codyj86
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- co springs
My buddies and I are always looking for new thrills. Last night we blazed some new trails and we got a little bit stuck... 3 Jeeps, 6 People, and rain that afternoon... First run was fine, we made it farther than we ever had on a minimum maintiance road turned ATV trails. No problems. Needless to say, it had been a while since we had done some hardcore riding and that easy trail was just fuel to the fire. We came back with dirty jeeps, but we wanted more. We decided to hit up some ATV trails we had found earlier this year. There was some mud, big hills... you know basic stuff; or so we thought. Leading the pack was Matt, with a 92 XJ sporting my custom cut 32 x 11.5s (thanks swissfoo!), followed closely by Branden, a 94 XJ with bald stocks (who had impressed us all thus far), and Derek, a 98 TJ with 31 x 10.5 TSLs. My jeep wasn't going to make it, we had to leave it behind. 
Last time we took this particular trail, I got my jeep pretty well buried in mud, but we figured we could make it with the new tires and the TJ along, if Branden got stuck, we had the means to get him out, right? WRONG. Matt went forward, dropped his right front into about 2 feet of mud, Branden followed suit. Derek didn't get so much stuck in the mud, he got high centered. Matt and Branden got buried pretty good before we decided that we needed to try something other than just shitcanning it. :S So we tried Matt first, figured we get him out, he would pull Branden and then Derek would be last. We moved Matt about 5 feet with a hi-lift jack and tow straps and then couldn't get him anywhere else, considering he was buried to his headlights in mud. After we tried Branden for about 5 minutes, we realized that Derek was our best bet. Time update: 1:00 AM, all of us covered in mud to at least our knees, and it starts to rain (We started at 11:00 PM). The women were starting to get tired and cold, but were doing their best to help us out in any way possible. We tried the hi-lift again with Derek, but the trees right in front of him weren't right for pulling out a jeep. We decided to hook up to a tree on the side. We got Derek out of his rutts and in just the right spot to throw a log underneath his tires and get him up the hill, actually it was a dropoff, and he was out. FINALLY, some hope. Still raining, we started on Branden. We hooked three tow ropes together and pulled and pushed, and pulled and pushed, and pulled and pushed; well you get the idea. We had nothing. Branden just wasn't going to move. In the meantime, Matt's jeep decided to fill up with water, ruining two of the four cell phones we had along. We were all losing our steam and our hope, when suddenly, we had an idea. Derek, Matt, and the girls go back to the house, get my cell phone and call one of our other jeep buddies... If he can't get us out, nobody can (You will understand why). So off they go in the night, leaving me and Branden with the jeeps. The treck back to Matt's proved difficult too, we couldn't get back up the way we came down and Derek had never been out with us, so he didn't know where to go. They followed the trail around and finally found a gravel road that led to a cabin out in the area we were. They called Jon and waited. About 45 minutes later, it started to thunder... Wait, that wasn't thunder... that's Jon!! If we are going to blame this fiasco on anybody, Jon would be the one. He turned Matt, Branden, and I onto jeeps. He's a good man. Anyways, about Jon's jeep, a 93 XJ, 5.5 custom long arm suspension, 33 cooper trail cutters (brand new), locked front and rear, and here's where the thunder comes in, a custom built 350 stroked to 383 with 200 shot nitrious... totaling a net of 650 Rear wheel horsepower. Yup, that's how bad we were stuck, we needed a miracle in the form of jeep and we had found it. By the time they got back it was about 3:15 AM, raining off and on, and a lot colder than what it was when we started. Resting in Branden's jeep, I can hear some jeeps in the distance. I immeadiatly knew it was Jon by the way he was barreling down the trail basically like he was on a sidewalk. They brought back with them a 50ft steel cable and a ray of hope. We started with Branden, had him out in about 12 pulls! YAY. Now it was Matt's turn. Started with the cable, snapped it right in half. Ok, that wasn't going to work, we got the tow ropes and started pulling. After about 15 or 20 pulls, the work was over. At 4:15 AM we got back to Matt's, the girls were sleeping, and our jeep parade had come to an end for the night. Just in time too, it started to downpour! So, after 5 hours of...fun... we were all able to go wash the dirt off and warm up. As Derek was saying the whole night, This is how memories are made! And man, did we show my wife and Derek's girlfriend a good time on their maiden voyage! Pictures will be posted as soon as we get new cell phones, find the camera, and get the mud out of our (r)ears! **Moral of the story: When in doubt, call Jon!**
Last time we took this particular trail, I got my jeep pretty well buried in mud, but we figured we could make it with the new tires and the TJ along, if Branden got stuck, we had the means to get him out, right? WRONG. Matt went forward, dropped his right front into about 2 feet of mud, Branden followed suit. Derek didn't get so much stuck in the mud, he got high centered. Matt and Branden got buried pretty good before we decided that we needed to try something other than just shitcanning it. :S So we tried Matt first, figured we get him out, he would pull Branden and then Derek would be last. We moved Matt about 5 feet with a hi-lift jack and tow straps and then couldn't get him anywhere else, considering he was buried to his headlights in mud. After we tried Branden for about 5 minutes, we realized that Derek was our best bet. Time update: 1:00 AM, all of us covered in mud to at least our knees, and it starts to rain (We started at 11:00 PM). The women were starting to get tired and cold, but were doing their best to help us out in any way possible. We tried the hi-lift again with Derek, but the trees right in front of him weren't right for pulling out a jeep. We decided to hook up to a tree on the side. We got Derek out of his rutts and in just the right spot to throw a log underneath his tires and get him up the hill, actually it was a dropoff, and he was out. FINALLY, some hope. Still raining, we started on Branden. We hooked three tow ropes together and pulled and pushed, and pulled and pushed, and pulled and pushed; well you get the idea. We had nothing. Branden just wasn't going to move. In the meantime, Matt's jeep decided to fill up with water, ruining two of the four cell phones we had along. We were all losing our steam and our hope, when suddenly, we had an idea. Derek, Matt, and the girls go back to the house, get my cell phone and call one of our other jeep buddies... If he can't get us out, nobody can (You will understand why). So off they go in the night, leaving me and Branden with the jeeps. The treck back to Matt's proved difficult too, we couldn't get back up the way we came down and Derek had never been out with us, so he didn't know where to go. They followed the trail around and finally found a gravel road that led to a cabin out in the area we were. They called Jon and waited. About 45 minutes later, it started to thunder... Wait, that wasn't thunder... that's Jon!! If we are going to blame this fiasco on anybody, Jon would be the one. He turned Matt, Branden, and I onto jeeps. He's a good man. Anyways, about Jon's jeep, a 93 XJ, 5.5 custom long arm suspension, 33 cooper trail cutters (brand new), locked front and rear, and here's where the thunder comes in, a custom built 350 stroked to 383 with 200 shot nitrious... totaling a net of 650 Rear wheel horsepower. Yup, that's how bad we were stuck, we needed a miracle in the form of jeep and we had found it. By the time they got back it was about 3:15 AM, raining off and on, and a lot colder than what it was when we started. Resting in Branden's jeep, I can hear some jeeps in the distance. I immeadiatly knew it was Jon by the way he was barreling down the trail basically like he was on a sidewalk. They brought back with them a 50ft steel cable and a ray of hope. We started with Branden, had him out in about 12 pulls! YAY. Now it was Matt's turn. Started with the cable, snapped it right in half. Ok, that wasn't going to work, we got the tow ropes and started pulling. After about 15 or 20 pulls, the work was over. At 4:15 AM we got back to Matt's, the girls were sleeping, and our jeep parade had come to an end for the night. Just in time too, it started to downpour! So, after 5 hours of...fun... we were all able to go wash the dirt off and warm up. As Derek was saying the whole night, This is how memories are made! And man, did we show my wife and Derek's girlfriend a good time on their maiden voyage! Pictures will be posted as soon as we get new cell phones, find the camera, and get the mud out of our (r)ears! **Moral of the story: When in doubt, call Jon!**
