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One bad fire road...

2K views 8 replies 7 participants last post by  ExDementia 
#1 ·
Beware, really long story ahead.:redface:

My buddy and I decide to go check out this light trail where people go shooting a lot in the back hills of Ramona, Ca. We heard that after the fire road ends there are some pretty cool trails. So we head out, a little uneasy at first about the winding trails along a ridge with so many people shooting off in different directions but the trail went away from them and didn't wind around in front of them. We get to a point where a sign says no shooting past this point and we feel a lot better.

This point is also where they apparently stopped maintaining the road after the fires. (more fun for us) So we go down the winding road until we think it is going to be boring the whole way, we were about to turn back when we see the trail drop off into a ravine. It was pretty steep on both sides with rocks in the middle so we decide to keep going and maybe there is more fun like this down further.

My Jeep just barely made it across it without hitting a bumper, I dented up my exhaust tip a bit but oh well. After this we find all kinds of fun things to drive over and around until my buddy Nick stops next to a charred sign to see what it says, he drives forwards and turns a little and his rear tire runs over a stake holding the sign in and slices right through the side wall.... Idiot!:banghead:

It just so happens that he left his spare at home because his home-made tire carrier broke a weld.:zap: I couldn't give him mine because its the stock 29" spare and hes running 33's with lockers. We hop in my Jeep and drive about 4 miles back to the main road then another 25 minute drive back to Poway for his spare. I take off my dinky tire and squeeze his on, barely enough room for it but it did fit.

By this time its 5:00, dark, and raining so we decide to bring a tent and his girlfriend, camp out, and change the spare in the morning. Luckily he popped his tire in a really cool dry riverbed with plenty of shady trees, it was actually a really nice place to camp out.

We wake up at around 8:00 and pack up the tent, ate some apples and oranges then changed the spare. We decide that we can do a bit of exploring before we had work at 3:00. We continue down the trail until we see an almost completely dry, winding creek with only a few inches of water. After checking it out I decide to cross it, I go at a decent speed until my front tires sink into the sand and my front bumper hits a buried slab of concrete that used to make a bridge... Crap. I try to go forwards and reverse, nothing. I just dug myself deeper. I crawl along my side step and back tire to get to dry land and hook up a tow strap. Nick tries pulling me back, to the side to no avail, he is just digging himself a hole. Then he tries to pull me to the other side and he hits some really soggy, soft sand and he got stuck. We try everything to both of ours, jacking them up, trying to put rocks under the tires, rocking them, nothing.

Now its been raining for about an hour and the creek is steadily rising. We wade into the freezing cold water and air down his tires, which were almost completely under water and being buried in the sand by the current. It did absolutely nothing but make our feet and legs completely numb. The water gets over my side step and up to my tub before we jack up the front bumper and wedge some rocks under it to give me about 6 inches of room before my Jeep floods. We do the same to him but we only have one hi-lift so we just jack it up and leave it on his. Then it gets up to my tub again, and his front two tires and bumper are completely submerged.

At this point we are desperate, our Jeeps are sinking, we have no cell reception and by looking at the level where the water has gone before, our Jeeps would be almost completely submerged. My phone fell in the water and broke, his girlfriends phone died, and his phone was close. We eventually got through to the guy Nick bought his Jeep off of, (who has a really nice Rubicon now.) and he says that he is just getting off work and he will come get us. The only problem is he works about an hour away in Mira Mesa.

I guess this is the point where God, Allah, Oden, or whoever, stepped in and stopped the rain. Just at the point where both of our tubs were filling up. We take out anything of value and put it on higher ground, covered by a tarp I had in my trunk just in case it started raining again and our Jeeps were lost. We also tied the tow strap to eachothers bumpers just in case they got swept away. (nothing else to tie them to) Then we head out, in the dark, up the trail so that if the guy did come, he would see us on the trail and we could show him how to get there. (it started raining again about a mile into the trail.) We get about 4 miles up the trail until we see him and another Jeep come down the trail. "Were saved!"

They drive us down, and winch us out easily. The Jeeps were in so deep, if we would have started them, they would have hydrolocked for sure.

Moral of the story: Buy a winch, its worth it.
 
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#6 ·
Sounds like u have luck like mine but....it all panned out in the end!!! Fantastic story and the Jeeps??? Any pics???
 
#7 ·
The only pics we got was on my friends phone and he hasn't sent them to me yet.
 
#9 ·
Sounds good man, know of any cool places around here?

My buddy and I were thinking about planning a trip to Corral Canyon, it would be nice to have someone along with a bit more experience.
 
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