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I have been stuck, all four wheels and the belly of the vehicle completely on the ground. A very strange feeling comes over me when this happens. It’s brief but a real energy drain.

Fortunately, well good thinking on my part really, I had what I needed to get myself out of a situation like that. Even though it might take hours you will be driving out instead of hiking out.

What to take with you, always and how to use those things to get out of the mud or snow as it was the first time I got really stuck.

1. A shovel

2. An Axe or Hatchet

3. Hip Waders

4. Good Pair of Gloves

5. Your Car Jack

They don’t take up much room but they will save you a long walk and probably some money for a tow truck.

Example: I was heading into a great area for early season trout. Mmmmm When I got to the road heading in to the beaver ponds there was still snow on the road. I hesitated for a moment and should have turned back but not me. I decided to head in.

Well I got a long ways in before hitting a spot where all four tires when through the snow and ice and I was stuck in a gully between two hills and I couldn’t move forward or backwards. I was stuck.

I had my gear and when I looked at the axe it was so rusty I wondered if it would cut anything other than me. It had been that long since I had put the axe in my car and never had to use it, but it was there the day I needed and it worked.

I walked off road and found a dead tree so I cut branches and carried them back to the car. I also found a few bare spots in the road and gathered some rocks and stones.

Once I had what I needed to make a little bridge to safety I started digging. I don’t do a lot of physical work so I was glad to have the gloves to protect my whimpy hands.

I used the car jack to lift the car enough to put wood and rocks under the wheels, then I lowered the weight of the car onto the rocks and wood.

It took me a couple of hours but I build enough of a bridge to get out of those holes and drove backwards up the hill. I got turned around and was out of there.

The second time this happened was in the mud and that time my waders came in handy as the mud was up to my knees before I was done.

Again I gathered wood from dead trees and rocks, jacked up the car, built a path out of the mud and took another route. Because it was mud I had to jack the car up a couple of times as the weight pushed the rocks and wood into the mud, but eventually I made a good foundation and was outta there.

BTW: I was never a boy scout but I was prepared. I don’t think a boy scout would have even gone in those places.