June 26, 1999 - My father, Ted, my brother Michael and I all agreed to meet at Fence Creek campground in California's Stanislaus National Forest, for a weekend of camping, ham radio and relaxation.  We really weren't planning any four wheeling, as the plan was just to kick back, get a little drunk and relax.

Well, when you camp in California's Sierra Nevada mountains, you just have to have a nightly campfire, as that's part of the ritual. So, Dad, Michael and I piled into my truck and headed to an area that we'd been to many times before to gather wood for the night's campfire.

Note to environmentalists:  We only use wood that is dead, and on the ground.  We do not cut dead wood off of trees.  Most of the firewood we gather is "slash" left over from a previous logging operation.  We TreadLightly and respect the environment.  

Photo:  Yes, it's grainy video, but I rummage for "stuff" from the toolbox as Dad looks on.  Ok, I'm stuck!

Anyway, we were going up a very easy, Class-2 trail, when all of a sudden, the right rear wheel of the truck sort of swung to the right, off the trail and into a hole.  Dad and I were talking about birds and my attention was diverted from the trail; a rather dumb on my part. I did another dumb thing:  In a "quick and dirty" attempt to get out fast, I gave the truck too much "go-go" juice.  Dumb on my part, as I've "been there, done that" and I should have known better.  So after all of that, it was a no-go situation.  Then, I tried the old forward-reverse, different-line technique, but the right rear just seemed to want to slip further into the ditch.  Now what?

At the time of this "stuck", June of 1999, I didn't have a winch on my truck.  If I'd had a winch at this time, this would have been over in about 5 minutes, as at this point it was still very easy and there were many large pine trees in the area.  So without a winch, out came the high-lift jack, to use the jack-and-fill method of getting un-stuck.  There was only one small problem:  The high-lift jack froze-up and would budge!  Murphy's Law was in action!  So I cursed the high-lift and threw it to who-knows-where.

No problem, onto plan "C."  Michael and I literally ran 3 miles back to camp to get his Cherokee.  The idea was to attach a tow strap to his truck so he could jerk me free.

However, it wasn't that easy.  As MIchael tried to pull me out, the truck just went deeper into the ditch.  It was getting to the point where my truck was canted over to the right, as it has slid so far into the ditch.  We only made a bad situation worse.

Photo:  Michael takes the photo as Dad surveys the scene while I rummage in the toolbox looking for solutions to our current problem.  Michael's Cherokee is in the background, and he is going to make an ill-fated attempt to "unstuck" me from my current predicament.

After playing this game for an hour or so, Michael drove to Dardenelle and called a 4WD tow truck.  Two hours later, the tow truck came, and after about a half hour of careful, skilful winching from his double winches, I was free!  Of course, I tipped him $250.00 for the thrill of it all.  

After we got "unstuck" we got our firewood and headed back to camp.  We forgot about ham radio, as it was time to pop the tops on a few cold ones and swap lies about the day's events.  Not to mention the obligatory cigar after dinner.  Just another day of camping in the Sierras!