The one where we’re stuck in mud

+ the tractor that saved the day 🚜

Oct 12, 2023

Hello! Happy Wednesday!

It has been a bit weird getting back into a routine along with the increasing stress of holiday season as a small business owner (iykyk). So thanks for being patient with me + my late letters — writing this Substack has fallen to the bottom of the list more than I can count 🥲

After Turkey we had about a week of recovery from our bout of stomach bug and jet lag in Portland. Once we were feeling better we got back on the road after what had felt like forever + headed toward Idaho!

Our first stop: just outside of Baker City, Oregon where the stars aligned in serendipity. I had been talking with one of my favorite small businesses for awhile + had just become an affiliate for them. This small business also happens to be based in Baker City, and the night before we passed through town they presented the idea of doing a giveaway! Of course I took them up on it, and we stopped by their shop the next day to pick up the goods. We ended up going to coffee, getting a full-on tour of their shop, and spending a good chunk of the day exchanging stories of living on the road (they used to live out of a Toyota Dolphin full-time). I love it when stars align! 🌟

If you’re ever in the Baker City area, I highly recommend passing through to say hi to Aubrey + Brian at Huck Phinn Outpost — all handmade leather goods made by some top tier people!

Idaho (aka where we got stuck)

We made our way through Oregon pretty quickly to get ourselves to the south eastern side of Idaho. I was flying to my cousin’s wedding in about a week out of Salt Lake City and we wanted to have a relaxing few days in one location to get back into a routine.

The universe decided that wasn’t going to happen 🙃

We found a beautiful free campsite overlooking a canyon and river to camp for the week. The site was cut into the side of a hill, so to get to it we had to go down a small hill to the landing. Here’s where we made our mistake: my partner got out to feel the ground, but we didn’t venture all the way to the campsite’s landing where the ground became slick clay + mud.

What happened: we drove slowly down the small hill, and slid the second half. To stop my partner had to throw the truck into park with the e-brake.

So obviously the ground was *far* too slick for us to venture down. And because the campsite was a landing on a hillside, every direction off the landing was downhill. The ground was so slick that we would slide a foot for every inch we intentionally moved, so attempting to turn around with a hillside in every direction would be a dumb move.

We attempted a safe self rescue by backing back up the hill with recovery boards but that quickly became futile. So we face palmed our foreheads, put everything we could in front of the tires to prevent more movement, and took a mental health walk before spending the night at an angle.

Our task for the night: work our connections + social media off roading groups. After about an hour, we had someone set to come the next morning to help! The connection was absolutely wild — I messaged a group chat with all of our vanlife friends, one of them added us to a Utah group chat, someone responded there with information about a friend an hour away, who then connected us with another friend only 10 minutes away. That friend ended up getting us out! 🤯

Ryan (our new farmer friend) came out the next morning with his truck. It had rained the night before, so the mud was even more slick than our first attempt to get out. It ended up being a fruitless effort with us ending in an even more tilted position and us all (including the dogs) being caked in mud. The ending decision: Ryan would come back later with his tractor 🚜

Well, later ended up being 24 hours later because the weather promptly turned for the worse. Wind, rain, hail, and lightning pelted us the remainder of the day and to top it all off our fridge stopped working because of how severe an angle we were at.

To give you an idea: to cook I had to hold the pan on the stove or else it would slide off 👍🏼

The extra best part? Our campsite from the few days prior had a ton of flies, so we were stuck inside, at an angle, with 40 flies.

Ryan returned the next day with his tractor, and boy was it a tractor — 4-wheel drive, tires taller than me, tractor. It was a slow process but the tractor did the trick, and did it safely.

I am so grateful and in awe that complete strangers can be so selfless + kind — I’m not sure how long we would have been sitting had Ryan not taken the time to help us!

Of course 20 minutes after being rescued some creepy people obviously high on something made their way to the campsite we were at. After a brief interaction we quickly finished packing our stuff and headed to the main road. I’m glad we were no longer stuck when they arrived 😮‍💨

Hookups + Showers

After the two days of uncertainty and discomfort, we were ready to be somewhere stable. So we found an RV park around Bear Lake in Utah, and made our way over.

And then we were first on scene of a car crash. Not a terrible one, but not a good one. One of the drivers was in a lot of pain, and I had to reach into the depths of my brain for my EMT training. Ultimately it wasn’t an immediate life or death scenario, but she needed medical attention and an ambulance ride.

After passing care off to the EMTs, we continued on to our campsite. We were really ready for the adrenaline to be over at this point. Bad things come in threes though, right? (Yes, at least in this story)

We hooked up our camper to electricity + water, took a hot campsite shower, cleaned all the mud off our floors, and made a nice dinner. It was a much needed mundane night in.

Unfortunately these kinds of sites cost $40-80, so we went on our way after the short reset to a free dispersed campsite (with an easy access road).

Logan Canyon

This spot hit our top 10 list. We drove so long on the access road we ended up back in Idaho, but this site was gorgeous. High in elevation, no people, mountain views, and a prairie to explore with the dogs.

Logan Canyon was the first time since July I’ve felt settled, and it was so needed. I decided to read a book here even though the work to do list is never ending (it was called The Grace Year by Kim Liggett and I read it in 7ish hours — I definitely recommend it for the Hunger Games lovers, but note it’s not a light hearted story).

We spent a few days here resetting before having to head to Salt Lake City for my flight to Oakland. To make the drive to the airport a little more predictable in timing, we spent the night prior on Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake. The sunset?! Beautiful.

Oakland!

I left Bruce, the dogs, + my partner behind for this quick three day gander over to Oakland for my cousins wedding.

The wedding was at San Francisco City Hall and then we all took public transport + the ferry back to Oakland for the reception!

This trip was an absolute blast, and it was so nice to see my entire family for a happy occasion. This cousin + his now wife are the couple I made wedding bands for, so it was an extra special event for me to witness.

On to Moab

One of the cutest little towns amongst some incredible ROCKS!

We only spent a few days here due to being on a tight timeline to get to New Mexico, but we had an absolute blast. We met up with some internet friends for a few nights (who are now our real-life friends) and spent some time rock climbing + hanging out in between work + errands. Bruce fit right in with the many off-roading vehicles in town, and we had an ever-so-rare meal out at the Moab Garage Co. in downtown Moab (very good food, I recommend).

We didn’t have enough time to go into the National Parks in the area, but we will for sure be back to explore when we have more time!