The following is lifted out of a 2006 post concerning my adventures on the salt flats of BOCA GRANDE that David K. made reference to above. The moral
of this story is "don't mess with salt flats"!!!!---------:
Boca Grande--------makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it------
--------April, 1999-----My buddy in his Isuzu Trooper, and I in my F-250 ext. cab with 1000 lb CALLEN camper on our way south from BOLA, decided that
it would be fun to explore Boca Grande, a couple miles east of the main road to San Rafael Fish camp, and San Francisquito. I was in the lead. I saw
many vehicle tracks leading out onto the "dry lagoon" playa----stopped and walked out on it----everything looked, and felt, great------back in my
truck and proceeded to drive across the "hard-pan" to the large rock berm between the "dry" lagoon and the Sea of Cortez. On the CB I suggested that
the Trooper should hold up until I checked it out (thank God). I had been cruizing across the hard-pan for about 800 yards and was nearing the rock
berm when I felt that the truck was starting to bog down a little. Boy, this is not good, so gently I start a wide left 180 to get the H--- out of
here. Now understand I am in 4 wheel drive, and have big 285 tires, but they are inflated to about 40 lbs.. I am doing everything perfectly----the
right gear (stick shift), keeping my speed up, eveything seems ok, but I am ever so slowly losing speed and starting to really feel dumb, AND MAD. I
manage to make the complete 180 and am heading for safety, but ever so slowly the truck comes to a complete stop-----all 4 wheels have sunk about 6
inches into the "mud" and I am not moving. Shut-down!
Realizing how far I am from ANYBODY (but the little-bitty Trooper), and knowing that the Trooper cannot haul my monster out of the mud, I am really
mad, and frankly scared (just a little). I am going to lose my truck!!!! it is going to dissappear into the mud, before my eyes.
I have no winch, no Pull-Pal, no nothing, except my highlift jack. After about 10 mins. of howling at the sky, cursing, and getting ready to have an
anurism, I sorta calm down and me and my buddy start thinking about our alternatives. The first thing I do is drop all 4 tires down to 12 lbs. Then we
wander out across the "dry" lake and scrounge up anything we can find to put under the tires----all the stuff we found was stuff that others had used
to get themselves out of the "mud" in long years past---old lawn chairs, tables, flat rocks, and stuff like that. One by one, we jack up the 4 corners
of the truck (I did have a huge steel foot-base for my highlift jack), and stuff this furniture under the wheels-------I know that this is only going
to work one time, and I do a lot of real praying, which is unusual for me. By the way, all this preparation for this one-time "push" to get out takes
about 2 1/2 hours to accomplish.
I get in the cab, start the engine and let it warm up good-------this is a big 460 V8, and if it cannot get me going, nothing can. I put it in second
gear (5-speed tranny) and give it my best keeping the tire-spin to a minimum------AND SLOWLY OUT I CAME!!!!! Houling in sheer extasy, I haul-ass for
the sand dune that the Trooper is sitting on about 1000 yards away, mud flying from my tires, AND I MAKE IT!!!!! miracles of all miracles-----my
prayers are answered!!! I have never felt this "high" in all my life----Yah Hoooooooooo!!!!
Now for the frustrating part------using three of the piddly cigarette lighter air compressors (2 of mine, and 1 of my buddies) we spent the next 2
hours airing my 285's back up to 40 lbs each. We totally burned up one of the compressors, and the other two got so hot that we had to shut them down
time after time to keep them from cooking.
Within days of returning to the USA, I had a Warn 9500lb winch installed, bought a pull-pal, and bought a Quick-Air compressor-------never again am I
going thru what I went thru at BOCA GRANDE!!! I told my wife, Meredith, that all these purchases were "insurance", and totally justifiable like all
other insurance is!!! She made no comment.
BOCA GRANDE is the pits-------don't go there------it will ruin your day, or much worse!!!! Pappy Jon is absolutely right----that "dry playa" looks so
hard and non-muddy!!!! The crust is about 2 inches think----- and below that is HELL !!! Never again!!!! (and I knew better ???)
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