Advocate III
First things first. This is not my rig, nor did I have any part in the recovery. I was following the posts and thought it was an interesting read, also if anyone who reads this is planning on running the Swisha Loop... this section of trail is currently impassable ( there is a noted bypass but it sounds like its not an official route and the section of the trail should probably be avoided until when/if the bridge gets repaired.)
This loop is a fairly popular trail run thats over 800 km long and estimated to be 3-4 days. I haven't done this loop but have looked into it because its close enough to home that I could bring the whole family.
Basically this was an unfortunate event that caused a stir online about the decisions made, as well as the legality of driving in this location, however I feel the "recovery" post addresses most of the questions that people had ... about the legality at least.
Here are the posts that caught my eye. If the owner of the rig sees this, chime in. I'm not trying to shame anyone, its just a series of unfortunate events.
THE POST ABOUT THE RECOVERY:
Ok, so, here's my report-out on the recovery of the yellow Bronco you have probably seen pictures of as it quickly spread all over the internet a few days ago.
First, I want to stress as there's quite a lot of cynical people that feel the need to comment when they don't know anything about the situation. The road that this happened on, is a legal *road*. It shows up on Google maps, Google routes you on it if you are camping at Lac Dumont which is a popular camping spot. This was originally a logging road, built for heavy logging trucks, however it has fallen into a state of decay. I have photos from 2009 which had official "Bridge Closed" signs on several of the bridges, but I was still able to navigate them at that time, they were 12-16 feet wide. Other bridges had 2T/axle load limit signs on them. All those signs are gone now. So, this was not "an ATV trail". There was a heavy and wide timber bridge there at some point. I'm not sure exactly what happened to it, but a local ATV or snowmobile club put the structure that is there now up. It was composed of rough-hewn locally sourced softwood boards. We know now, that it was built directly on top of the remains of the old bridge. The new bridge is narrow, it's even sketchy for side-by sides. Before this event even happened, the ATV's had cut a bypass route around the bridge that goes through the forest and through a spot where the water is wider but much shallower and they just wade through. Also, this is not private land, it's public land. There's a guy building a cabin in the woods 1km away who is leasing the land from the government, and he pays Road Tax on top of that, for this road. Addressing another comment I've seen: No, the logging companies do not remove the old bridges when they are done, to close the road, at least not in this area. I have the receipts. IMO, the government, or group of clubs should be putting in a proper bridge that can support 4T here, to avoid this happening, or more of *what was already happening*: ATV's detouring around and fording the swamp elsewhere to avoid this bridge. This is an important forest access road, proven important by the fact that one of the wildfires ravaging Quebec occurred about 20km north of here. If it had been in this area, this is the only way for firefighters to access the area. It's not clear if the Bronco simply slipped off the bridge, or if the bridge broke. I'm not sure if Eric even knows as it would have been a pretty shocking event that happened fast.
I'm not passing judgement on the Bronco owner's decision. I don't think I would have attempted the bridge. But I don't know his situation at the time. Turning around would have meant a long, 50km off-road detour. Did he have a medical issue? Low on gas in a remote area? I don't know, we didn't talk about it, we were just focused on getting him out as by this point he'd already been stranded for 3-4 days. Off-roading is basically a succession of sub-optimal decisions. To many people, going off pavement is a bad decision. Most of the time you get away with it. Sometimes you don't, and we've all been there, but there's always people there to criticize who of course know better. Thank you for sharing your infinite wisdom.
So with that out of the way.
This was a very complicated recovery, for a number of reasons. Some obvious, some not so obvious.
1) Obviously, the truck had fallen off a bridge into a surprisingly deep channel. The water was actually about 6-7 feet deep.
2) The truck was on its side. Though the owner was able to get it upright before we got there with help from a local.
3) Everything is electronic on this vehicle, including the parking brake system, which fired when the electronic system was in its death-throes.
4) Under the water there were huge timbers that were formerly the logging road bridge. The narrow bridge was basically built on top of the carcass of the old bridge.
5) The operations area was very constrained. Very swampy, and so it was difficult to get the trucks into decent positions. I couldn't get my truck very far away at all, and as you know, the knock-on effect of that is I had a lot of wraps left on my winch drum, which reduces pull strength.I had to cut down a bunch of bushes just to get the truck where it was. Further forward were more swampy wetlands.
6) The area was quite remote. I don't think there's any way to get a proper wrecker into there, which would have been best, obviously. I have larger towing mirrors on my Colorado, and was whacking them on trees on the way in. And there are some tricky spots that would be very difficult to navigate with a full-size dually.
When I saw the call for help go out on Thursday morning, I connected with a couple people who were trying to organize to recover the Bronco. I've been off-roading for about 15 years, and I know the area well as my folks have a cottage about 50km away. But I've never been involved in a recovery like this. But it was local-ish, and my truck is capable and equipped and I like helping people, so I jumped in. But most of the credit has to go to Jean-Francis Dupuis. I never met the guy before, but he was an absolute trooper. He coordinated to bring a lot of equipment, including the flat-bed and tow-bar. And I don't think we could have done it without him jumping right into the water, and at times even working under the water to assess the situation, connect tow straps, etc. He also clearly had a lot of experience with complicated recoveries. Marie-France Blondin also brought her Jeep and gear, which ended up being the primary puller. And it was also a reunion of sorts as my old high-school buddy Scott Graham that I fell out of contact with over the years came out to help. And finally, my daughter Elise wanted to come for the adventure, but unfortunately due to the geography, had to sit in the cab most of the time for safety, it was just a huge bear-trap of winch cables.
By the time we finished work on Thursday, geared up, and drove out, it was dark. It's the first time I got to use all the lighting on my truck for a good reason, and I'm super happy with the outcome. It's made for situations like this. JF dropped the flatbed trailer at our cottage because it couldn't make it down the trail, and didn't want it to get stolen from the trailhead. We ended up setting up camp right on the side of the trail, by this remote cabin belonging to this guy... sorry I didn't get his name but they were calling him "Nipper" or something, (You can't make this up). He'd been helping out Eric for a few days, letting him stay at his cabin, etc. He also deserves huge credit because without him helping Eric out, it could have been catastrophically bad as all of Eric's stuff was in the water. I think it was Nipper who also helped Eric upright the Bronco. Also, before we got there, two groups of locals had attempted to pull it out just using their trucks and tow straps, but weren't able to. One of those groups had removed about 15 feet of the bridgework and dragged it up the trail. I don't know why.
JF and MF headed out first and started setting up as we broke down camp after breakfast. They positioned the Jeep in an optimal pulling position and used 3 pulleys to quadruple the pulling force on the winch. The Jeep got anchored using a bunch of tow straps to some trees far behind it. As I mentioned, the location was very difficult for this operation, and, but by luck or good prep, we had a lot of recovery gear. It was all needed. However, as we were stretched thin, we were using some sub-optimal gear, and some of it did break. That's my first real experience with that personally, and I was happy that as we were using all synthetics, it was pretty non-dramatic. I think the worst thing that happened was that at one point when one of the straps broke, things shifted, the steering wheel suddenly spun, and Eric happened to be holding the steering wheel through the window and it pulled him towards the Bronco sharply, and I think he hurt his neck.
I positioned my truck to use the rear-mounted winch, but it was very close to the Bronco, and so we used 2 pulleys to triple-line it, more to get more wraps off the drum than anything. And then JF's 4-Runner was also used in a straight single-pull for the most part. I think the key to the success was that we spent about 3-4 hours just preparing for the pull, and less than an hour for the actual pull. It was the prep-work that made it work. Often if you're too hasty, you just make things worse and break stuff. There was a 2-3 foot vertical wall of dirt right behind the right rear wheel. JF used a high-lift to jack it up and stuff a traction board under it, and then we dug out the bank a bit to get another traction board at about a 45° angle. My winch line was connected to the right-front wheel with a tree saver strap. One of the main goals of my truck, was to pull the Bronco away from the bridge, as the Jeep's line angle was pulling it towards the bridge.
JF was in the water for about half the time. He had to remove the electric parking brake actuators to release the parking brake. Access the emergency parking release mechanism inside the submerged cabin to release that. And even removed the fender flares. He connected my winch to the front-right wheel, and eventually the transmission crossmember. He also dove down and was assessing the situation under water. As I mentioned, there were huge timbers at the bottom which the Bronco was resting on, and we had to manage that problem. At some points, he was even wearing a snorkelling mask that Scott had brought. There were a lot of leeches in the water, and even a friendly turtle that kept hanging around, you can even see it in one of the drone videos.
I think the final key was that we used our last pulley, connected to the bridge, to route the winch cable from the 4Runner downwards to the front-left wheel of the truck. This lifted that wheel upwards toward the bridge, to get it over some of the logs. This winch cable eventually snapped, which was what pulled Eric into the cab. But otherwise it was pretty non-dramatic which was good. Synthetic winch lines FTW. Somewhere in the whole thing, a tree saver strap that was used to connect to the truck broke. Similar thing. I don't recommend being careless with winching, I was trying to shield myself as much as possible, but it's good to know the synthetics are actually safer. I don't think there's any chance this could have been done with tow or snatch straps. The slow, controlled, methodical pull of winches were needed.
But other than that, once we started pulling, it actually went way easier than I thought, due to the prep work I believe. I actually wasn't sure at the beginning if we'd get it out, I've never seen anything like this get recovered without a professional wrecker or crane. But, it just slowly emerged as we pulled the winches in coordinated fashion. Kinda reminded me of the X-wing in the swamps of Dagobah.
I then used a tow-strap to pull the Bronco up towards a little landing area just up the road, where we did a 3-point turn using the tow strap on my truck, and another on the 4Runner. Once it was headed the right direction up the trail, JF connected the tow-bar that he brought. I was super impressed with this contraption, really well thought out for off-road recoveries. The Bronco had to be flat-towed about 20km to where we met up with it with the trailer. There were a few steep climbs where the Jeep had to help pull the 4Runner up.
The whole thing was actually pretty un-dramatic and low-stress. Surprisingly for a group that just met for the first time, facing a task like this. JF took the lead, and everybody followed his plan without much debate other than some helpful collaboration at times. Anybody who knows me, knows it's not easy for me to let somebody else take charge, but JF inspired a lot of confidence. Nothing went seriously wrong, nobody got hurt, and I don't think we actually did any additional damage to the truck. I can't even imagine what it would have looked like if professionals had tried to do the job.
Now, the aftermath: There was some concern expressed about automotive fluids in the water. I specifically looked, but didn't see anything other than a small thin sheen when we started moving the truck. Nothing that you wouldn't see behind any 2-stroke outboard motor that people use for fishing in the area. A lot of people think the truck can be fixed. In my professional opinion, there's no way. If it was a 60's Bronco, you could probably change the fluids, some WD40 on the electrical system, and fire it up. But a modern vehicle, especially a late-model like one of the 6th gen Broncos, there's just far too much that will need to be replaced, including the entire wiring harness, everything electronic, and most likely the transmission, because you can't get the emulsified water out of the clutch lining. And the interior is going to smell like a tauntaun. And, the bridge is now also broken. But it was always deficient. ATV or Snowmobile clubs put that bridge in, and built specifically and only to suit their needs exclusively, monopolizing the only crossing point along this fairly major forest access road to the exclusion of other user groups. I don't expect they should have to pay everything to build a bridge to suit other users. But there should be coordination amongst the various groups to build infrastructure to suit all users. I've been doing all variety of off-roading my whole life. Trucks, motorcycles, snowmobiles and ATVs. And I hate seeing the way the different user groups try to monopolize public land for just their group. Whether it's bridges too narrow for others, or negotiating exclusive usage rights for trails on public lands. It really just harms all of us, and helps other groups that would prefer to see these areas closed to all vehicles so that nobody can enjoy the wild lands. I would like to see a proper bridge put in here in cooperation with all the user groups. And I'd be happy to help however I can. This water crossing is now the main blocker in a popular 800km overland route called the Swisha Loop. It requires a 50 km detour that misses out on a nice bit of trail. It was just a matter of time before somebody fell off this bridge. If it wasn't this Bronco, it might have been a SxS with kids seat-belted in.
I thought this was an interesting read about an unfortunate situation that may helps others in the future with many things ( recoveries, planning, knowing your limits, reading a trail and so on). every once in a while we something may happen. I am no stranger to this, however lucky for me it wasn't this serious but we all take risks. That's what makes it an adventure.
This loop is a fairly popular trail run thats over 800 km long and estimated to be 3-4 days. I haven't done this loop but have looked into it because its close enough to home that I could bring the whole family.
Basically this was an unfortunate event that caused a stir online about the decisions made, as well as the legality of driving in this location, however I feel the "recovery" post addresses most of the questions that people had ... about the legality at least.
Here are the posts that caught my eye. If the owner of the rig sees this, chime in. I'm not trying to shame anyone, its just a series of unfortunate events.
THE POST ABOUT THE RECOVERY:
Ok, so, here's my report-out on the recovery of the yellow Bronco you have probably seen pictures of as it quickly spread all over the internet a few days ago.
First, I want to stress as there's quite a lot of cynical people that feel the need to comment when they don't know anything about the situation. The road that this happened on, is a legal *road*. It shows up on Google maps, Google routes you on it if you are camping at Lac Dumont which is a popular camping spot. This was originally a logging road, built for heavy logging trucks, however it has fallen into a state of decay. I have photos from 2009 which had official "Bridge Closed" signs on several of the bridges, but I was still able to navigate them at that time, they were 12-16 feet wide. Other bridges had 2T/axle load limit signs on them. All those signs are gone now. So, this was not "an ATV trail". There was a heavy and wide timber bridge there at some point. I'm not sure exactly what happened to it, but a local ATV or snowmobile club put the structure that is there now up. It was composed of rough-hewn locally sourced softwood boards. We know now, that it was built directly on top of the remains of the old bridge. The new bridge is narrow, it's even sketchy for side-by sides. Before this event even happened, the ATV's had cut a bypass route around the bridge that goes through the forest and through a spot where the water is wider but much shallower and they just wade through. Also, this is not private land, it's public land. There's a guy building a cabin in the woods 1km away who is leasing the land from the government, and he pays Road Tax on top of that, for this road. Addressing another comment I've seen: No, the logging companies do not remove the old bridges when they are done, to close the road, at least not in this area. I have the receipts. IMO, the government, or group of clubs should be putting in a proper bridge that can support 4T here, to avoid this happening, or more of *what was already happening*: ATV's detouring around and fording the swamp elsewhere to avoid this bridge. This is an important forest access road, proven important by the fact that one of the wildfires ravaging Quebec occurred about 20km north of here. If it had been in this area, this is the only way for firefighters to access the area. It's not clear if the Bronco simply slipped off the bridge, or if the bridge broke. I'm not sure if Eric even knows as it would have been a pretty shocking event that happened fast.
I'm not passing judgement on the Bronco owner's decision. I don't think I would have attempted the bridge. But I don't know his situation at the time. Turning around would have meant a long, 50km off-road detour. Did he have a medical issue? Low on gas in a remote area? I don't know, we didn't talk about it, we were just focused on getting him out as by this point he'd already been stranded for 3-4 days. Off-roading is basically a succession of sub-optimal decisions. To many people, going off pavement is a bad decision. Most of the time you get away with it. Sometimes you don't, and we've all been there, but there's always people there to criticize who of course know better. Thank you for sharing your infinite wisdom.
So with that out of the way.
This was a very complicated recovery, for a number of reasons. Some obvious, some not so obvious.
1) Obviously, the truck had fallen off a bridge into a surprisingly deep channel. The water was actually about 6-7 feet deep.
2) The truck was on its side. Though the owner was able to get it upright before we got there with help from a local.
3) Everything is electronic on this vehicle, including the parking brake system, which fired when the electronic system was in its death-throes.
4) Under the water there were huge timbers that were formerly the logging road bridge. The narrow bridge was basically built on top of the carcass of the old bridge.
5) The operations area was very constrained. Very swampy, and so it was difficult to get the trucks into decent positions. I couldn't get my truck very far away at all, and as you know, the knock-on effect of that is I had a lot of wraps left on my winch drum, which reduces pull strength.I had to cut down a bunch of bushes just to get the truck where it was. Further forward were more swampy wetlands.
6) The area was quite remote. I don't think there's any way to get a proper wrecker into there, which would have been best, obviously. I have larger towing mirrors on my Colorado, and was whacking them on trees on the way in. And there are some tricky spots that would be very difficult to navigate with a full-size dually.
When I saw the call for help go out on Thursday morning, I connected with a couple people who were trying to organize to recover the Bronco. I've been off-roading for about 15 years, and I know the area well as my folks have a cottage about 50km away. But I've never been involved in a recovery like this. But it was local-ish, and my truck is capable and equipped and I like helping people, so I jumped in. But most of the credit has to go to Jean-Francis Dupuis. I never met the guy before, but he was an absolute trooper. He coordinated to bring a lot of equipment, including the flat-bed and tow-bar. And I don't think we could have done it without him jumping right into the water, and at times even working under the water to assess the situation, connect tow straps, etc. He also clearly had a lot of experience with complicated recoveries. Marie-France Blondin also brought her Jeep and gear, which ended up being the primary puller. And it was also a reunion of sorts as my old high-school buddy Scott Graham that I fell out of contact with over the years came out to help. And finally, my daughter Elise wanted to come for the adventure, but unfortunately due to the geography, had to sit in the cab most of the time for safety, it was just a huge bear-trap of winch cables.
By the time we finished work on Thursday, geared up, and drove out, it was dark. It's the first time I got to use all the lighting on my truck for a good reason, and I'm super happy with the outcome. It's made for situations like this. JF dropped the flatbed trailer at our cottage because it couldn't make it down the trail, and didn't want it to get stolen from the trailhead. We ended up setting up camp right on the side of the trail, by this remote cabin belonging to this guy... sorry I didn't get his name but they were calling him "Nipper" or something, (You can't make this up). He'd been helping out Eric for a few days, letting him stay at his cabin, etc. He also deserves huge credit because without him helping Eric out, it could have been catastrophically bad as all of Eric's stuff was in the water. I think it was Nipper who also helped Eric upright the Bronco. Also, before we got there, two groups of locals had attempted to pull it out just using their trucks and tow straps, but weren't able to. One of those groups had removed about 15 feet of the bridgework and dragged it up the trail. I don't know why.
JF and MF headed out first and started setting up as we broke down camp after breakfast. They positioned the Jeep in an optimal pulling position and used 3 pulleys to quadruple the pulling force on the winch. The Jeep got anchored using a bunch of tow straps to some trees far behind it. As I mentioned, the location was very difficult for this operation, and, but by luck or good prep, we had a lot of recovery gear. It was all needed. However, as we were stretched thin, we were using some sub-optimal gear, and some of it did break. That's my first real experience with that personally, and I was happy that as we were using all synthetics, it was pretty non-dramatic. I think the worst thing that happened was that at one point when one of the straps broke, things shifted, the steering wheel suddenly spun, and Eric happened to be holding the steering wheel through the window and it pulled him towards the Bronco sharply, and I think he hurt his neck.
I positioned my truck to use the rear-mounted winch, but it was very close to the Bronco, and so we used 2 pulleys to triple-line it, more to get more wraps off the drum than anything. And then JF's 4-Runner was also used in a straight single-pull for the most part. I think the key to the success was that we spent about 3-4 hours just preparing for the pull, and less than an hour for the actual pull. It was the prep-work that made it work. Often if you're too hasty, you just make things worse and break stuff. There was a 2-3 foot vertical wall of dirt right behind the right rear wheel. JF used a high-lift to jack it up and stuff a traction board under it, and then we dug out the bank a bit to get another traction board at about a 45° angle. My winch line was connected to the right-front wheel with a tree saver strap. One of the main goals of my truck, was to pull the Bronco away from the bridge, as the Jeep's line angle was pulling it towards the bridge.
JF was in the water for about half the time. He had to remove the electric parking brake actuators to release the parking brake. Access the emergency parking release mechanism inside the submerged cabin to release that. And even removed the fender flares. He connected my winch to the front-right wheel, and eventually the transmission crossmember. He also dove down and was assessing the situation under water. As I mentioned, there were huge timbers at the bottom which the Bronco was resting on, and we had to manage that problem. At some points, he was even wearing a snorkelling mask that Scott had brought. There were a lot of leeches in the water, and even a friendly turtle that kept hanging around, you can even see it in one of the drone videos.
I think the final key was that we used our last pulley, connected to the bridge, to route the winch cable from the 4Runner downwards to the front-left wheel of the truck. This lifted that wheel upwards toward the bridge, to get it over some of the logs. This winch cable eventually snapped, which was what pulled Eric into the cab. But otherwise it was pretty non-dramatic which was good. Synthetic winch lines FTW. Somewhere in the whole thing, a tree saver strap that was used to connect to the truck broke. Similar thing. I don't recommend being careless with winching, I was trying to shield myself as much as possible, but it's good to know the synthetics are actually safer. I don't think there's any chance this could have been done with tow or snatch straps. The slow, controlled, methodical pull of winches were needed.
But other than that, once we started pulling, it actually went way easier than I thought, due to the prep work I believe. I actually wasn't sure at the beginning if we'd get it out, I've never seen anything like this get recovered without a professional wrecker or crane. But, it just slowly emerged as we pulled the winches in coordinated fashion. Kinda reminded me of the X-wing in the swamps of Dagobah.
I then used a tow-strap to pull the Bronco up towards a little landing area just up the road, where we did a 3-point turn using the tow strap on my truck, and another on the 4Runner. Once it was headed the right direction up the trail, JF connected the tow-bar that he brought. I was super impressed with this contraption, really well thought out for off-road recoveries. The Bronco had to be flat-towed about 20km to where we met up with it with the trailer. There were a few steep climbs where the Jeep had to help pull the 4Runner up.
The whole thing was actually pretty un-dramatic and low-stress. Surprisingly for a group that just met for the first time, facing a task like this. JF took the lead, and everybody followed his plan without much debate other than some helpful collaboration at times. Anybody who knows me, knows it's not easy for me to let somebody else take charge, but JF inspired a lot of confidence. Nothing went seriously wrong, nobody got hurt, and I don't think we actually did any additional damage to the truck. I can't even imagine what it would have looked like if professionals had tried to do the job.
Now, the aftermath: There was some concern expressed about automotive fluids in the water. I specifically looked, but didn't see anything other than a small thin sheen when we started moving the truck. Nothing that you wouldn't see behind any 2-stroke outboard motor that people use for fishing in the area. A lot of people think the truck can be fixed. In my professional opinion, there's no way. If it was a 60's Bronco, you could probably change the fluids, some WD40 on the electrical system, and fire it up. But a modern vehicle, especially a late-model like one of the 6th gen Broncos, there's just far too much that will need to be replaced, including the entire wiring harness, everything electronic, and most likely the transmission, because you can't get the emulsified water out of the clutch lining. And the interior is going to smell like a tauntaun. And, the bridge is now also broken. But it was always deficient. ATV or Snowmobile clubs put that bridge in, and built specifically and only to suit their needs exclusively, monopolizing the only crossing point along this fairly major forest access road to the exclusion of other user groups. I don't expect they should have to pay everything to build a bridge to suit other users. But there should be coordination amongst the various groups to build infrastructure to suit all users. I've been doing all variety of off-roading my whole life. Trucks, motorcycles, snowmobiles and ATVs. And I hate seeing the way the different user groups try to monopolize public land for just their group. Whether it's bridges too narrow for others, or negotiating exclusive usage rights for trails on public lands. It really just harms all of us, and helps other groups that would prefer to see these areas closed to all vehicles so that nobody can enjoy the wild lands. I would like to see a proper bridge put in here in cooperation with all the user groups. And I'd be happy to help however I can. This water crossing is now the main blocker in a popular 800km overland route called the Swisha Loop. It requires a 50 km detour that misses out on a nice bit of trail. It was just a matter of time before somebody fell off this bridge. If it wasn't this Bronco, it might have been a SxS with kids seat-belted in.
I thought this was an interesting read about an unfortunate situation that may helps others in the future with many things ( recoveries, planning, knowing your limits, reading a trail and so on). every once in a while we something may happen. I am no stranger to this, however lucky for me it wasn't this serious but we all take risks. That's what makes it an adventure.
