The road got deeper

On Wednesday, January 22, 2025, at 9:07 a.m. (PT), we received a request for help with an offroad recovery in Central Oregon. The requester, Sage Sparks, submitted the following information: “I was looking for a place to camp on my way to Bend from Salt Lake City. The road got deeper, and with nowhere to turn around, I got myself stuck in the snow. Stock 4wd Tacoma. I have food and water for a few days. No recovery equipment on hand. / I’m with the vehicle / I can help cover the cost of fuel.”

Our administrator, Al Fontan, 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 95-mile radius.

After the request for offroad recovery in Central Oregon was submitted to local volunteers, within ten minutes, Tim Titus, an active volunteer, marked himself as engaged and jumped into action.

He contacted Sage, and by 10:30 a.m., he was en route. He later sent us a quick note we shared below.

From Tim

As usual, I got right into the recovery and failed to get any photos.  ☹  I think Sage may have had a photo or two of the situation he was in.  As to the recovery…

Upon confirming my engagement for the recovery, I grabbed some extra recovery gear, boards, rigging, etc. to add to the gear I normally carry in my truck.  It’s a ’17 Ford F350 with Off Road package and a Warn 12-S winch.  It has a fairly new set of 35″ TOYO MT’s.  

The vehicle, a stock Toyota Tacoma, was stuck in snow 3 1/2 miles up a BLM road.  I dropped air pressure and engaged 4 Lo and the electronic rear locker as soon as I left the pavement.  The cold weather has pulled the moisture out of the snow creating a sugar texture that is similar to soft sand.  The only fairly solid traction was on the packed tire tracks.  Any time a tire slipped off of the tracks it would immediately bog down in the sugary snow.  This made using a recovery rope sketchy especially since the footing behind the Toyota was torn up already.  

I backed away the stuck vehicle and we pulled winch line to the truck.  We had a few tense moments when the winch failed to respond to the wireless remote after multiple attempts.  I got the wired remote and we both breathed a sigh of relief when the winch came to life!  (Note to self:  check the remote module!)  The Tacoma popped right out of its’ tracks and made it’s way back to my rig with only a little additional help from the winch.   

The next challenge was backing down the road for 2 1/2 miles to get turned around.  I think Sage’s light Toyota with Cooper Discovery tires did better backing out than mine did! 

Overall a pretty straight forward recovery.  The driver was happy to be back on the highway to finish his trip!   

We want to thank Tim, as always, in this area he is an amazing resource. Great job with this offroad recovery in Central Oregon.

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