Getting Stuck in a FJ

So here I was sitting at my house, cruising the forums and looking for new FJ parts; when my friend Charlie comes over around 10:30.
We're BS'n and I'm showing him all the cool rides on FJCruiserForums. com when he decides that its a good time to go muddin, since its raining outside and all.


We head over to a friend's land just south of town and handle all the trails easy. I start going through a lot of it in 2wd just for a challenge. I start looking for some harder stuff when I remember a spot where I took my old F250 a few years ago. There isn't a trail there, but I made it up the hill with my F250 with no problem. Of note: when I made it, it was bone dry, bush-hogged, and daytime.


I decided to try to tackle it in my new bad-ass FJ. BAD IDEA! I made it across the muddy creek bed with no problem, but once I hit that hill my tires started spinning like a set of rims in the ghetto. (Wet grass, loose dirt, and steep inclines don't mix well.
)

I back up and try again, and again, and again. No luck! I decide to cut my losses and head back the way I came, but by this time my back tires were almost in the bayou. I'm stuck. Bad. I pull the winch out and winch my self out of the hole I've dug and start heading back over the creek bed. I don't want to slip going back up the other hill so I gas it up and over. Well kinda. By this point my tires were caked bad and I start slipping sideways. Right as Charlie says to back off, I slide off the side and almost into the bayou.


Now I'm sitting at a thirty degree angle (my cool little inclinometer said so) with one side up on the "trail" and the other one mistake away from falling into Bayou Pierre. We get out and take stock of the situation: it looks grim.
No worries though because I have a winch!

I once again pull out the winch and trek through the greenbriar and blackberry thorns (wearing sport shorts, a tee shirt, and crocs) to hook it to a tree. We successfully pull one wheel back up onto the trail, but can't pull from this direction anymore without making the situation worse. I relocate the winch to a different tree, this one on the other side of the trail. This succeeds in turning the FJ so that the front tires are on the trail, and the back ones are now over the ledge.


Once again we can't use this anchor point anymore without risking disaster. I relocate the winch again to a tree directly across the trail in front of the FJ. This succeeds in pulling the FJ all the way up onto the trail. With one small problem: we're sideways; with a bayou behind us, and another drop-off in front of us.


So we use the winch. Again. This time I attach it to a tree down the trail to winch it around straight. Whew! Now that I'm back on the trail, with little room for error and effectively bald tires, I decide to use the winch one last time just to be safe.
I winch myself about a hundred feet down the trail to where it widens up and drove her on outta there!

Once back on solid ground, I cut a few celebratory doughnuts. By now its past one AM and we're tired so I head for the road.


I can't wait to try that hill again under better circumstances.
Charlie said he won't be joining me on that ride =)