If you’re reading this you’re going to have an opinion, a judgement, or some input on what I should have done differently. Thanks. I’ve probably already applied them to myself. When your family is in mortal danger and you’re the one that got them there, and out, you tend to go through that. So, with that being said fire away I guess. I’m putting it out there in a public forum. What can I expect? But I’m putting it out there in the hopes not everybody will have to learn hard things from their own experience. Let my life serve as a warning.
The short story: We got to the Needles trailhead in the Devil’s Kitchen loop off Elephant Hill in Canyonlands National Park a little late in the day, about 2PM. We hiked until about 4:30 when we drove out. Through a series of bad decisions and lack of information/misinformation, we took the “back road out” instead of tackling elephant hill in the dark without a good spotter or staying overnight. My recollection of the Beef Basin road was that it was an easy route out of the park, just kind of long. It turns out my memory was wrong and it did not include snow. We ended up at an elevation of about 7,800 feet with over 6 inches of old snow on an uphill grade. I couldn’t make it any farther and we spent the night in the truck in temps below 20F. Me, my wife, and 3 of my kids, all adult size. My SPOT tracker didn’t get the SOS signal out.
EDIT: I learned that my SPOT subscription expired and the auto-renew failed. The unit wasn't registered with their service.
In the morning, I was still concerned about going down the couple miles of snowy incline we had just come up, nearly sliding off multiple times, and we didn’t know if any of our texts got out (Stranded! Send Search and Rescue! [GPS coordinates were inserted here]), or if the SPOT tracker actually worked. We built a signal fire but had no confidence anyone was looking yet. So, before the sun could soften the crusty snow making it harder to get down, and before another storm could hit leaving us more stranded, we headed back down towards Elephant Hill where I knew we could get out. As we drove we would catch some notifications on our phones, but never enough signal to get a new message out. Therefore, our “Help us! We’re stranded!” messages we'd written the night before got out, but our messages about being on our way out never did. So, SAR was contacted about 11AM. We finally got signal about 4:30 PM to let them know we were safe. The truck performed admirably, I learned some new skills and maneuvers, and one of my children is emotionally scarred for life, reportedly to never go 4 wheeling again. The dangers were real but we are all safe.
This is long, but it’s a bit of Post-traumatic stress therapy. If you stick with it to the end you might enjoy it, or learn something, or just get bored.
There’s tech though.
-Confirmed: The 80 has a big butt and will drag on this trail unless you have more than an OME heavy lift with 35” tires. I left some trailer hitch gouges.
-The steering wheel is now cocked to the right about 1/3 of the way. Twisted King Pin?
-Driving in the snow: Airing down always confused me. If you’re making the first tracks, isn’t it more difficult to get through aired down? And without a compressor on board, what’s the lowest you can go and still drive 50-60 miles to the nearest town for air?
-After a hellacious and torturous 2 days of abuse on the trail, what are the first things I should be checking? I think: Alignment, dented [anything underneath] that’s not armored, exhaust hangers…what else? Any concerns I should have about fluids after driving hard for that long?
-My rear locker would never engage. I’ll do some searching because I’m pretty sure this has been covered in other threads.
-I engaged the front lockers while in motion a few times, actually while giving it gas in 4 Low to get over obstacles. OK or I was lucky to not grenade something?
-Trail Tailor’s ( @reevesci ) roof rack has been tested as roof armor and approved. It’s tough as hell! Limb risers are a good thing and I still need them. Carry the hi-lift INSIDE the rack instead of outside to reduce destruction to vegetation and to get through the squeeze on the Elephant Hill loop.
-Install armor! We got through without more than a couple gouges on the front fender flare, but it's a small miracle my low hanging cats didn't get removed on this trip. I need sliders!
The short story: We got to the Needles trailhead in the Devil’s Kitchen loop off Elephant Hill in Canyonlands National Park a little late in the day, about 2PM. We hiked until about 4:30 when we drove out. Through a series of bad decisions and lack of information/misinformation, we took the “back road out” instead of tackling elephant hill in the dark without a good spotter or staying overnight. My recollection of the Beef Basin road was that it was an easy route out of the park, just kind of long. It turns out my memory was wrong and it did not include snow. We ended up at an elevation of about 7,800 feet with over 6 inches of old snow on an uphill grade. I couldn’t make it any farther and we spent the night in the truck in temps below 20F. Me, my wife, and 3 of my kids, all adult size. My SPOT tracker didn’t get the SOS signal out.
EDIT: I learned that my SPOT subscription expired and the auto-renew failed. The unit wasn't registered with their service.
In the morning, I was still concerned about going down the couple miles of snowy incline we had just come up, nearly sliding off multiple times, and we didn’t know if any of our texts got out (Stranded! Send Search and Rescue! [GPS coordinates were inserted here]), or if the SPOT tracker actually worked. We built a signal fire but had no confidence anyone was looking yet. So, before the sun could soften the crusty snow making it harder to get down, and before another storm could hit leaving us more stranded, we headed back down towards Elephant Hill where I knew we could get out. As we drove we would catch some notifications on our phones, but never enough signal to get a new message out. Therefore, our “Help us! We’re stranded!” messages we'd written the night before got out, but our messages about being on our way out never did. So, SAR was contacted about 11AM. We finally got signal about 4:30 PM to let them know we were safe. The truck performed admirably, I learned some new skills and maneuvers, and one of my children is emotionally scarred for life, reportedly to never go 4 wheeling again. The dangers were real but we are all safe.
This is long, but it’s a bit of Post-traumatic stress therapy. If you stick with it to the end you might enjoy it, or learn something, or just get bored.
There’s tech though.
-Confirmed: The 80 has a big butt and will drag on this trail unless you have more than an OME heavy lift with 35” tires. I left some trailer hitch gouges.
-The steering wheel is now cocked to the right about 1/3 of the way. Twisted King Pin?
-Driving in the snow: Airing down always confused me. If you’re making the first tracks, isn’t it more difficult to get through aired down? And without a compressor on board, what’s the lowest you can go and still drive 50-60 miles to the nearest town for air?
-After a hellacious and torturous 2 days of abuse on the trail, what are the first things I should be checking? I think: Alignment, dented [anything underneath] that’s not armored, exhaust hangers…what else? Any concerns I should have about fluids after driving hard for that long?
-My rear locker would never engage. I’ll do some searching because I’m pretty sure this has been covered in other threads.
-I engaged the front lockers while in motion a few times, actually while giving it gas in 4 Low to get over obstacles. OK or I was lucky to not grenade something?
-Trail Tailor’s ( @reevesci ) roof rack has been tested as roof armor and approved. It’s tough as hell! Limb risers are a good thing and I still need them. Carry the hi-lift INSIDE the rack instead of outside to reduce destruction to vegetation and to get through the squeeze on the Elephant Hill loop.
-Install armor! We got through without more than a couple gouges on the front fender flare, but it's a small miracle my low hanging cats didn't get removed on this trip. I need sliders!
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