Pickup stuck on old loggers trail

Monday, July 7th, 2025, at 6:41 p.m. (ET), we received a request for help with an offroad recovery in Pennsylvania. The requester, Kristen Northrop, submitted the following information: “2018 ford f250 with extended bed, stuck on old loggers trail. Front wheels not gripping, stuck up to axle from trying to back out, about 1/2 mile – 1 mile down trail. / I’m with the vehicle / I can help cover the cost of fuel.”

Our administrator, David Mrak, contacted the requester and verified the contact information provided, GPS location, and current situation before sending the request to local volunteers. In this particular recovery, we contacted volunteers within a 50-mile radius.

From the group of contacted volunteers we had Joshua Craig and Rock Pifer, taking over the recovery. Jumping into action right away.

Rock Pifer and Craig, were about 50 miles from the incident, but willing to assist. By 8:30 p.m., the requested was closed and later we got some notes and photos from Rock.

Notes from Rock Pifer

This was a tough recovery. The Ford F-250  weighed in around 8000 lb and was as long as the road was wide, and got a nice rain shower as we were working at the recovery; this proved to make things even more challenging.

We had a Jeep Cherokee and Pathfinder trying to pull him out. The road was very narrow and quite steep going out. After several attempts and a broken winch line of the Pathfinder, we thought we would need to come back in the morning.

However, I was able to get my Cherokee in a position to do a re-direct and force my front end to dig into the mountain. We were able to pull him up on the road, and then spin the back end around. The pathfinder hooked onto the Ford and helped pull him up the steep hill. 

Kudos to Josh Craig with the Pathfinder; he was an amazing help. We both drove a little over 100 miles to get to this recovery. The folks we helped were overjoyed that we got this done. They tried to pay us; but we told them that we loved helping, and we declined thier generous offer.

God Bless, Rock & Sherri Pifer

We want to thank Rock and Craig for such wonderful job. You guys did amazing.

---

If you would like to receive a text message when we get a request near you, create your account here: offroadportal.org/signup