First are just some pics of a cool hill I found just north or Cordes Junction on Friday.
Sunday I went out in a place I'm ashamed to say I have never been before and I was shocked at how beautiful the area was. This green little wonderland is just north of PHX . At times when driving around in the fog looking at all the green it actually reminded me of Hawaii (other than all the cactus), just the green foggy mountains.
Could these be Indian ruins? They used to be some kind of buildings.
Now these are pics of something that scared the Poo outa me.
After looking at the pics I found I needed some drawings to really relate how scary this was, and even after I found that I wasn't gonna die, I was positive that My truck was gone, there was no way to save it. Thankfully with the help of some ballsy redknecks I figured it out and me, my brother, AND my truck got out OK.
So basically I was driving up a small road that had a small section that was barely wide enough for my truck. I thought to myself that it was a bit iffy, but there was only about a 30 yard section that concerned me. Also, I didn't like my other option which was to try and back down the road I had driven up.
This is basically what the road looked like. It was kinda slick from the rain, and sloped a little bit towards a 400 foot drop off. The edge of the road had a pile of egg and softball sized rock
As I moved along the road my rear tire hit a rock that was buried in the road.
This rock, the downward slope of the road, and the mud kicked my rear tire onto the edge of the road so that it was sitting on the rocks on the edge.
At this point my brother looked out the passenger side and said "STOP!" . He told me what was happening and I thought maybe just a little gas would get me back onto the road, but nope. Instead it collapsed the pile of rock and my whole truck slid further to the edge with my rear tire actually over the edge on a pile of rock, and my front tire in the same position my rear tire was before I tried anything.
The rear tire looked like this.
and this is what my front tire looked like.
And this is basically what it looked like from the top.
Before I did anything
And after I tried to move forward.
So I got out and looked at it. I thought we were screwed.
Here are the pics of what I was looking at.
From the back.
Notice how the wheels are canted. The weight is trying to drag it over.
From the front.
And here is the drop
I called my brother. I barely had cell reception. It took me many partial calls to finally get him to understand what was happening and that I wanted him to come out so I could load my stuff into his truck. He finally understood and said he would be there in about an hour with a friend and a couple high lift jacks, some wood, tow straps, etc.
I was pretty sure that any movement of my truck would result in it just sliding further over the edge, and I knew that the road was a dead end just a few miles ahead of me so there was no way anyone could get in front to try and winch/tow me out. I also knew there was no way I could be towed out from behind.
I really felt that I would be placing a claim with my insurance company on my totaled truck, so I sat back to wait for my brother and I made some tea. :dunno
While I was waiting a couple trucks started up the road we were on. I sent my brother down to stop them. I saw one of them turn around and figure he was gonna go back down the hill, but instead the crazy bastard started backing up this little road. He tried to stay as close to the inside as possible and in fact at one point he was at so much of an angle that is right rear tire left the ground and he almost rolled over the edge himself.
He got out saying he could town me out, but I told him that there was no way it would work because if he towed me back I would just go further over the edge. He looked it over and agreed that I was truly screwed.
I thought about it for awhile and I came up with this idea.
I had him back right up to me as far inside of the road as he could, even going up the slope a bit. Then we hooked his tow strap from his hitch to mine. Like this.
This would do two things.
1.) it kind of anchors the truck from going further over the edge.
2.) If I tried to drive forward it would naturally drag my rear end back onto the road.
IT Worked! just like this.
All in all it was a good day. Starting out with some beautiful scenery and ending with some drama that I lived through.
