Misadventures of my youth - we almost died (802 hits)
Category: GeneralRating: 0.75 on 31 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (View user info) at 2008-03-25 12:33:23 EDT
As mentioned here; http://www.ubersite.com/m/115669, one of our favorite past times was driving around in the Black Hills of SD looking for new trails or fun places to play. Several of my friends and I decided to go on a late night adventure out into the hills and I knew some perfect trails to play on.
The trails we set out to drive around on that night where nothing more than fire trails, used by fire crews in the event of forest fires, and were not maintained all that well. That particular night they were very muddy and slick after several days of rain and that only made them all the more fun.
The first trail we took was a lot of fun to drive on as we crossed a creek several different times and each crossing invariably involved some creative driving. I was driving my little 2x4 truck with two girls in the cab next to me and my friend Ryan was again driving his Blazer with four others riding with him.
I followed the trail enjoying the loose mud and creek crossings until I saw a road I'd never been on. Without consulting Ryan I decided to follow it to see where it went. We were traveling at a good speed fishtailing around corners in the mud and really enjoying the drive until I came to a hair pin turn in the road, hair pin turns are essentially tight U shaped curves in a road. Not being familiar with the road I wasn't prepared for such a tight corner and I was maybe driving a little faster than I should have been.
Normally such a turn would be preceded by a sign with a picture of the turn on it, basically a big U on a yellow caution sign. Since this was in the middle of nowhere no such warning was given so I was taken by surprised as I entered the turn and it continued bending back sharply to make the U. I tapped my breaks to slow down and they immediately locked being wet and covered in mud. I slid, tapping on the breaks, trying to free them, and finally came to a stop. I sat in my truck staring in front of me in a daze while the girls next to me did the same. I broke from this trance as Ryan came roaring around the corner and watched as he ran up the opposite bank of the road to avoid hitting me.
He stopped and everyone got out to see why I was just sitting there. I was sitting there because my truck had slid, me fighting it all the way trying to stop the slide, up to and over the edge of a cliff. Everything from the back of my front tires, forward, was hanging out over the edge of the nothing I was sitting there staring at in shock.
I finally realized we were still alive and not careening over that edge in such a way that would quite likely have ended us and got out of my truck. I walked up to the edge of the cliff and looked down into the darkness. We guessed that it was at least seventy feet from where we were standing to the ground below.
After regaining my wits it was time to get out of there. I carefully got back in my truck, put it in reverse and slowly tried backing up. The tires slipped in the mud I didn't feel like I was making any progress so I asked Ryan to help me out. He backed his truck up and hooked up a rope and with his help I was able to get my two front tires back on the road where they should have been.
This is the point where we should have gone home, where we should have ended the adventure, after all, three of the eight of us had come pretty close to possibly dying or at the very least experiencing a horrific crash.
We were young and dumb and frankly felt we were invincible so instead of quitting we turned around and returned to the trails we'd been on before. I told Ryan I was going to be turning onto another fun trail and that that one would eventually take us back out to pavement. Unfortunately I forgot to tell him about the tree that had fallen across one section of the road.
We drove back, slipping and sliding in the mud, splashing through the creek crossings and having a grand old time. I turned onto my trail and watched my rearview to make sure Ryan made the turn. Seeing him following I took off at a pretty good pace, being familiar with the trail. It dawned on me as I swerved around the tree across the road that I'd forgotten to mention it to Ryan but I knew he was driving slower since I hadn't seen him in my rearview for a couple of minutes so I just kept going.
After a while I slowed way down waiting for Ryan to catch up and finally just stopped. We sat for a few minutes waiting to see his headlights coming up the trail but they never did. I started backing my truck up and backed into a stump I hadn't seen, my tire burst with an audible noise. I looked behind my seat to find that my jack was not there.
I was very nervous about Ryan and the others now; it'd been at least ten minutes since I'd last seen them and probably longer. I didn't have a jack anyway so I decided we should walk back and see if we could find them.
We walked about a mile before we came around a curve and saw a flashlight coming back up the road and there they were, Ryan and his four passengers. I told him what happened to my truck and asked if he had a jack and as we walked back to his truck to get the jack they told us their story.
Ryan was surprised by the tree and swerved hard to get around it. His truck immediately began fishtailing and nearly went in the ditch before Ryan was able to recover. They said everyone was cheering then and all happy with him and his amazing driving for having gotten them around that but before the last cheer had even died down his truck went out of control, he wasn't able to recover and they went in the ditch.
We finally got back to his Blazer and they had kind of understated the situation. Ryan's Blazer was indeed off the road but it was sitting at a weird angle on a steep embankment that went about twenty feet down to the forest floor below. His truck managed this strange position only because of the many tiny little birch saplings that held it in place. Surveying the way his truck went into the ditch and, having forced them to retell the story, it looked and sounded as though they were very lucky to have escaped what could have been a horrible accident and could possibly have ended them had the trees not been there to keep them from rolling or going even farther down the embankment.
We got his jack and returned to my truck. We put the spare on and everyone piled into my truck. I had four girls in the small little cab now and four guys in the back. We drove the 45 minutes back to town and arrived at one of the girl's house at 3 a.m. One of my friends suggested we call Triple A in the hopes of keeping Ryan out of trouble and recovering his truck. Triple A laughed at us and essentially told us to get bent when we told them where the truck was so Ryan had to leave it there overnight.
The next day we returned with our off road experienced and equipped friends. We had two full sized broncos that were more than trail ready. These two guys looked at Ryan's blazer and formulated the plan.
First, Ryan had to cut down a small tree that would prevent him going forward. Then, after taking Ryan's picture with his fallen victim, they each hooked up to a bumper. They slowly drove away from each other and the blazer slid up the hill to come to a rest back on the road. It was quite amazing to watch really.
I know, another story that ends with rainbows and puppy dogs or no real consequence. In the end we'd all seen our deaths, I'd nearly gone off a cliff and Ryan had almost rolled down something close to a cliff but the only real damage was the tire I'd popped when I'd tried to turn around to find Ryan.
User Reviews
Submitted by monkeyswithguns (user info) at 2008-03-28 16:31:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by orphelia (user info) at 2008-03-26 11:24:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Cool.
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2008-03-26 09:00:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Sounds like fun.
Submitted by Bubba2341 (user info) at 2008-03-25 23:48:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2008-03-25 21:03:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Decent story.
Submitted by lostnphound (user info) at 2008-03-25 15:35:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I had friends that did this kind of thing. Too bad they're dead.
Submitted by celtic1888 (user info) at 2008-03-25 14:51:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Snore fest.
Submitted by HotWillie (user info) at 2008-03-25 14:38:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
try try again
Submitted by cat_head (user info) at 2008-03-25 14:22:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Utterly uninteresting.
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2008-03-25 14:08:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
what in the hell is all that scourgiepoo?
Submitted by scourge (user info) at 2008-03-25 14:03:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
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Submitted by scourge (user info) at 2008-03-25 14:03:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
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Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2008-03-25 13:52:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
damn! forgot to look. will look when i get home today fo sho!
Submitted by Sacrilicious (user info) at 2008-03-25 13:51:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Umm did you get my mail?
Submitted by F.J.Bell (user info) at 2008-03-25 13:28:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: -1
Boring post, boring comments. Bored at work.
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2008-03-25 13:25:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2008-03-25 13:11:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
most certainly fair enough. I most certainly acknowladge that it was a stupid thing to do. I would have a hard time if i caused any of my friends pain and certainly wouldn't intentionally put them in harms way. I know i did unintentionally then but, having grown up since then, would not be doing anything of the sort now.
Submitted by HurtByTheSun (user info) at 2008-03-25 13:08:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
So, y'know, it's nothing personal about you, rather a reaction to the post, which is fair enough I suppose?
Submitted by HurtByTheSun (user info) at 2008-03-25 13:07:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Yeah my stupid driving was done off-road as well, true I probably drove too quickly on the streets, and I'll admit that.
And no matter what you say about it being a 'regular past-time' or 'unintentional' the fact is that it was fucking stupid and someone should have taught you about the dangers a car can pose, as well as a little respect for them.
I'm not fussed about your friends or you, (no offense, I mean you're an internet person) but I've lost friends because of shit like this which started out as a laugh and whatever. The driver of one of the cars involved in an accident like this I know survived and has a fucked life because he can't cope with the guilt of what he did.
Submitted by sicosemen (user info) at 2008-03-25 13:06:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I finger paint with mule shit.
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2008-03-25 13:04:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
ah, well noted and good point.
Submitted by Jeanneee (user info) at 2008-03-25 13:03:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
That comment was directed at HTBS.
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2008-03-25 13:02:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
oh, back there we were definitely on the road by ourselves. we rarely if ever saw another vehicle or person in the places we explored.
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2008-03-25 13:01:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
you make it sound as though these occurances were intentional. We were probably, hell, definitely were, driving faster than we should have been but we certainly hadn't set out to test the limits or anything like that. it just happened. I'm glad you're so concerned for my friend's lives over ten years ago but they all knew what they were in for when we set out. this was after all a very regular past time, exploring and mudding in the hills.
Submitted by Jeanneee (user info) at 2008-03-25 13:00:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Hurty... I'd just like to point out that even if you're in the car by yourself, you're never on the road by yourself. Driving recklessly puts other drivers and their passengers in danger, not just your own passengers.
Submitted by HurtByTheSun (user info) at 2008-03-25 12:57:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Of course I was reckless as a kid, but I never thought that putting my friends lives in danger, regardless of how much of a 'thrill' I would get was a good idea.
I did plenty of stupid things in a car when I was younger, the difference is that I did them on my own.
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2008-03-25 12:56:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
not saying I disagree it was horribly stupid and reckless. that's just how all of us were. the Black Hills gaves us thousands of square mile of playground, might not be right but we explored and adventured as much as we possibly could. not always the smartest but always fun.
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2008-03-25 12:53:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
and really, you do highlight the true nature of the beast.... we were young and stupid and having a good time. were you not a little reckless as a kid?
Submitted by HurtByTheSun (user info) at 2008-03-25 12:53:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2008-03-25 16:51:03 GMT (#)
Ranking: 0
that's true to an extent but everyone knew where we were going and well, it happens.
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You said yourself that you went down a trail you had never been on and drove like a motherfucker from hell on it. Using 'well, it happens' as some kind of excuse for putting your friends lives in danger is reprehensible.
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2008-03-25 12:51:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
that's true to an extent but everyone knew where we were going and well, it happens.
Submitted by HurtByTheSun (user info) at 2008-03-25 12:47:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
You know, it's one thing fucking about and risking your own life because you drive like a cock, but with passengers? That's just fucked up, regardless of how young and stupid you were.