Why Not To Go Wheeling Alone!!

[ParadiseMJ]

These folks have been missing for 4-5 days...they found the man dead...his GF lived. They went wheeling a couple miles into the woods, got stuck. The rest is just sad history.

 

http://www.kcra.com/...r6/-/index.html

 

Here's where they were...just south of Lake Tahoe.

 

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&safe=off&q=mormon+trail+california&rlz=1W1GGLG_en&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bpcl=39650382&biw=1152&bih=683&wrapid=tlif135480859411810&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl

[mountainman]

SMH.

[SW86]

and if you DO go wheelin' alone, make sure several people know your exact plans! where your going, when your going to be there and for how long. hell even wheelin' alone in a ORV park is not safe. you could roll, flip, flop your ride and not be anyone around. good thing about wheelin' alone in an ORV park is sooner then later, someone will come along.

[johnny quest]

and if you DO go wheelin' alone, make sure several people know your exact plans! where your going, when your going to be there and for how long. hell even wheelin' alone in a ORV park is not safe. you could roll, flip, flop your ride and not be anyone around. good thing about wheelin' alone in an ORV park is sooner then later, someone will come along.

 

this. we ALWAYS tell someone where we're going. even posting up something on facebook is helpful, (and can double as a way to make your friends jealous that youre out wheeling and theyre not ;) )

[terrawombat]

1989 Jeep Grand Cherokee...

[mvusse]

1989 Jeep Grand Cherokee...

 

So I'm not the only who noticed that detail.

[boardmanMJ]

0

So I'm not the only who noticed that detail.

 

 

X2

 

i went wheeling alone one time with a buddy of mine when i first got my DD cherokee (first mistake). we went where it wasnt to "legal" to go (second mistake) so we didnt tell anyone where we were going (third mistake). it was back when i was in highschool still and they closed school the night before due to the weather dropping significantly below 0 so we went out around 10pm (fourth mistake) we ended getting stuck with very little gas left in the tank (fifth mistake was not filling it up) when we finally got cell service i called my cousin in his ranger to come pull me out but he wasnt going to be able to come till 2am at the earliest. it was either run the engine to keep warm or have enough gas to come home since there wasnt any gas stations open that late. i guess wisdom really does come from mistakes. i got very lucky that night and my condolences go out to the family.

 

 

 

Josh

[MiNi Beast]

You go go wheeling alone, like I love to do, just be well prepared for the worst situation with worst weather and you leave a map to one that knows where you'll travel and time frame.

 

Sad to see this for sure. God bless familes involved.

[COMJNUT]

didn't jeep do a '89 grand cherokee that was the full size version, or did they stop production a few years prior?

 

 

 

ah, wagoneer...

[gogmorgo]

First basic survival rule, always tell someone where you're going and when to expect you back. You never know what could happen, and if no one knows where you are or when you should be back, no one's going to be looking until it's mostly too late.

It's sad when people don't heed that and die, and in some cases, someone will shut down that location because of it.

[ParadiseMJ]

I normally go over prepared...not that I'm a boy scout...

 

My wife and I went for a tree after Thanksgiving about 10 miles off the pavement, 50 miles from town. We went alone but left good contacts with our adult kids and neighbor.

 

This is what we took just for an 8 hour trip to the woods:

1. Blankets & a sleeping bag.
   
2. Gloves & boots
   
3. Cell phone(s) & charger
   
4. Food, water, etc. ...and a flask
   
5. Shovel, axe, jack, chains, tools and a saw for the tree.
   
6. 30 ft tow strap and rope.
   
7. My .45 & ammo
   
8. Some firewood...one of those $3.99 bundles at the gas station.
   
9. About 4 flashlights.
   
10. Full tank
    

It all fits in the tool box (MJ) or back seat. (XJ)

[Comanche County]

didn't jeep do a '89 grand cherokee that was the full size version, or did they stop production a few years prior?

ah, wagoneer...

 

Production stopped in 91'

[88SGTSlaughter]

Regardless of what they should of done, its a sad story. I feel bad for the families and it almost seems like they werent planning it and maybe were in the area and decided "hey lets take a ride"

 

Anyone familiar with the snow situation in that area? I almost don't see how you couldnt dig yourself out tho, he did drive into it. IDK I guess a lot of the choices could be questioned even if it happen to one of us and it ended badly someone would be saying we should have done it a different way.

[relyt120]

Really unfortunate, makes you want to get onstar or the like installed so they can find you if they need to.

[gogmorgo]

I almost don't see how you couldnt dig yourself out tho, he did drive into it. IDK I guess a lot of the choices could be questioned even if it happen to one of us and it ended badly someone would be saying we should have done it a different way.

 

My experience is that a lot of bad situations start with "hey, I've got 4x4..." Yeah, they're up in the mountains, so likely snow's not all that foreign to them, but they were from Cali. I don't know what the "winter" driving is like there, but I suspect there are lots of people there who don't really have that much experience driving in snow.

But even if you've got experience, snow can be an unpredictable animal. In the last couple weeks, we've had at least four different kinds of snow fall, making breaking trails down the back lanes a little interesting. In some spots there are hard packed drifts, that will pretty much support the weight of a truck, in other spots you've got snow that's like driving through coarse dry sand, the top in some spots is hard from baking in the sun, and then there's the wet heavy stuff that fell and then froze mostly solid... I drove down a 100-yard section, and there was enough "topography" just in the snow to make me wish I hadn't started down that lane, with a chain link fence down one side and a row of trees on the other, and only about 2 feet clearance on either side. I was barely scraping my diffs along the top of it, but it was still sending me any which way, and that was a perfectly flat and level path before it snowed.

Even if he knew what he was doing with the snow, he could still have gotten hung up on a buried rock or stump, or broken through a shallow pond, or any other obstacle than could be hiding under a blanket of snow.

Another thing the article mentions is that the "rescuers" were on snow machines. If he was following sled trails, they can be really deceptive. More than once I've been walking down a groomed path, and just took an absent-minded step out of the four inch deep track, and found myself sunk as far as up to my hips. And I'm 6'2. Do that in a car, 4x4 or not, you're @#$%ed.

 

But you're right. Hindsight is always 20/20.

[Harley]

One of the best things ya can have with ya is a ham radio. it has plenty of frequencies and alot better range than a standard CB. It can come in real handy if your in a remote area where you have no cell signal or your cell battery goes dead. I can ALWAYS pick up somebody on some frequency no matter what.

[88SGTSlaughter]

My experience is that a lot of bad situations start with "hey, I've got 4x4..." Yeah, they're up in the mountains, so likely snow's not all that foreign to them, but they were from Cali. I don't know what the "winter" driving is like there, but I suspect there are lots of people there who don't really have that much experience driving in snow.

But even if you've got experience, snow can be an unpredictable animal. In the last couple weeks, we've had at least four different kinds of snow fall, making breaking trails down the back lanes a little interesting. In some spots there are hard packed drifts, that will pretty much support the weight of a truck, in other spots you've got snow that's like driving through coarse dry sand, the top in some spots is hard from baking in the sun, and then there's the wet heavy stuff that fell and then froze mostly solid... I drove down a 100-yard section, and there was enough "topography" just in the snow to make me wish I hadn't started down that lane, with a chain link fence down one side and a row of trees on the other, and only about 2 feet clearance on either side. I was barely scraping my diffs along the top of it, but it was still sending me any which way, and that was a perfectly flat and level path before it snowed.

Even if he knew what he was doing with the snow, he could still have gotten hung up on a buried rock or stump, or broken through a shallow pond, or any other obstacle than could be hiding under a blanket of snow.

Another thing the article mentions is that the "rescuers" were on snow machines. If he was following sled trails, they can be really deceptive. More than once I've been walking down a groomed path, and just took an absent-minded step out of the four inch deep track, and found myself sunk as far as up to my hips. And I'm 6'2. Do that in a car, 4x4 or not, you're @#$%ed.

 

But you're right. Hindsight is always 20/20.

 

 

I didnt think about him driving up on a stump or rock. I guess its a bit different up there in the mountains. We get hammered with snow, but its not the same. Lots of changing factors up there like you said. I would have been a digging fool tho, specially before leaving the jeep and my wife/gf. (that would be the last thing I did)

[Pete M]

Production stopped in 91'

 

they called it the Grand Wagoneer. There was a fullsize Cherokee too (died out in 83 I think). the "Grand Cherokee" moniker was first used in 93 on the ZJ.

[gogmorgo]

Yeah, me too. When I was sixteen, I dug out a fifty foot path in about three feet of snow to get my parents' car out of a ditch I slid (read flew slideways and miraculously didn't roll) into when I tried to pull a handbrake turn. Even now, if I can walk out or get help, I'm too proud to admit I got stuck until I've exhausted most resources, and if there's no calling for help, I'll get pretty creative before I give up. And then, I wouldn't leave my gf behind. Either we'd both leave or we'd both stay.

 

I wouldn't say we get hammered by snow, but there was only 4ish inches of the white stuff on the ground two weeks ago, and now there's about a foot and a half. Last year we got next to nothing, but I expect a good 2-3 foot blanket by February.

[88SGTSlaughter]

Yeah, me too. When I was sixteen, I dug out a fifty foot path in about three feet of snow to get my parents' car out of a ditch I slid (read flew slideways and miraculously didn't roll) into when I tried to pull a handbrake turn. Even now, if I can walk out or get help, I'm too proud to admit I got stuck until I've exhausted most resources, and if there's no calling for help, I'll get pretty creative before I give up. And then, I wouldn't leave my gf behind. Either we'd both leave or we'd both stay.

 

I wouldn't say we get hammered by snow, but there was only 4ish inches of the white stuff on the ground two weeks ago, and now there's about a foot and a half. Last year we got next to nothing, but I expect a good 2-3 foot blanket by February.

 

 

Ahh we get dumped on but it usually melts thn snows again. If we get 2' then we have a lot, that happens like once a year (in one snow fall). I just see walking alone in the snow ending badly. Which it did.

[gogmorgo]

Yeah, walking alone in the snow rarely turns out well, especially when you don't really know the area. When I was a kid I had a paper route, that had me walking through all kinds of weather for a couple hours. Even dressed up for it and knowing the area as well as I did it wasn't much fun if there was wind or precipitation. More than once, I came in completely numb and hypothermic. But if there wasn't much wind, even -40 wasn't too bad. Shocker what a difference it the wind made.

 

It doesn't really get warm enough here to melt snow between December and February. It's usually a pretty dry area, so we get a few inches here and there, and it just keep building up. We don't often see more than six or eight inches at a time.