The 6 hour recovery
We were running through a 30-40yd stretch of sticky mud and second to the last truck (an FJ) got stuck. After winching him back several times and using our Maxtrax unsuccessfully, he ended up burying his axle into the mud. Winching him back did not work, as he was on the verge of tipping every time I pulled back. Using his own winch was out of the question, as he pulled a little too much out of his winch line and it unspooled.
We ended up positioning another rig above him to winch him forward, and me on the side to keep tension on his slider to keep him from tipping further. Then we all got stuck together
Every time we pulled up the Maxtrax, we literally had to dig them out of 6-7 inches of mud with shovels. And get our fingers in the grooves to wipe out the mud because it wouldn't just come out. The last few hours were pretty exhausting. No pictures.
Finally made it back in to camp, rigs looked a little worse for wear the following moning
^^By the way, that wasn’t the FJ that got stuck. He was exiled to the bottom of the hill….
Headed for home, but the trail wasn’t done with us yet. Hit a 300-yd section of mud and water. Decided to just run through it, was better than running back through the 6-hr recovery section from the night previous.
Saw tons of cool views
Trail still hasn’t done with us yet. Just as I called out on the radio that we’d made it to the main road, the main road decides it wants to go away.
After walking the washed out section, we decided that it was safe to pass if we stacked a few rocks. The road was washed out in another couple sections, but we passed through with no issues.
Steering wheel was shaking the entire drive down to Reno on account of all the mud in our wheels and suspension. Thank god for coin-op car washes…
All in all, I think I used my winch a good dozen times that trip. We made a few mistakes, but that's ultimately how we learn what not to do next time. I hear the Rubicon is going to be nice this year...j/k
Thanks [MENTION=56922]NoOneBetter[/MENTION] for some of the photos, wouldn't be able to tell the complete story without your pics. And [MENTION=129593]MTN4RNR[/MENTION], hope you can hit this one next time, sorry you had to sit it out.