Earth roamer stuck in the Hoh river mud - Blog

By: BW Admin (6/15/2014)

Date: 5/4/2014

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This made for an interesting start to the morning. We had to cross a side tributary off the main river from when the water level was higher to get to the camping spot. It was mostly dried up on the way in, but as would tend to happen in a rain forest it was a creek again the next morning and the bank to get out was a pretty thick mud slide.

There is no shot of it in the video but the rear wheels were dug into thick mud, and then up against the almost vertical hard side of the river bank that was solid but not enough to get traction. Once we adjusted the positioning of the truck slightly to the side where the rear wheels had better traction we were able to pull it out without much trouble.

Another problem was the wrong size fuse for the winch was used in the original installation and the fuse blew right when it was cresting the top the first time. Fortunately we had a replacement on hand. The aggravation level of each setback is compounded considerably when working in the freezing rain.

While certainly ill-advised this wasn’t exactly high risk as far as getting stuck is concerned. This spot is it at the end of a dirt road in a national park where we could have easily called a tow truck if it came to that. The decision to camp there in the first place with the ever present peril of a rapid river rise is far more idiotic in comparison. We checked all of the boxes with this caper, and we’d do it again because thats’s the way we roll.

At the end of the day it is an RV with a shower and kitchen that weighs over ten tons, we may have been pushing the envelope a bit as far as what it is intended for. It was well worth the trouble though, this is a phenomenal spot to spend the night camping if you can handle the rain.

Update: I'd have taken some better videos of this fiasco had I known how badly we'd be getting ripped by the peanut gallery in the YouTube comments