Recovered: Off the road on wheelers crest by Bishop ca.

Thanks Dan. Andy and I had just got done wheeling a bunch of stuff on the west side when we both got our voicemails about the incident. Both of us. Me from you and Andy from Tom. It was pretty funny. Once we found out what the "tow" company was going to charge it was a no brainer to go help out. Have you ever even heard of that recovery company Tom contacted? Bill's Towing? I've no clue who this dude is but charging $200 an hour is pretty sweet. Look for a Matt's Off-Road Recovery coming soon. Cost for most recoveries will be a 6-pack. Serious recoveries will set you back a case. lol

 

Tow truck drivers are a special breed. All that driving and near death experience does things to people.

Last one I dealt with left 2 hours after they told me he would, took 6 hours for a 4 hour drive. Then when I was riding with him he pointed out where he had stopped for a steak on the way out, and all about the Saab he had back at the yard because someone abandoned it on the side of the road. I was so happy to get out of that truck at 2 am when we finally got where we were going.

 

So the whole thing was stupid and just a lack in my decision making. Since I was alone I was just taking it easy. At that point I was in 4low with the rear locked. There are some technical right steep loose switchbacks a little before that and didn’t feel like changing anything around. You can ask Matt and Andy, the hard section of the trail was over by that point and all that was left was maybe 3/4 of dirt once above the crest I was about to get to.

Essentially there was a nasty looking rock right in the pass tire pass and it seemed like it may hit my lca if I went to the hill side. So I decided to go around on drop side. Well my rear driver went off and you guys all now the rest. Really just poor judgment.

And as Matt talked about in his post, I was prepared for something like this to happen. Maybe not in recovery gear, even though I could have had everything and it wouldn’t have mattered, but I did have a go bag and was ready to hike back into town if need be. I’d actually been on a camping trip the entire week before so I still had plenty of food, water, and other supplies.

I’ve been out on my own quite a few times before and wasn’t too worried, but this is the most difficult trail I’ve done alone so I at least wanted a way to be fairly comfortable if I found myself on a multi day hike in the sierras lol.

If they’re are any questions I’ll be more than willing to answer them. My lack of judgement got me into this situation, but the kindness of others got me out. And for that I thank everyone.

 

The world needs more people with your attitude. Everyone screws up, but not everyone handles it this well.

 

Yep. Hard isn't always what bites you in the ass. During hard technical sections you have the A-game face on. You did all the hard stuff. The problem is people become complacent once the "hard" stuff is over. When wheeling solo it's gotta be A-game all the time.

The way you handled yourself through the long recovery process speaks a lot about you though. You made a mistake. You admitted it with no false pretense. You handled it well and with pride. You learned a lot from it. That's all a lot more then others can say that have done something similar.

Exactly. So there's a funny side story behind this that I wasn't going to post here. I posted this on another site that I'm not allowed to mention on TW. It's a shameless copy and paste from a thread on that sight that I wrote after getting home Sunday night. The thread this post was from is one that Andy created for a trip to go do Swamp Lake. The spindle I'm referring to was a complete failure of all my LBJ bolts. It separated the LBJ from the spindle on the way to Red Lake.

 

A few beers is reasonable, $200 an hour, I'm not so sure. I had heard of Bill's Towing and Recovery, but nothing specific. When Tom was getting Bill's services set up I asked a few locals about the guy. I won't post anything here, but we'll talk about it over a beer.

 

I love a good successful recovery, because it sucks to be stuck. Great job yall!

 

I haven't heard anything about him. I'd like to pick his brain though. $200/hr on the East Side is a pure scheme. I'd like to not have people have to resort to such BS. There's not many really capable rigs that I know of here. I doubt he has one I don't know of. lol

 

It's unclear to everybody I spoke with as to whether or not the guy has a rig capable of climbing up Wheeler.

 

Just read the whole thread. I’m a very infrequent poster here, but a long time friend of Tom’s. Thanks to you nearby Bishop guys for a smart and tactical recovery. TBH I’d give him just a little more sh** but that’s just me