"4wheelin, mud boggin kind of dude"

oh the joy and passion of the hunt, the last weekend of the hunt was this weekend, the kids got in from utah late we made the plan and got up early, fresh snow with a misty rain greeted us, oh the excitement, we will find their track and get em, yahoo.

we set out on our journey arriving on time to watch for elk as they go into the woods, and nothing, but I knew that it was a matter of time, we needed to get to the spots no one else has gone. as we moved into a canyon on a road that had not been traveled, we came to a spring, it looked tough but others had been through before,I could tell because they had put logs and rocks in it to dig their vehicle out and make it stable to drive (1st clue), we decided at the last,,,,,,,,,,,,oops not the last moment not to go into it, my wheels had gone over the edge too far and I could not back up, so we decided to go down the canyon, though the road looked like only a 4 wheeler trail (2nd clue) so I hit the spring hard with all that the 24 valve turbo boosted dodge mega diesel mean and hot 4 wheelin machine could do, and we went right through it was pretty frozen, hmmmmm so we meandered our way down the canyon, again coming to another spring to cross, this time as wise as I had become I decided not to, though my daughter suggested we cross where it looked like others had crossed, I worried that we would not be able to come back across.

we turned in defeat and retreated to go the way we had come, we got back to the first spring, and it was suggested that a prayer be said, my youngest said the prayer asking that we get through the spring. so instead of going through where I had gone through earlier, I chose a new path where all of the logs were that had been used before, again a red flag should have popped up, it had become warmer, snow was melting and we were ready to hit it, so after the prayer I went to it, gritted my teeth and hit the spring, front tires in, front tires out, and bam,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, there we sat, front bumper air dam was on the ground, we had sunk the rear to the axle and put the frame of the truck on the bank. it was 9 am.

we got jacks and rocks and worked it and worked it, I chose a new language to speak several times, and the kids gave me the "this is quality time" and "I come 200 miles to get yelled at" look, well it worked, I finally had to laugh, we were going no where, we were stuck in fact to put it blunt

**we were in the middle of no where, on a road that no one should be traveling on in a quad cab long base truck with poor factory tires, trying to help pull the truck out with a 2000lb winch hooked to a 500 pound 4 wheeler and going no where**

i made the decision to go for help, I had a 4 wheeler, and enough food and things for a couple days for all of us if need be, I went several directions to the tip of the hills, no cell signal, so I knew I had to get out to a phone, I rode down the canyon the way we chose not to go, within a mile I was on a main dirt road and 4 miles the highway, ugh. I went to the little tavern motel at the idaho stateline, made some phone calls and help was on the way.

Mal and her husband showed up and one of my employees with my other work truck and chains, I knew getting in there over that 2nd spring may be tough and we may have to dig another truck out, the trucks drove right through them, we hooked a chain on my truck and shazam a mere 8 hours later we were out.

we saw no elk, we heard no elk and obviously we speak no elk, but we are mud boggin, 4 wheelin, jeepin dudes, who know a little better now, and we will wait till hunting next year to forget and do it again.