Mud and More Mud – Day 1

Some fellow cavers and I spent the 4th of July weekend in on the Flat Tops above Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The objective of our trip was to find a new cave I had been looking for. All we seemed to find was rain, more rain and mud.

We left Colorado Springs around 3:00 in the afternoon with our goal being Adams Lake in White River National Forest. Our time line had us getting to the lake around midnight with the last 2 hours being on the 4 wheel drive access road to the Lake.

The main access to the Flat Tops from I 70 is Coffee Pot Road. We hit Coffee pot at about 6:30 PM and started our accent. At this point it had been raining most of the day and we found Coffee Pot to be slick mess. The climb up the switch backs to the top was a slow grind with sticky mud getting plastered to everything.  Once we topped out the road was still wet but had a gravel surface so we were able to pick up the pace.

Coffee Pot is one LONG road. To access the Adams Lake trail head we had to drive all of Coffee Pot which is around 28 miles of dirt washboard and on this day muddy road. It took us about 1.5 hours to reach the trail head.  It was now getting dark and time to turn on the lights….

I don’t like mud and from the start I could tell that we were going to have to deal with lots of it over the next 9 miles to Adams Lake. We encountered a number of muddy sections but were able to get through them with not too much trouble. The road was so slick that I had no choice but to stay in the ruts. There were a few climbs where we almost lost traction prior to the top. I run BFG ATs and the tread does not shed mud very well so the tire ends up being more like slick. My next tire purchase will be for a set of MTs.

Things seemed to be going pretty well until we topped out on one climb and the way was blocked by a BIG mud hole.  I stopped and got out of the FJ to inspect the problem. Tread Lightly ethics dictate that even when encountering an obstacle that is really bad you should not leave the tail to go around. This just makes another set of tracks and tears up more terrain.

The mud pit was about 20 feet long getting deeper and deeper ending at a 3.5 foot high bank that the left front would have to climb. I though this bank was rock but later inspection would show it was dirt. My objective was to attempt to stay to the right-hand side of the hole so I would not have to climb that steep bank.

I got back in the FJ fired it up, lined up and gave it the gas. Well, the mud one. As I neared the end of the pit the rear of the FJ slid left and my forward momentum stopped and the front end followed. Well now I had a problem.

I tow an off-road gear trailer behind the FJ. Having the trailer presents a problem in this type of situation. I can’t back up!!! I could have disconnected the trailer and had it pulled back but that was going to be hard and maybe not work at all.

I gassed it again trying to get the front left to climb but no luck.  The bank had stopped all my forward movement. I tried to back but no luck. I engaged the locker and the A-trak and still no luck…

Time for the stuck assessment.

To exit the FJ I had to climb out the window.   The assessment showed that the mud was over wheel top on the left front and the right front was almost as bad. From the way the tires were spinning I deduced that the front skid was resting on a mud ridge. The FJ was also angled to the left and had settled into the mud. The only way we were going to get through this was with the winch.

I forgot to mention that it was still raining and it was now about 10:00 pm.

I got the winch control, tree strap and shackle out. We identified a tree to use for a direct pull and tried to get the rope off the winch. The mud made it impossible to pull so I ended up un-spooling the winch with the motor.

With the line rigged I got back in the FJ and attempted the pull. Even with the assist of the tires the FJ hung on the bank and stalled the winch. At this point we opted to re-rig to a closer tree using a snatch block to reduce the load on the winch. I also determined that we were going to need to lift the left front up to get it over the bank and not plowing into it. The Hi-Lift went into action for this.

We were able to hook the Hi-Lift on the front left Shackle but we had to dig a hole for the handle to be able to get the Hi-Lift to move. Well it moved but the motion was down into the mud.  We had to pull the jack out and get the Hi-Lift base plate out and start over. Once in place we lifted the FJ about 3” before it was about to touch the light bar. I was able to pull the FJ forward with the winch enough to give the jack more clearance and we the lifted the FJ a total of 10”.

This time the winch did its job.  The pull got the FJ out of the hole but the trailer was still in it and acting like an anchor.  With the muddy road I could not get traction. We move the winch line back to the first tree and used a direct pull to get the rest of the way out of the hole. Mission accomplished.

We were out and moving again by 11:00 PM. However, there was no way the jeep with us was going to get through the hole.  I drove up the road about 200 yards and found a great camp site on a hill overlooking where we had just been stuck. We setup camp and called it a night.