The Dumbest Thing I Have Done This Year

But it's early.

Stuck

I have been birding Whitesbog for more than 12 years.  I have been there well over 700 times. I have driven its dikes and dams for hundreds of miles, in the dark, in the rain, through snow and over ice.  But, as the guy supervising getting my car out of the Lower Bog said, "You come here enough, eventually you're gonna slide off the road."  

Which didn't make me feel any less stupid. 

The day started like hundreds of others out on the bogs. I stopped at the Lower Bog, which this month was lowered to discouraged the Tundra Swans and Canada Geese and keep them in Union Pond, away from the working bogs. I pulled over to the side of the road, right in front of the wooden bridge that is inset into the road. Had I driven a foot and half farther and set my front tires on the bridge, you wouldn't be reading this. But I didn't, because I wanted to keep the road clear in case someone else was driving around. I scanned the bog for a while, hoping for snipe, but only came up with Killdeer, blackbirds, and grackles. 

I put my scope in the car, started it up, put it in drive...and it wouldn't go forward. I looked ahead of me and saw that my bumper was actually up against the edge of the bridge. The shoulder was soft. I didn't think it was that big a deal--at first. I'd just turn the wheel to the left and get back on the hard part of the road. First, I had to back up a little. And backing up collapsed the road more. Then I went forward a little, then back, then I put the car into X mode, which just spun the tires more and when I got out of the car I was perpendicular to the road, and about 2 feet away from the water at the edge--front tires buried in sand, back tires in mud. 

My first thought was that maybe my friend was around, and he could help. I called him, and he said he'd be right over, but he didn't have anything to pull me out with. I called AAA and after the usual the rigamarole they said they'd be there within an hour and a half. Just then M--- pulled up and saw my predicament. He's the supervisor and was checking the water flow of the gates. I told him that AAA was on the way. He thought that would be good, because, while he had the equipment to get me out, he didn't want to take the chance of damaging my car. He'd make his rounds and check back with me around 10. So now all I had to do was wait. I couldn't really imagine how a tow truck was going to pull me out with the front of the car buried in sand, but I guessed they had their ways. A little later my friend came up and said it was a good thing the bog wasn't full of water.  I replied, "If the bog had been full of water, I wouldn't have stopped here!" 

The extrication begins

Then I got a text from AAA asking me to share my location with them, which I did. 10 minutes later I got another text saying that now that they saw where I actually was, they couldn't help me, because they only do towing in accessible places that are no more than 50 feet from a paved surface. Thanks for nothing. I called M--- (I had taken his number) and told him I would have to prevail upon him. Very quickly, he and J arrived, J in a backhoe. J and I have the occasional chat about birds and the bogs when we see each other. J and M--- got to work, first J smoothed out the slope where I had grooved it trying to get out up the hill, then M---attached one end of strap to the axle of my car and the other end to the shovel of the backhoe. Warning me that they might damage the bumper, they got to work. It seemed excruciatingly slow, but the car inched up the incline, and within 10 minutes was on the road again--with, miraculously, no damage to the car. This obviously wasn't the first vehicle they've pulled from the bogs. "Hell," M--- said, "we've had overturned dump trucks in the bogs." Again, it didn't make me feel any less stupid. 

But I can tell you one thing: It's the last time I'm considerate about where I park there. 

Almost

Extricated