Stuck Not Once But Twice

Was minding my own business at the ranch Wednesday doing chores and waiting for evening so I could harvest a hog when a friend called and asked if I could help him take a deer blind to his hunting lease and set it up. Forgetting the saying that no good deed goes unpunished I agreed. We met at my family's home in Starr County Texas. He wanted to go in his new 2014 4x4 and not my old beat up Z-71.
short version: We managed to get truck and trailer stuck. More than an hour later we got out and then set up the blind. So we are just in the truck only and we hit another soft spot. He stops. Puts truck in neutral and 4 wheel high. Too late. Buried in clay. Zero traction. After about an hour of rocks and sticks we begin walking. His shoes remain stuck too. He's barefoot! The main road is all rock and gravel. I give him my shoes after putting insoles inside my socks and we hump it to front gate. Turns out to be 1.1 miles and it's over 100 degrees.
The wife meets us and leaves my truck.
Unstuck 1st try
To add insult to injury, he gets stopped by a Texas State Trooper because his rear plate is dirty and obstructed.
My feet and calves still hurt!
Now that was fun!

Lesson: 4 wheel drives will get you stuck...winch will pull you out.

She would have to be a pretty strong wench or one who owns a winch.

I stand corrected...winch. As in a high torque device with a strong braided steel cable.

When I go to the ranch I always have an old fashioned bumper jack, 2, 2x12's, a long shovel, 2 tow ropes, and a portable, battery-powered winch. When I go surf fishing it's an air compressor, shovel, bucket, tow ropes.
The biggest help is the use of common sense. In this instance none of the above was in this truck. But man was it ever fun. We laughed and laughed. I think it helps when even though you forget your common sense and equipment that you have spent your entire life outdoors. You just keep calm and carry on. We had food and water and shelter. Good to go.
Did I mention that we had a blast?

Where'd all this rain come from?

Some of the best memories of my life involve times where things didn't go as planned.

Nice adventure! How else are we supposed to get stories to tell around a campfire or bar later on?

I have a similar story from a hunt scouting trip. My buddy had his new Jeep with all the lockers and factory bells and whistles so off we go exploring some mountain trails. We pop onto one that we know and the map verifies is ultimately a dead end. No big deal, many of them are so we continue down the trail near the end it gets a bit swampy and sure enough we get stuck. No real reason we needed to continue going down the trail, didn't see any animals anyway. Of course no winch...one is on the wish list but not the bumper.

He digs himself in pretty good on all 4 wheels. Driver's rear wheel is in a trough in front of a rock that he can't get traction on, so I grabbed a sapling, shoved it between the tire and the rock. Gave it just enough traction to get out of the mess we were in.

Your spare tire is your friend. If there isn't anything handy to hook your winch cable on to, dig a nice hole about 6' deep or so. tie off to your spare tire and bury it. Field expedient land anchor.