It all started Friday, I pulled everything together for our trip, plus what Trey would need while we were away, and I cleaned the whole house so we would come back to something clean, after being so dirty. Whilst I was doing this, Ben was in charge of getting his truck legal (we bought a truck) and making sure we had orange to wear, and a 4-wheeler to ride on the mountain.
We eventually got on our way around 2. It was nice, just Ben and I riding together and talking. One thing I love about his truck is that I can slide up next to him and sit by him while we drive. We had to stop in SG to get some gas. And this is where the first problem comes in. It's a natural gas truck and only 2 of the 3 tanks were actually working. So we were going to be cutting it close on the way home. As we started driving to Indian Peaks, the gas gauge started dropping pretty fast. Ben called the previous owner and he said that really you need to look at the mileage instead of the gas gauge. So eventually it slowed down and we thought we were good to go.
We arrived at the campsite just minutes before everyone else. As soon as they got there, they whipped out the 4-wheelers and we went scouting for some Elk. We drove around (got pretty dirty and cold) and we actually ended up seeing about 6 Elk. So all the guys were pumped for the next day and to go shoot. (and just to be clear, I was the one with the tag, not Ben. that's the only reason I was there really.)
Saturday morning dawned (well, actually before dawn) and we headed out for the spot we were watching. Ben had seen quite a few Elk at this particular spot when he was doing the archery hunt, so we thought it would be pretty good. We sat for what seemed forever and Ben shot this picture of me.
I'm not much of a patient person. Even when I know someone is coming at a certain time, I hate waiting. This was the worst part of the whole thing. Waiting for something that I didn't even know if it was going to show up. We saw a hunter up on the top of the mountain, and we saw about 3 doe. But that's it. No elk! Then I got FREEZING all of the sudden, I was shivering and could not even stop. It took forever for me to get somewhat warm. We headed back to camp around 10 to listen to conference and eat lunch. When everyone else got back from the morning hunt, they hadn't seen any elk either. Not one!
So went pretty far out after lunch. And here's where more adventure happened. We were on this tiny 4-wheeler (I blame Ben because I put him in charge of our ride, and he said, "There will be enough there") and it said on the 4-wheeler "NO PASSENGER" and we're riding up these steep mountains and it's really rocky with lots of deep ruts. I was scared. And even scarier is that Ben wasn't 100% focusing on driving. He would sometimes look into the woods for Elk. I eventually told him that if he wanted to look, he would have to stop. I was really sore from that ride.
We rode and hiked and called for probably about 3-4 hours and got back to camp to leave to get home to Trey. We were all packed up and heading out and we got stuck. The hitch was stuck in some dirt, so Ben had to dig us out.
We were finally on our way, and at this point Ben was just frustrated. He was mad that we got stuck, and mad that we didn't see a SINGLE thing, and that we might run out of gas, and on top of that he had a sore throat. Poor guy. We decided to go to Cedar city to get gas because it was closer. When the low fuel light popped on we were on the outskirts of Cedar. We tried to plan the shortest route to the gas station and we could see it. We were so close when the truck started puttering. We ran out of gas a mere 300 yards away from the station!
And you know men, they hate to ask for help so Ben said, "Let's see if we can push it" I think we got it one foot farther. Then I told him to call some of our friends from our old ward in Cedar. One phone call, and that got it going. Our friends showed up in their shirts and ties, fresh from the priesthood session and they helped us push the truck to the station. And the awful-ness of the whole thing just gets worse. It was all up-hill. The whole way.
One person did stop on the street and offer to help us, wait, I take that back. One person stopped and helped us push. Another offered us some gas they had in their car, but it didn't fit our situation.
I'm so, SO, SO, SOOOOOOO thankful for our friends in Cedar who came to our rescue. Please know that I just want to make you all cookies! And I was really sad that I didn't have some of my friends' numbers who probably could have just towed us. Next time, we'll be more prepared.
After we got home, it was so nice just hold my little guy! I missed him. I told Ben he's lucky that he has a son who will love to go with him in the future, cuz it's just not something his wife is into!
But yes, we're alive, and that is probably the craziest adventure we've had in awhile!
Whew!
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