Back a few months Weasel and I were on our way up hunting and came across this situation:

Dry roads, a dicey little “S” turn and these guys lost control and crashed.  Luckily nobody was in the car when we came past and they had put a sign in the window to please not tow the car.  The fear that must have been in them when they lost control and crashed must have been intense!  I hope nobody got hurt badly.

This morning Weasel and I decided it would be a great morning to go high up above town and hunt down a ways to see if he could fill his Extended Wasatch deer tag.  The road is pretty long and really rough in some spots so we decided to leave town about 5:30….That would give us a full hour and 1/2 to get to the top and start our hunt.

Two days ago it snowed a bit.  Probably 6 inches up on the top of the mountain and yesterday it was pretty warm, which should have melted most of the depth.  Of course there would be some slick spots in the road along the way, but 4 wheel drive should take care of that.  I don’t have chains for my rig and I thought I should invest in some, but that will be for a future rig.  At least that is what my mind is saying.

I picked Weasel up promptly at 5:30 and after we loaded his stuff we headed off.  A quick stop to top off the fuel tank, grab an orange juice and water and off we went.

The drive was a good one and soon we were on the dirt road leading up the backside of the mountain.  Dirt and gravel soon gave way to spotty snow and ice and it was obvious there had been a LOT of traffic on the road yesterday (Thanksgiving Day).  We hadn’t gone too far and soon we were passing a camping area called Doc’s Flat.  I told Weasel, “If I had chains I would be putting them on right here”…which I would have, but still I have 4 wheel drive and good tires, we should be OK.  Around the first bend and the ice was sure slippery, but the front tires kicked in and up the road we continued.  The next bend had other ideas for us.  The road in this stretch is pretty steep and there are lots of tire made moguls in the road.  The Trooper spun out!  DAMN!

Well, we ain’t going any higher, I told Weasel, who knew it all the while.  I popped it into reverse and began going back down and around the bend we had just came around.  Suddenly, the tires locked up and we were sliding backwards uncontrollably.  It was still dark outside and so I could not see where we were going, all I could do was look at the road out the front windshield and try to keep the rig in the space provided.  The hill sloped slightly to the down hill side and even though there was a forest of oak trees alongside the road, there were plenty of spaces for a vehicle to slip through and crash down the 50 or 60 yard embankment.  The embankment, by the way, is about a 60 degree slope.

As we slid around the corner the rig suddenly began picking up speed,….like all of a sudden… because the pitch in the road increased a great deal and gravity was having a very fun time with the weight of the vehicle and the icy slickness of the road.  Hang on was all I could do…Try not to panic….Don’t crap your pants right now, there will be plenty of time for that in a minute….Jesus take the wheel would be appropriately played at this moment in time!

The headlights began sweeping side to side as we back slid quickly down the roadway.  And then suddenly the back right corner of the rig hit the high side embankment which caused the front of the rig to begin turning sideways in the road.  The sloping roadway was pulling the front closer and closer toward the drop off!  Nearly 90 degrees to the roadway we slid.  Oh My Hell!  Was my thought!  We are going over the edge!  The headlights cast out into the tops of the oak trees and I could not see the road any longer out my side window.  The windshield was viewing nothing but blackness and the oak limbs showing in the bright beams of the headlights.

Lots of things were passing through my mind but as of right now I can’t tell you all of them.  Some of my thoughts were how to maneuver the rig down through all those trees without rolling it over, if in fact it didn’t roll when it went off the edge.  I was certain the front tires were well off the edge when it suddenly stopped sliding!  My heart was pounding like crazy and when the reality of us not going over the edge finally came through to my already convinced brain that we had gone over.  I continued to looks straight ahead, hands gripping the wheel firmly and I said to Brandon….You get out slowly there isn’t any sense both of us die in this…..

He eased himself out the passenger (up road side) of the rig and I just knew the weight shift would put the rig the rest of the way over the edge.  The rig stayed put….I set the emergency brake, put the rig in park and eased off the brake pedal.   There was an ever so slight forward movement at that point, but I knew then the rig was not going over the edge.  At least not at that moment.  I too eased the door open and slowly got out.  When my feet hit the icy road I almost fell on my butt, but caught myself on the running board just inside the door.

I must admit, that was the most terrified I have been in a very long time and had I not taken my morning’s morning before leaving home, I most certainly would have done it during that slide.

This picture was taken several minutes after the rig had stopped and I had time to gather my wits.  It looks like the tree has stopped our forward movement, but that tree was at least 10 feet on the other side of the rig.

The slide marks can be seen clearly in this picture.  There are no trees near the front of the rig.  The ones in the picture are 5 or more feet on the other side of it.

Inches of snow covered dirt is all that is keeping the rig from going down into this:

I have a whole lot of belief that divine intervention played a very big part in why this rig stopped on the edge like it did.  THANK YOU LORD!

It wasn’t a huge decision that needed to be made to call for a tow truck to come and save our butts.  I didn’t dare move the rig from blocking the entire road even though I had a come-a-long, high lift jack and chain.  Had there not been the option of a tow vehicle, we would have given it hell and I’m sure gotten out, but I didn’t dare touch the rig for fear it would end up at the bottom of that oak filled chasm.

As we sat there keeping warm and talking about our wonderful fate and how it could have all turned out much uglier, up the road came a guy on a 4 wheeler.  You see there are lots of guys still bow hunting the Wasatch Front and this was one guy who wanted to be “where we wanted to be” at first light.  Upon seeing our dilemma and realizing he could not drive past us, he went back down to warn others who he knew were coming our way.  His warning went unheeded and soon we had 4 more guys on 4 wheelers itching to get around us.  I told one of them that if the rig went over while he was messing around I would hold him totally responsible….he backed off….And then went to digging away the high side embankment to get their rigs past mine.  I ended up taking off the spare tire to help them get past.  After they were around us, one of them had a very tough time going up the road around the corner where we spun out initially.  We even went up and pushed him until it looked like he had it under control….slicker than snot on a door knob….and cold…..

Nothing we could do now but wait.  Well, we decided that maybe we could chop some of the ice out of the road in case the tow guy couldn’t make it up to us.  So we did.

Heck we only have to chop it to the corner down there………

And soon we heard the sound of the tow truck coming up to save us.  He drove up first and then went back down a ways and backed up to come to our rescue.

You can see the road looks flat, but when you have had the wits scared out of you, there isn’t any way in hell I was going to try and manipulate that rig of mine out of where it was and try getting the front tires pointed down the road.  You can also see from the reflection that it is icy as can be!

He backed his rig up nearly touching mine and hooked up a cable to my front tire.  He told us, “Heck, most of the time I’m pulling rigs up from down in there”….as he pointed down into the chasm.  I could see old tire tracks from rigs that went down there before.  That is not a place I wanted to have my rig.

Using his “I’ve done this before” knowledge he got the rig pointed down the road and we followed him off the slippery place….Weasel paid him a meager $200 for his services and off he went.

Looking back at the whole deal, we were SO VERY FORTUNATE to not have gone off that cliff.  Had we gone over nobody knows how long we would have been down there before someone noticed us.  We will never know how our injuries would have been, but for sure there would have been some broken stuff.  Maybe we were within seconds of both being killed.  I thank the Lord for saving us from any of the “what ifs”.

Coming down off the mountain I decided we needed to have breakfast at the Rusted Spoon….it was a wonderful breakfast.

November 25, 2016

Bears Butt