My day yesterday was maybe the silliest, craziest day I've ever had. Here's what happened.
1100am: JC comes over to my house to visit. He wants to go 4x4'ing.
1130am: We leave my house to grab a few things and head towards Doumont, which is the place to 4 wheel apparently. Just me and JC are going.
1230pm: We have everything, and are planning on getting into pretty thick brush. This is turning into an amazing day. The sun is nice, we'll be exploring some really neat terrain, and it's basically boys being boys. Although Jeff couldn't make it, he promised to meet us up behind Doumont at 430PM. We set the radio clock and keep an eye on it, afraid that the day might fly by.
200pm: We've been driving for around an hour into the bush when we hear a loud hissing coming from a back tire. A quick check confirms a small rock in the rear left tire, and another check confirms the bad news. No spare.
230pm: We are frantically driving back to Nanaimo, trying to get back while there is still some air in the tire. We are both too afraid to check the tire periodically. We drive over some rough terrain pretty quickly, and this is what probably forced the air out of the punctured tire so quickly. We make good time, but by the time we get back into cell reception range, the tire is pretty pooched. We're driving on the rim, and the smell of burning rubber is getting pretty bad.
245pm: We drive on the rim another 2-3km's to get to fountain tire. The tire is mangled. Driving on the rim carved up the tire in numerous spots, and our vision of getting the leak patched is long gone. JC opts to change all 4 tires, as he was shopping around for that anyway. The tire technicians are shocked at the state of the tire, and give us the good news that the rim is not damaged. This would wind up being the last good news of the day.
400pm: The new tires are on and JC is ultimately happy that he has new tires, and that the situation worked itself out. THIS IS WHERE WE SHOULD HAVE CALLED IT A DAY.
430pm: We meet up with Jeff. He still wants to go 4x4'ing. So 4 of us - JC and I in the jeep with new tires, and Jeff and Cherish in Jeff's truck - take off back to Doumont.
445pm: We have more supplies (check: beer) and some food, and are set to go back into the bush.
545pm: We are an hour into the bush, JC and I leading the way. While earlier in the day we were also an hour in, this time we are much deeper in the woods. Outside the window, we hear a familiar hissing sound. A stick has punctured the side wall of JC's rear left tire. This time there is no slow leak, the tire is already flat and on the rim.
600pm: We have decided now to make a fire by where the jeep is temporarily stuck, and think out a game plan. We decide that we will drive JC's jeep out as far as we can, then jump into Jeff's truck, and all get back home safely. I eat a hot dog, and aside from the pear I had for breakfast, this is all I've eaten all day.
615pm: We head back. Me and JC in the now 3-wheel drive jeep, lead the way. Through the clouded plexiglass windshield we fail to see a pit as we drive by it, and luckily avoid it. In hindsight, I have no idea how we missed seeing it. Jeff's truck, which is wider and much more cumbersome in the bush, drove straight into the pit, which was about 7 feet deep in some spots.
620-820pm: We try desperately for two hours to get Jeff's truck out. Neither truck has a winch line. We have a few ropes, and a chain come-along. All of these options wind up snapping, ripping, or failing in some way. We need to revise our game plan.
There is no cell reception during any of this, so we cannot call anyone. Our phones, each searching for service, are dying quickly.
It is becoming a realistic nightmare that we might have to walk out.
830pm: JC's jeep still runs. The four of us pile into his disabled ride, and slowly try to cover as much ground back as possible. We make it about 5 minutes before his jeep gets stuck, as driving on only 3 good wheels is very difficult.
830-900pm: If we don't free the jeep, we are walking home. We spend half an hour trying to free the jeep. In the process we burn out the clutch, wreck the front universal, and fail to dislodge the jeep. With no universal, the 4 wheel drive turns into 2 wheel drive. With one flat tire, 4 wheel drive turns into 1 wheel drive. WE ARE WALKING.
910pm: We get into survival mode. We leave the alcohol behind, and grab water, a blanket, and turn our cell phones off to conserve power. Jeff leaves his cell on, because in the thick brush, we can't see a thing.
We know the way back by foot, and JC and Jeff begin to argue half-heartedly about the distance back. It is somewhere between 17-25km's home.
920pm: The first part of the walk is very dark and full of puddles. The puddles stretch as wide as the trail, and maybe 100 feet long. After hitting puddle after puddle, none of us have dry feet.
Until now, I forgot to mention that we had a 5th with us. Jeff brought his puppy with us. Over the entire night she did very well, and held us up only a few times.
1000pm: Jeff's phone is almost dead. Luckily we reach a main logging road. The trail we had been walking on was very slow going. Now we can use natural light to help us get back. Jeff's cell phone goes off.
1030pm: Still walking. We find an opening with a weak cell signal. We call for a ride from the only person we know who can get us. Kelsey, JC's girlfriend, doesn't know her way very well. She can get to boomerang lake, and pick us up there.
Kelsey will be at the entrance to Boomerang Lake by 11pm.
Boomerang Lake is 10km away from where we are.
1230am: We are still walking on the logging road. We finally reach the entrance to Boomerang Lake. Kelsey is not there. She has come and gone. Being alone on a logging road at night for hours scares me, and it obviously scared her.
We haven't had cell reception for hours, and we're 7-8 km's away from a weak cell signal, and 10 km's away from where a normal car can drive into.
Each of us hit our individual wall over the next hour. We are mentally and physically exhausted.
200am: We have left the logging road, and been through more dense brush. We are wet again from more puddles. We stumble across a lit fire. We hope someone is there to help us.
The fire has been abandoned by whoever had been there. We check and find a really weak cell signal. We call/text for a ride. We stoke up the fire in attempt to dry and warm ourselves. I am so exhausted that drying my frozen feet is secondary, and sleeping on a random pallet next to the fire is primary. I succeed in neither one.
245am: Jen arrives at the base of Doumont. She got my text, but can't close the 3 km's between the base and where we are. Neither of us knew where the other was at this point.
300am: No one is coming according to us. Jeff decided to walk the rest of the way out and get a ride out to get us. We figure there's still 3 km's to freedom. His phone is dead, so he grabs JC's. My phone is dead at this time, and so is Cherish's.
301am: Kelsey comes rumbling down the road in her truck and finds us. We run and hug her.
330am: We get out of Doumont, and Jen is still waiting. We disperse and call it a night.
I don't know what to say about yesterday. It was frustrating, exhausting, and quite an experience. The 4 of us were really positive the entire time. We didn't get on each other, and no one complained.
In all, we walked about 5 hours. We couldn't see our way for 1-2 of those hours. I'm unsure of the total distance that we covered.
I warmed up and came down around 4am. I fell asleep around then.
Edit: Just under 17km's total. Around 3-3.5km's of those in unlit brush. The time spent walking in the brush, and the time spent walking on the logging road was roughly even.
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