April 1969 - This was my very first stuck.  At the time of this stuck, I was a junior in high school and I was driving my Dad's 1965 Volkswagon Bus.

Before I talk about the stuck, I want to say a few words about the VW bus.  It wasn't a four wheeler, but it could go places where a lot of four wheelers couldn't go.  The engine was in the rear, right over the driving wheels.  The thing had a transaxle, which gave it at least 8" of ground clearance, since it didn't have a differential.  Not to mention that first gear as so low that it was almost a "granny" gear.  You could start up in second that the thing wouldn't care.

My buddy Ken Loring and I had been hunting coyotes and ground squirrels all day in the Lake McClure area in Mariposa County, Ca. It's interesting to note that we were quite well armed; he was using his Dad's .45-70 and I was using an old Mauser Model 98 in .308! (I still have the rifle)  I suppose you could say that we were a bit "over-armed" since our intended prey was ground squirrels.  After a day of harassing the varmints, we decided to go up a sandy road, as we thought we might be able to stumble on another coyote or two, and maybe power down a couple of Buckhorns.  Note:  For those of you who didn't grow up in Central California in the 1960's, Buckhorn beer was cheap and readily available to underage drinkers, depending on where you bought it. It was the beer of choice to impoverished teenagers, as I was.

We started to climb up the steep, sandy road and everything was ok for awhile.  Then the VW started to lose traction and our progress ground to a halt.  Instead of backing down, like I should have done, I attempted to turn to the right, to try a u-turn, but this action resulted in an immediate stuck.

Being young, dumb and inexperienced, I have the VW all the "go-go" juice I could give it (not much from a 50 hp mill,) which resulted in digging the tires into the sand up to the rocker panels.

Of course, we didn't have any recovery equipment or tools with us.  The VW was stuck big-time!  Then we came up with a plan.  It seems that Ken's dad was one of the bosses of the irrigation district, and everybody around there knew who Ken was.  So all we had to do was fine someone with access to a tractor...

We left our rifles in the bus and started to hike down the hill.  We managed to flag down a ditch tender, and he took us back to the maintenance show.  Ken was a smooth talker and managed to talk one of the guys, who just happened to have access to a tractor, to go out and "check on a broken gate."

So, the guy hooded a tow chain to the bumper of the VW (bad idea but that's all there was) and pulled us out.  I was relieved, as it was getting close to the time that I had to leave and you didn't want to be late with your Dad's car.  (No wheels for next Friday night's date!)  The VW was full of sand, so we took it back to Ken's and cleaned it out.

When it came to my Dad's car, I had a policy that I would never lie, but if he didn't ask, I wouldn't volunteer any information.  You know, Dad never did ask me what happened and over the years I forgot to tell him.  I guess Ken and I did a good job in cleaning up the mess.  And, yes, I got to use the car for next Friday night's date.

So much for four wheeling in a VW bus!