Prairie

Beached Day

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During the summer of 2015, my Uncle and Aunt invited me up to their home in Saskatoon for the weekend. They sent two of my cousins away through a summer exchange program and in their place were these two francophone girls. We exchanged cultures as we discussed over one of the greatest bonding experiences one can have with family and friends; Monopoly. The next morning we packed up coolers, chairs and prepared for a day at the beach. We were headed to Lake Diefenbaker, 140 kilometres south of the Bridge City. You couldn't ask for better weather. We were coming up on the visitor center so I drove my Cherokee towards the beach while my Uncle headed over towards the boat launch with his Dodge Ram and trailing vessel. Having a high clearance 4WD can be advantageous but sometimes it can get you into trouble. I how I would discover that last part later. I had set my sights on the perfect place to set up our sandy hangout for the day. With the Jeep in 4Lo I trundled down the beach until I found a large area that would accommodate our group. After staking claim to the area I circled back to help lead in friends of my Aunt and Uncles to our site. These people had arrived in a GMC Arcadian, a wide, AWD crossover SUV and were intent on following me to the water's edge. Off we went. No sooner had we arrive when trouble appeared. 

We had reached the beach but we're not leaving any time soon. The GMC with its all-season tires dug right into the soft sand and clay. No problem, as a Jeep owner I was prepared for this. I had a recovery gear and was already getting to work on freeing the Arcadian. I hopped back into my Jeep and proceed to turn around to line up with the other vehicle. As I was attempting this maneuver, I soon found myself loosing against the soft terrain. Physics has ousted another vehicle, my Cherokee too was beached. Upon launching his boat and finding our party on the shoreline, my Uncle arrived on the scene and surmised we enjoy the water and the weather and sort this mess out later. While everyone else headed out onto the open water, I worked frantically to free my Jeep. The beach we found ourselves on was comprised of just a few centimeters of sand and the rest wet, muddy clay. Not having a winch or recovery boards, I attempted to create traction with whatever raw materials I could gather including large stones and tree branches. After I thought I had enough material I lined the hole I dug in front of the wheels. Then I tried to rock the Jeep out of the muck. This was a fruitless effort, in fact, I actually dug myself further in. The sand and clay were soon up to the body of the Jeep. I relinquished myself to the situation and decided to try and enjoy the rest of the afternoon. However, before I could do so my Uncle brought everyone back to shore and decided he would try his hand at rescuing our beached duo. So he brought over his pickup truck and before anything might be actually accomplished, he had his pickup truck stranded as well. The day wasn't getting any longer so as a group we decided to call for a tow truck before night hit. The nearest truck was over an hour away so we waited patiently for our savior to arrive. While we waited, we were greeted by some onlookers. These people happened to be the area's conversation officers. They had come to explain that we had actually trespassed on protected habitat and would be fined for doing such. Everyone as you can manged was thrilled by this especially because the officers gave fines to each owner of the three vehicles stranded. While that was happening a medium-duty tow truck arrived on the scene. The operator surveyed the situation and positioned his truck on the highest ground and proceed to winch out each vehicle. He had all three out in less than 20 minutes which was a relief however the cost of this rescue was not. In total, the bill as you might imagine for a multi-vehicle tow that took place far away from most services was several hundreds of dollars. My stomach turned at this and I imagine yours would too if you were faced with unexpected costs worth a set of new tires. But as I was preparing my card for the inevitable financial hit my Uncle stepped in and told me not to worry about this one. I was flabbergasted but also filled with gratitude for this act of generosity. At the time I was petrified my Aunt and Uncle wouldn't talk to me after this one but it's one of those memories you think back on and laugh. 

- Morgan