hahaha epic burial.

 

Getting stuck isn't one of those things I plan for or looking forward to do but it happened, got pulled out by my friends turbo samurai, which he traded later for an xj.

 

where was this at??

 

Wow, I never saw your response! But yes, that's exactly where it was. Good call!

 

^^^and I Thot I had been stuck bad before. :O

 

went through fine and on the way back through, blew up a cv axle shaft and got stuck in 2wd

 

 

Started out just stuck in a small swale..... had to winch out, friends YJ had stock tires... & ground was greasy BFG AT's just glazed over (looking back, should have got the TSL's I wanted)


Ended up burried in a Mud bog.... Burried up to the doors in BLACK rotten swamp..... Had to winch off of 2 seperate trees to get out. Smittybuilt 8000 lb winch paid for it's self!

Good time though!
Ended the day...

 

I had just moved to Colorado and coming from Georgia, I really didn't know what to expect about a few aspects of our winters here in the Rockies. I was bored one day and decided to take my 88 XJ (my previous XJ) to a place called Shrine Pass which is a dirt road between Red Cliff and Vail Pass. In the summers, Shrine is accessible for passenger cars, but in the winter, it's a completely different ballgame.

I turned onto the Shrine Pass road in Red Cliff. It was getting dark out, but I figured what the hell. I threw it into 4x4 and started up. The road was packed hard snow (it's a popular snowmobiling trail in the winter...another story on that below) and my XJ was loving it. I was driving in the center of the road which in most places was wide enough for two cars to squeeze by and pass one another. I started to come around a curve about three miles in and decided to get over to my left for some reason. Here's an important lesson about driving in Colorado: on back dirt roads during the winter, snow will cover up the drainage ditches. That was the case here and I got stuck. No winch, no recovery kit, no shovel, no chains, nothing. Normally I at least carry a handgun in my rig. Not that night.

It was dark now and after trying to rock it back and forth and trying everything else I could think of, I decided that I needed to hike back to Red Cliff. In the dark. Did I mention that this is Mountain Lion territory? Our Mountain Lions get up to 300+ pounds. They're very successful predators.

I started hiking out, switchblade in my right hand, zippo in my left (with me lighting it every 20 seconds or so), and a cigarette in my mouth. Wild animals don't like fire, that was my thinking.

I was pretty nervous and I hauled *** out of there. The next day, I got towed out by a snow cat, which is a pretty unique Colorado experience, for sure.

 

Another time this past January, I decided to go snowmobiling and Shrine Pass is now one of my favorite trails. Our snow in early January this year was rather thin, but I said what the hell and towed my sled on out there.

At the top of Shrine Pass near Vail Pass there's a little tiny alpine lake in the summer...it's maybe 100 yards long. During the winter, it becomes a really cool "bowl" where you can do some sick jumps on a snowmobile. The best part is that there's this field all around it with about a mile of free clearance where you can easily get your sled up to 80+mph, drop in, hit your jump and get 10+ feet of air. I've done this jump plenty of times and decided I would go up there and hit it some.

I went to my favorite spot, got my speed up, dropped into the bowl, gunned it, flew out, got huge air and then landed. When I landed, I nailed the landing perfectly with my sled. Not so much for me. I had too much bend in my knees, so when I hit, I slammed down onto my sled.

There are a bunch of stories here about not being able to move your rig out of a jam in the back country. This time, my rig (sled) was fine. I couldn't move. I was immediately paralyzed from my belly button down. I immediately hit my Kill Engine switch on my sled and came to a stop. Freaking out and knowing that a) I had just broken my spine, b) I was still 3 miles from Vail Pass, a cell phone tower and help, and c) I may never walk again, I tried to move my feet, but couldn't.

After about 15 minutes of trying to move my feet and legs, I finally got some feeling back and decided that I would try to ride out. I knew that I had to go slow because if I hit a bump, I would probably never walk again. I started back, screaming bloody murder from the pain. I was going slow and passing snowshoers and cross-country skiiers, screaming at the top of my lungs. It was by far the worst pain I have ever been in. It took me half an hour, but I finally made it to Vail Pass where I-70 is located. I somehow managed to pull myself off of my sled and lay down on the pavement. 911 made it and I was evacuated to Denver (100 miles east).

For the record, I can still walk. I only have a little bit of paralysis in my feet (incomplete paralysis is what they call it). I've had two back surgeries and half of my spine is titanium. I had a burst fractured L1 vertebra, which in layman's terms means that I quite literally destroyed that vertebra and I no longer have a bone there. It's all titanium, and partly my 10th rib, which was surgically removed during my first surgery. They removed 42 bone fragments from my spinal cord canal.

In two days it will be exactly 6 months since this happened. A week ago, I dropped a new transmission into my XJ. I'm also back to working 60 hours a week. Ya can't keep this good 'ol boy down!

Cheers!

 

I got stuck mall crawling once lol... Before my lift... My axle shock mount got caught on the concrete and tipped me over at a weird angle. Being 2WD and open didnt help either haha Let the bashing begin...

 

2wd open diff going through the sand box...nuff said I slowed down when my brother told me not to...

 

Carrolton? I'm from Atlanta. Which mall? LOL...

 

I was back in Carrollton for that lol... I read your posts though, wow. Your really lucky haha. Where'd ya live in ATL?

 

I grew up in Cobb, but also lived in DeKalb and Fulton--city of Atlanta, right off Piedmont Ave near 8th.