Honey Badger and I had our first recovery today with 775 Off Road Recovery (775 OFR).
I was at home finishing the article on Bullionville and doing fun stuff like laundry and dishes. I pulled out ingredients for dinner: sauteed peppers, onions and ham quiche. I received a text about a stranded vehicle in Smith Valley, about 45 minutes away. I checked with the group and saw no one responded, then one person responded, but they needed 2 vehicles. I debated what to do, then read that the driver was stranded. Being on the west slope of the Pine Nuts, I knew it would soon be dark and cold. I threw the ingredients back into the fridge, changed into warm clothes and headed out.
From the trailhead, it was a 45-minute drive. It wasn’t difficult, but it was a shelf road, which I hate. Poor Honey Badger probably has a few new Nevada Pine Stripes from me trying to avoid the drop-off.
II was happy to see the vehicle and the sun hadn’t set on the scene. The photos sent to the recovery group didn’t convey that the truck straddled a steep drop-off.
Jon was lead on the recovery and was great at walking me through the process. I knew what equipment to use and how to anchor Honey Badger to the truck but I was concerned that the truck weighed more than the Jeep and was on a slope and in sand. Jon talked me through the physics and recovery plan. If this didn’t work, we had another volunteer en route with a large truck.
We used my kinetic rope (think a giant rubber band) with shackles. As the stranded truck didn’t have an anchor point, I used my shackle hitch receiver.
I slowly went forward until the kinetic rope was taught. Under Jon’s guidance, I rolled forward while the truck tried to back out. It took a few tries, but we got him out of the sand, off the incline and onto the dirt road.
The driver was nice as could be and thankful we recovered the vehicle.
775 Off-Road & Recovery Group are all volunteers and donate their time to training and recovering vehicles off-road. If you are stuck off-road, contact them by phone or text at 775-238-3793. I have entered their information into my phone and Garmin InReach so I can reach them if needed. They are expanding areas of coverage through Northern Nevada.
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Ron Dow says
Good for you. I am not part of any organized off road recover like 775 but have helped recover several. So far all successful. Lucky to have been in the right place a few times. If karma is a real thing I will be OK.
Tami says
I’m happy to be able to go out and help others.