You have been warned
Entire text of a sign on a Lake District mountain road

Safe backcountry driving is one part experience and three parts caution and good sense. If you exercise the latter, there's no reason to get into trouble while acquiring the former. In this installment I'll provide some rules to keep in mind to keep you out of trouble, as well as offer some practical driving tips for driving in the southwest. While I'm hardly an expert or professional driver, I have driven several thousand miles of unpaved backcountry roads over the past ten years, and pass along what I've observed in that time for you to test on your own.

The first thing to keep in mind is that once you leave a paved road, you should assume that you're on your own. Cell phones will rarely work, and the more isolated your destination, the less likely it is that anyone is going to happen by to help if you're stuck, broken down, or out of gas. As a result, it's up to you to avoid any of those things happening, and it's also up to you to make the type of preparations that will get you out of a fix if you end up in one anyway.

A.  Be Prepared

 

Rule number one is to be sure that your vehicle is in good shape, and that you know what its limitations are (see the last installment, on finding the right car for the conditions you anticipate).  If it’s a rental car, it’s probably a recent model that’s well maintained.  If it’s your own car, then it’s your job to be sure that your vehicle is up to the challenge. 

 

My personal rule is that I never leave for the backcountry without a full tank of gas, even if I’m not planning to use anywhere near that much fuel.  This serves two purposes: first, you have more freedom to go where your whims take you, which may be farther than you originally intended.  More importantly, it provides a margin of error for the times when you inevitably encounter the unexpected, such as a washout, a rock fall, or any other obstacle that requires you to change your route. 

 

That’s what happened to me a few days ago, when a thunderstorm raised the level of a river I had to ford.  I reached that point after winding up, around and over mesas and canyons for 36 miles, encountering slickrock, gullies, rocks, and washes all along the way.  With the river too full to safely cross, there was nothing to do but to turn around and retrace my steps, or wait and hope that the river would drop and allow me to reach the next road, which was only a couple of miles ahead.  With more thunderstorms predicted, going back the way I came made better sense.  Even though 72 miles doesn’t sound like a lot, at 5 — 10 miles per hour over a very rough road, that’s a lot of driving time.  Under these conditions, driving time begins to trump mileage when it comes to fuel consumption.

 

Rule number two is to take everything you need in case you run into problems, which will vary somewhat depending on terrain and climate.  In the desert, first and foremost that means taking a lot of water (in the winter blankets might be more important).  A few weeks ago, someone got stuck on a road in the Escalante and spent eight days there twiddling their thumbs (or worse).  I hope they had eight gallons of water per person, because temperatures have been in the high 90’s and low 100’s here.  Throwing a few extra jugs of water in the car can make the difference between an unexpected opportunity to catch up on your reading and tragedy.  If you like to eat, you might want to through in some extra granola bars as well.

 

Begin prepared also means taking a few basic tools along to get yourself out of trouble if you get stuck.  The most useful and basic tool is a shovel.  If you’re flying, you can bring a folding model from an outfitter, or pick up a cheap one when you land and leave it behind when you fly home.  Other things you may wish you had if you become stuck: a cheap air compressor that plugs into your car’s DC outlet, a towing strap, an extra five gallons of gas, a tire repair kit, and tools, if you’re handy enough to do repairs on your car.  I’ll talk later about how you might use the less obvious of these.  A first aid kit is a good thing to have along generally, but may come in particularly useful if you get stuck and need to get down and dirty.

 

Summary:  Before leaving paved roads:

 

• Fill your tank, no matter how short the intended trip.  Top it off at every opportunity

• Take emergency water and food adequate to last until you would expect to be found if you get into trouble

• Take basic tools to get yourself out of trouble on your own

 

B.  Be Cautious

 

The best offense, as they say, is a good defense.  In this context, that means being sure that you don’t get stuck or break down to begin with (we’ll talk about not getting lost in the third and final installment of this series).  A moment of caution can at minimum save you several hours of getting yourself out of a jam, or worse.

 

Taken down to the next level of instruction, being cautious involves these five key concepts:

 

1.  Never drive so fast that you can’t stop in the amount of road that you can see well ahead.  If you don’t absorb any other driving rule this blog entry, this is the one to take to heart, as it will do more to keep you out of trouble than anything else.  The alternative is that unpleasant feeling you get when driving a car that’s bumping along with the anti-lock brakes chattering as you hurtle helplessly towards the gully, deep sand, or precipice that lies grinning ahead.  Not to be recommended.  Sometimes you’ll see something up ahead and not be able to figure out whether it is or isn’t going to be a problem.  When that happens, and no matter how often it happens, stop, get out, and walk ahead and check things out.  It’s hard for a car that isn’t moving to get into too much trouble, and getting a close look gives you a chance to assess the situation and decide on next steps. 

 

2.  Pay attention.  This is the obvious partner to the last concept.  You can’t stop to avoid what you didn’t see.  You can still sightsee by simply driving slower and taking those quick glances away from the road into account when you gauge your stopping distance.  Better yet, stop and get out from time to time — that’s what you’re there for anyway.

 

3.  Know what your car can and can’t do.  The most obvious parameter is clearance, because either your car is, or is not, going to clear that rock (the former is preferable, but the knowledge of which its going to be is even more important).  There are other tolerances and capabilities to keep in mind as well, some based on whether you have an SUV that’s intended for soccer moms or a Jeep Wrangler, that factor into the equation as well.

4.  Know what you can and can’t do.  Until you build up experience, it’s safer not to assume that you can get through a marginal situation than to give it a try, although gradually pushing it a little bit more each time is the only way to learn.  Good examples of things too avoid in the beginning are deep sand and wet clay, both of which are very easy to get stuck in, and some of the hardest fixes to get out of (deep sand in particular).  Until you build up confidence in your abilities, try and avoid both.

 

5.  Let someone know where you’re going and when you expect to be back.  It’s a big country, and it’s only good manners to let the search team know approximately where to look for you, and when to start.  It will save them a lot of their valuable time, and you’ll get found faster as well.

 

I’d like to expand on one bit of advice above before moving on, because it’s so important.  When in doubt, stop the car, get out, and take stock.  What you learn may be as simple as that you want to cross an obstacle diagonally rather than straight on, so that you won’t bottom out.  Another example: if you’re faced with a ditch across the road carved by the last downpour that looks deeper than your car’s clearance, you can usually go off the road by a few feet on either side and find a shallower or more gradual spot to cross.  If that’s not possible, then it will usually only take a few minutes to heave some rocks in the ditch where your tires will cross, thereby diminishing the drop to within the clearance of your vehicle. 

 

If you just take a chance instead and lose the coin toss, you could be in big trouble.  Why?  Because modern car jacks need to slide under the car’s frame to do their jobs, and your frame is now on the ground — or worse yet, resting on bedrock.  You might be able to dig down in dirt to get the jack underneath so that now you can heave those few rocks in, lower the car, and drive on, but what if you can’t dig at all?  (Hint:  See Rule A.2 above about adequate food and water, and Rule 5 about letting the search party know where to look).

 

There are, of course, other things to keep in mind as well.  It’s far worse to run out of gas or break down than it is to get stuck, since with enough ingenuity you can generally get unstuck eventually.  Fixing an axle on the spot is trickier, though, and you probably won’t manage that (I wouldn’t).  As a result, when in doubt about whether your gas will stretch or your car will survive a stretch of particularly hideous terrain (a boulder filled wash, for example), chalk it up to fate and retrace your path.  It’s better to change plans than the possible alternative.

 

Another fine point is this: if you need to turn around, take as many back and forth passes as it takes to do it safely, even if that’s 20 in a particularly tight spot.  It’s better to take a few extra minutes than to end up stuck in sand, or with a wheel hung over the edge of the road. 

 

As you can see, caution and common sense are what it’s really all about, especially while you’re learning — and forever after as well.

 

Summary:

 

•   There are many roads of equal quality in Nevada and in other parts of the west, most of them straight, and you’ll feel perfectly comfortable going 50, 60 or 70 miles an hour on them. 

   

   

  Don’t.  Or at least not until you get used to them.  Even then, you’d best stay on your toes (remember the prime directive of being able to stop within your visual range).  I once found myself driving about sixty miles an hour after dusk on a dirt and gravel road in Nevada that had been going straight as an arrow for 15 miles, and happened to notice that there was a water tank straight ahead.  I fishtailed my way through the unmarked (naturally) right angle turn that was just ahead – and drove more slowly thereafter.

   

              Other surfaces:  If the road isn’t made up of gravel that has been trucked in and applied to a graded surface, then its whatever the surrounding terrain is made up of.  That means that it will vary as the terrain varies, and that you will need to adjust your driving as the conditions change.&nbshe road surface, using a machine called a scraper (a long vehicle with an angled blade, much like a snow plow blade, below its midsection).  The county or state sends the scraper through at intervals to maintain a good surface.  Not infrequently, however, such roads are only maintained after the snow is gone for good, and maintenance ceases again in the fall.  During that interregnum, they can be washed out or, more frequently, blocked by snowdrifts or fallen trees.

   

  During the maintained period, such roads are great, but you should keep in mind that there may have been a washout or other event since the last time the crews came through.  You should also keep in mind some factors in the types of road surfaces themselves:

   

  Gravel roads:  Just because a road is not paved does not mean that it might not be an excellent road.  I drove the Alcan Highway to Alaska with my father and brother back in 1969 from Edmonton, Alberta, to Anchorage, Alaska, and it was an excellent graded gravel road, with culverts and banked turns.  Everyone drove 60 miles an hour – or more, including huge logging trucks with deep tread tires that threw rocks, breaking everyone’s windshield their first day out.  There are many roads of equal quality in Nevada and in other parts of the west, most of them straight, and you’ll feel perfectly comfortable going 50, 60 or 70 miles an hour on them. 

   

  Don’t.  Or at least not until you get used to them.  Even then, you’d best stay on your toes (remember the prime directive of being able to stop within your visual range).  I once found myself driving about sixty miles an hour after dusk on a dirt and gravel road in Nevada that had been going straight as an arrow for 15 miles, and happened to notice that there was a water tank straight ahead.  I fishtailed my way through the unmarked (naturally) right angle turn that was just ahead – and drove more slowly thereafter.

   

              Other surfaces:  If the road isn’t made up of gravel that has been trucked in and applied to a graded surface, then its whatever the surrounding terrain is made up of.  That means that it will vary as the terrain varies, and that you will need to adjust your driving as the conditions change.  Surfaces other than gravel, as a generality, are also liable to have surprises caused by excess rain, because they are less resistant to erosion.

   

  Non-maintained roads:  These roads run the gamut from not bad (because a rancher or someone else put some time into them to begin with, and may continue to do so on an occasional basis), or because the terrain they cross isn’t challenging) to a pair of lines ahead that just don’t have much growing in them.  As a generality, you should regard the faintest tracks as recovering terrain, and avoid them.

   

  Non-maintained roads should be approached with caution, because you literally don’t know what the next 100 feet of road surface will be like.  If you’re crossing level terrain, then the road is likely to be straight, and the worst you’re likely to run into is some bad erosion crossing the road.  But if you’re changing altitude or crossing rough terrain, you’ll run into all kinds of surprises, and need to anticipate them.

   

  No roads at all:  I have never driven anywhere that a road does not exist, and strongly urge you not to do so in the southwest either, even where it is permitted.  Just about everywhere in the southwest the terrain is extremely fragile, and the passage of even a single vehicle can take many years to heal.  As a generality, there are plenty of roads and tracks to choose from, so order from the available menu, and hoof it after that.

   

  Challenging surfaces:  As noted, different road surfaces present different challenges, and require different responses.

   

  Gravel:  The main problem with gravel is that it can move.  At some point, you’ll find that your car is still going straight ahead, but your car is aiming about 10 degrees off course.  The reason is that all those pieces of gravel are beginning to act like ball bearings, or a coating of oil, and your tires are floating on top of that layer rather than making firm contact with a solid surface — a dry equivalent of hydroplaning.  When this happens, you obviously want to slow down and let things get back to normal.

   

  Unpaved roads of any type often have another surface issue, which is a sort of washboard surface, comprising multiple lines crossing the road approximately the same distance apart.  I expect that this is caused by the blade of the scraper “chattering” on the surface, rather than cutting cleanly, but confess that’s just a guess. 

   

  On dirt roads, the effect is likely to be so jarring that you’ll automatically slow down to a safe speed.  But on gravel roads, the lines are often much more subtle, and the series of tiny bumps sets your car to bouncing, greatly increasing the likelihood of the “ball bearing effect” taking hold.  Unfortunately, this type of surface is particularly common on twisting gravel roads that scale mountains, and the effect can set in at very modest speeds indeed — as little as ten miles an hour. 

   

  The effect can set in whether you’re going up hill or down, but in the former gravity will be working to slow you down if you take your foot off the gas, while in the latter you need to both slow down and regain control of the car with gravity trying to speed you up. 

   

  As a result, it’s essential that you slow down promptly when you run into this sort of road surface, because rest assured you will rapidly begin to swerve.  If you can’t take the speed off the car quickly, you’re going to leave the road — and while backcountry roads never have guardrails, they do often have steep drops on the downhill side. On dirt roads, the effect is likely to be so jarring that you’ll automatically slow down to a safe speed.  But on gravel roads, the lines are often much more subtle.

   

  Sand:  Sand (along with wet clay, on which more below) takes practice to deal with, represents one of the mostly likely ways you may get stuck and (unfortunately) can be the hardest to get out of once you do.  The problem with sand is that when the depth increases, your car starts to float above the actual hard surface below, leading you to lose traction and degrade your ability to steer.  If the depth of loose sand exceeds your clearance, you’re really cooked, because the bottom of your car is now bottoming out on the sand, and you’ll simply coast to a stop.  While there are strategies to deal with sand that’s not quite that deep, there’s not a lot you can do when it is — so just don’t go there.

   

  Sand that’s less deep can still get you, though, if you’re not careful.  The first rule of driving in sand is this:  Whatever you do, don’t stop, because once you do, you’re stuck. 

   

  Sand is the situation that provides the exception to a rule:  when you see sand ahead that looks passable, the cautious thing to do is to speed up, now slow down, because you want your momentum to carry you through.  It’s likely that you’ll begin to swerve to some extent, but don’t let that slow you down.  Instead, give it a bit more gas, if that feels safe, steer into, and then out of the swerve.

   

  The second worst thing you can do in deep sand besides slow down is to turn sharply if you’re swerving.  The reason is that the swerve means that you’re already hydroplaning (sandplaning?), so if you turn your wheels the car will likely continue to go mostly straight — but your tires will be presenting themselves broadside to your momentum, and it will be as if you just released your drogue parachute at the end of a drag race.  If you don’t turn the wheels back quickly, you’ll likely bog down and come to a stop.

   

  Frequently, you’ll run into patches of sand between areas of firm ground.  When this happens, you can usually go merrily on your way, powering through the sand until you get back to terra firma.  But if the sandy stretches begin to get longer and deeper, it’s time to think about turning back before your luck runs out.

   

               Clay:  Clay roads are very common out west (as well as in many other parts of the country) and they’re easy to tell by their brick color.  Dry clay roads are usually no more challenging than any other surface, except when the clay turns to powder, as it sometimes will.  When that happens, treat the situation in the same way as you would a road with sandy stretches.  When wet, though, clay roads turn into an entirely different animal, as indicated by a sign that you’ll frequently say when you turn off the paved surface and on to the clay:  Road Impassable When Wet.

  The problem is that when clay becomes saturated with water it begins to assume the consistency that you’ll recall from primary school art class.  And that’s not a very good consistency to support a vehicle.  It also becomes, as you’d expect, slick and therefore slippery.

   

  I’ve been fortunate enough to have never found myself back in the boonies after the roads have assumed this state.  But I have driven such roads many times as they’ve been driving out, and what you see in the aftermath are long, incredibly deep and long, swerving ruts where the road was soupiest.  Since many of these ruts are likely left by pickup (or bigger) trucks with higher clearance than you have, you want to either straddle these ruts without sliding in, or parallel the road if you can.  Where puddles remain, hit the gas, power through, and admire your new two-tone vehicle.  But if the road is still too wet, best to call it a day.

   

               Slickrock:  Slickrock is very common out west, and is a generic name given to any exposed rock surface (most often it is limestone or sandstone).  Slickrock looks easy — after all, its bare rock, right?  What could give you better traction?  I expect that the name derives from what it’s like to drive when wet, although I’ve never happened to drive it in that state, and therefore can’t offer any clues or advice.

   

  Dry slickrock has issues of its own, however.  One is that it can knock the teeth out of your head, because the same bump or dip on rock is far less forgiving than the same imperfection on dirt, clay or sand.  As a result, you’ll frequently need to crawl along at a walking speed as you bounce and jounce yourself across a stretch of rock that otherwise would look rather smooth.

   

  Because it’s so unforgiving, you also have to be particularly careful not to bottom out, because you might strand yourself, or damage your car — or both.  Best to creep along, and get out of the car as often as you need to do be sure that you get safely across to the other side.

   

  Another way in which slickrock is different is that you’re likely to find yourself needing to cross momentary, or longer, stretches where the rock slants to the side.  Most people’s internal inclinometer dramatically exaggerates the perception of a car leaning to the side.  You’ll swear that the car is already at 45 degrees and ready to roll when in fact it’s at 10 or 15.  Be that as it may, be sure you know at what point you’re really likely to get in trouble, and bear in mind whether or not you’ve got a lot of weight stowed on a roof rack, as it will alter your center of gravity.

   

              Washes:  Roads will frequently follow dry ravines (washes, or arroyos) for short or long distances.  In some types of terrain, washes provide great surfaces that are quite firm and mostly flat.  In other areas, however, they may have frequent sandy areas that can be quite hazardous.

   

  Washes also present at least two unique concerns that you need to keep in mind.

   

              –  Thunderstorms:  The reason that this nice broad avenue is carved into the earth is because thunderstorms periodically release huge amounts of rain on a sudden basis, unleashing what can be a tidal wave of water racing down a wash.  Just as with hiking slot canyons, you should be somewhere else when that happens.

   

  Unfortunately, all thunderstorms, like politics, are local.  As a result, it can be perfectly sunny and clear where you are, and raining buckets five miles up-canyon.  As a result, you should at minimum keep an eye out as you drive along for high spots that you could retreat to, or exit points that you could run back to.

   

              –  Pouroffs:  Pouroffs are what a waterfall looks like when there is no water flowing, and are formed by the same process: a hard layer of rock lies atop a softer, lower layer.  As a river (or wash) proceeds down hill, the water eventually wears through the hard layer, and rapidly chews through the softer layer beneath.  Over time, the lip of the hard layer erodes as well, and the pouroff works its way back up stream.  As that happens, the vertical height of the pouroff may increase as well.

   

  Pouroffs can be as low as a few inches, and as high as hundreds of feet.  And washes have lots of them.  When it rains, the wash fills up, and the water races down the wash, reaches the pouroff, describes a geometrically precise arc that a Greek mathematician would admire, and crashes into the pouroff pool below — just as you will, if you miss your exit, and are driving faster than you should.

   

  So here’s the drill.  If a road goes into a wash, there will be a place where it will exit as well — before the pouroff.  As you’re driving along, then, you want to watch both sides of the wash to see where people have driven out before.  Needless to say, you don’t want to miss your exit.

   

  Summary: 

  • Know, and think about, what kind of conditions you’re driving under

  • Be ready for surprises

   

   

  D.         Damn!

   

  Okay, despite all of your caution, you’re stuck.  Sooner or later this happens to everyone.  In my case, the only time I’ve ever been seriously stuck was when I stopped along a well-graded road, and backed up to park along the side without looking carefully enough.  Unfortunately, there was a section of erosion — mostly in sand — right behind me and I was bottomed out.

   

  Now what?

   

  First, don’t spin your wheels.  If you think you’re stuck, turn the car off, get out, and assess the situation before you make it worse.  Every inch you dig down makes it far harder to get loose.

   

  While every situation is different, here are some suggestions.

   

  1.  If you’re not already in your highest torque four-wheel drive setting, put the car in that mode now, and also downshift into first gear.  Then, then gently apply power to see if you can drive out.  Be careful not to spin your wheels if this doesn’t work.

   

  2.  Get out of the car and think hard about what the problem is, and how to go about addressing it.  Think about what direction the car has to go if you can get it moving, and what you may need to do to the road surface in that direction to make sure that you can keep moving until you’re out of trouble.

   

  3.  If you can still move in one direction and can improve the problem by doing so, make that move.  For example, if you can move up hill and fill in the space you leave behind with something that will give you better traction, or that will build a ramp up to the way out, go for it.

   

  4.  If a wheel is in a hole, jack the car up and fill the hole with something solid until you can drive out.  Rocks are best; brush will sometimes help if it’s heavy enough and can’t be shot out by the wheel when it turns.

   

  5.  If you’re in sand, try and put material in front of the wheels that you can drive on top of, in hopes of picking up enough speed.  Be sure to point your wheels straight ahead before trying this, and if you can get the car moving, be sure to keep moving until you’re on solid ground.

   

  6.  Letting some air out of your drive tires should help, although I’ve never personally tried this.  Be sure not to overdo it, however, as you don’t want to have a tire lose its seal, and if you don’t have an inflator, you’ve still got to get back to home base.

   

  7.  If you’re bottomed out in ruts, you’ve got some work to do, and you’ll be glad to have brought a shovel.  First, break down the material between your wheels that the car is resting on, so that your car is no longer bottomed out.  Then, break down the material between the ruts ahead, and to each side.  Finally, prepare a way forward (or backwards) that will allow you to steer out of the ruts and stay there.

   

  8.  In all of the cases above, be sure to “over build,” as you’ll usually only get one try, before the car settles back into the “stuck” position.   Extra time and effort making the most out of that first try will pay off.

   

  9.  If you’re using rocks, bigger is better, as small rocks will often get pushed out of the way.  Also, try and fit the rocks together so that the car will lock them tighter together, rather than push them apart.

   

  10.  NEVER LET ANYONE STAND BEHIND THE CAR IF YOU’VE PUT MATERIAL UNDER THE WHEELS — IT CAN SHOOT OUT BEHIND IF YOU LET THE WHEELS SPIN.  If people are pushing, they should at minimum stay between the wheels. 

   

  11.  If you’re using a jack, be sure that you’ve got the jack properly supported so it won’t kick out.  Also look at the car carefully and think whether it might shift, and if so in what direction.  Never be under the car, or put your hands under a wheel or any part of the car when it’s on a jack if you can possibly avoid it.

   

  Sooner or later, you should be able to get going again, as long as you think carefully, take your time and overbuild. 

   

  Summary:

   

  • Don’t make it worse; stop, get out, and think

  • Always be in your most appropriate drive mode, and if going forward, in first gear

  •  “Overbuild”

  • Once you get moving, don’t stop until you’re on firm ground

  • Be careful!

   

  E.  Now What?

   

  At some point, though, you may conclude that you’re not only stuck, but are going to remain that way, or perhaps you’re broken down.  If this happens, you have two choices: get yourself back to safety, or wait to be found.

   

  If you can clearly get back to safety (for example, if it’s only a few miles in good weather to a busy road) and aren’t likely to be found quickly, then that’s the way to go.  If it’s too far to walk, you might also try walking a shorter distance to higher ground, and hope to catch a cell phone signal.

   

  Before you decide to try walking, out, be sure that you know exactly how far you need to go.  If you have a GPS unit, use it, and then calculate the distance with a generous margin of error.  After doing that, if you doubt that you can walk out carrying what you need to get all the way out, including more water than you expect to need (if you’re in dry country), then it’s likely better to stick with your vehicle and wait to be found, assuming someone knows about where you should be and when you should have been back (see Rule B.5 above).  Don’t forget that searchers will be looking for a car and should know what kind that they’re looking for.  Also, a car is a lot easier to see than you are, if it’s out in the open.  A car also offers shelter.

   

  If do decide to stick with your car, try and make your presence as visible as possible.  For example, if you have blue tarps, spread them out on the ground and use rocks to make an SOS.  A carefully tended fire during the day can be another good idea.  Keep a pile of punky material around that you can throw on to make smoke if you here a plane.

   

  Then, make yourself comfortable, conserve your food and water as necessary, and be patient.

   

  Summary:

   

  • If it’s easy to walk out and you’re not likely to be found quickly, walk out

  • Otherwise, think carefully, and plan well, before using that option

  • When in doubt, stick with your vehicle and make yourself as visible as possible

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