eagle rock ate my alternator

[foxtrot]

so the story begins.....

Monday night me and my buddies decided to go up to Mt. Baldy aand go camping in the big field near the begining of the trail. there are 5 of us. we drive up to the camping spot, unload everything including all cmping suplied, and took the top off. me and one other buddy decided to go down eagle rock from the back side because itwas still daylight. so we start off up Mt. baldy to get to the entrance for Eagle Rock. everything is going great and we are about 3/4 of the way down eagle rock when the truck starts iling very rough and all the sudden just dies. I am thinking oh ****, what are we going to do. I try to start it and all I hear is click click click. the spot where it died is where the first big rock obstacle is with the bypass to the left. we were at the top of the bypass, where we pushed it down. I stopped at the bottom of the obstacle in a valley basically. we tried and tried to push it but it wa just to steep. so we decided to make a fire because it was getting dark outside and getting very cold.

we ended up using the survival kit I won at the anniversary run (thanks Ed, you saved our lives lol). we stayed up all night by the fire because it was too cold to go to bed. about 5:30 in the morning, when the sun started coming up, we started walking. took us 1.5 hours to walk back to camp, grab a quick nap, and then walke another 3 hours down the mountain until we got cell servic. I called a friend who brought up a battery and we ended up getting back into the springs around 5 pm that night.

so, that was one of the worst nights of my life and now I am convinced that I will never go on a trail like that again alone :thunb:

[Funrover]

Oh joy! I had an alternator issue on OCG. I don't go solo on more difficult trail for these reasons. Hope you are gonna be back up and going soon

[BlackRubi]

PICTURES!!!! :lmao:

Sounds like a rough night. I guess things could have been worse though. You could have run across a nest of rabid weiner dogs!

[cfr]

so, that was one of the worst nights of my life and now I am convinced that I will never go on a trail like that again alone :thunb:

The value of these stories is the lesson the rest of us learn from your experience. Thanks for telling your story. Now it's our job to learn from it.

While you acknowledge "never wheel alone", there are a few more lessons if you read between the lines.

Pack a survival kit with a way to start a fire, food and water, extra clothes, first aid supplies, and a sleeping bag. I read a statement a while ago that went something like, "every time you hit the trail be prepared to stay overnight". That's good sound advice. You can buy a survival kit at a camping store or pack your own. Look up the Boy Scout Survival kit for a good start if you're packing your own.

Also, heading out in the last few hours of daylight is probably best avoided (though I've done it too).

Thanks again.

[JeffX]

.... that was one of the worst nights of my life and now I am convinced that I will never go on a trail like that again alone :thunb:

You were only a 2 hour walk from your sleeping bag. Did you not have a flashlight?



Oh joy! I had an alternator issue on OCG. I don't go solo on more difficult trail for these reasons. Hope you are gonna be back up and going soon

I'm trying to understand the connection between the trail and the alternator. It seems to me it could have happened on any road. The distance from mobile phone service seems to be the big issue. Once on foot, the trail rating doesn't matter, does it?


.....heading out in the last few hours of daylight is probably best avoided (though I've done it too).

Amen! (although I'm guilty, too)

---

That said, I want to run Eagle Rock soon. Let me know when the alternator is fixed and let's go!

.

[Brody]

Pack a survival kit with a way to start a fire, food and water, extra clothes, first aid supplies, and a sleeping bag. I read a statement a while ago that went something like, "every time you hit the trail be prepared to stay overnight". That's good sound advice. You can buy a survival kit at a camping store or pack your own. Look up the Boy Scout Survival kit for a good start if you're packing your own.

Thanks for sharing your experience, especially the part about grabbing the packed survival kit and surviving an uncomfortable night out with no major issues....and most important, YOUR ATTITUDE.

Since I used to teach wilderness survival and training, winter training and survival included, ATTITUDE is probably the single most important thing in these situations. You didn't panic and just got down to the business of spending an enforced night out in the most comfort you could. No Flight For Life, no panic, no rescue groups called out , etc, etc, etc. You simply dealt with the cards you were dealt. Anyone who has ever taught survival will tell you the same thing...and, to me, you made the right choice staying by your rig rather than trying to find the main camp. There are way too many instances where something similar has happened, people started to head back to their camp, camper, etc, at night, with or without flashlights, because they "knew" right where it was, got really lost and had a for real epic. If you haven't spent a lot of time tramping around at night, with light and without, then you do not realize how easy it is to get very F***d doing so....and the possibility of injury goes up about 100%, too. This isn't something that you simply 'pick up' in an evening hike in the dark, either..

I have spent more nights out, on the ground or on the rocks with the bare minimum (sometimes not even that) amount of junk with me, sometimes for training, sometimes teaching, sometimes cause it happened, and sometimes simply because we were traveling light to make time (trying to do a two day rock climb in a day, for instance) than I can probably count. What it comes down to is "Well, ****, let's get as comfortable as we can as it is going to be a long damn night" and you deal with it without a lot of whining. Your attitude about the whole thing was stellar....and it is going to make a great story....and I absolutely, positively hate whiners.

As far as a survival kit goes (and this is coming from someone who never made it to the damn Boy Scouts, having been kicked out of the Cub Scouts for taking out the den mother's son), I usually have two, maybe three kits with me that allow me to spend the night out in a reasonable fashion. One in the truck that is stashed, one in the first aid kit, and one in my go bag. I have no idea what the Boy Scout kit has in it, but I am sure it is adequate. You can get a better military style survival kit or, better yet, put together your own. I would imagine that you are going to be adding some odds and ends to yours simply for some creature comforts. Nothing like a 3 month old power bar on an uncomfortable night out if that is the only junk you have to eat. Ditto with some hot chocolate...

Some minor suggestions:

A foil emergency bivi bag is a lot warmer than a regular emergency blanket.
A little Sterno stove takes up no room and will do for coffee, chocolate or soup
A foam garden 'kneeling pad' ($3 at Home Depo) fits under the seat and is great for a butt pad, head rest or make shift sleeping pad
If you have a regular foil blanket, you can rig this to reflect heat from your fire so that you get reflected heat from behind you and have the fire in front.

What I would do, before you forget the experience too much, is to wander through the nearest military surplus, Wal Mart, REI, etc. and simply start picking up stuff that would have been nice to have had along. No need to go overboard, just grab some of the stuff that you thought about when you were out. "Gee...a Baby Ruth would be real nice right now" "Wish I had some thin gloves (pile hat, extra socks...)" " A nasty rat food bar would work just fine"....anyway, you get my drift...and stuff that in your kit. If you spend a bunch of time outside, or are planning to do so in the future, this ain't going to be the last time this happens...

I am also not going to get into the "You shouldn't go anywhere alone", "You shouldn't start off at night solo" yada, yada, yada, crapola, because to me, it is crapola. You are an adult and can make your own damn choices. You simply have to live and learn from them. I have done and will continue to do, solo rock and ice climbs, solo hikes, solo back country camping and boarding, etc. Why? Cause I like to. A little more dangerous and sporting than going somewhere with 50 friends...yeah. The main thing is to acknowledge the fact before you step out the door on anything solo that you (and you alone) better be prepared to deal with what lands in your lap. There isn't a right or wrong here....Maybe a little common sense, but that, too often, gets in the way of fun:D Can't deal with the consequences of what happens doing something solo in the back country? Then maybe you shouldn't.....

At any rate, thanks for sharing this. Too many people think that Mother Nature is benign when, in fact, she is the meanest , biggest and baddest ***** in the valley....

[Volcom]

Glad you had some supplies and made it out of there. Nice work! Now get it fixed so you can make the CO4RJ :D

[Roostercruiser]

glad your alright and all ended well.

[foxtrot]

thanks guys, it will make me think twice before doing anything like that again lol

I am going up eagle rock tomorrow Jeff, one of my friends belongs to another forum and told me I could come if I wanted and whoever wants can come. We are meeting at the home depot at 10

[Funrover]

I'm trying to understand the connection between the trail and the alternator. It seems to me it could have happened on any road. The distance from mobile phone service seems to be the big issue. Once on foot, the trail rating doesn't matter, does it?



Very true, however on the easier roads there tends to be more traffic or I have my bicycle with me.

[cfr]

What I would do, before you forget the experience too much, is to wander through the nearest military surplus, Wal Mart, REI, etc. and simply start picking up stuff that would have been nice to have had along.

x2. I do this after reading these stories. Need to pack more food, more water, a 2-person bivvy bag, and a way to start a fire in the rain.

[Brody]

Need to pack more food, more water, a 2-person bivvy bag, and a way to start a fire in the rain.

Couple of things for the fire starter:

Road flares: you can simply cut a plug off most of them and torch it to start a fire.

Recycled approach: Use a paper egg carton and the fuzz from the lint trap in your dryer. Pack each dimple in the carton with dryer lint and, using old stubby candles, fill them up with wax. These really work well, BTW...

Alcohol based hand sanitizers work pretty good for starting a fire, too, Just run a line of sanitizer on what you want to burn, and torch it.

If you don't have matches and have your vehicle, your battery is going to be your easiest fire starting source, even if it somewhat 'dead'. A couple of pieces of light gauge wire from a speaker of other non essential item will work if you attach one to each side of the battery. Grab some kindling of any kind, loosely pile it up and run the two wires under it. Touch them together to generate a spark, blowing on the kindling at the same time.

Of course, if you are in this situation and are cold or wet, it is time to add basic Boy Scout starting fluid to the mix. Either open a gas line where it is convenient, or bled the EFI line, catching the gas in any sort of container or even soaking the kindling. Not exactly EPA or Go Green approved, but if you are sucking wind, that happy crap goes out the window very fast.

If you want to know more about fire starters of all kinds, commercial and homemade, take a look at this link:

http://www.ssrsi.org/ods/fire.htm

Another suggestion here: Your very best 'survival' books are going to be military survival books, from pretty much any country. The US Special Forces, Marine Recon, British SAS books are especially good as they all deal with survival in all kinds of situations and country, start out with the premise that you are pretty much F***'d to begin with in regard to gear, are simple and concisely written, deal with first aid, especially in regard to wounds and trauma, and are well worth the bucks you spend on them. Oh...and they happen to be written in English, too, which is a boon...

If you are serious about basic survival techniques, stop by Farris Survival on South Broadway just North of Hampden. They carry a huge range of survival books and offer survival training, something I don't teach anymore. Ed (Southpaw3) teaches these classes with a couple of other ex military friends, so contact him if you are interested in training. It may save your life or the life of someone you know...

[JeffX]

thanks guys, it will make me think twice before doing anything like that again lol

I am going up eagle rock tomorrow Jeff, one of my friends belongs to another forum and told me I could come if I wanted and whoever wants can come. We are meeting at the home depot at 10

We'll try to make this. Attempting to coordinate baby care.

.

[JeffX]

We got baby care, but late. I drove up baldy rd to the top of eagle rock and down eagle rock a little. We didn't see anybody, so we left for seven lakes after 20 minutes. Then we 'took a bath' in Cripple Creek. Too bad we missed you.

Did you make it out? I need to get up there again soon.

[foxtrot]

we made it up, but not down. we were on eagle rock until about 4 pm. my clutch gave out about 3/4 of the way up the hard part. I had to be towed via tow strap the rest of the way all the wat to divide. my 4runner is currently sitting in divide at the gas station that is shut down on the corner. I am going to get it tomorrow. the GF got a lot of pictures and I will post them up ASAP. sorry I missed your PM jeff, I will go up with you again once i get my clutch fixed :thunb:

[JeffX]

we made it up, but not down. we were on eagle rock until about 4 pm. my clutch gave out about 3/4 of the way up the hard part. I had to be towed via tow strap the rest of the way all the wat to divide. my 4runner is currently sitting in divide at the gas station that is shut down on the corner. I am going to get it tomorrow. the GF got a lot of pictures and I will post them up ASAP. sorry I missed your PM jeff, I will go up with you again once i get my clutch fixed :thunb:

oh no! I'll talk to you soon.

.