Lesson at Shaw Lake
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Date: Sat, 24 Jan 1998 23:10:32 -0800
From: Eric Johnson
Subject: I'm glad to be writing this...
To: "'mike50pat@aol.com'" ,
I went up the Shaw Lake trail today, mostly testing out my new Truetracs
and gears. We had intended to play in the snow around Spada Lake, but the
snow which had just a few weeks ago been dry and deep, was now wet and
largely gone, so we headed to the nearby Shaw Lake trail.
The truetracs are really awesome - they really improve the overall
traction. There were sections and situations on the trail where I
previously got crossed up and just sorta dangled there when I had open
diffs -- with the truetracs, I generally drove right up. In some
situations, with a wheel or two in the air, I had to give a little foot
pressure on the brakes to get the sides with traction to spin, but it
usually worked. The only situations where I got stuck, on some snow we ran
prior to running the trail, I had all four wheels spinning. I'm really
pleased with them so far.
Going up the trail was uneventful, though it was quite a bit easier for me
than the last time I had taken it. I got the opportunity to try a few of
the more aggressive lines. This trail definitely is more challenging when
it has been raining.
Coming down the trail got interesting. A pickup that was ahead of us had a
tie-rod-end come out of his front tie-rod, and we spent until past sunset
getting him going again, along with an impromptu trail front-end-alignment.
Anyways, by now its dark. Somehow, it worked out that I was in the lead. I
don't do much night wheeling. but I've been on this trail many times and
pretty much figured I knew my way around the various obstacles.
Most of the way down was without incident. I eventually got to the lowest
stream crossing, which is an unremarkable affair, except that the trail
following it is an off-camber lean into the gulley formed by the creek. Its
also the last obstacle of any difficulty that we would normally face coming
off the trail. After crossing the creek itself, the trail kinda goes up and
to the right, cresting, and back down again. All at a pretty good (20+
degrees) lean into the gulley.
By the way, this was all during a torrential downpour of rain. Pretty heavy
even by pacific northwest standards. And it was dark.
I couldn't see squat, as I was going over the crest. I should have radioed
for a spotter. But I didn't. It was getting late and we kinda wanted to get
out of there. I tried to feel my way around, watching the clinometer pretty
carefully, since I couldn't see the terrain. Next thing I know, I feel a
huge lean and the clinometer suddenly makes a large jump. So I radioed the
guy behind me (Tom Kay) and asked him to take a peek. He radioes back
"Don't move an inch."
It turns out I had driven insanely close to the edge of the trail, which
becomes a slippery slope into the ravine. It was one of those situations
where moving forward made you slide further in, moving backwards did the
same. Even turning the steering wheel inched my towards the slippery slope.
I eventually got my parking brake on tight enough to hold, and was able to
get out of the 4Runner to take a look. It was pretty ugly....
We first tried to get me out by snatching me from Tom's rig (behind me) but
as he tugged, I inched further down the slope .
We eventually got me out of danger by running chain, cable, and a
come-a-long from my front tow hook to a tree high up on the bank. That at
least would keep my front end from slipping in. The guys we had helped with
the tie-rod problem were a great help here, as they had a long length of
chain with them. Several of us would lift on my front bumper as anther
cranked the come-a-long and the front end inched out of danger.
We attempted the same with the rear, but we didn't have a convenient
anchor. Tom drove his 4runner up so we could pull against it, but all we
really accomplished with that was to pull his rig down at least as much as
mine went up. But at least being hooked up in the rear would protect the
rear from sliding in (or I'd take Tom with me, but that was fairly unlikely
since he had a pretty good footing. With all the lines running to my rig,
it reminded me somewhat of my boat when its tied up to a pier.
So we continued to crank the front end over as far as possible. Eventually,
belayed at both ends, and expertly spotted and guided by Rich Shade, I was
able to drive out of danger. Whew!
They say good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad
judgment. :) I got myself some experience tonite!
- --
- - ej@blarg.net http://www.off-road.com/~ej
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Date: Sun, 25 Jan 1998 01:30:24 -0800
From: Tom Kay
Subject: I'm glad to be writing this...
To: 4x4nw@unix.off-road.com
Eric Johnson wrote:
> It turns out I had driven insanely close to the edge of the trail, which
> becomes a slippery slope into the ravine. It was one of those situations
> where moving forward made you slide further in, moving backwards did the
> same. Even turning the steering wheel inched my towards the slippery slope.
Eric was just a little conservative with one particular statement
above. Where he says, "It turns out I had driven insanely close to the
edge of the trail, which becomes a slippery slope into the ravine."
This is a near verticle drop of about 16-18 feet with a guaranteed roll,
and when I saw the position of his right side tires, I learned the true
meaning of "pucker"!
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