the right. Luckily, I made it.
<whew!>
In between this and the next picture is our precarious drive home. Kip asked me to lead as I had GPS, which shows the actual roads. (you couldn't see where one ended on any sides). So, I plotted for the most publicly used roads (hoping for them being plowed once at least) and went home doing 30 the whole way. Along the way we saw a lot of cars, abandoned. Lots of piles of torn up metal that used to be semi's. Lots of totaled police cars, honda's, etc. Some SUV's with idiot drivers trying to go through stupid-sized snow drifts.
And this, is my driveway. I could not pull any farther in, as I was already plowing through it at 20 just to get that far! I didn't want to overshoot and go through the garage door, and not go fast enough to get off the street. But I stopped here, and got out. It was over my knees! I know it doesn't look like much, but it really was.
I took this after coming inside. This is looking out of the front door. That's the neighbor's car you see, or what's left of it.
Last pic. This is the accumulation against the door. Quite alot, since this is not much of a windy side of the house. Don't forget, the bottom of the door is another 7" above the walkway.
Anyways, that was my Saturday. Which was also my birthday. 29 has come and gone. I tell you what: I'll never forget it. What can I say? I had pulled out 3 people throughout the day. Made $40 in tips. Got one cracked windshield now (I have no idea how it happened. I just got in and there it was). It wasn't the day that was tough, just the night. We had good food at Friday's (the only place that was technically open). And all in all, I won't do it again without being more prepared.
But,I did learn the limits of my vehicle with it's current setup. And every failure is a learning event. So, here's to next time.
PS: 60% of my problems would've never happened if I had knobbier tires on it.
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