Jeep Adventures

It was time to break out the Jeep for our first adventure of the year, which turned out to be an adventure indeed! 

Spring in the foothills is winter in the mountains, so we eventually ran into snow on our trail.  Bummer.  We went as far as we could and just as the snow was slowing us down to a crawl--POOF--a huge plume of steam and smoke exploded from the engine bay.  My stomach sank.  I could think of nothing worse than being stranded in the middle of the national forest with no cell phone coverage, no vehicle to get us home, no person on the planet knowing where we went for the day, no other person in sight for at least 10 miles back, and five small children to get down the mountain.  Luckily, I have a mechanic husband who can figure these things out!

After some inspection, Jason determined one of the coolant hoses had popped off, spraying coolant and water everywhere.  With some effort and creativity, we were able to reattach the hose.  Then we gathered up the water jugs  in the Jeep and sent the kids trekking through the snow to the creek we had just passed over.  Mariah and Dallin supplied us with fresh, cool water to fill the system with again.  Crisis averted--almost. 

As Jason tried to back up and turn around, he realized the Jeep had no power steering.  When the coolant hose popped off it broke off a line from the power steering reservoir and dumped the fluid on the snow.  This hose, however, was not able to reattach and we were stuck with no power steering.  We still had a bit of snow to make it through and then miles of dirt road to traverse before we would make it to pavement and another 20 miles to home.  Jason got an arm workout that night!

Our mechanical failures didn't prevent us from seeing some beautiful countryside, however.  We found a magnificent waterfall just off the road and let the kids climb and explore.  We ate lunch at a small gravel pit where the kids raced up and down the gravel piles and searched for various gun "memorabilia."  It was a fun adventure, in spite of the high blood pressure moments at the top of the mountain.