These are suggested recovery Instructions based on our initial attempt with Ean. I’m sharing the GPS route we took going in, starting at Juntura, OR. Click this link to download.
Now, once you get near the river, we must cross the river here:
Continue down for about 1 mile parallel to the river, like shown on the following picture, until you get to the second cross of the river.
The red cross on the map, marks the position we think will work best to attempt the recovery. We need two rigs, one pulling, and one securing the back of the first rig.
We need at least 180-200 feet of rope. A winch line usually has 80-90 feet usable. So, we need at least another 100 feet of straps to accomplish this.
The initial anchor point to Mikel’s jeep will be the upper frame closer to the front wheel. We must make sure the vehicle is either in first gear or the parking brake is set to prevent rolling down toward the river.
Based on conversations with Casey, the initial idea is to pull from that point, and either that will rotate the jeep or rotate and flip to its wheels. The distance from the circled area to Mikel’s jeep is around 180 feet.
Once Mikel’s jeep faces the rigs pulling, we will pull toward the rig as shown in the previous picture. Once is near the inclined area we must stop and reposition as shown on the following picture.
At this point, we split the rigs pulling into two; one (rig 2) will move forward as much as it can and secure the jeep from the passenger side; this is to prevent the vehicle from rolling. The other rig (rig 1), is the one pulling up toward the trail anchoring to the front of Mikel’s jeep. We must work as a team, coordinating the pulling and tension of the winch lines of both vehicles.
This is all very theoretical… and based on chats we have with Casey. Estimated time to execute this is about 12 hours from Juntura. You have about 4.5 hours each way on trails (Ean knows the best way) and about 2.5 hours to extract the vehicle.
Things we need:
- At least 2 rigs with winches.
- Ideally, we need at least 4 people to help with this recovery.
- 3 or 4, 30 feet of stamps.
- Soft shackles
- Bring a satellite navigation device in case you end up needing help.
- Fuel… we used half a tank of our vehicles from Juntura to make it there…
- Water and food in case you need to stay the night
- Don’t forget the 6 quarters of Oil and filter for Mikel’s Jeep; we are hoping it is still drivable.
We came back on a different road; this is optional. I think it was a bit smoother but also a bit different since we ended up closer to Idaho on our way out. Here is that file in case you want to try it.