That darker patch of sand had some motorcycle tracks over it. The sand so far had been pretty good, I thought it'll be a little sloppy maybe. So no, I didn't walk the line first, I knew better because I had already driven around it once. I was having a pretty good day up until now. And.....I drove towards the darker patch.
It was soft, yes. Now softer, maybe this is the time I finally get to test the Maxtrax. And we've stopped. Oh, this is rather bad, nope, let's back up. Can't back up. Time to deploy, but that's alright, I've seen the television programs, there's always lots of time to set up and then the truck will pop right out. I open the door and I can still see the bottom half of the rear tire, the wheel is above the sand, but something is wrong. The ground isn't staying still. It's moving, why is it moving? We're definitely moving now, down. That glance backwards at the tire and seeing the earth cave around it was like a gut shot. This wasn't just getting stuck at the beach, we were sinking. I scrambled around the corner to get the Maxtrax off the roof, no time to think about how much easier it is to get them off when you lower the vehicle, but I'm up to my calves, now I'm up to my knees. It's not just sand anymore, it's water. I'm grabbing boards off the roof as fast as I can, but there's no time to get them under anything. It's dropping an inch a second. I'm watching the Jeep sink, that's all I can do. I have no control anymore.
How far will it go? Is this when I watch the whole thing get swallowed up to the roof? I've messed up bad. Oh, there's no one here.
From looking back at the tire on the surface to this was under a minute. You see my first shovel is out, this can't be dug. It's soup on top, wet cement on the bottom masquerading as mud. There was no water present before I arrived.
Well, I'm hosed. I can't even get a hole dug to get the Maxtrax under. At best, it's like walking on a brownie.
I didn't know I knew so many swear words. But alright, alright, calm down. It's not sinking anymore. I think. It's still running, that's good. That broken muffler? That's what it's breathing out of. I'll leave it running right? Yes, eventually I realized it was still in gear and at least put it back into neutral. Ok what do I do, I can't get out of this. I'll have to call someone. Surely I'm not going to get "Of all the idiots we've had get stuck out there, you're the first". So I call a local tow company. They say they'll send someone to scout and report back whether they can get out here or not. I see them come by, well, probably half a mile away back at the start of the beach. I wave, they turn around. Another call, no, they can't get out there. But there's a local construction company that has a big caterpillar, maybe they would help. Here's about how that call went. "I've lived here my whole life and I've never gone down there. I'm not bringing anything out there."
Ok, so no one from town will come. TO THE INTERNET! Well I'm in Fort Simpson NWT, the odds are slim, but I posted to FB, and here in the Canadian section. This was my panic stage. Anyone around, please help type thing. It was a popular FB post, I'll give it that. At the very least as it went I left a message with a guy who might have another piece of heavy machinery.
How's the Jeep, still running, that's good. How's the pit?
What an odd turn my life has taken.
But wait, there's something happening. Is it the heat from the truck? It's less like a pond now. The cement mud....it's setting. Is this good or bad?
You can see the result of the quick attempt to go backwards to where it was safe before, those Maxtrax won't be coming out for a while. The one in the front passenger is making me feel a little better. But this isn't.
It's not sand mud. It's silt.
Alright, so no one's coming. RCMP haven't been able to find me, no one from town will even bother. There's a man that could maybe come out tomorrow with something with treads. He says last week a guy in a 3/4 ton got pulled out, but he was much closer to the access road. Even if it comes to that, there's so much suction in this mud, we can't just drag it out.
Well it's been a couple hours, I've calmed down. I've told my dad I've run into some trouble, but I'm working on it. I decide I'll tell my mom later. Hi mom.
The substance I've sunk into seems more like mud. I can dig mud. I've got to try.
Hey, that's something. It's still above the front axle, rear is completely sunk, full frame up to the oil pan. The right passenger corner is still bugging me....
But we'll get to that
