Unlucky, Lucky, Unlucky, Lucky

Have you ever wondered who the idiots are who leave big, deep tire marks in the mud in the West Desert along I-80? I found out who one is. I decided this afternoon to take my laptop to a nice, quiet spot to write a couple of brochures for work. I grabbed two 45-cent tacos and a fish taco from Dell Taco at the Tooele exit on I-80 and headed west to "my office" (the Dugway exit). I paralleled I-80 west for a ways, then turned north and crossed the railroad tracks. I decided I'd like to get a picture of a train passing. I found a dirt road that followed the utility poles east and then a path, or at least tire tracks, that led back to the south, parallel to the highway and right to the railroad tracks. I figured this would be a good place to eat lunch and watch for trains.

Unfortunately, I was watching the distance to the tracks and didn't notice that the trail went from dry to wet. As soon as I noticed the wheels slipping, I tried to head for the highway berm, but it was too late. The two left wheels sunk to the axles in cement-like clay mud, and I was stuck. Four-wheel drive does no good when all four wheels spin like inner tubes on water.

I had forgotten to throw the shovel that I used to keep in the Tahoe into the Toyota, so I found a small piece of plywood and started to dig a path out. I also stuck rusted steel and other garbage under the right wheels, which were in only a few inches of mud, trying to find some traction. This did not work at all.

Two guys in a DWR truck with ATVs stopped and asked whether I needed a ride somewhere. I asked if they had a shovel. They did. I bought it for $20. I started digging a trench. I also found a large pile of crushed rock the railroad had left by the tracks for road bed. I hauled several buckets of rocks and dumped them into the trench and under the right tires. This was not working. The tire treads were completely filled with the dense mud so the tires were like greased slicks spinning against the gravel. I also had a hard time keeping my shoes on my feet, as the mud kept trying to suck them off.

A tow truck heading out to Mag Corp stopped. He had to call his boss to see whether it would be okay to pull me out before he headed out to where he was supposed to be. His boss wasn't happy but said it was okay if it was a simple straight-out pull. He backed up his truck and handed me the cable hooks (he didn't want to get his cowboy boots in the mud). I slipped the hook into the Toyota's right tow loop. I couldn't connect the left hook, because the loop was right on the mud.

The tow truck driver turned on the winch, and his truck started sliding down the roadside. I gave the Toyota some gas and it slowly moved forward. I turned the steering wheel to the right to go up the highway berm, but the Toyota kept going straight toward a utility pole.

After three tries from three positions, we got the Toyota onto dry ground. I gave the driver $50.

I took a picture of a train as it passed.

When I got onto the highway, mud flew everywhere, and the Toyota drove like it was on severe washboard. Apparently mud was packed into the wheels, taking them way out of balance. I drove to the other side of the freeway, where a very bumpy road heads up the side of the mountain to a point that overlooks the freeway. I thought this might knock some mud off.

A ton of mud fell onto the bumpy road.

As I headed up the mountainside, I scared up these animals. I think they're female bighorn sheep. Two guys standing by their truck at the top asked if I had seen anything interesting. I said, "You mean like some sheep?" They said, "Yes! We've been looking for them." I told them that I'd scared them up the mountain, and the guys took off, but I think the sheep were long gone over the top by then.

At the top of the point, I decided to pull the left two wheels to scrape out the remaining mud. Notice the wheel is off the Toyota. Notice the jack is to the left of the wheel. Notice the wheel rotor is on the ground and the bumper is sitting on a storage box. This is not good. After I got the wheel off, the Toyota rolled off the jack.

Fortunately, I was able to get the jack out from under the fallen truck. Unfortunately, the frame where the jack needed to be placed was too close to the ground to fit the jack upright. Fortunately, the frame bends upward behind the wheel and I was able to get the jack under there. Unfortunately, even though I put the jack on a rock, the jack wouldn't lift the truck high enough to install the wheel. Fortunately, I found a big square rock that fit under the frame in front of the wheel well, so I was able to rest the truck on the rock while I moved the jack to its proper position.

I scraped at least 10 pounds of mud out of each of the left wheels. This mud is like thick, wet cement. It really sticks.

All is well that ends well. The wheels are back where they belong. I drove to the car wash on 9th East and after $10 was able to wash most of the mud off. All is back to normal with no damage.

Except my gloves, hunting knife, and shoes. They still need some cleaning. And now I have to get caught up on my work.

Fish Springs on Presidents Day Weekend

I know that I already went to Fish Springs with Randy on Martin Luther King Jr Day, but I had to take the Sequoia somewhere yesterday, and this seemed like a good choice.

You can get to Fish Springs from a few different directions (Wendover, Dugway, Delta, Tooele). I chose to go from the east end of the Pony Express Trail, which starts at Vernon (it actually starts in Missouri, but the marked Utah section starts here), south of Tooele. This is the first summit at 6,192 feet before the road drops into a valley. There is one more mountain pass before Fish Springs. The rest of the road is mostly flat desert valley.

The road from Dugway connects here (the Sequoia is actually on the Dugway road, but I didn't come from that direction).

Simpson Springs is a Pony Express stop. It has a rebuilt stone building, the remains of a farmer's building erected from the original Pony Express building, and a campground.

This is where the Powell guy supposedly took his boys camping in the middle of the night when his wife disappeared. Notice the yellow warning sign added to the bottom of the official sign.

There are too many people with guns and not enough rabbits in this desert.

After about 60 miles of dry dirt road (60 to 70 miles per hour over some straight stretches), I came to the Fish Springs refuge (this picture was taken facing east, even though I was traveling west on the road).

One of the many ponds at Fish Springs. A nice refuge in the middle of a very dry West Desert.

The birds seem to love it here.

This little guy's four buddies fled when I stopped to take a picture.

I left Fish Springs just before sunset.

These barren mountains are quite pretty at dusk.

Last time, Randy and I took a cutoff toward the Brush-Wellman Highway that was just a few miles east of Fish Springs. This time I decided to take a different cutoff even farther east called River Bottom Road, which led to the Weiss Highway. I was hoping Weiss Highway would end up on the Baker Hot Springs Road, but I really had no idea where it went. The sign said Delta was 40 miles, and I figured at the least I'd have to hit a paved road before too far.

River Bottom Road was the most boring road I've been on in a long time--hardly even any sage brush, and the mountains were quite a distance on the west and the east. That is, until I came to the lakes in the road. This is just a little puddle. I drove through lakes that shot waves of water 15 feet in the air on either side of the Sequoia.

Then I came to a stretch of mud that was about 1/4 mile long. I almost turned around but didn't want to go back through the lakes, so I plowed ahead. It was all I could do to hang onto the steering wheel and keep the Sequoia from ending up in the meadow. But the Sequoia kept going slower and slower and just about bogged to a complete stop when I found a relative dry spot and was able to pull out.

I finally reached the Weiss Highway, which turned out to be a dirt road just like the one I'd been driving on but without as much mud. The Weiss Highway went a few short miles to the Brush Highway, which is paved.

Yeah. I spent $11 at the car wash last night and still found a few trickles of mud here and there this morning.

Tanner's Fourth Birthday

Yesterday we celebrated Tanner's 4th birthday. When we walked in the door, the first thing he said was, "Look at this awesome cake." Then he spent the next 15 minutes staring at it while everyone else visited.

He was also pretty proud to be four. I asked him if he felt grown up. He said, "No, I'm not a grown up."

Jared ran next door to borrow candles.

Blowing out the candles.

All the kids got a few swings at the penguin piñata (because they don't make Spider-Man piñatas). I think Stanton was feeling a little concern for the penguin .

Feet make a good shelf for opening presents.

Tanner made a pretty good haul of cars, little Japanese Transformer-like balls that pop into vehicles or robots when dropped onto a magnetic card (I forgot what they're called), clothes, and a dragon kite (or was it a dinosaur--I forgot that, too).

Everyone got a hug as thanks.

Rabbit Hunting

Randy works with a guy at eBay who went rabbit hunting last week by Bear Lake and came home with about 20 rabbits. We decided shooting some bunnies would be a good way to try out the new Toyota Sequoia, and I wouldn't mind having some wild rabbit stew in the freezer (I don't think Chieko feels the same, but that's ok). (I took only two pictures, so most of these are Randy's.)

Bear Lake had a couple of cold-looking fishermen.

The Sequoia with a new set of Michelin LTX A/T2 tires passed its first off-road test just fine.

The picture above is in a parking lot next to Bear Lake. We also forged our own path in new snow on roads near South Eden Reservoir. The prints in the foreground are from an invisible bunny.

The hunting season ends when February does, so this is probably the only day we'll hunt this year. I scared up one cottontail, but with gloves on I couldn't find the safety on my gun fast enough to get off a shot before the rabbit shot up a hill in Randy's general direction. Randy got off one shot into a tree. And that was the extent of our rabbit hunt.

Where did all the rabbits go?

We watched this golden eagle hobble up a hill. He seemed to be injured.

And that's my report.

PS Before I left at 6 a.m. Saturday morning, I sold the tires that were originally on the Sequoia to a guy for a $100 bill. And while I was gone, Chieko sold the Tahoe to a Polynesian lady for $2,000 cash. The lady came back today to get the title and so I could get my license plates, but I never even found out her name.