[Jeepin] Stuck in the Snow [lots of pics+story]

[tweakit]

Ah, the eastern part of South Dakota; back-country roads and drifting snow. The perfect way to get stuck while trying to conquer the white shit. The worst part about a lot of these roads is you have no way of knowing how deep it is until you hit it, and then it's too late.

We knew we would be in for some sticky spots, so we brought two shovels, my camera, a girl (to take the pictures), and warm clothes.

Here goes nothing!

Obviously this road doesn't have that much snow on it, let's attempt to take it with some speed:

Okay, so it's a little deeper than expected.

Time to start shoveling...already. Go Chase!

Yes, I am NOT a complete pussy! I can shovel!

Now we gotta dig out the front end.

A shot of how far we got before becoming part of the landscape:

Chase giving a nice push as I rock gently back and forth:

Until finally I break loose and back the fuck out of there

The only way out is through, so here I come, barreling down the road:

Fly-by shot, courtesy of Crystal

I kept going until I knew I could stop and not get stuck.

And then I walked back, to visit my comrades and get the shovels.


So that was Part 1 of the story. Part 2 will continue in a new post below:

[Chan_Man]

Damn bro that looks like fun!!!

[tweakit]

Part 2

We searched for other "Minimum Maintenance" roads to explore and found what we thought was a road. Maybe in the summer time you can consider it a "road" but obviously we were wrong about this one (at least I was):

Well shit, stuck again.

Time to whip out the shovels and let the girl take pics of us breaking our backs (not really).

With Chase pushing again, we finally broke out of that shit (was the deepest we hit so far at that time)

We felt like we had accomplished something, so we had to take a picture.


Not far from where we were would turn out to be the most frustrating, dangerous (in certain terms) part of the whole "hunt" for snowy roads.

Most people who live in rural areas know of slews and that sometimes county roads run through them, and not normal roads just enough dirt buildup in the water to create a path that you could walk on, or drive on if it's wide enough. Well that's what I decided we would conquer next.

I shouldn't have...

Not only was this a lot deeper than the rest, we had about a foot or less on each side to really work with. Past that foot was about 3 feet of weeds+ice, then it was the slew (or lake for people who don't know).



Time to shovel again:








Now this last image shows us out of this huge mess I got us into, but there is more that happened that the camera didn't capture.


We got stuck like this another 3 times and had to do the same shoveling every time to get another run at the road. The final attempt landed my jeep sideways on this road, one wheel off into that weed and ice mixture I mentioned. I tried and tried to straighten out but eventually slid down into it. I rocked back and forth a little bit and had some traction, so without warning to my friend Crystal, I slammed the gas and just drove through whatever was ahead of me, blindly more or less. We hit some nasty bumps, causing Crystal to fly around and hit her head hard on the roof. We eventually came to rest, high centered, on another piece of land and snow.

After looking back and talking to Chase, it turns out we were right on the brink of the water, actually broken through the ice. That was the dangerous part. Crystal is ok, she had a bit of a headache. I really didn't show much emotion but I was damn glad to be out of there. We had to shovel and push one more time to get out of the last place we got stuck, which led to the last photo you saw.

Overall, it was fun but I would never take a road like the last one again. I guess it's one of those risks you take and never thoroughly think of what could happen.

Hope you all enjoyed the story!

-Scott (tweakit)

[chessboxer]

im jealous man, even though it was a hairy situation. my friend used to have this beater of an f150 that we would ravage in indiana in times like this and in mud. now in lexington i have no truck and no crazy friend with no sense of what is safe and/or not going to kill us.

[aero]

looks fun, but thats what you have to get two trucks to go out and do. Screw shoveling, just bring two towstraps and pull the other truck out when they get stuck.

[GREENCB3]

That sucks.

[tweakit]

That sucks.

these were all self-inflicted wounds

[The G-Man]

I want a beater truck now. Too bad my friend sold his old F-150 for a V6 Mustang.