Crowd sourcing: gumbo nightmare anecdotes

[Ben Long]

Hey Montana hunters (residents or non). Would you do me a favor. Have you had any hair-raising or worse experiences trying to negotiate gumbo mud in central and eastern Montana? Tell me about it. (I'm not talking about New Orleans gumbo; I'm talking about the sloppy, sticky mud version). Thank you!

 

[golfer]

What kind of experiences are you looking for?

 

[El Jason]

Does sliding backwards down a hill with a horse trailer hooked up count?

 

[brownbear932008]

Went into the breaks one morning with frozen ground and snow chasing mulies. Got after a buck and three drainages later we realized the ground was thawing and hit back to the rig.
Three hours, one tire, and one bumper laying on the sage later we got the "4x4" per Hertz back to the gravel. That Santafe was probably never the same and still leaking Montana gumbo.

 

[npaden]

I had 2 fairly exciting experiences that I can remember with gumbo in the breaks. Both involved freezing and thawing gumbo.

First experience was driving on gumbo that was very slick and sticky that ended up completely filling up the wheel wells of the pickup to the point that I was unable to turn the steering wheel any longer. It was just around the freezing mark and although the gumbo on the ground wasn't frozen, I guess it was freezing up once in the wheel wells. I had to use a tire iron to dislodge the gumbo from around the tires so that I could turn the steering wheel. This became a drive about a mile, dislodge frozen gumbo from the wheel wells, drive a mile, repeat. The first time being unable to turn the wheel for sure had the pucker factor going.

Second experience was not as exciting. Just got myself into a spot where I was unable to proceed forward or backward without the pickup wanting to slide into a big ravine the gumbo was so slippery. I was able to wait until it got dark and the gumbo froze back up and the frozen gumbo actually was easy to drive on.

 

[Beignet]

Congrats on whatever tag you drew.

Nothing bad happened to me with the stuff as I’ve never been deep in it. But I was amazed at how resilient to pressure washing it was once dried on the undercarriage. Pretty sure bits and pieces stuck around for at least a year.

 

[cgasner1]

I’d a un describable life experience. You will know you’re in trouble when you see the truck and atv and sxs stuck. I almost got out and kissed the pavement once.

 

[Schaaf]

Not really scary but my son and I went looking for antelope one morning on a gumbo road after a weekend of rain and on the way in I met a high school girl driving a 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix on her way into school in Jordan and then a quarter mile later I slid off the road and put my Tundra in a washout. I've never been so emasculated in my life... still haven't recovered. My son was only 3 and he still remembers how far we had to walk to get help. Pretty sure it's his first memory.

 

[JohnBud]

Does sliding backwards down a hill with a horse trailer hooked up count?

Yep, pretty sure that counts.

 

[brockel]

Shot this bull only a mile from the road but it was all downhill. Had a couple inches of snow on the ground that morning and then sun came out and melted it off. Shot this bull and he slid 50 yards down a gumbo knob into this cedar pocket. About 10 minutes later it started to rain and it proceeded to rain the rest of the day. Took 3 of us. 8hrs to get him out. Basically crawling on all fours to get up ridges and then sliding back down. To top it off he was the toughest bull I’d ever shot. Had to chew for days it seemed on a steak. Can see how muddy he was

 

[golfer]

Watched a guy rip the entire skin of the bed of his pickup off going through a cattle guard. He was on his way in to help pack an elk out. It had rained for three days straight. When he got to his parties camp the elk was all at camp.

 

[brownbear932008]

I slid off the road and put my Tundra in a washout. I've never been so emasculated in my life... still haven't recovered. My son was only 3 and he still remembers how far we had to walk to get help. Pretty sure it's his first memory.

I had a similar experience in an old 80s Chevy on Willow Creek. Passed another truck after a huge downpour. When I left the crown of the road I just kept slowly sliding to the ditch line. Old timer told me to hammer down if that happened and gain some speed hit the shoulder and Duke it back into the roadway. It does work but gets pretty rough in those ditches. We could see through the floors in that old truck.

 

[Gulf of America]

Deer camp a couple years ago. Went down this little county road to get to an isolated access to a bunch of BLM, forecast was a high of 33 and 0.1" of rain, with freezing temps overnight - the road in was frozen and we figured it would be refrozen on the way back out that night. Well, it rained moderately to heavily the entire day and was still 36 degrees when we got back to the truck after hiking 16 miles in the mud. We were soaked and exhausted and about 15 miles from the camper. We hit the bottom of the worst gully crossing on the road and made it maybe 50 yards up the other side where we had a 300' vertical climb. Even trying to just back the truck down to the bottom for another run, we were sliding to the edge of the road. Our last hope was putting chains on because otherwise we were going to be walking through the night. While we were laying in ponds forming in the ruts as we got the chains on, pretty doubtful that chains would even help in that gumbo, things were feeling pretty bleak. But amazingly enough, with the chains on the front we were able to climb right out of there. Then the next day I had the great pleasure of pulling the camper back to civilization, still chained up, on roads that were only slightly better than the one we'd barely made it out of. Here’s a pic of the truck that morning. We spent $100 at the DIY car wash that evening and hours on the interior and there’s still mud and probably always will be.

 

[El Jason]

Haha seeing the chains reminded me of a duck hunt. I was on the Missouri River near Fort Benton. The ground was frozen hard when I drove in before daylight. I pulled decoys around noon and it was 40ish degrees.

I had about a 100 yard “hill” (like 5% slope) out of the river bottom. I absolutely could not up the hill and the camber wasn’t friendly. I finally chained all fours. I was still wearing my waders and I was completely coated in gumbo.

I finally got out and it took me about a full day to clean all the gumbo out of and off of my pickup.

 

[Hamms12oz]

Got hit by a bad early October rain storm while solo elk hunting.
Slid into a county road ditch when trying to leave that afternoon. Spent the next 2 days sitting there without having a single person drive by.
Neither chains or shoveling helped. On day 3 when it dried up, I drove out like it was nothing.
Learned my lesson to get out of there before the rain comes.

 

[Dakotakid]

Got hit by a bad early October rain storm while solo elk hunting.
Slid into a county road ditch when trying to leave that afternoon. Spent the next 2 days sitting there without having a single person drive by.
Neither chains or shoveling helped. On day 3 when it dried up, I drove out like it was nothing.
Learned my lesson to get out of there before the rain comes.

I like to plan to go in at night and come out at night, sorta feel like a criminal but a bit of frost or cold really forms up the mud and makes it passable.

 

[npaden]

I always enjoyed hiking in gumbo as you would gain about 1/2" of height with each step you took. Once you get about a 3" or 4" platform of mud on your boots it would come off on one side and you would start walking like a cripple. Then you would need to sling your other foot forward to sling the gumbo off the bottom of it without slinging so hard that you slipped on the other leg and fell down. Sometimes it took a few attempts and you would continue to lurch forward with 4" of mud on the bottom of one boot and only 1/2" or so on the other boot. You felt like a really cool kid when you were able to sling some off and it flew ahead and as you got up to it you could clearly see the boot tread clearly showing sitting there on the clump of mud.

 

[brockel]

I always enjoyed hiking in gumbo as you would gain about 1/2" of height with each step you took. Once you get about a 3" or 4" platform of mud on your boots it would come off on one side and you would start walking like a cripple. Then you would need to sling your other foot forward to sling the gumbo off the bottom of it without slinging so hard that you slipped on the other leg and fell down. Sometimes it took a few attempts and you would continue to lurch forward with 4" of mud on the bottom of one boot and only 1/2" or so on the other boot. You felt like a really cool kid when you were able to sling some off and it flew ahead and as you got up to it you could clearly see the boot tread clearly showing sitting there on the clump of mud.

That’s called the gumbo shuffle

 

[Ben Long]

Watched a guy rip the entire skin of the bed of his pickup off going through a cattle guard. He was on his way in to help pack an elk out. It had rained for three days straight. When he got to his parties camp the elk was all at camp.

I need more details here.

 

[golfer]

Guy must not have had good enough ruts to keep his pickup in control and went sideways through it or was just haphazardly driving to get there in time to help. Wish I woulda snapped a photo, but when he pulled in the entire exterior was missing from his bed on the pickup.