Brad's Canyon

This is a quick tale of what can go wrong and despite the odds can result in self recovery if you have alot of patience. It took place in Jan or Feb of 1996 iirc in CA. A friend of mine and I were hunting at lower elevations 3-4k out of my 85 Hi Lux pickup. He was new to this area and we had came upon a road which meanders for several miles following some ridge tops then down into a canyon ending near a river. Its very steep the final third mile or so and can get quite nasty if it rains. I told my friend as we sat idling/parked on top where the road began "don't ever go down this road unless you have 4WD and never go down it if it's been raining, its steep and nasty down there".

About a month later it rained like crazy for a few weeks which saturated the ground, while up hunting I got stuck when I pulled into a small grassy flat to turn around. My 85 sunk to both axles immediately. I should have walked it or found a better place to turn around. As I got out of the truck I noticed water was bubbling up from the ground all around me, it was just soaked. Nothing to attach my come-along to anywhere close by, nobody answered the CB (reception picks up tremendously at night and it was still early) so I walked out to some nearby houses a few miles away. And here I thought I was being safe by sticking to the dirt road up on top. The local resident had some scrap metal stair treads about 3ft long each so we tied two of those on his Honda 3 wheeler and rode back to my stuck Toyota. We jammed those metal stair treads under each front tire and my truck pulled right out, I kept going until I was back on solid ground. I drove home and figured I better stay outta the hills until they dried out a bit and later warned my friend over the phone not to go.

About a week later I got a call on a Sunday eve, you guessed it. My friend had driven his then new Ford 250 4x4 down the 4WD rd I warned him not to. He said he kept going and the road kept getting steeper. I asked my friend how far did he go? He replied all the way to the river! I said holy schit you'll never get out you dumb@ss! My friend then replied he hiked out of that canyon and was calling from the closest town by phone booth (about 12-15miles away). I said I don't know of anyone who had a rig that could make it down there, it was just too slick and steep. I then offered to pick him up but he said he found a local to drive him home. He called me later in the week and said he found someone who was willing to extract his truck using a Caterpillar D9 but wanted $1200-$2000 (which was alot mulla in the mid 90s).

Another week or so I called my friend and left messages but my friend was nowhere to be found. Another week went by and I saw his Ford parked at his work so I stopped in. He said after a week and a half went by the sun came out for a few days and the 4wd road dried out a bit. He still could not make it out though. A local resident offered to drive his Ford out and was able to by picking up what speed he could and kept it going with a heavy lead foot till he reached the top.

I found the 4WD road on Google Earth and its looks pretty much the same as I remember it. My friend later told me he drove all the way to the river and drove along the river on an old railway bed but it dead ended in boulders. You can see the old railway path in the image, my guess is my friend did some real off roading to reach it, lols. He did spend several nights down there camped by his truck. I have not been down there since the mid 90s but its cool we have Google Earth now.

Long story short, don't give up if you get in a jam, keep a cool head and you might get out. And when someone tells you not go down into a steep canyon when it rains or snows, don't do it.

 

OK, so where is this in CA?

 

Lower Sierras, near notellum ridge.