Saturday was the big day that we finally arrived at the cabin. We knew this place was off the beaten path, but we had no idea how far off the path it was.
At this point I must mention the rain. The only day that it rained happened to be the day that we would be on a dirt road. Going uphill the entire way. The combination of these things led to quite an exciting trip.
As we headed to Aguilar, we transitioned from an Interstate to a state highway to a local road to a gravel road to (finally) a dirt road. It’s the dirt road the would be our nemesis. Our travel companions were both in four-wheel or all-wheel vehicles, while we were in our front-wheel drive Escape. We were cruising along just fine most of the way up the dead-end road until we reached an uphill turn where the mud was especially thick. We dropped a little behind the rest of the group and had to really give it some gas to try and get around this uphill turn. When we got about half-way through it, we saw the trailer hopelessly stuck off to the side. It had been unhitched from its vehicle and both of the other vehicles had been lucky enough to make through the turn. While we were stopped to investigate and help, I had a feeling we would have trouble continuing on. I was right.
After backing up and giving the muddy turn another try (did I mention that mud is flying everywhere during this adventure?), we resigned to give up and wait for one of the other vehicles. Wow, this was going to be a mess. Either they try to tow us up or we leave the vehicle here until the rain stops. Either way, we’re playing in the mud for a while.
When the vehicle came to rescue us, it was decided my passengers would waddle through the mud and head to cabin first; they took with them whatever they could carry. Back in the Escape I felt renewed energy and decided to give it another try. The vehicle is now much lighter and might have better luck getting through. I backed it up to get a good running start and hit the turn with some serious momentum. White-knuckled, I actually made it up and around in one piece. I caught up to the other vehicle in time to make it through the gates to the cabin.
You will recall that the trailer is still stuck in the mud on the infamous turn. We decided to empty the trailer and see if that would allow us to get it unstuck. Long story short, it worked. A couple of car trips with stuff from the trailer and it was light enough to maneuver into a better position to hook up and pull out.
With limited water supplies, the vehicles and the trailer are all sitting at the cabin caked with mud. Like knocking snow off in the winter time, we tried to clean them off as best as we could with little success. If we ever get back into town, one of our first stops will have to be at a manual car wash.
As expected, internet access at the cabin via cellular network access is hit or miss (mostly miss). These updates will come as often as is possible. The children are especially excited when they can actually send and receive text messages.