Yesterday I took the Rhino from our house out to my parents place in Sterling to get out and enjoy the day. Niki met me there with the trailer. If you don’t know, the trails between here and there are not for the faint of heart. There are mud holes after creeks after mud holes… Everything was going fine until it happened. I was crossing a swamp in some tall grass when the left side of the Rhino fell into a two foot wide two foot deep creek with water half way up the gas pedal. With the winch this normally wouldn’t be too big of a deal but the nearest tree (the tallest one on the left side of the picture) was 70ft from the Rhino and I only have 50ft of cable… This is when that sinking feeling started to kick in.

Fortunately I had the presence of mind to leave three ratchet straps in the back of the Rhino before leaving because I needed all three to stretch to the nearest tree. With a little creative winching I managed to get out.

Now I’m half way across the swamp. Hey, I know I should fall back in that creek again…

Fortunately I was much closer to the trees this time and it only took about five minutes to get out.

Did I learn anything? I think 100′ of rope would be handy! Oh, and it’s not a bad idea to go riding with somebody else.