Sketchy Road Stories

[idahohikker]

The Haul Rd in the winter is always fun.

Alaska doesn't count in this thread. It will blow us all out of water. Just kidding. I've seen some video of the Haul Road and it's pucker level 10.

 

[ewade07]

Out hunting this year in SE Montana my brother and I ran into some pretty messy roads, the worst I have ever been on. We really had no choice but to gut it out. It was 7 miles or ruts, mud and water, in the dark. There were a couple semi hairy spots but nothing too bad. Put the Tundra sideways in the road a few times, once or twice a little too close to the edge of the road on a drop off side. However, where we finally stopped had not seen any truck traffic for some time so that was a bonus. I can't say it was all bad as my brother shot a real nice muley buck and I shot a cool cactus buck. Thankfully cold weather had rolled in and the roads were all froze over on the way out.

 

[missjordan]

Thanks. Can you walk us through your technique of starting to slid "semi-uncontrolled and you just point it in a good direction and work yourself down the mountain as bast as you can"? I have my own method but I'm sure it's not the best and I feel like this is a good thing to know. You seem to have expertise.

I’m sure your method is as good as mine! Sometimes the breaks are your enemy and letting the truck have more momentum then necessary will save you. Some pucker factor involved with these decisions


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[Back Country Hunter 2]

Story 1

2nd year bowhunting, so 2016, I was planning on going to a spot opening weekend I had scouted that summer. Told one of my buddies where I was going who knew the area better. He's like no, you want to go to this spot. It's the best spot for opening morning. I had never been up the road, but what the hell. I show up Friday afternoon and the road is tight. Lots of little pine trees are scratching the hell out of my truck on both sides, but on I went. I backpacked in for the weekend saw elk, but no bulls. Found a pretty nice moose shed. Only one I've ever found. I get back to where I parked my truck and I couldn't turn around. Yay for longbeds. I didn't carry a chainsaw at that time so I figured what the hell, I'll just drive backwards until I get to the first pullout, about a mile down the road. Get to a tight turn and I've got trees on both sides that are preventing me from making the turn. I get out and see what my options are and there isn't a better spot to make the turn. Little pines everywhere and thick on both sides. I think the trees will break before my truck does. Nope. I hear a loud noise and my truck flashes lamp out. I get out and the lamp is laying on the road with a large dent around where the lamp was. I make it back home and show the wife. She asked was it worth it? I showed her the moose shed and said YEAH. She didn't agree. So I currently have a $2000 moose shed at my house. It's nice.

 

[CorbLand]

Out hunting this year in SE Montana my brother and I ran into some pretty messy roads, the worst I have ever been on. We really had no choice but to gut it out. It was 7 miles or ruts, mud and water, in the dark. There were a couple semi hairy spots but nothing too bad. Put the Tundra sideways in the road a few times, once or twice a little too close to the edge of the road on a drop off side. However, where we finally stopped had not seen any truck traffic for some time so that was a bonus. I can't say it was all bad as my brother shot a real nice muley buck and I shot a cool cactus buck. Thankfully cold weather had rolled in and the roads were all froze over on the way out.

You aint never lived if your pickup hasn't ever been facing East/West and somehow your still traveling North/South.

 

[EastMT]

North Slope Ice roads can get a bit sketchy in a stiff wind, this is a pretty nice day.

I have yet to be begin to procrastinate.

 

[idahohikker]

Story 1

2nd year bowhunting, so 2016, I was planning on going to a spot opening weekend I had scouted that summer. Told one of my buddies where I was going who knew the area better. He's like no, you want to go to this spot. It's the best spot for opening morning. I had never been up the road, but what the hell. I show up Friday afternoon and the road is tight. Lots of little pine trees are scratching the hell out of my truck on both sides, but on I went. I backpacked in for the weekend saw elk, but no bulls. Found a pretty nice moose shed. Only one I've ever found. I get back to where I parked my truck and I couldn't turn around. Yay for longbeds. I didn't carry a chainsaw at that time so I figured what the hell, I'll just drive backwards until I get to the first pullout, about a mile down the road. Get to a tight turn and I've got trees on both sides that are preventing me from making the turn. I get out and see what my options are and there isn't a better spot to make the turn. Little pines everywhere and thick on both sides. I think the trees will break before my truck does. Nope. I hear a loud noise and my truck flashes lamp out. I get out and the lamp is laying on the road with a large dent around where the lamp was. I make it back home and show the wife. She asked was it worth it? I showed her the moose shed and said YEAH. She didn't agree. So I currently have a $2000 moose shed at my house. It's nice.

View attachment 137489

View attachment 137490

You're at $2,000 for truck damage while during hunting activities. It's an overall analysis. That makes the one trip not sound as bad. .

 

[bedford falls]

Not real sketchy, but makes a good story around the campfire. I was out deer hunting with my oldest boy and his friend (both about 6 years old) just driving around and this old road goes across the river, not real deep 12" - 24" and about 50 yards across. At the time I was driving a Ford 2WD pickup. We made it across without incident and drove for awhile and then got out and hunted for awhile. On the way back we made it across the river ok, but getting out was a problem, as there was a bank that we had to get up that didn't look that steep on the way over but on the way back once it was wet we could not make it out of the water. No problem, I will just go to the other bank and put chains on. So, while backing across the river I get off the track and get high centered. I get out of the pickup and have to get down on my knees (and sometimes belly) to get under the pickup and dig the rock out that I am high centered on. Well, soaking wet I, make it back to the other side of the river, put on a set of chains and make it up the bank to the good road. Now all this time there is a guy with an RV camped by the river and he is sitting in his lawn chair watching all of this. The boys loved it and still tell the story when they get a chance.

 

[5MilesBack]

You aint never lived if your pickup hasn't ever been facing East/West and somehow your still traveling North/South.

That's similar to my elk hunting saying of "You just haven't lived until your pack gets ahead of you on the downside of a very steep slope, while hauling out a 100+ pound load". LOL.

 

[137buck]

The worst on road butt puckering was three years ago, my dad passed away back in Wisconsin and left me a bunch of stuff. So the wife, kids and I go there for Christmas to pick up the stuff, I realize it will not all fit in the back of my truck, so I rent a UHaul 6'x12' enclosed trailer, get everything packed up and hit the road back to Montana. It was for the most part a good trip until we hit just outside of Billings. the road has grooves from all the traffic and that was bare blacktop, but everything else was ice. As I'm driving, I feel the truck get tugged to the right a little bit, look in the passenger side mirror and the trailer is at a 45* angle, then it swings the other way, and it drags the truck to the left, at about this time, the wife is about to have a coronary and the kids are freaking out, fortunately, I was able to slow the train wreck down and recover it, but I admit, I had to almost clean my shorts out on that one, as I sure thought I was going into the ditch. Then just this past Sunday, last day of general season here in Montana, I was trying to find a deer for my son, I wanted to get up on this one road where we can get up high and do some spotting. As I was driving up it, there is some switchbacks on it and as I went up the last one, my truck was spinning pretty good, I knew that coming down was going to be a little fun. So at the end of the day, as we were making our way down, I come to that first switchback, which makes a sharp right turn and its all ice now, as I'm going into it, my truck starts to slide towards the 50' drop off, my kid, being a kid playing on his dang phone is oblivious to what's going on, so I hit the gas pedal and thankfully the front tires drag the front around and I just barely make it. Lesson learned from that one, just don't be stubborn and throw the tire chains on to save the tidy whiteys.

 

[fiskeri1]

One of mine was this past Sunday/Monday coming back to MN from an AZ archery elk hunt. SD is much too large a state to drive 45mph across it. They only seem to plow within 10 miles of Sioux Falls?

 

[Squamch]

Because I hunt in the rain, and the nastier the day, the better it is, ivebhad a few water problems. Pic 1, the ford was 6" deep in the morning. Headlights went under on the way back, sucked water into the intake and killed it. Didn't hydrolock the motor, so I was able to use an old tshirt for a new air filter, since the old one was soaked, and keep going once we dried it out.
Pic 2, the creek was hub deep last week...over the headlights again this time. Cab filled with water, hydro locked the motor and bent a rod, got towed out on a 12' strap. That was a long, cold night.

 

[3forks]

There’s a Facebook page and group devoted to off-road recoveries here in Colorado. Some of the pictures of the situations people have gotten into make you wonder just how dumb people can be.

While snowmobiling, I’ve seen late model pick ups abandoned with snow over their hoods. That’s got to be a bad feeling knowing you won’t be able to recover a vehicle until spring and worrying about it all winter.

I grew up doing a bunch of 4 wheeling in the 70s in southwest Colorado, but have gotten pretty conservative these days. As much as I don’t really like the side x side ORV trend in recreational vehicles - I can see the practicality of those things. Those side x sides are much better suited to traveling on difficult roads than the full size pick ups that most of us are driving today.

 

[idahohikker]

Those side x sides are much better suited to traveling on difficult roads than the full size pick ups that most of us are driving today.

Great post. And, yes, I try to just use a 4 wheeler whenever possible these days on iffy roads. Much easier.

 

[ODB]

Driving up through Embu and Chuka around Mount Kenya is interesting both for the insane passing going on (did I tell you about the car that ran through the guardrail and was perched over a 200’ drop off) and also the miraa smugglers who drive (totally whacked out on miraa) overloaded pickups stacked with fresh leaves waay too fast (the leaves are most potent while fresh so time is of the essence!) down the mountain to the airstrip where the leaves are flown to the Somali border in airplanes whose seats have been removed to fit the cargo and then will be replaced to carry travelers. Fairly stressful at times...

 

[Bobbyboe]

Not necessarily dangerous (because its paved) but defiantly scary. The road going over the Navajo Dam in New Mexico is a scary SOB. One lane each way and no guard rails. 80’ drop into water on the north side and a 200-400’ drop into the river on the other. Needless to say I drove directly in the middle while going over!

 

[ArrowForester]

Drove over the pass from swan valley to Jackson hole one year in March. They closed it five minutes after we went passed the gate. It was an interesting trip. We had four heads sticking out each window watching for a snow bank or a line on the road. Never again will I do that. It was a tough one going fast enough to keep momentum but slow enough we didn’t end up in the ditch.


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What road was this and what pass does it cross Corbland? I was going to post my sketchy road story but now I can’t even find the road on a map and my notes are buried at the moment.

I was in that area and went for the scenic route over a pass from WY to the Palisades reservoir. Light rain and all seemed well. But the world changed once on the west side of the pass. Boulders fallen on the road, almost one lane wide, rain intensified, road outsloped to a long drop off over the hill, truck sliding randomly on the slick surface.

Two different times on the descent I got to a spot I thought the tires would hold and I put it in park with the e-brake engaged and got out for ten minutes to sit in the cold rain and let my stress level drop. When I thought I could handle more I got bake in and tried to keep going down as backing up or turning around was never an option available.

When I made it to the bottom I passed a large sign stating boldly that this was a four wheel drive road, stock trailers were prohibited and the road was considered closed from November to June. Travel at your own risk.

There was no such sign on the other side of the mountain when I started up the road in May in an old two wheel drive suburban with highway tires.

I chatted with a fisherman at the outflow and was asking for directions. He said to go out the way I came in and pointed down the road. When I said no I came from there and pointed toward the mountain he didn‘t believe me. Said that was impossible. He quit traveling that road even in midsummer with 4x4.

Ah, the adventures of youth......

 

[CorbLand]

What road was this and what pass does it cross Corbland? I was going to post my sketchy road story but now I can’t even find the road on a map and my notes are buried at the moment.

I was in that area and went for the scenic route over a pass from WY to the Palisades reservoir. Light rain and all seemed well. But the world changed once on the west side of the pass. Boulders fallen on the road, almost one lane wide, rain intensified, road outsloped to a long drop off over the hill, truck sliding randomly on the slick surface.

Two different times on the descent I got to a spot I thought the tires would hold and I put it in park with the e-brake engaged and got out for ten minutes to sit in the cold rain and let my stress level drop. When I thought I could handle more I got bake in and tried to keep going down as backing up or turning around was never an option available.

When I made it to the bottom I passed a large sign stating boldly that this was a four wheel drive road, stock trailers were prohibited and the road was considered closed from November to June. Travel at your own risk.

There was no such sign on the other side of the mountain when I started up the road in May in an old two wheel drive suburban with highway tires.

I chatted with a fisherman at the outflow and was asking for directions. He said to go out the way I came in and pointed down the road. When I said no I came from there and pointed toward the mountain he didn‘t believe me. Said that was impossible. He quit traveling that road even in midsummer with 4x4.

Ah, the adventures of youth......

I was like 14 when we did this so I may be incorrect on how we got there exactly but this was when I lived in Rigby area so we would go out to Swan Valley and take 31 to Victor. Then drop in to Jackson via 33/22 through Wilson, Wyoming. Its all paved roads but can get really nasty in the winter. We looked up the road closure reports when we got to Jackson and we were basically 5 minutes ahead of them closing gates as we made the trip. We basically made whole trip there on closed roads.

 

[ArrowForester]

On the bright side, your closed road made for light traffic!

Thanks Corbland. I need to dig out my travel notes and clear up my memory of the location. The road I travelled was certainly not paved but a quick look at maps on the interwebs don’t show anything obvious crossing those ridges besides the route you describe.

 

[bedford falls]

The post about driving over the Navajo dam reminds me of the time we drove over The Dalles dam in an M1 tank, that was kind of hairy! ODOT wouldn't let us drive over the bridge because they were afraid of harmonic vibrations from the tank tracks damaging the bridge, who knew. lol