Broke Down but Saved x2

Josh's employee Yvonne drove up in the mountains above the Salmon River past North Fork and her car got stuck one weekend in July. She told Josh about her adventure when she returned to work at the golf course the following Monday. She had driven her kids to Horse Creek Hot Springs from the Spring Creek Road, but after they arrived, they decided they wanted to camp by the Salmon River, so they started back over the mountainous gravel backroads headed south. Back in the day, Colson Creek Road was pretty reliable, but since the wildfires occurred in that area 10 years ago, the road has been washed out in several parts and has been closed to traffic wider than 4-wheelers. As you start up that road from the Salmon River side, there's signage that says "road closed ahead", and cement barriers to block it off to cars. However, coming from the Montana side, there's nothing of the sort, so Yvonne didn't realize it wasn't safe to drive her car on. On her return drive to the Salmon River, she took the Colson Creek Road because she thought it would be shorter than going back on the Spring Creek Road. However, several miles into it, she got high-centered on a narrow part of the road where a large rock protruded, and she had to walk out 9 miles until she could get to a house to call for help (there's no cell service in that area of the mountains). She was picked up, as well as her kids, but her car was still stuck on the mountain road.

Josh offered to help her, and the next day, he drove up with her in the Jeep to pull it out. However, after they turned off the Spring Creek Road and went several miles, the Jeep broke down. A U-joint broke that connects the driveline to the transfer case. Josh drove back a mile to an area with cell service and called Micah to bring the truck and trailer to come get them. Then, he started problem-solving to temporarily fix the problem. If he pulled off the driveline, the transfer case would leak oil, so he used an empty Gatorade bottle and attached it with electrical tape to the transfer case in order to prevent it from losing all its oil. Then he pulled the driveline the rest of the way off and used only the Jeep's front wheel drive to drive he and Yvonne off the mountain. Micah picked them up on the River Road by Spring Creek. They loaded the Jeep onto the trailer and drove back to Salmon in the truck. 

The MacGyver-style temporary fix!

This is the driveline from the Jeep.

Thankfully, it wasn't too big of an issue to fix. Josh ordered a new U-joint, and replaced it in the Jeep the next day. However, Yvonne's car was still up on the mountain and needed to be brought out, so another attempt was made a few days later to get her car out, but this time, Josh had a different idea to get it. 

This is a view of the Jeep's undercarriage and the drive yoke
where the U-joint broke off.

This time, his idea was to take the Gator from work to tow out the car. He'd also had several days to think about what he might need for this rescue mission, and he prepared by putting the trailer hitch on the gator, and packed inside the Gator a shovel, a come-along (cable puller), straps, chains, and various tools.  On July 31st, he drove downriver in the truck with the Gator on the trailer, and this time, he and Yvonne drove to Colson Creek Road (instead of his previous plan of going up Spring Creek Road and then down to Colson Creek Road where her car was), because he thought this would be a shorter, quicker route to get to her car. He parked the truck and trailer, unloaded the Gator, and he & Yvonne headed up Colson Creek Road in it. 

They'd gone several miles and were pretty close to her car when they started going around some switchbacks in the road. Suddenly, around one of the switchbacks, they encountered a van with kids and dogs and coolers all over. Josh said it looked like a large family having a picnic lunch, and he thought it was such a strange place for that to take place! Upon further investigation, though, it was actually two families who were stranded on the mountain, and had been for more than 24 hours. 

The two families were from Missoula, Montana. Their husbands/fathers had gone on a float down the Middle Fork several days prior, and then the wives and kids were going to meet up with them at Corn Creek and float down the Main Salmon together. The ladies' GPS told them that the shortest, most direct route from Missoula to Corn Creek was over these mountainous gravel roads, and the last part of their trip was down Colson Creek Road--the SAME road that Yvonne's car was stuck on. The SAME road that had been closed for 10 years, but had no markage or signage on the Montana side to indicate that it was closed. They'd turned off Highway 93 onto the Painted Rocks highway, then turned off after Painted Rocks and had started up the mountain road by Horse Creek Hot Springs, and then, just like Yvonne, had turned from there onto the Colson Creek Road. Their traveling party consisted of two vans: a Honda Odyssey and a Toyota Sienna, and the Toyota was also pulling a flat-bed trailer carrying a river raft. When they reached the part of the road that narrows and was questionable, it was physically impossible for them to turn around, so they continued on, ever so slowly. There was a fallen tree in the road that they couldn't get the raft trailer around, so they unhooked it and left it there, and continued on. Not even a half mile later, the Toyota's tire sustained a giant gash and went flat. After that, the families converged into one van. At every switchback where the road had washed out, everyone unloaded out of the van, unloaded the coolers, built up the road with sticks and rocks and brush, and then they drove across the washed-out part of the road, and reloaded everything up, and continued the process over and over. They spent the night in the van, and started the same process the next morning--the morning that Josh and Yvonne happened upon them. The road, unbeknownst to them, got worse and it would've been impossible for them to continue on about one mile ahead of where they were, but there was no cell service where they were at, and they couldn't go backwards because their van and raft trailer were now blocking the road, so they felt their only choice was to continue forward. 

The moms had held it in, trying to make a fun adventure for their families through this whole process, but when they saw Josh and Yvonne, they emotionally broke down, and expressed their relief and gratitude to finally have help! Josh & Yvonne were the first people they'd seen since starting their descent on Colson Creek Road. 

The first step was to get the van turned around. They drove it to a point that was slightly wider, and with all the adults watching on the sides, everyone helped be the eyes to get as near as possible to the edges of the road as possible, and the van slowly got turned around. He told the ladies he would continue up the road in the Gator, and they could slowly follow in the van. 

You can see how they built up this one corner with additional 
logs, sticks, and brush to make it across in the van. 

This is another photo to show the conditions
of the washed-out road. Their oil pan and tires
were scraped by the rocks jutting out of both
 the center and sides of the road. 

On their ascent up the Colson Creek Road, Yvonne's car was the next obstacle in the road. There'd been several calls made to the Forest Service about her car blocking the road for side-by-side riders to pass, so she'd had some friends who brought up their side-by-side to pull it off the high-centered rock after the Jeep's failed attempt to get it out. Her friends had also been able to turn it around (so that it could go back uphill when retrieved by her) and they'd parked it as close to the side of the road as possible, in order for the road to still be open to ATV traffic. Because of this, the Odyssey had had enough room to get by it (and they felt validated that they weren't the only ones driving on this road in their car!). Josh & Yvonne knew that the broken-down Sienna and Raft Trailer remained ahead, so they left her car there for the moment and continued on. When they got to the Sienna, they tried to put the Honda's donut spare tire onto the Sienna's flat tire rim, but the lug patterns didn't fit. Their only choice was to leave the Sienna on the mountain, so Josh drove the Sienna back and forth to move it over as much as possible in order to have room for the other vehicles to pass it by. 

The trailer was next. Josh hooked it onto the Gator, and pulled it forward, down the hill, past the parked Sienna, to a spot in the road that was wide enough to make a multiple-point turn around. He then unhooked it, drove Yvonne back down to her car, and they caravaned back up. He stopped on the way to hook back up the raft trailer, and drove behind the rest of the party that was now in the van AND the car. When they reached the parked Toyota, they stopped and the ladies unloaded some items from both vans into the raft trailer, and then he continued to follow them all as they drove to the top of Colson Road. At the top, Josh pulled the trailer over to the side of the road and unhooked it. At this point, Josh went BACK down Colson Creek Road, and the ladies followed Yvonne onto Spring Creek Road to go back to the Salmon River Road.  

Yvonne's car

Josh drove the Gator to the bottom of Colson Creek Road, and loaded it back onto the trailer behind his truck. At that point, he unloaded his trailer from the truck, and drove the truck downriver to Corn Creek to where the two husbands were. He found them, and told them who he was and where their wives were. The men had been stranded at Corn Creek for two days (their vehicle was parked at Boundary Creek where they'd begun their float). They'd hitched a ride into North Fork to call into the Sherriff's office to make a missing persons report, but then they'd gotten another ride back into Corn Creek, because they knew that's where they were supposed to meet up with their families. When they'd gotten to North Fork, one of the husbands was able to get cell phone reception and saw he'd had a text message from his wife saying that their van had a flat tire, but the families were still en route to Corn Creek. The men had no idea where the van had been when it got a flat tire, but they were still hoping that the other van would reach them at Corn Creek, so they felt they should go back and wait for them there, even though it was out of cell service area. 

Josh picked them up, began driving towards North Fork, and stopped at the bottom of Colson Creek to re-hook up his trailer to the truck. He'd told the ladies that if they made it to the River Road, to tie a fluorescent coat he'd had to the Spring Creek Road sign, so he would know if they'd made it past that point. Otherwise, he would've driven the truck back up Spring Creek Road until he crossed paths with them. Thankfully, the fluorescent coat was hanging on the sign. He pulled it off the sign, and the men drove into Salmon. They met up with each other at Bird's Tire. Josh had called Kris Bird, the owner, when he got into cell service, to have an employee meet up with them since it was after-hours. By this point, it was too dark to go back up the mountain to fix the van and pull out the raft trailer, so the families got hotel rooms and stayed the night in Salmon before going back up the next day. Josh sent the men and Yvonne in his truck to fix the van's tire and pull out the raft trailer the next day--he didn't want them to chance it in their van again on that road. He would've gone himself, but our family was scheduled to leave that morning to our family vacation to Denver, Colorado. 

It was an amazing rescue mission, and in hindsight, we could see all the tender mercies from the Lord to save these two families: 

--the failed Jeep attempt meant that Josh would have to go back up on a later date--after the families had gotten stuck

--the new plan to start from the bottom of Colson Creek road--in order to meet up with the ladies before all their broken-down obstacles on the road

--having the smaller Gator to maneuver around the obstacles in the road

--taking tools and items that were needed to move the trailer and jack up the Sienna in an attempt to change the tire

--having the fluorescent coat on hand to act as a signal

We later learned that the two families were still able to continue with their original plans: they floated down the Main Salmon River together. One of the families returned a few weeks later to Salmon to thank Josh for saving them. They gave him gifts and handmade cards, and provided offers to stay at their cabin in the mountains or join them for future float trips. Josh was grateful to be of service, and their heartfelt gratitude meant so much to him as well. It was an impactful event for both sides, and gratefully, had happy endings for all parties involved. 

One of the gifts they gave Josh was a 5-gallon
bucket FULL of chocolates!!!

P.S. After this all happened, the Forest Service FINALLY did something about it where Colson Creek Road begins on the Montana side... 

Our family took an ATV ride up the Colson Creek Road in September, so that Josh could show us all the places where this impactful event took place, and at the conjunction of Colson Creek Road to Long Tom Road, there was new signage that had recently been posted on this large wooden information board. It's still not as good as the permanent signs and cement barriers on the Idaho side by the Salmon River Road, but at least it's something to try to prevent this same event from happening again in the future!