Monday, November 20th 2017
A Wallis Family Christmas Tree Adventure
Our family had quite the adventure this past week! Monday afternoon we piled all the kids into Jeff’s truck and headed up Cub River to cut down our Christmas tree. A tradition we have enjoyed starting with our boys. It was supposed to be a quick trip, we checked the boys out of school early to save some daylight and hurriedly grabbed our snow clothes, boots and gloves. I remember putting my boots down inside the house to carry out some snacks, but I forgot to go back for them.
Monday was a beautiful day, not too cold, not too hot, nice weather for tree hunting. We were having a dandy time driving through the empty Willow Flats campground area. We only saw one other car and it was parked off the road where a man was fishing. As we rounded the bend along the river we decided to go on up the ridge. This road takes you all the way over from Cub River up to the Franklin basin and eventually drops you back down to Logan Canyon. We made it up there last year and it was our plan to go for it again.
So, we are driving along and as expected, as we reach higher elevation, the road condition starts to change. It goesfrom wet gravel roads to a small skiff of snow until it becomes a beautiful winter wonderland! At this point the kids were getting so excited! Pointing out the most massive pine trees they could see. “That one’s a good one! Look there’s another one! Over there on the side of the mountain!” The trees were all covered in snow and they looked so pretty. I was trying hard to enjoy the scenery, but I was also a little pre-occupied with being on the passenger side of the vehicle which meant I was on the cliff edge of the narrow winding mountain pass. I just really hate being on the edge! And the steeper we climbed the more narrow the pass, and the deeper the snow! The boys were teasing me about being scared, telling me to relax mom, it’s fine!
We kept motoring through the snow, and here and there I thought we might get stuck, but the good old truck kept on going and didn’t seem to be having much trouble. I don’t know exactly when things changed from hunky dory to really intense, probably when the terrain became steeper, but, I felt my heart practically beating out of my chest! The edge was so close!! The snow was about a foot and a half deep! We knew we should turn around at this point, but there were no turnouts! Jeff was worried if we stopped on the hill we would be stuck for sure so he kept going, the top had to be just around the next bend! Just then our front tire, on my side slumped over toward the edge of the drop off!!! It was probably about a ten foot drop, but it felt like 100 ftto me!!!! Talk about freaking me out! We were forced to stop. We hoped we could back the truck down following our own tracks and turn it around somewhere along the way.
After a few tries in reverse we found the front tires were pretty stuck in the snow and the more we tried to move, the more the truck edged closer and closer to the brink. The back end even in 4-wheel drive was just spinning and sliding on the icy slush under the snow. Finally, I climbed out. I felt better being on my own two feet far away from going over. We onlyhad about 6 inches of leeway. Still trying and not getting out, Jeff hollered at me to push the rear end back onto the path. And I pushed the truck with my strength! It was amazing! Ha ha, not really, the snow was so slick we were sliding with ease… I only gave it some direction. I just have to add that I was soooostrong. House of boys ya know!
All of the kids and Rambo had gotten out of the truck by this time and they were down the trail a ways having a great time in all the snow. With the truck back on track I snapped a picture, whew! I think we are going to get out of this! But then, as the truck is backing down it begins to pick up speed and because it is so slippery Jeff has no control over the steering! I see him coming down and he’s yelling to get everyone out of the way… He’s going towards the mountain side of the trail and I can see there’s a deep ditch. I yell at him to stop! He does and his back tires just sink into this ditch all the way covered in snow! Jeff is mad that I told him to stop, he thought maybe if he had gunned it he could have bounced out of the ditch and maybe spun around? He was stuck and he was stuck good. We dug and dug, but didn’t have a shovel so we were using our hands, our axe, and our windshield scraper… we tried pine boughs, and sticks, but nothing…
I thought about the man down at the campground fishing and thought maybe if we hurry we could catch him. We didn’t have cell service or any other way to get help. I told Jeff I was headed down. He wanted to stay with Calvin and keep trying. I didn’t get too far down the trail when I heard a few swear words and he and Calvin were on their way to join us. It was probably good that we all stayed together.
We knew we weren’t lost, we weren’t hungry-we had all snacked on treats in the car. (Peanut butter and carrots, crackers with cheese, and we had plenty of water). The kids all had their snow gear- snow pants, boots, gloves, hats. The twins didn’t have snow pants, but they had on their boots, gloves and warm coats. It was still daylight, at this time it was around 3:00 pm. It was still warm, probably around 30*. But with all our digging and hiking we were plenty warm. Unfortunately I didn’t have my boots, only a pair of slip-on shoes without socks… but I wasn’t cold, and I think I walked a little easier without the clod-hopper boots.
We hiked and hiked, we sent Calvin and Ben and Tommy on ahead to try and catch the fisherman before he left. Henry and Charlie did really well, they walked a lot and were having a lot of fun while at it. We carried them on our shoulders when they got tired. Jeff was pretty worried, he scolded Ben for walking through puddles, and Tommy for taking his coat off and said, “do you want to die a frozen death?” ha ha, we laugh about it now, but it was survival mode then.
We hiked about 4 miles from the top of the pass down to the campground, and sadly the guy was gone. We said a prayer and without wasting much time, continued on up the hill and toward home… Tommy had some tears and asked if we had to walk all the way home. We hiked another 2 miles to the junction. We had been walking for three and a half hours and it was dark by the time we made it the Ranger Station. Which was probably another mile after the junction. Jeff knocked on the door and totally panicked the ladies and kids staying there. They calmed down though when they saw we had kids with us. They were really nice. One lady drove all of us in her truck from the Ranger station all the way into Franklin and dropped us off at the Gas Station. We were so grateful. Had they not been renting it that night, we would have been walking another 6 miles until the next house…in the dark!! And it gets COLD when the sun goes down, plus we were getting pretty tired! We were worried about how much longer the kids could continue!
At the gas station we let the kids pick out some candy bars and we all got some hot cocoa. We hung out while we waited for my dad to come get us. It was a crazy crazy night!
I am so proud of my boys! Every single one of them! It was hard walking all that way, leaving our truck stuck on the trail and trying to beat the cold dark night. I am so thankful that we didn’t have to spend a cold night out in a snow cave and that we were able to get home safely. Sooooo very Thankful!! I am thankful for an adventurous loving husband who loves to get us out in the wild and push us to our limits! “If you’re not living on the edge you’re not living!” I am thankful we were all healthy and able to make the trek and without complaining. We have such good kids! I am thankful that the next day Jeff and his brothers Matt and Dave were able to get up there in the Razor and pull/dig, and with newly purchased chains on the tires, get our good ol’ truck out! They had a blast doing it too. With the truck home safe and sound, we all relaxed a lot. My legs were so sore though! Same with Jeff’s and the kid’s, probably from all the walking.
The day after we got the truck home, we went again to get a tree. This time we stuck to the pavement!
We went up Mink Creek/ Strawberry reservoir area and found a huge, beautiful 20 foot tall tree! I think it was worth it. I know we’ll never forget our adventure! And we will always be more/better prepared when we go tree hunting…
