Well, the plan was to head up to the Beta Site in the side by side this weekend and change the camera batteries, add more cameras, and set up the game feeders. That was the plan.What happened was a cavalcade of fail. Lessons to be learned, yeah. But I’d really rather not have the fail.
So, starting at the top……
First thing was to rent a trailer to haul the side by side to a starting point for the journey. Okay, lets get that taken care of.
That part seemed to work okay. Gassed the thing up, loaded my gear into the truck, loaded the side by side on the trailer, and hit the highway. That part seemed to go okay. Got to my exit, pulled off, and onto the dirt road leading to the Beta Site.
Now, the road to the Beta Site covers a distance of between ten and twenty miles. (Obviously I need to be a tad vague. You understand.) Getting off the interstate, I had no idea of the road conditions ahead. Coulda been solid and dry. Coulda been muddy and rutted. Since I didnt want to go out there with a rented trailer and have a bad experience, I figured I’d just drop the truck and trailer at the exit and continue on with the side by side (now abbreviated to SxS). So it gets unloaded, gear is transfered into it from the truck, and we’re off. The road starts out as dry but rutted, and as altitude gains it becomes wet, muddy, and rutted. So far the SxS handles it like a champ. Im pleased. On the way up, we pass, of all things, this poor bastard:
Its a dead baby moose. Don’t ask me, I have no idea. I wasn’t about to stop and play Quincy M.E. on it. It hadn’t been picked apart by predators yet, but it was also clearly soaked through which makes me wonder if it had just been revealed under melting snow. Regardless, moving on.
So as elevation increases, there’s more snow. I made it to the switchback that has foiled my last several attempts to get up there and made it through just fine. At this point, though, while the switchback would have been doable in my truck the rest of the road definitely would not have worked out. But…the SxS continued on.
Finally, I get to the ‘driveway’ from the ‘main road’ that goes onto the property. It is, of course, under snow and has no signs of activity.
And this is when things become…frustrating. The SxS did a marvelous job on the rutted snowy roads. Shouldnt have a problem with this, right?
Well, not so much. And here’s where the whole adventure flew off the rails. See, the carrying capacity of the SxS is smaller than that of my truck, As a result, I left a few things behind…like my Hi-Lift jack and full size shovel. I still had my tow straps, rope, shackles, pulleys, and everything I’d need to whip up a z-rig to try to pull things out but it was high centered on the snow. Didnt have a shovel, but did have a Glock e-tool. Guess that’ll have to do. But it didn’t. Spent about three hours trying all sorts of machinations but the simple fact was the tires were not even touching the ground. It was high centered.
Now, there was a winch on the front of the SxS but the direction that was needed was backwards, not forwards. But, perhaps I could pull forward and then dig out the space behind me. Here’s where SuperMegaFail #1 comes into play. There is, indeed, a winch on the front of the SxS. The cabled remote for it is in the glovebox. Had I ever used it before? Nope. Did I even know if it worked? Nope. And most importantly, did I know where the heck the frakkin’ socket for the remote was? Nope.
So without a winch to offer assistance, it was shovel, throw branches under the wheels, hook up pulleys and try pulling, etc. This went on for about three hours. I was starting to think spending the night out there might be in order. I had gear for that, but wasnt looking forward to it. And, by the way, no cell phone out there.
As I was sweating to death and getting soaked in snow trying to dig out the SxS, my brain started turning. I had examined the winch closely and saw no socket for the remote, therefore the remote had to be somewhere in the SxS. Looking everywhere, found nothing. But…the socket would be somewhere close to the driver since if one person was using it, they’d want to be near the steeering controls as they use the winch, right? So I really got into the details and, surprise, found the socket tucked into the side of one of the console compartments on the dashboard. Hard to find, indeed.
So, would it work? Turns out, yes. Now we were getting somewhere. Put a tow strap around a tree about thrity feet in front of the SxS hooked the cable to the winch and started pulling. The SxS heaved forward and up, clearing the spot it had previously been in. Having given my self some room, I could do a little back-n-forth until the thing was back on the tracks it had made coming in.
By the way, the distance from where I was stuck and the cleared ‘main road’? Maybe fifty yards.
So,, now that Im unstuck things are great, right? Nope. It’s now mid afternoon and all my time is gone. I had no time left to do anything and I was way annoyed. I was going to salvage at least one thing outta this trip and that was changing out the battery in the game cam. SuperMegaFail#2 came into play at this point. I had been so busy getting all my gear together, and so excited to go up to the Beta Site, that I forgot to change my shoes. So, there I am, post-holing though snow that, at time, was up to my crotch and I’m doing it in tennis shoes. My level of irritation was off the charts at this point.
So, I get the battery changed and head back to the SxS. The trip down and back to the trailer was uneventful but I was furious with myself for the failure that could have been completely avoided with better planning. The SxS did well, although by the end of the adventure there was mud and dirt everywhere.
Got back to town, dropped the SxS at the storage unit, returned the trailer, unloaded the truck, got something to eat, and then passed out from exhaustion. Today I am sore and achy from all that exertion.
When I returned the trailer I told them Id need it again next weekend. Having Learned My Lesson, I fully intend on making next weekend what this weekend should have been. And I will be doing a lot of things differently….which will be the subject of the next post. Sort of a ‘lessons learned’ thing.
Which seems to support that the conditions up there can change and change fast. So, I’ll get my gear lined up and ready for next weekend, and if the weather is as nice during the week I am hoping that the conditions will be better.
