If there wasnt a risk of something going wrong, it wouldnt be an adventure..
4 of us met for this little trip on Tueday in Roseville, Mel, Dan, Dan Sr. and myself.
We decided to do a trip that the capital city goats did last summer, a loop that goes thru a little town called Alegheny in the area of the big gold diggings during the California gold rush era.
Around sunset Tuesday (7 pm or so) on this off road trip, both Mel (Ruffian) and I got stuck in deep snow on Tyler Foot trail, Dan and Dan Sr, managed to get their 4runner thru the last obstacle and get out onto a good road. So we agreed they would head home and Mel and I would double back and go out the way we came in. Which did not work.
Around 10pm after Mel and I tried 3 other routes to get out and failed, we went back to where we had cell phone coverage and called Dan, who was on his way home and got him to come back and pick us up. Mel and I left our 4runners in the bush and walked out. Dan picked us up around 11pm after a 3 or so mile walk thru snow and a bush track and carted our sorry asses down to grass valley, where my wife (not very happy about it) picked us up and took us home.
It was a bit scarey in the early evening, trying the different routes to get out and failing each time, it was snowing lightly and the temp was below 32.
The next day, Wednesday we went back up to the trail above Aleghaney with Zack from the local 'We Build it' 4X club and he managed to drive right to our trucks in his very modified 4Runner. Both of our trucks were then able to drive right out of this mess - no winching, no chains, no snach straps.
I think the secret being late afternoon sloppy snow / ice melts easily and its very easy to get stuck in, especially when it high centers the truck. You just have to wait for it to re-freeze so it can be driven on.
Hopefully Mel will post some pics, she had a camera and I didnt.
If there wasnt the possibility of something going wrong, it wouldnt be an adventure....
Special thanks to Dan, Dan Sr and Zack for their help in getting our sorry asses out
Joe