"I shouldn't be Alive" - My Story

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Have you ever watched the show "I shouldn't be Alive?" My little brother loves everything outdoors, hiking, fishing, geocashing - so even though I've never watched a full episode, I've seen parts of it and have heard from Adam the terrors that people have faced.

Setting out exploring, rather than watching the superbowl, we decided to go to Joshua Tree Park. Remember how I blogged earlier about how I was in the mood for another ghost town? My Dad and brother also seemed to have the same thoughts. My Dads friend told him about a ghost town up in the mountains a few miles out of Joshua Park.

The Portrait

Having a big 4Wheel drive truck, my Dads friend, who had been up there many times, told us that he thought we could make it fine. Well, after driving miles through extremely bumpy, rocky, and jagged road, with the cliff on one side about not barely a foot away from our tire and rock on the other side, we came to a curve. However, with our truck, we couldn't fit! So, we backed out and headed along our way. (Don't ask how we backed out!)

Road that we couldn't fit through...and sign before we left the park!

Dad having a book on ghost towns in California, found that there was one listed not far from where we were, so we decided to try that one. The road leading up to it was a bit ragged, but it was fine, though rocky, still easy enough to get through. Once we reached the ghost town and walked a ways, we found out that the town itself wasn't much of anything, other than a few wood tracks left over. So we were off, with daylight dwindling because of the walk that we had to take.

The Wheat Field

Everything was going good, we were almost out of the BLM land before darkness hit in the mountains. However, somewhere along the way, we happened to take a wrong turn on the unmarked roads. A few minutes down, we knew that it wasn't the same road that we had taken before. With huge rocks everywhere, we knew we couldn't go much further. However, the road was so skinny that it was impossible to turn around in. Finally we reached the end and there was a sort of turn around there, however, the wheels started spinning and we were stuck in a matter of seconds. Dad after feeling the tires spinning, immediately stopped and grabbed a shovel with Adam. It was starting to get darker and we were in the middle of no mans land, with rocky boulders everywhere and on top of that, stuck in the patch of soft sand.

Field

Well, lucky enough, Dad and Adam managed to finally get the truck unstuck by digging it out and maneuvering our way around the huge rocks all around. Like Adam said, if it had been in the Summer with the atrocious dessert heat - in the middle of no where without anyone around - we could have faced an entirely different outcome. When you find yourself in a situation like this, you begin to look at things in a new perspective.

Please remember...to count your blessings! And here's to more adventures to come!