A Day of Adventure and Misadventures: The Story of Retrieving a Wayward Rock

It all started with a call from a park ranger who informed us that we had inadvertently left behind one of their road-closing rocks on our last visit. We were asked to retrieve the rock, but the ranger suggested that it might be more practical to wait until springtime when the weather was warmer and we could access the area more easily. However, we were determined to get the job done immediately.

The park ranger was kind enough to offer some words of encouragement, saying that they really appreciated our efforts in getting the jeep out of a tricky spot, but also emphasized the need for the road to be closed due to the rock's presence. We assured him that we would do our best to put the rock back in its rightful place.

As we arrived at the location, it became clear that this was going to be a much bigger challenge than initially anticipated. The rock was heavier than we had expected, and we soon realized that simply hooking it up to the jeep's equipment was not enough to move it. We tried pulling it, but it kept falling back down, until finally, we decided that a more substantial solution was needed.

This led us to consider using a heavy wrecker to lift the rock, but unfortunately, this plan also hit a snag when our tires became stuck in the mud. The situation quickly spiralled out of control, with tires being lost and damage sustained by both our vehicles and the surrounding environment.

Despite the setbacks, we refused to give up. We decided to load the rock onto a trailer, which was kindly offered to us by one of our team members, Hefe. However, things only got more complicated when it became clear that the trailer was not designed for this particular weight. The two of them did an impressive job moving it however.

Throughout the day, we encountered numerous challenges, from getting stuck in the mud to struggling with the rock's stubbornness. But despite these obstacles, our team remained determined and resourceful, working together to find solutions to each problem that arose. We took turns trying different approaches, from pulling and pushing to using specialized equipment, until finally, we managed to get the rock onto the trailer.

As we looked back on the day's events, it was clear that this had been a true adventure – one that would not be easily forgotten. While we had encountered numerous setbacks and mishaps along the way, our team's spirit and determination had ultimately prevailed. We took stock of the damage, realized that we needed some more specialized equipment to safely remove it and would have to buy some new parts.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwatch out watch out watch out Milestar offered to tow the banana out to the Smoky Mountain Jeep Invasion which was super nice of them so if you'd like to meet the crew we'll be at Pigeon Forge Tennessee at the Smoky Mountain Jeep Invasion the 25th 26th and 27th come by and say hi check out the rigs both the mor and the banana will be there all right good morning it is a beautiful day we're up here an American Fork we brought our area expert Tucker this is where he grew up so we're doing a job up American Fork Canyon like past tibble Fork I don't know all the landmarks Tucker mineral Basin area we have got the banana and we've got the mor and we've got an empty trailer somewhere we're picking up a Lexus that has gone over the edge if me and sker look like we've been through the ringer it's cuz we have we were up all night on a job with Heavy D and we drove up here we got climbing up and down Cliffs yeah it was crazy all right we got up early this morning and drove all the way up here by the time we got here it was lunch so we stopped and grabbed some lunch and then we realized we didn't bring any straps so we had to go and get those and now we're headed up to the tibble Fort parking lot and we're going to meet the customer up there it's going to be a great day so what's the story on this so I was driving on the trail and my front right dropped off and then I thought to gun it which was not the move and it ended up engaging the a track and started to shimmy the back out towards this hill and then it just toppled from there rolled twice hit a tree with full force kind of tacoed it and then it slit to a stop luckily came out with no injuries so got lucky we'll go get it sweet I think this is as far as we go with the trailer this is where uh the story Goldilocks and Three Bears is based out of right here oh let me tell you this we were here like a year ago and We rescued a Jeep from this spot like within the you know this area and we had to move a rock and we got trouble for moving it and they called us and they said can you please put that rock back when the snow melts I said you bet we can and now uh we're here after the snow melts we're going to put that rock back so we've actually got two jobs up here we've got to recover and we've got to move a rock so The Rock when we were up when we moved it out of the way it was right against the hill and I was like let's push it off well Matt said don't because they might want us to put it back and they did but we sent Tucker up here on a recon mission to like check it out when he was up here visiting his family and uh he says somebody's pushed it down so we've got to get it from down anyway somebody went and did it without me so just up here that right there there's a great turn around spot maybe I'll drive it out drive it down to the main road or you could just drive it that way it ain't going to drive instead of trying to winch it up we could just winch it out down the Lower Road down there just drag it out there yeah that's quite a ways down there yeah let's go down and look at it yeah we're getting all sorts of poison up in us oh man well there's your problem as far as okay it's going to roll it's going to roll just fine you did a good job if um with this right I I think I have an evil plan already in place there's a little inchworm they're here again worms are here right there okay skeer yeah I need one soft shackle and one rope down here okay so here's what I'm planning on doing I'm planning on putting a snatch block there when we pull this over like this it's going to want to roll down the hill if it's in neutral so we're going to tie it to this tree so it can go but but not all the way down there if it works that would be amazing so sker I need you to find me a snatch block a tree saver and a soft shackle and just get those items out I'm coming back up oh we got a climbing Aid whose idea was this Tucker get your own climbing Aid today at mats Offroad recovery.com and you can actually let your own out for a minute okay we're good tell me when you're ready I'm ready okay he's ready okay go is that too much resistance okay you are hooked up at a wapple sker is there anything weird that's against no keep going I'm going to watch it for you keep going it's working y your plan is coming together waffle going off a little bit it's working that's what we wanted it worked unhook that sker okay what do you call one of these trees that's dead what aspin okay sker want you to repel down there I've got the wrong vehicle there I should have the more posted up there cuz it's got a little bit of weight on the banana and I think I'm going to be pulling off of the banana and a tree to do this but we'll see yep some people would say Matt how do you know this is going to work and to them I say I have no idea if this is going to work but give me a few minutes and I'll tell you be the Sinker going back down thanks sker yeah scratched a little mine are I got pants on and I've been my shin are scratched let's go itching like crazy we've got a lot of triangles of death here all right I've got to get in a position where I can see what's going on and I won't die all right man all right we are not heavy enough up here to do what we need to do down there so it looks like we can go down none of those rigs are heavy enough to pull this up there we know for sure now so we're going to tear this all down we're going to regroup looks like there's a path down from this so sker is going to go Scout that out but we just don't have enough lead to do what we need to do here today we're taking the low road all right so we're going to leave this rig out here and just take that one unless we need to come back and get this one Roger little more more more nice and easy drive this won't be too bad this is not that bad I'm sweaty yeah ready for this sker sker ready watch out watch out watch out I couldn't steer not where's Tucker Oh my gosh tuer that was amazing he was like Last Action Hero you have breakes nope pushing as hard as I can I wish I could have got the this but went so fast holy crap sucker your your life flashed before my eyes yeah what'd you see I saw you move like I never seen you move before well he kept I figured he he'd at least run into the back of the more be that's what it looked like and then he and then he just started to okay Tucker can you grab this rope and pull pull it back up through the front you should have wore your brown pants today this is all sweat I promise I saw oh here goes the more and then I saw Tucker running I'm like Lizzy go go go go she's like it Tuckers like I thought I thought for sure he was going to hit it so I sat there like this like oh no okay Lizzy pull nice and easy stop okay back up and just bump it just a little okay bump it okay well twice that much okay go parking bres on how you feeling right now Lizzy well I can't tell if my heart is beating faster or not which it I shouldn't be doing but this is a ton of fun I'm loving this this is awesome okay back up one more just like that nice okay back up okay stay right there you're doing great don't worry about steering it you're not doing anything oh de oh my goodness oh no that's what we did not want nice and easy lizie stop Liz stop hey it fixed itself okay crank it to the left through the left to the left all right guys let's go again if I start flying off the mountain just let have her I know but the vehicle's already damaged sker how's that tether working Jas over yet I didn't realize we were going to have to walk out of here we interrupt this sketchy job to do another sketchy job see we were here last year and we had a Jeep down this road and we couldn't get it over this rock and it was this gigantic Rock and so we ended up moving moving the rock out of the way and Trevor wanted to push it down the hill so but I'm like no don't do that that's not nice they might want us to put it back we didn't put it back we should have but we didn't then somebody come along and helped us cuz we sent Tucker up here to do some Recon somebody pushed it off the reason we were even here or we even care about it is I got a call from a park ranger who said hey we watched the video we need you to put that rock back but it was winter when that happened so he's like wait till the spring and you can do it so here we are if I say I'm going to do it I'm going to do it you don't need to keep your reminding me every 6 months to be completely transparent the park ranger was amazing he's just like we really appreciate you getting that jeep out but we do want that road closed so would you please put it back and I'm like yeah absolutely oh it's a road closing rock that extra one in there it is right there where is he oh were you looking for worms where's that little just one specific worm a residential worm the hu the biggest worm the huge worm big one had babies they're cool yeah Lizzy loves worms mhm there was a big one there I was like this long mhm big so this is a day job and we showed up here in the evening it's currently 6:00 in the afternoon and we still have a 3 and 1 half hour drive home tell you this but that thing's a lot heavier than you think oh I know how heavy it is we've winched it before we've done this in this rock have history sker SK I'm going to need you to check your attitude I'm just telling you that thing we ain't going to move that got the door there's eight of them right there I know what to do all right this is my second chance to make a plan that works today so I'm a little nervous but what I'm thinking we're going to do is we're going to hook to That Rock with these two pieces of equipment and we're going to pull it up we'll see how that goes hey Lizzy pull it in okay Lizzy just bump yours for a second I think sker is right that's a heavy rockov I'm trying to get it to flip but I'm probably not rigged right for that safe all right let's let's redo this here okay Lizzy pull that it's okay you guys watch those about to come off that hook the most frustrating thing cuz I want to pit at the Top This Way first who who who whoa whoa whoa we got to keep that angle or it's going to slide off the top Lizzy just go again do it it does fall back down you got us this time rock we'll be back I think this is a job for the heavy wrecker this we're just pulling these rigs off we need a more comprehensive choking system for the rock we got some trash clean up we did yeah it wasn't a total bust all right so we momentarily failed on that now we're back at the other task that we're momentarily succeeding on let's go do that I like your steering seems to be working how are you driving this thing like they do in uh Australia they're practicing for when we go over there yeah looking like you're kind of going to go off got to stare to the left I can't get it open sorry I almost killed you sucker it's sucker for that te that was nice of him to apologize Matt was done with the slow oh there goes the tire there goes the tire holy crap dude I wish I Wasing seem to be missing something really fast the arm dug in and so as you're pulling it this way it's just digging in more yeah I don't want to budge budging yeah well that definitely made things worse how come I can never just make things better I can only make things worse wor I wonder if we should try to load it here then I've got a plan for loading it okay Lizzy you're going to want to be in neutral and you're just going to be using your brakes oh what I want to do good how you guys doing how you where's the record yeah slacking no kidding we're going to owe Hefe a trailer I'm going to have to buy this I'm going have to buy this trailer from he again Cher Just does it by himself freaking overachiever back just cuz he's so strong manly oh D St M laughing something happened we didn't need those covers anyway well it's been a great day it's been a long day we're all tired and we are starving we took some damage but we handed out some damage too darn skippy thanks for watching I watched the whole thing go down and I never saw Tucker come back up so I'm looking at Trevor scanning his face and Trevor's happy and run another but there's still there's nothing from Tucker Tucker and he's behind everything and I'm like is Trevor in shock and Trev and Tucker's dead laughing at Tucker's theisewatch out watch out watch out Milestar offered to tow the banana out to the Smoky Mountain Jeep Invasion which was super nice of them so if you'd like to meet the crew we'll be at Pigeon Forge Tennessee at the Smoky Mountain Jeep Invasion the 25th 26th and 27th come by and say hi check out the rigs both the mor and the banana will be there all right good morning it is a beautiful day we're up here an American Fork we brought our area expert Tucker this is where he grew up so we're doing a job up American Fork Canyon like past tibble Fork I don't know all the landmarks Tucker mineral Basin area we have got the banana and we've got the mor and we've got an empty trailer somewhere we're picking up a Lexus that has gone over the edge if me and sker look like we've been through the ringer it's cuz we have we were up all night on a job with Heavy D and we drove up here we got climbing up and down Cliffs yeah it was crazy all right we got up early this morning and drove all the way up here by the time we got here it was lunch so we stopped and grabbed some lunch and then we realized we didn't bring any straps so we had to go and get those and now we're headed up to the tibble Fort parking lot and we're going to meet the customer up there it's going to be a great day so what's the story on this so I was driving on the trail and my front right dropped off and then I thought to gun it which was not the move and it ended up engaging the a track and started to shimmy the back out towards this hill and then it just toppled from there rolled twice hit a tree with full force kind of tacoed it and then it slit to a stop luckily came out with no injuries so got lucky we'll go get it sweet I think this is as far as we go with the trailer this is where uh the story Goldilocks and Three Bears is based out of right here oh let me tell you this we were here like a year ago and We rescued a Jeep from this spot like within the you know this area and we had to move a rock and we got trouble for moving it and they called us and they said can you please put that rock back when the snow melts I said you bet we can and now uh we're here after the snow melts we're going to put that rock back so we've actually got two jobs up here we've got to recover and we've got to move a rock so The Rock when we were up when we moved it out of the way it was right against the hill and I was like let's push it off well Matt said don't because they might want us to put it back and they did but we sent Tucker up here on a recon mission to like check it out when he was up here visiting his family and uh he says somebody's pushed it down so we've got to get it from down anyway somebody went and did it without me so just up here that right there there's a great turn around spot maybe I'll drive it out drive it down to the main road or you could just drive it that way it ain't going to drive instead of trying to winch it up we could just winch it out down the Lower Road down there just drag it out there yeah that's quite a ways down there yeah let's go down and look at it yeah we're getting all sorts of poison up in us oh man well there's your problem as far as okay it's going to roll it's going to roll just fine you did a good job if um with this right I I think I have an evil plan already in place there's a little inchworm they're here again worms are here right there okay skeer yeah I need one soft shackle and one rope down here okay so here's what I'm planning on doing I'm planning on putting a snatch block there when we pull this over like this it's going to want to roll down the hill if it's in neutral so we're going to tie it to this tree so it can go but but not all the way down there if it works that would be amazing so sker I need you to find me a snatch block a tree saver and a soft shackle and just get those items out I'm coming back up oh we got a climbing Aid whose idea was this Tucker get your own climbing Aid today at mats Offroad recovery.com and you can actually let your own out for a minute okay we're good tell me when you're ready I'm ready okay he's ready okay go is that too much resistance okay you are hooked up at a wapple sker is there anything weird that's against no keep going I'm going to watch it for you keep going it's working y your plan is coming together waffle going off a little bit it's working that's what we wanted it worked unhook that sker okay what do you call one of these trees that's dead what aspin okay sker want you to repel down there I've got the wrong vehicle there I should have the more posted up there cuz it's got a little bit of weight on the banana and I think I'm going to be pulling off of the banana and a tree to do this but we'll see yep some people would say Matt how do you know this is going to work and to them I say I have no idea if this is going to work but give me a few minutes and I'll tell you be the Sinker going back down thanks sker yeah scratched a little mine are I got pants on and I've been my shin are scratched let's go itching like crazy we've got a lot of triangles of death here all right I've got to get in a position where I can see what's going on and I won't die all right man all right we are not heavy enough up here to do what we need to do down there so it looks like we can go down none of those rigs are heavy enough to pull this up there we know for sure now so we're going to tear this all down we're going to regroup looks like there's a path down from this so sker is going to go Scout that out but we just don't have enough lead to do what we need to do here today we're taking the low road all right so we're going to leave this rig out here and just take that one unless we need to come back and get this one Roger little more more more nice and easy drive this won't be too bad this is not that bad I'm sweaty yeah ready for this sker sker ready watch out watch out watch out I couldn't steer not where's Tucker Oh my gosh tuer that was amazing he was like Last Action Hero you have breakes nope pushing as hard as I can I wish I could have got the this but went so fast holy crap sucker your your life flashed before my eyes yeah what'd you see I saw you move like I never seen you move before well he kept I figured he he'd at least run into the back of the more be that's what it looked like and then he and then he just started to okay Tucker can you grab this rope and pull pull it back up through the front you should have wore your brown pants today this is all sweat I promise I saw oh here goes the more and then I saw Tucker running I'm like Lizzy go go go go she's like it Tuckers like I thought I thought for sure he was going to hit it so I sat there like this like oh no okay Lizzy pull nice and easy stop okay back up and just bump it just a little okay bump it okay well twice that much okay go parking bres on how you feeling right now Lizzy well I can't tell if my heart is beating faster or not which it I shouldn't be doing but this is a ton of fun I'm loving this this is awesome okay back up one more just like that nice okay back up okay stay right there you're doing great don't worry about steering it you're not doing anything oh de oh my goodness oh no that's what we did not want nice and easy lizie stop Liz stop hey it fixed itself okay crank it to the left through the left to the left all right guys let's go again if I start flying off the mountain just let have her I know but the vehicle's already damaged sker how's that tether working Jas over yet I didn't realize we were going to have to walk out of here we interrupt this sketchy job to do another sketchy job see we were here last year and we had a Jeep down this road and we couldn't get it over this rock and it was this gigantic Rock and so we ended up moving moving the rock out of the way and Trevor wanted to push it down the hill so but I'm like no don't do that that's not nice they might want us to put it back we didn't put it back we should have but we didn't then somebody come along and helped us cuz we sent Tucker up here to do some Recon somebody pushed it off the reason we were even here or we even care about it is I got a call from a park ranger who said hey we watched the video we need you to put that rock back but it was winter when that happened so he's like wait till the spring and you can do it so here we are if I say I'm going to do it I'm going to do it you don't need to keep your reminding me every 6 months to be completely transparent the park ranger was amazing he's just like we really appreciate you getting that jeep out but we do want that road closed so would you please put it back and I'm like yeah absolutely oh it's a road closing rock that extra one in there it is right there where is he oh were you looking for worms where's that little just one specific worm a residential worm the hu the biggest worm the huge worm big one had babies they're cool yeah Lizzy loves worms mhm there was a big one there I was like this long mhm big so this is a day job and we showed up here in the evening it's currently 6:00 in the afternoon and we still have a 3 and 1 half hour drive home tell you this but that thing's a lot heavier than you think oh I know how heavy it is we've winched it before we've done this in this rock have history sker SK I'm going to need you to check your attitude I'm just telling you that thing we ain't going to move that got the door there's eight of them right there I know what to do all right this is my second chance to make a plan that works today so I'm a little nervous but what I'm thinking we're going to do is we're going to hook to That Rock with these two pieces of equipment and we're going to pull it up we'll see how that goes hey Lizzy pull it in okay Lizzy just bump yours for a second I think sker is right that's a heavy rockov I'm trying to get it to flip but I'm probably not rigged right for that safe all right let's let's redo this here okay Lizzy pull that it's okay you guys watch those about to come off that hook the most frustrating thing cuz I want to pit at the Top This Way first who who who whoa whoa whoa we got to keep that angle or it's going to slide off the top Lizzy just go again do it it does fall back down you got us this time rock we'll be back I think this is a job for the heavy wrecker this we're just pulling these rigs off we need a more comprehensive choking system for the rock we got some trash clean up we did yeah it wasn't a total bust all right so we momentarily failed on that now we're back at the other task that we're momentarily succeeding on let's go do that I like your steering seems to be working how are you driving this thing like they do in uh Australia they're practicing for when we go over there yeah looking like you're kind of going to go off got to stare to the left I can't get it open sorry I almost killed you sucker it's sucker for that te that was nice of him to apologize Matt was done with the slow oh there goes the tire there goes the tire holy crap dude I wish I Wasing seem to be missing something really fast the arm dug in and so as you're pulling it this way it's just digging in more yeah I don't want to budge budging yeah well that definitely made things worse how come I can never just make things better I can only make things worse wor I wonder if we should try to load it here then I've got a plan for loading it okay Lizzy you're going to want to be in neutral and you're just going to be using your brakes oh what I want to do good how you guys doing how you where's the record yeah slacking no kidding we're going to owe Hefe a trailer I'm going to have to buy this I'm going have to buy this trailer from he again Cher Just does it by himself freaking overachiever back just cuz he's so strong manly oh D St M laughing something happened we didn't need those covers anyway well it's been a great day it's been a long day we're all tired and we are starving we took some damage but we handed out some damage too darn skippy thanks for watching I watched the whole thing go down and I never saw Tucker come back up so I'm looking at Trevor scanning his face and Trevor's happy and run another but there's still there's nothing from Tucker Tucker and he's behind everything and I'm like is Trevor in shock and Trev and Tucker's dead laughing at Tucker's theise\n"