Utah trip: Day 1 (day of mishaps)

Well, Curt managed to break his toe within a few hours of getting off of the plane.

After we had taken the day Wednesday packing and getting the 4-wheeler, it started raining just as we got to the base of the mountains.
Joy.

Pretty, but have I mentioned that there are some pretty treacherous roads going up to Grassy Lake? I'll have to find the pictures of our Silverado after it went over the edge one year (don't worry, luckily a tree caught us).

Well, the storm cleared before we got past the nice, wide, well-graveled portion of the road.
But we came across this Tahoe which had gotten a flat right before the storm hit. The guy had gotten it up on a jack and taken the flat off, but then the rain came, washed out the jack, and sunk the back end of the vehicle into the mud.
The guy had taken his motorcycle up to get family members from the campground they were heading towards, so when we came on the scene the wife was in the car just chillin' with like 5 kids (thank goodness for DVD players).
Dad (of course) stopped to help. I can't even begin to start counting the many strangers he has helped along the road when I've been with him....this wasn't the last Good Samaritan act this trip either.

He was able to get the vehicle braced with rocks and a 2x4 and jack it up before the guy came back, all they had to do was put on the new tire....ta da! Good thing Dad helped though, because they would have been trying to do this in the dark if not. Not a fun idea.
Here is a picture of Dad in the wheel well and the Tahoe owner guy to the left.

Well, the storm may have stopped, but it left behind some mighty muddy roads. The trailer Dad was hauling with his truck was pushing him all over the road (even with Dad being an excellent trailer driver), and the Tahoe I was driving was giving me some grief even with the four wheel drive. There were some pretty intense moments...

...and then we decided to just stop and spend the night on the road.
Luckily, Jann had some dog paraphernalia with flashing lights, so we used those as hazards and just went to sleep. Well...kind of...I didn't get too much sleep at all....but we were safe.

Here are our ruts as seen in the morning.

Mud, mud everywhere.

This is the look down one of the hills we would have rolled down had we gone over the edge.

Yeah, no traction whatsoever. Very clingy, sticky mud.

Oh, but what a gorgeous morning to awake to!

And don't worry, the rest of the camping trip was weather that was too good to hope for.
More pictures to come.