Funny trail stories?

[sierradmax]

I was 17 and worked my ass off to buy myself a new 1997 flame red 2.5L base model sport. My first car. Soft top, half doors, 5 speed, steel wheels. I thought for sure it would be a panty dropper hence the reason why I have a flame red Tj now... However it doesn't seem to drop many panties now that I'm married and have a kid. LOL..

Anyways... It was January 1998 on a cold, night with 6" of snow on the ground. The heat was cranked on full blast with the soft top and my girlfriend (at the time) sitting shotgun. Young, dumb, and full of...well lets keep this PG rated... We decided to go take a trail in an unknown part of the woods to go "parking". We approached an open, flat area to which I assumed was a field and we could do some star gazing and I could practice some one-handed unstrapping, if you know what I mean. As my "little TJ" made it's way in unfamiliar territory, the ground beneath us gave way and what I thought was a field ended up being a pond. Luckily, it wasn't too deep but deep enough to warrant opening the half doors. I crawled out the window opening and carried my disgruntled friend (at that point, I do believe she dumped me) to dry land.

At the time, there were no cellphones. We walked for 30 minutes to the nearest payphone. She called her parents and I called mine. Her father came and got her and mine told me to "leave the jeep in the pond and walk home".

She wanted nothing to do with me after that incident and my "little TJ" was never the same.

 

[JTJones]

Early 1990's, I was in college and had my old 1966 CJ5. The battery wouldn't hold a charge and I didn't have enough money to replace it (or I was really just too cheap). In town it was no problem, I could park on a hill and let it roll and pop the clutch. Or if in a flat parking lot, I could just push it, hop in, pop the clutch and on my way. I did this for months....no problem.

Tired of the city life I headed out to a local wildlife management area. Alone. I rode around a couple hours, just seeing what was around the next bend in the trail, found my way back where I had never been, noticed the shadows were getting long, and decided I had better start heading back out. The path was pretty narrow, so I was doing the 3 pt turn around and stalled it....in the middle of the turn. With the Jeep silent, there was no other sound but the forest. This was back before cell phones, I didn't have a cb radio, it was just me and silent Jeep. No one was coming.

So I wiggled it around a got it lined up on the trail. It happened to be in a heavily pine forested area. Lots of fresh pine straw on the ground. No hills, just flat. So pushed it up to a run, hopped in, popped the clutch, ....and.....nothing. The tires slid on the pine straw. So I did it again. Same results. And I tried again, and again......Thinking back, I don't have a clue why I didn't put it in 4wd..?? So young and dumb.

I ended up pushing it to an area that wasn't so thick with pine straw where the tires could catch a little grip and got it going. Didn't give it a chance to stall after that. And replaced the battery the next day.

 

[WallyWest]

I was like 5 years old. So not driving, lol. My uncle had just gotten a brand new Scout. Had to take it out for some fun one weekend. Him, my mom and aunt, and me. Drove for about an hour up an old logging trail in the mountains of east Tennessee. Starting to get dark and my aunt wanted him to turn around. Nah, he said, we're over halfway through and the trail comes out near where we started, so going back would take way longer.

Had to get out to poke sticks in some big puddles to make sure they weren't too deep, it was slow going. Then he slammed on the brakes. We got to a small ravine crossing with a bridge. Except the bridge was long gone. It was in a tight spot, fully dark now and he had nothing but stock lighting. Didn't want to risk backing up where he was, couldn't turn around. This was early fall so temps were dropping, we had no supplies. He did have a CB and managed to contact someone. We stayed the night, with me sleeping under my mom's coat (the only coat they brought). I was fine, everyone else damn near froze, lol.

Got out the next day no problem. He wasn't allowed any more off road excursions for a while. I do have a lot of fond memories of that Scout though, it was a beast. When it snowed he would tow me and my cousins behind it on sleds, up the same logging trail. We would sled back down.