This post is a supplement to the previous one with details on the adventure of being stuck and learning to use a deadman anchor. The rig Ryan was driving is the same big truck that the south unit ranger drives. It's equipped with a winch and a deadman anchor since dealing with being stuck in these areas is a fact of life here. We were attempting a little known road that is on a map created by one of the biologists at the park. It's down below the rim of Red Shirt table, along Cedar Creek. I'm interested in seeing everything in the park, particularly the remote south unit and its variety and mystery. I was happy to go pretty much anywhere this day. Ryan wanted to figure out this road and where it goes. This western area of Stronghold isn't easy to get to, and neither of us had been here. Ryan sees the importance of knowing these unknown roads in the park - if something were ever to happen out here, not knowing how to navigate the area is a liability, especially in his position as a law enforcement ranger. They deal with everything - search and rescue, medical, fire, plus the standard law enforcement aspects. The true all-around ranger. Even so, it seems only the south unit ranger is intimately familiar with the landscape down here.

When we arrived at the first creek crossing, it went pretty well. Next one too. Then came one that got us close to stuck, but not quite. So when we came to another that looked less certain, we scouted it. It looked okay and I hopped out to video record the crossing. Photographs generally fail to illustrated what these creek crossing are like, so we'd planned to find a suitable example to film. Well, things looked all right, but then not so right, and I have the whole endeavor in video. Ryan knows what he's doing, so as he felt the truck sink and not grip, he stopped to look instead of spinning the tires in deeper. Even so, the one side was buried up past the wheels. We had a couple options for winching out. There was a lone tree up above the creek as well as the deadman anchor in the back. We opted to figure out the deadman since the tree was a little far away and we weren't certain the winch would reach. This anchor is a great tool. Certainly best with two people, we discovered. I operated the winch while Ryan held the deadman in place. It's like a shovel scoop on a metal arm with an opening for the winch to clip onto. As you winch it in, the scoop digs itself into the ground to anchor. All well and good except the soil had enough give that eventually we'd end up pulling the anchor along underground until it twisted up and out, and we'd have to start over. It was a long process, but with the deadman and later the tree as anchors, we did get the truck out. I got it all on video, though it's mostly dull and slow with a few moments of excitement. Once up there and driving along, we couldn't find the road again, and in our scouting efforts, discovered that the road was washed out and had gone another direction all together. Where we were was a dead end with drop-offs on all sides. Sigh. We had to drive back across where we had been stuck. Took a different angle on it, and scouted for mud consistencies in different places. That part went well, though it was crazy steep and one of the truck's wheels came more than a foot off the ground, teetering its way down. Getting back up the other bank was not so good. The muddy tires didn't have enough grip to pull up the bank, and instead spun in the mud, digging in deep. Time for the winch, again. By now we're experts at this and could teach a class. It was slow going, but we got the truck up and out in several phases of stuck-ed-ness, each with its own problems to solve. About this time, it began to drizzle. This is not the place to be in the rain, so we wasted no time negotiating the creek crossings back over the the base of the road up the table. Going up was indeed trickier than going down, but we did make it, with the vehicle all in one piece. It was a day full of learning experiences and well worth the trouble.

Quite stuck here, though we scouted first and it
looked good. One patch was a different consistency,
and the wheel sank deep. That's why you go prepared.

Setting up the winch remote.

Setting up the deadman. Ryan would hold it in place
while I pulled in the winch, setting the anchor deep.

Out of the mud and halfway up the slope,
but stuck again, differently.

The tree that saved.

Showing how deep the mud is in just this one spot
where the wheel sank in.

The fateful path.

Unfortunately, we had no where to go from there,
this deep cut surrounded the embankment.

It may not look it, but for several reasons this really was
the best option for getting back across. I put the camera
down as that back driver's side wheel began to lift off the
ground, so didn't catch the most dramatic angle.

The easy part, driving down the creek to the best area
for getting back up the other side. In the background is
the place where we first got stuck.

Stuck again, as we knew we would be. Not so bad
though. Did a better job of scouting by feeling the
mud this time, and chose a better route.

The other side, which was more stuck.

Pulling the deadman back out. Significant work.

Tricky erosion ditch in the way of easily winching out.
Managed not to get stuck in it.

And we're out!

Second set of stuck tracks.

On the way back out.

The landscape is quite remarkable here. Its remoteness
coupled with the close spacing of the chadron mounds
made me feel very small and embraced by the geology.

Spent the day down in Stronghold with Ryan. We headed out early and drove out on Cuny Table, following a new road for both of us, that went up to the north west edge of the table. Next we drove to Red Shirt overlook and checked on the garbage situation (there was a serious park cleanup here last month, and people are already dumping more). From there we backtracked down BIA-41 to a turn off that's maybe a couple miles south of Red Shirt. The south unit ranger gave me a wonderful map a couple days ago that was put together by one of the park biologists. It shows all the 'roads' through the Stronghold that aren't on any printed maps. Some you can make out on satellite images. Ryan wanted to try this one road that leads from the table down into the Cedar Creek area. I've been wanting to get down into that region for a while, so was quite excited. Many hours later, we only had progressed about a mile or two. Or at least that how it appears as I sit here now looking at the plotted GPS coordinates on a map. The 'road' we were on was pretty bad, even by south unit standards. Getting down the side of the table was iffy enough that Ryan said there's no way we're going back up that. Might not even get back up that. Steep, loose, and winding through the trees, it was quite lovely. At the base of the table we had some rolling hills of grass and rock to bump up and down, then we were into the chadron formation and looser soil. One of the earlier creek crossings turned out to be a near miss for getting stuck, and we were pretty excited to have made it through. The truck we had out is a huge Chevy with a winch, so it's prepared. Lucky for that, since the next crossing ended up requiring an hour or more long winching operation. And then we had to cross it again, and got stuck again. Full details will be in a separate post to follow.

It was tough and slow going, but we got the truck up and out in several phases of stuck-ed-ness, each with its own problems to solve. About this time, it began to drizzle. This is not the place to be in the rain, so we wasted no time negotiating the creek crossings back over the the base of the road up the table. Going up was indeed trickier than going down, but after the new perspective of our recent winching maneuvers it didn't seem so bad. We did make it, with the vehicle all in one piece.

Drove back to the park, loaded up on gas, dumped off some old tires we found out at Red Shirt, and spent some significant time in the garage, power washing the mud off the truck, off of us, and then off the garage floor. Tomorrow is scheduled to be another day down south, with a group of rangers this time. Of course if it rains or snows over night, that may be off. Fingers crossed!