- Location
- West Bountiful, UT
Little scout about from a couple of weeks ago.
We had a destination in mind, and a vague, general route in mind to get there, by a roundabout path intended to take us through stuff we hadn't seen yet. But no itinerary for getting back home – just going to play it by ear.
The rig we took is Steve's F-150. After a long highway ride, begun long before first light, we turned off pavement and started towards the destination. Well, not towards it, exactly, but towards somewhere we might eventually get there from. Maybe. We figured maybe 250 miles of dirt to get there.
Scenic spot to plug a tire.
We traveled dirt roads less traveled the length of the day. Twice, our intended route was thwarted by mud holes we dare not attempt in the F-150. Each of these reroutes causing tens of miles of back tracking and new route attempts.
Late in the afternoon, we came on a snow drift. Which, we could have easily gone around. We didn't want to start a bypass though and thought we might make it with enough momentum.
With all the plentiful momentum the Ecoboost could provide, we came up well short.
Tried a few things starting with winching with the Hi Lift.
That did not budge it in the slightest. Felt pretty sure we could break the Hi Lift before it would push all that heavy, wet, semi-solid slush even a fraction of an inch.
What ended up working, was a lot of shovel work, foraging some maxtrax, jacking up each wheel individually and placing the maxtrax under each wheel. It took, uh, “several” rounds of this, but eventually, we were fee to roam once more.
Here's a short video of the stuck. I've started to create a collection of F-150 stuck, self extractions using the Hi Lift. It's not like we get stuck that often, but, it does happen once in awhile. Stock F-150's just get stuck easy. It is what it is. Steve says it never happens when I'm not a passenger and that I'm a bad influence. It is what it is.
F150 Snow Stuck - YouTube
Shortly thereafter we made camp for the night.
Steve is an amazing camp cook. Dude can flat out whip up some grub! He always uses fire and cast iron. This evening, to work with, he had all the money muscle from a pork shoulder that had spent all the previous day in my smoker.
Served on nice rolls with fresh sliced onions, pickles and BBQ sauce. Damn tasty camp meal.
Next morning we were rolling with the first light. We weren't going to make our original destination. And had nowhere else in particular in mind to go. A perusal of the tattered Benchmark, had us deciding to take the longest, most scenic route possible back towards pavement and home that we could – avoiding higher elevations where mud and snow might block us. It would be all country I'm super familiar with, so no new routes to explore, but Steve had never traveled it and I'm super familiar with it because I like it and never mind seeing it again.
We hadn't enough fuel left on board to get there though. I guess 34 gallons and pretty good MPG still only get you so far. So first we had to bounce for the nearest fuel, which meant 30 miles of dirt in the wrong direction then an up and back super scenic highway run to the only fuel for 100 miles in either direction.
Refueled, we hit the dirt again, not to see pavement until the following day and another 200 miles of dirt.
No fuel here, but, still...
After a full day of near perfect travel, with great weather and awesome scenery, lots of miles of two track without another vehicle spotted all day, and only having to change one tire for a cracked rim (third factory rim we've cracked on this truck, those rims suck...), we pulled into a camp spot I've used half a dozen times over the last 25 years.
Steve knocked it out of the park for dinner again. Ribeyes this time.
While the steaks were being grilled to seared, medium rare, absolute perfection, Steve had these skillets getting white hot in a roaring fire.
Just before the steaks were exactly, perfectly done, he took the skillets out of the fire. Added fresh cut onions and half a stick of butter to each.
The onions were caramelized in about 10 seconds. Whereupon, dinner was served.
Oh my gawd that was good!
Next morning, we had plenty of scenic miles of dirt to go, which went great, super enjoyable route. Finally, we neared pavement and civilization and the trip was done.
Great time!
- DAA
We had a destination in mind, and a vague, general route in mind to get there, by a roundabout path intended to take us through stuff we hadn't seen yet. But no itinerary for getting back home – just going to play it by ear.
The rig we took is Steve's F-150. After a long highway ride, begun long before first light, we turned off pavement and started towards the destination. Well, not towards it, exactly, but towards somewhere we might eventually get there from. Maybe. We figured maybe 250 miles of dirt to get there.
Scenic spot to plug a tire.
We traveled dirt roads less traveled the length of the day. Twice, our intended route was thwarted by mud holes we dare not attempt in the F-150. Each of these reroutes causing tens of miles of back tracking and new route attempts.
Late in the afternoon, we came on a snow drift. Which, we could have easily gone around. We didn't want to start a bypass though and thought we might make it with enough momentum.
With all the plentiful momentum the Ecoboost could provide, we came up well short.
Tried a few things starting with winching with the Hi Lift.
That did not budge it in the slightest. Felt pretty sure we could break the Hi Lift before it would push all that heavy, wet, semi-solid slush even a fraction of an inch.
What ended up working, was a lot of shovel work, foraging some maxtrax, jacking up each wheel individually and placing the maxtrax under each wheel. It took, uh, “several” rounds of this, but eventually, we were fee to roam once more.
Here's a short video of the stuck. I've started to create a collection of F-150 stuck, self extractions using the Hi Lift. It's not like we get stuck that often, but, it does happen once in awhile. Stock F-150's just get stuck easy. It is what it is. Steve says it never happens when I'm not a passenger and that I'm a bad influence. It is what it is.
F150 Snow Stuck - YouTube
Shortly thereafter we made camp for the night.
Steve is an amazing camp cook. Dude can flat out whip up some grub! He always uses fire and cast iron. This evening, to work with, he had all the money muscle from a pork shoulder that had spent all the previous day in my smoker.
Served on nice rolls with fresh sliced onions, pickles and BBQ sauce. Damn tasty camp meal.
Next morning we were rolling with the first light. We weren't going to make our original destination. And had nowhere else in particular in mind to go. A perusal of the tattered Benchmark, had us deciding to take the longest, most scenic route possible back towards pavement and home that we could – avoiding higher elevations where mud and snow might block us. It would be all country I'm super familiar with, so no new routes to explore, but Steve had never traveled it and I'm super familiar with it because I like it and never mind seeing it again.
We hadn't enough fuel left on board to get there though. I guess 34 gallons and pretty good MPG still only get you so far. So first we had to bounce for the nearest fuel, which meant 30 miles of dirt in the wrong direction then an up and back super scenic highway run to the only fuel for 100 miles in either direction.
Refueled, we hit the dirt again, not to see pavement until the following day and another 200 miles of dirt.
No fuel here, but, still...
After a full day of near perfect travel, with great weather and awesome scenery, lots of miles of two track without another vehicle spotted all day, and only having to change one tire for a cracked rim (third factory rim we've cracked on this truck, those rims suck...), we pulled into a camp spot I've used half a dozen times over the last 25 years.
Steve knocked it out of the park for dinner again. Ribeyes this time.
While the steaks were being grilled to seared, medium rare, absolute perfection, Steve had these skillets getting white hot in a roaring fire.
Just before the steaks were exactly, perfectly done, he took the skillets out of the fire. Added fresh cut onions and half a stick of butter to each.
The onions were caramelized in about 10 seconds. Whereupon, dinner was served.
Oh my gawd that was good!
Next morning, we had plenty of scenic miles of dirt to go, which went great, super enjoyable route. Finally, we neared pavement and civilization and the trip was done.
Great time!
- DAA
