We spent yesterday afternoon goecaching. We were gone about 6 hours and drove about 150 miles for 8 caches. We were in rural Kansas (east of Council Grove.) I'm talking rural...really rural...like miles and miles and miles in between farmhouses. We were out in the middle of nowhere. And as you can tell from the title, we got stuck.
We were on a highway 59 driving east when we turned south onto a gravel road. After driving for a few miles, we turned west on what we thought was another gravel road. (Did you notice that I didn't say we turned left or right?? I've been in the Midwest too long if I'm saying we turned west!) The "gravel road" was an old railroad bed...the track had been removed and we were driving on crushed rock. We drove several miles to the cache site never realizing what we were driving on. There was no place to turn around at the cache site, so we kept driving a few more miles looking for a good place to turn around. We finally came upon an area that looked wide enough to do a 30 point turn. So we began to turn around and as soon as we left the center of the "road", we sunk up to the axles of our new Chevy truck. There was no traction to be had and rocks and dirt kept flying as we tried to get out, which made us more stuck. And remember, we are in the middle of nowhere. We haven't seen a house for miles, a car/truck/tractor for miles and not even a cow for miles! Jeff tried to drive while I pushed, I tried to drive while Jeff pushed. Nothing was working. Finally we made a little headway and were out of the ruts we dug with the tires! (picture 4)
Now here comes the unbelievable part...Jeff drove the truck down the embankment (it was pretty steep) and down off the railroad bed into weeds that were about 4 feet high. (picture 1) He turned the truck around, then gunned the engine and tried to get back up onto the railroad bed a little further down at an angle. (picture 2) Jacob and I stood back in awe...the tires were squealing and smoking, the engine was revving, and then he slid back down. There was no traction on the loose rock. So he tried it again! And made it back up! (You probably figured out that we got unstuck since you're reading this blog...we obviously made it out!)
We were on a highway 59 driving east when we turned south onto a gravel road. After driving for a few miles, we turned west on what we thought was another gravel road. (Did you notice that I didn't say we turned left or right?? I've been in the Midwest too long if I'm saying we turned west!) The "gravel road" was an old railroad bed...the track had been removed and we were driving on crushed rock. We drove several miles to the cache site never realizing what we were driving on. There was no place to turn around at the cache site, so we kept driving a few more miles looking for a good place to turn around. We finally came upon an area that looked wide enough to do a 30 point turn. So we began to turn around and as soon as we left the center of the "road", we sunk up to the axles of our new Chevy truck. There was no traction to be had and rocks and dirt kept flying as we tried to get out, which made us more stuck. And remember, we are in the middle of nowhere. We haven't seen a house for miles, a car/truck/tractor for miles and not even a cow for miles! Jeff tried to drive while I pushed, I tried to drive while Jeff pushed. Nothing was working. Finally we made a little headway and were out of the ruts we dug with the tires! (picture 4)
Now here comes the unbelievable part...Jeff drove the truck down the embankment (it was pretty steep) and down off the railroad bed into weeds that were about 4 feet high. (picture 1) He turned the truck around, then gunned the engine and tried to get back up onto the railroad bed a little further down at an angle. (picture 2) Jacob and I stood back in awe...the tires were squealing and smoking, the engine was revving, and then he slid back down. There was no traction on the loose rock. So he tried it again! And made it back up! (You probably figured out that we got unstuck since you're reading this blog...we obviously made it out!)
Look out everyone, Jeff is going to be the next off road Baja racing champion!
We lost an air dam that was snapped onto the front bumper, and we had lots of grass stuck in weird places under the truck. There was even grass stuck in the top part of the front license plate! But overall, the truck seemed OK...or at least we hope it is!
So we had an adventure caching yesterday...we did eventually find the cache on the old railroad bed (and we saw other tire "ruts" of where other cachers tried to turn around.) (picture 3)And we will be more careful about where we drive from now on! :)
Happy caching!
~JEN aka Mrs. Diecast64
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