As we traveled further north, we found ourselves on a small levee type road between two large ponds. I've heard TONS of horror stories about the mud around the Salton Sea, and have seen countless photos and videos of people buried up to their frames in nasty stuff because they tried to get a vehicle too close to the shoreline. What most people don't realize is that everything near the shoreline that looks like dry ground was actually under water, likely just a few months earlier. So the top surface drys and looks hard packed, but everything underneath is nasty and soggy.
For this reason exactly, we stayed FAR away from the shoreline of the actual lake, but were intrigued by the wetlands area we were in. We were being extra cautious and avoiding any roads that looked or felt muddy, but apparently not cautious enough. While driving very slowly down the road between the two large ponds, we hit a patch of mud that was slimy and slick like ice, and as if a giant sea serpent had reached its arms out of the water and pulled our car, we simply slid sideways down off the road and almost into the water.
The photos don't do justice to how badly we were stuck. We did a great job of not panicking and spinning the tires, but I still underestimated just how bad it was. After surveying the situation, I (foolishly) figured the mud wasn't as bad as I thought, and thought I could crawl back up to the road by switching to 4-lo and locking the rear end. We jacked up the rear end with the hi-lift and stacked rocks under the tires, which did give us some good traction for a few feet. However, as I started to climb back up to the road, the tires once again broke loose and the truck once again slid sideways down to the shoreline, this time colliding with a large wooden fence that surrounded a duck hunting blind between the road and the shore. After an hour of jacking up the rig and stacking more rocks, moving a few feet, and doing it again, we finally got it turned around, but still couldn't get up to the road. There was nothing to anchor to in order to use the winch, and even a second rig there wouldn't have helped because it would have simply pulled them down to where I was (the mud was SO slick! - both Jessica and I slipped and fell in it at least 5 or 6 times each).
I decided we needed help - either extra hands, or just a clear brain that could give us some fresh ideas. I posted up in a few of the Facebook offroad recovery pages saying we needed help (including two that are local for the Salton Sea area), but got virtually no responses. Lot's of people asking for updates and telling me to try stuff I had already tried, but no one who was willing or able to come give us a hand. Knowing that everyone from camp was likely already back in OC or SD by now, I decided to call some tow truck companies and see if there was an option for help there. Quickly hit some dead ends (most were closed and their answering services said they wouldn't respond to help. AAA also tried a few companies for me who all said no), and we decided that we needed to roll up our sleeves and get it out ourselves, or prepare to spend the night again (it was about 2:00 pm by this point, and we had already spent almost 2 hours trying to self recover and get help). We spent the next 90 minutes jacking up the rear end, stacking rocks, moving a few feet, and repeating. I aired down further (10 psi), which did help a little more. After some backbreaking work, we finally got the truck straight along the shoreline and pointed in the right direction to get out of there. Thankfully, there were large rocks stacked along the shoreline and I was able to crawl along them, using them for traction as we moved back out off of the levee toward the main road. I was so thankful for my skid plates as I dragged the bottom of my rig slowly over the rocks, and occasionally we'd have to stop and stack more to get up over a rock that was too large.
After traveling about 500 feet, I reached a spot where the slope back up to the road was less steep, and decided to go for it. I gave it some skinny pedal and fishtailed like crazy until I was back up on the road, and kept driving until I was out of the mud. Almost 3 and a half hours later, we were finally out of the mud from hell.
We got back out to the road and aired up. The inside of the rig was covered in mud, we were covered in mud, but we were safe and free and headed home. I stopped off at a self car wash on the way and sprayed as much as I could off of the undercarriage and sides of the rig, and did it again the next day with a pressure washer at home. We finally got home about 10:00 pm.
I learned a lot about self recovery, particularly about not underestimating how bad mud can be. It was stupid to try and climb back up to the road, and I took some pretty gnarly body damage as a result (plus destroyed someone's hunting blind. Don't worry, we found the locals who owned it and they weren't upset at all. We offered to pay or help rebuild, and they declined). Next trip to the area will be in a few weeks. I've decided that I must bring either a land anchor, traction boards, and/or another rig. Or maybe all 3.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
