Leaderboard

Great advice! My brother, two of his kids and I went hunting deep in the back country. In a wind storm and heavy down pour, we got a flat. We put the spare tire on and it was 2/3 flat. We were slowly limping along until we came to an area that there was 5 or 6 pickups driving around. We asked the people in the first vehicle if they had a compressor and they did. I was surprised. I didn't even know they existed. The next pickup came up and said he had one if the first one didn't work. Pretty soon we had 4 vehicles there with us and 3 of them had compressors. This was my brother's new truck's maiden voyage into the wilderness. After he got home he discovered that his truck came with a compressor that was kept in the compartment were the tire Iron and jack was located. Good thing we came across a truck with a compressor.

........I had a satellite phone. I called the Argo dealer to verify that they had master links and half links on hand. They did. Mrs. Huntster was in Anchorage tending to grandkids. I called her to stop at the dealer that evening and pick up the parts. Then I started the walk. It took a few hours. I was slow going in the mud. On the way I thought about another party riding around in three Argos. I as betting one of them was a lot smarter than I am....... When I got back to the trailhead (which is a big gravel pit), I changed clothes, then approached the other damp. I offered them $120 (which was how much Mrs. Huntster or my brother-in-law would burn in fuel to bring me parts) for a master link and ride back up the mountain. They were good with it. We'd leave the next morning. Good thing I didn't walk back in with a master link; we broke off another link trying to fix it. But the Doc (one of them was an orthopedic surgeon) had a length of fresh bulk chain, so we changed out the whole thing, and I followed them out. I gave him another $100 for the chain. I always carry a few $100 bills and a couple of plastic 750 liter bottles of booze on trips. People are much more willing to help if you bribe them........ I ended up hunting with one of my rescuers fir the remainder of the trip from the gravel pit. I'll be better prepared next year.......

It doesn't seem like how many parts, tools, and equipment I carry. "Stuff" happens: I left late for my moose hunt this year because the newer Argo I just bought wouldn't run after I ran it into my garage to pack it. There's some kind of bizarre carburator problem. I had already used it last month on a very deep caribou hunt; over 20 miles in to a VERY lonely valley. I was actually glad it broke in my garage and not out in the trail. I ordered a carb kit for it, then quickly prepped my old Argo for this trip. The morning I left home (Sunday, Sept. 5), the utility trailer that I haul the Argo in had a flat. Nobody open to repair it. I'm starting to feel a bit nervous. God might be telling me something, but I never seem to understand these "messages". Am I supposed to be determined, or should I call it off? I put the spare on and aired up the flat. It's a slow leak. It became my new spare. It rained all the way up to the upper Chulitna River area. I stayed in the camper all day and night Monday. Tuesday morning it was overcast and looked threatening, but it wasn't rainy. My camp spot goal was only about 5 miles in, but there were some pretty rough trail areas. A creek actually took the trail over for a hundred yards or so, and there were several creek crossings. I got right up to the ridge I wanted to camp on, but went past it a bit to the worse spots on the trail.........and broke a chain. No power to the rear 3 wheels on the right side. I got the chain unbound, but found that I'd left my chain repair parts and tools in the newer Argo. It was a wet 5 mile hike out. At least it was daylight..........

I've had two "dead in my tracks" moments. First, with a new '98 Jeep Wrangler, I hit a water bar on a graveled road and the whole jeep went dead. I had headlights, wipers, but no juice to the engine. Couldn't crank, couldn't roll start, nada. I got a little speed coasting backwards then locked the brakes cranked the wheel and spun it around nose downhill and coasted about 3/4ths of a mile 'til I came to a rise I didn't have enough momentum to coast over. From there ... I walked some miles, then, back on the more main gravel, I thumbed a ride with a passing car out to a remote store which had a pay phone. Second, with my '08 Frontier, I apparently hit something in the road punching a hole right through the center of both driver's side tires. Didn't know it for a half mile. I heard the hissing when I stopped at a stop sign at the saddle at the top of the mountain where many roads met. 2 flats, 1 spare. I'll let you imagine some of the commentary I offered. It was not fit for polite company. I jacked it up quickly setting the truck on .. either rocks or blocks of wood .. and started walking. After a ways, I managed to thumb a ride with a passing car. The crazy thing is both times, it was <the same person> driving the passing car. Different road systems, probably 35-40 miles apart. Same person. In the first case I got a tow truck to tow the jeep to the nearest dealership. It turned out to be a major connector in the electrical harness had not been snapped together at the factory and the bump had separated the halves. Easy fix but I was down, immobile, and missed several days of work waiting for it. In the second case, the driver dropped me at my dad's house, I took his truck up, pulled all 4 tires off my truck, and took them into town and got a new set of 4, put them on the truck on the way by, then got my dad to shuttle me back to retrieve my truck. Very lucky it was not vandalized down in that country but I didn't have a choice. This stuff is like making something idiot proof. If you make it idiot proof, they'll upgrade the idiot. There is only so much you can do, so much you can reasonably anticipate. Probably the one "tool" that you can carry to address the most problems is a satellite phone. Take the basics ... take the things you know how to use to address the things you know how to fix. Take a sat phone. Take whatever supplies you need to survive on location 'til help arrives .. blankets, food, water, a heat source. MIB