Hate to say it but I've been down this road but with a little luck survived it. It was when I was young and dumb but even still was prepared for what could happen. I was wheelin' alone in SBF in early spring, nothing I haven't done before and since but due to erosion the road had washed out and there was a large opening where the water cut across the road about 3 ft. deep. Since I had crossed worse I was not very concerned about it so I dropped in got to the other side and tried to climb out, well I was stuck couldn't go forward or back. I tried digging out I tried everything I could but to no avail. After about 4 hours I was losing daylight so I got my camping gear out (which I always carry) and set up my tent figuring I was going to be staying there for the night. I also had my cold weather gear (which I always carry) and got into them.
I could have survived there for several nights without a problem but just as I got things squared away a CHP helicopter came overhead and then actually landed by me. He informed me that there was a severe storm coming and that we needed to get out of there since it had already washed out and the ground was currently unstable and my truck was now in the path of any water flow that may occur. I had set up my tent away from this area so again but he advised me that the entire mountainside was possibly going to give way so we should leave since there was no way they were sending anyone in to help.
Now I was looking at the prospect of loosing my truck, so I grabbed my backpack and was just about ready to hop in when another Toyota 4Runner came down the trail because he saw the helicopter land. The pilot gave us 10 minutes to get my truck out before we had to leave, it took us 5. He wouldn't let me pack up my tent and such so I left it all there, you probably can guess that when I went back several days later to retrive my stuff it was all gone, washed over the side of the hill.
I learned a valuable lesson that week, even though I do still wheel alone at times I never do anything so hard that I may get into trouble, and I check the weather forecast.
This is a sad thing that happened and I hope anyone reading it will learn from it.
