Crazy day Sunday. Lost count of all of the extractions. David Hayes and Andrew took off from the Western headed to Rainbow Falls to pull a suburban out first thing in the morning. David received a call from the FS the previous evening, and set it up for the owners to be at our meeting point Sunday morning. Going in from the highway was our best option, since 351 was still closed in with snow. David and Andrew did end up breaking the trail to Rampart with their chained up rigs later in the day, following tracks to see if there was anyone up there. Sounds like that was a heck of a fight.
The rest of us literally didn't make it 200 yards down Rampart from the sled hill before the first "customer", an F150 nosed into the side of 300. Pulled them out in short order while Tracy was running traffic control. Today seemed to be the day the adventurous people came out to play, and they opened many of the side trails. We saw tracks down 323 and went to take a look early. Ended up finding a 1978 Power Wagon on 35's buried in a curve. I winched him backwards, and broke a trail to the side where he could get turned around. Him and his girlfriend wanted to go further, but I think David Molter talked him out of that idea. After seeing us having our way with the snow, he vowed that he was getting a locker. Haha. I remembered at some point that the South team did not have a Forest Service radio, so we headed back to give them one. They were working on a recovery down 315. Tracy, Molter, and I headed up to the North end, all the while getting updates from Andrew on the Woodland Park MARC 146.820 repeater. We were planning on meeting up with them once they decided to come up to Rampart via 351. At some point on that trip, a lady in an F250 was heading towards us a little too fast, and when she tried to move over, she clipped the windrow, which bounced her back into the center of the road. I darted for the side, and ended up mired in the bank up over half my passenger side doors in snow. David rescued me from that one, at which point I received a nice butt chewing from a guy in an SUV about us not letting him through before we blocked the road.
We headed farther North, and at some point Tracy got a call on the FS radio about some problems at 325. Tracy and David turned around and headed that way, while I went to investigate a traffic jam up the way. I ended up finding a Honda Pilot a 100 yards or so into 300C that was turned sideways and sliding into the trees. I spoke with them about options, and based on how badly they were stuck, I gave them the damage disclaimer talk. There was not a single thing to hook to on that heavy little SUV, or so we thought. I put frame hooks on a hole in the rear subframe and pulled it back up the hill, everything was going great, until something slipped. I stopped pulling, an found that the frame hook had torn about a 4" gash through part of the subframe. luckily, it didn't affect anything important. A guy from the Christian Four Wheelers was there, and we got underneath the rig and found a way to wrap the lower rear control arm with a tree saver, and continued winching. That thing was way heavier than it looked, and it refused to come back up on the trail. I was pulling at such an angle to keep it off the trees that the strap was pulling against the wheel, the winch was pulling so hard, I visibly saw the rear aluminum rim flex and start to bend- I backed off immediately. The owner of the vehicle, and husband of a VERY angry wife, told us to just pull it straight back and whatever tree damage may happen, just happens. we did end up getting the wife to pull foreward under her own power and get it a little straighter on the trail. At this point Andrew and David showed up. With three vehicles now positioned at different angles, we kept pulling from different angles and making progress. When it was almost out, upon closer inspection, Andrew reached down and pulled a cover off of the rear bumper to expose a 2" receiver hitch.... I looked to the owner, and the look on my face must have said everything... He said, "I forgot that was there. Dude, you can punch me if you want." Haha. We put the strap in the receiver, and David pulled them to freedom. I watched the rear wheel as they drove away- it didn't look bent...
