Dig and Dig and Diggity Dig

View from Fish Creek Road near Carey, ID

Wanna know what happens when you take a 20,000 pound bus and drive it onto soft ground? It sinks. Then it sinks some more, then it won't move. That's right, we got the bus stuck. We got the bus stuck for a whole 12 days. What do you do when a Buffalo won't move. We dig. We get sweaty and muddy and wet and we dig. A huge thanks to that Mountain Man of mine for doing most of the dirty work. He spent so much time digging and moving rocks so that we could climb our way out of the soft wet muddy dirt and back onto the dry dirt.

We were getting sick of all the wind that billows through the south side of Magic valley that we decided a nice hot soak in the secret hot springs was a better place to be. We were also past our 14 day stay limit on the BLM land we were parked on so we packed up the Buffalo and drove her north. We decided to stay near Fish Creek Reservoir outside of Carey, ID as I still got cell phone reception and could talk to Zion (He is now in FL with his dad). We arrived at dusk, catching the last little bit of the Western sun sinking into the Pioneer Mountains. We parked the Buffalo right at the entrance of the road, hopped into the car and scouted for a campsite. Driving up the Fish Creek Road was rocky, dusty and dry so naturally, when we found a perfect spot for the bus just off the road; My Mountain Man and I assumed that the packed earth camping spot would be equally dry. We were very wrong. We drove the car back down to the bus and brought her up to the camping spot. I noticed pulling into it that she was having a little bit of trouble getting past the initial hump. My Mountain Man said (later of course) that he noticed she was sinking into the ground when I first pulled in. I had wanted to turn her around so that it was easier to leave when the time came and I wanted to also level her out for sleeping. So, I pulled her forward and when I switched gears into reverse, The Buffalo Bus didn't budge. #StuckintheMud.

We decided that we would do nothing that evening since it was now just after dark and we were ready to kick back and relax for the evening. The next morning we started our digging. We dug and got her to budge a few inches, we attempted to jack her up, but the logs just kept sinking into the mud. Yes, I said logs plural. After a full day of attempting to get the Buffalo Bus out of the mud, we decided that it was probably best to just give it a few days to dry the earth a bit more.

This is the hole from our jacking attempts. It is approximately 2 feet deep (there's still a log that is permanently in the ground now.)

In the following days; we found a spring to get fresh delicious water from, drove to the next town for groceries. I cleaned the bus, while my Mountain Man hiked the mountain sides. Painting was another thing on the list as well as gathering firewood for our newly installed wood burning stove.

Looking East from the Bus