Since this happened while I was doing landscape photography,
I have taken the liberty to post this here.
I guess I could ask others to share their less noble moments &
how they managed to get to safety
This happened on 10/5, the day I was leaving. I decided to check out
Dundenberg meadows one last time. When down the road about 3 miles
and saw that the winds had stripped the Aspens of their leaves.
So I decided to turn around. What I thought was reasonable shoulder was
soft dirt and scrub brush. It gave way as soon as my left front wheel settled
on it. BTW, I don't have 4WD
My wife must never know as I am sure she would have a fit about
what trouble I might get in. I guess she would be partially right.
A view of the pic is the good part of the story.
Note the jack stuff center frame.
The frame just behind left front wheel was flat, on the ground and the
tire was sitting at the lowest point where you see that pile of rocks.
I had to dig out spot to set the jack and carefully begin raising the car,
placing more and more rocks as I went. Sort of like jack stands.
That large left-most rock was my anchor stone as I didn’t think a pile
of smaller ones would stay put. It must have weighed 200 Lbs and
I had to flop it to move to that location from where I found it some 30 feet away.
Almost couldn’t move it a few times and left leg that I was using (instead of my back)
started to cramp! This ordeal took about 45 minutes to resolve.
I have to admit I was kind of in despair at first.
I was about 3 miles from the main road and there were occupied campsites about 2 miles away.
I had my bike with me so I could have rode down and tried to find someone to pull me out.
I am sure that would have taken several hours to resolve.
Then I started looking around at the rocks, particularly the big one and decided to try.
I was huffing & puffing at 9200 feet, but never felt weak, just a bit winded at times.
Just miss-judged the terrain. Wont’ do that again.
Remember, sworn to secrecy
Now the photographic content.
Notice the Aspens in the distance off the front of the car and the rocks for foreground interest. (They really anchor the shot)
I should crop out the weed on the right of the scene.
We did the same in Italy with our camper van weighing 3.5 tons !! It got totally stuck and it was pitch black on top of that. A few hours later, with cuts and bruises and a lot of huffing and puffing and a smoking clutch we got it out!
Ute
Ok, I nearly freaked out when I first saw the shot.. I had only scrolled down far enough to see about half of the big rock, and mistook the scrub in front of the car for trees in a valley somewhat below! If you want cropping suggestions to add impact... that's mine!
But seriously... while I'm not a big secret keeper, theres some things a wife just doesn't need to know
What a nice anchor point for this fall color shot. I like that you found the largest red leaf ever seen in the Eastern Sierra!
I have been questioned a zillion times about why I need to have 4wd on my truck, but when I got a new one in 2002, 4wd was not an option, it had to be on the truck, and when I just got my new truck a 2008 Trailblazer, again, 4wd is not an option. What they don't get is that yea, I am not 4x4ing up the sides of mountains in it, but like you I get off-road enough where there are just little situations that having 4wd can save you a lot of hassle! Even with little things like driving in Yosemite in the winter, having 4wd is so important to your safety and keeps you from having to put chains on.
I would say if you don't tell your wife about this, that you must have taken some of the rocks in the shot and put them in your head! You have the perfect opportunity to petition as to why you do NEED to have 4wd. It's for your safety! Certainly she would not want you to endanger yourself on one of your trips...
These chances don't come along everyday, by all means show it to her! And as Anthony suggested, crop off the bottom of the shot, so it looks like you were stuck on the edge of a cliff for dramatic effect.
I can see we are going to have to offer some classes on how to manipulate, err I mean persuade our wives (or better halves) on how to let us get the proper toys, err I mean equipment that we need to safely perform our photography.
Dan: I think if you show your wife this picture, she's just going to say: the way you framed the picture, it looks like the truck has a "Mohawk" on the hood, and (again, tsk tsk) you've got specular highlights -- No New Truck For You !
At first glance I thought you placed those rocks to improve the photo. The shadows are a bit dark perhaps a blend to better bring out the jack? I ran across a Prius on that road he was moving along quite nicely
Me and a mate were out driving a King Cab a few years ago. After driving in a forest for a while we came to this small open space in the forest where we was going to turn around, and head home. Problem was that right across this opening there was a very narrow, but about 1m deep ditch that was overgrown, and we managed to get both front wheels down the ditch before we had even time to react.
After a bit of swearing and looking around we learned that:
1: There was no way in H*** we was going to get out.
2: The winch was back in the garage.
3: It was pitch dark, and we couldn't see anything
4: It was one hour to midnight on a Saturday night. and everybody we knew was drunk...
5: Walking would take several hours.
6: We were in the forest illegally....
After a lot of phone calls we managed to find someone with a big enough tractor that was actually sober. She was abut an hour away from where we were. So after a lot of waiting the girl with the tractor arrived.
After snapping of some ropes, a tree and a pretty heavy chain we managed to get out. The chain snapped with enough force to take out one of the reverse light on the car. We did think enough to stand well back, though.
Thank you all for your words of encouragement & suggestions
I knew I was going to get hit for the wimp factor.
Probably one of the hunter/campers would have pulled me out for a tank of gas & a case of beer.
Then I would have had to explain THAT purchase to the wife.
Yes, my next vehicle will be 4WD, probably a Subaru Outback, but not for a few years.
If I have a job next year & if I can budget it, I will be back.
I will also look for a better composition of vehicle & nature.
My daughter took this shot with her little Panasonic just north of Moab back in May. We drove my wife's Jeep up there for some camping/hiking/4WD/photography. We drove down this littel dropoff, highcentered and barely made it. This was the only way out so we had to study the situation and determine how to drive back up it. After a few minutes of stacking rocks the Jeep drove right up it like there was nothing to it.
Is there some genetic predisposition or do we get so myopic in our photographic
pursuits that things like the terrain cease to concern us other than their impact in
an image
I think we should always make sure Jeffrey is following us in his Sportmobile.
Well, you used your noggin to get out of there, so lesson learned. Not sure I would have thought of that fix, but I am sure I would never have thought to photograph it!
I would say if you don't tell your wife about this, that you must have taken some of the rocks in the shot and put them in your head! You have the perfect opportunity to petition as to why you do NEED to have 4wd. It's for your safety! Certainly she would not want you to endanger yourself on one of your trips...
