It was a cold Colorado night, about 11pm. I was driving through the White River National Forest, looking for a place to park for the night. My terrier pup and I have been vanlife'n it for about a month. I found a winding, forest access road. It had huge mounts of packed ice with tire tracks in light snow. It had street signs, but I later learned that it is a summer road only. So I pondered for a minute and decided to drive down it. I bottomed out on one of the mounds and proceeded to drive down a semi steep grade. Still fine, the oversized wranglers were rolling nicely on the icy, snowy road Then it started getting a little deeper, and once, I ran off the packed ice into some powder causing me to swerve left to keep it on the road. After a 1/4 mile, I finally arrived at the trailhead turnaround. I stopped and got out of the van. What did I see? Three humongous holes dug down about two feet of snow from prople who had gotten stuck at the turnaround. I thought to myself, I'm going to have to do this very carefully. I started a y turn then I got my front right tire stuck right off the bat. I had an axe and started shoveling out my van. I dug for days trying to get free. I'd make a little progress and get stuck again.
Mind you, there is no cell service here, I'm stuck in the snow with no way to turn around, and reversing up this grade is going to be challenging with a weighted down astro.
The AWD made this feat even more difficult. One wheel would lose traction and spin it's little heart away while the others did nothing. Which would bottom out the van and I'd dig it out some more. The temperature had risen and the road was undrivable. A snowshoer found me and gave me a ride to get a winch, shovel, kitty litter and chains from walmart. That winch was a pos and did nothing and two of the chains broke. Saturday we got the tow truck wrecker stuck, and spent all afternoon digging him out. Now Tuesday, I finally found a guy with a snowcat to pull me out. The cost for him to trailer it there a pull me out...$1500. That was astronomical to me, but after shoveling snow til 5am on multiple days and nights, my body was done, I was about to lose my job, and I just wanted her back on the pavement.
Mind you, there is no cell service here, I'm stuck in the snow with no way to turn around, and reversing up this grade is going to be challenging with a weighted down astro.
The AWD made this feat even more difficult. One wheel would lose traction and spin it's little heart away while the others did nothing. Which would bottom out the van and I'd dig it out some more. The temperature had risen and the road was undrivable. A snowshoer found me and gave me a ride to get a winch, shovel, kitty litter and chains from walmart. That winch was a pos and did nothing and two of the chains broke. Saturday we got the tow truck wrecker stuck, and spent all afternoon digging him out. Now Tuesday, I finally found a guy with a snowcat to pull me out. The cost for him to trailer it there a pull me out...$1500. That was astronomical to me, but after shoveling snow til 5am on multiple days and nights, my body was done, I was about to lose my job, and I just wanted her back on the pavement.