We haven’t gotten rid of the stubborn snow on the two-tracks out here. Two more inches overnight and it made for some interesting driving yesterday, adding a slick layer to the roads and making it hard to tell safe from dangerous terrain. On my first drive in the Rhino, I headed down towards Monument Lek, and took a quick path that we usually take in the 4-wheelers to avoid a large puddle right before passing through a drainage. We hadn’t been through this segment yet this year, and unfortunately, it was drifted pretty high with snow (probably close to 2 feet). Erin and I quickly ground to a halt, with the sinking feeling that we wouldn’t be able to get out of there on our own. After a few minutes of digging and a failed attempt to reverse course, we walked to a nearby hill to scope out the lek.

Thankfully we had good cell reception, and I was able to call Gail when she was at Chugwater. She came down on an ATV with a couple of shovels and we were able to clear some of the snow behind the Rhino.



Then, using a tow rope, we could drag the Rhino backwards and get it out of the deeper snow.



With the slanted ground we almost lost the front end in a ditch, but luckily the backwards pull was faster than the downward slide.



The three birds at Chugwater appear to have been an early aberration, as we’ve been bird-free on both leks for the past few days. An eagle scared up at least 50 birds near camp on our way into town, so the birds are here, just not yet interested in dancing.