Moab Rim and Kane Creek

[ewander]

Friday and Saturday myself, Jared and Breck went to Moab to run the Rim, Kane Creek and Behind the Rocks. Well, we did the rim, and 1.5 river crossings before chicken corners when I experienced the worst stuck of my life in quicksand. The road had clearly been washed out, but the bank looked to be fairly solid. Well, it was solid on one side and not so solid on the other side. I obviously picked the wrong side. The consistency of this stuff was quicksand. We tried winching (hooking 2 9000 pound winches to be to pull me out and it just wasn't happening. My buddy blew his front ring and pinion while trying to winch me.

I ended up leaving my jeep overnight, allowing the ground to freeze a little and we extracted the jeep. I called my brother, so he drove down from Logan (he owed me). On the way down he picked up my brother in law, and between the bunch of us we were able to dig and jack enough to get wood under my tires. I ended up bending my bumper mounts a little and ruined the seal on my rear axle...the pinion nut also backed off a little. I think we dug half way to China, used a lot of expensive lumber. A cool ranger stopped by and gave a little help and moral support. We then cleaned up and headed to the car wash and home. It was definitely a memorable trip to Moab.

Here are a couple pictures.

 

[WayneXJ]

that is some nasty stuff.

 

[muleskinner]

Yep, definitely looks like you were stuck.

 

[Hickey]

I spent most of last week working in southern Utah. With all the moisture coming down and the swollen rivers coming up, I kept wondering about the conditions in Moab. Cool. I bet Cliffhanger is pretty close too the way it was again.

 

[chans]

Thats crazy. I recently read an article in the Off Road Adventures magazine about getting out of quicksand but have never seen any, only heard about it.

 

[Shawn]

I have been eaten by Kane Creek before........

 

[EZRhino]

Thats crazy. I recently read an article in the Off Road Adventures magazine about getting out of quicksand but have never seen any, only heard about it.

I must have missed that installment. What did it say? I know it takes some time to get out, as this thread demonstrated.

 

[chans]

I must have missed that installment. What did it say? I know it takes some time to get out, as this thread demonstrated.

It was in the October 2004 issue. They did the same sort of thing as in the pictures. They found a bunch of rocks and stacked flat ones to use as a high lift jack base and once they got one corner up they piled rocks under the tire and did the same to each tire. Then made a trail of rocks back to the firm ground. One thing is for sure, it looks like if you don't have a high lift jack your screwed.

 

[ewander]

It was the worst stuff I have ever seen. The first day, after I got stuck, I would sink up to just below my knees in the stuff. I had to have someone pull me out a couple of times and had to dig my shoes out several times. When it was wet the more we dug the more came in. I am really glad that it froze that night. It continue to sink while we were there.

Out of the 5 hi-lift jacks we had, only one worked correctly. It was a good lesson on maintenance of the jacks.

 

[EZRhino]

One thing I remember hearing about quicksand is to jack a couple times with the high lift and then let is sit for 15 minutes....jack a couple times then let it sit...etc. You gotta give it time for the suction to release.

Was this on right on the road/trail? Amazing. You'd think that it would be packed down enough to not allow water to penetrate and turn it into quciksand like that.

EZ

 

[B-RAD]

I'm proud to say I have sank in the kane creek before it was a long time ago. nice pics glad to hear you retrived it O.K with no real damage

 

[XJEEPER]

You gotta give it time for the suction to release.

giant gritty hickey............

Glad you made it out, I've seen one require a trackhoe extraction in Courthouse Wash, sand won that one.

 

[andy d]

kane creek swallowed my trooper my first time in moab. no sand just water, a lot of water, all the way up to my door handle. glad you got out ok