Marty led a run through Blacktail Canyon on October 25th with a small group of 5 vehicles.  We took a short side-loop to visit Blacktail pond where we ran into a fallen tree across the road.  I volunteered to winch the tree out of the road and used 2 tree huggers and a snatch block to pull it up the bank to rest on a few boulders.

We decided to eat lunch there.  I reached in to turn my jeep off and it quite suddenly (and alarmingly) started to roll backwards down the hill!  Right toward Marty's jeep!  We all made a futile attempt to stop my jeep from careening down the hill, over a steep rock face and into Marty's jeep.  I managed to grab the steering wheel and turn it, in the hopes of changing its path, then let it go to watch, with sickening horror, as it continued its accelerating journey into what I was sure was going to be massive damage.

By some stroke of sheer luck my jeep turned sharply toward the passenger's side as it went down the rock face and was stopped by a tree, missing Marty's jeep by about 2 feet.  My jeep teetered, as though it was going to roll, but came to rest on all 4 tires - sideways on the steep bank.  We all stood in stunned silence.

I approached cautiously, still a bit shaken from the experience.  There wasn't a scratch or dent to be found, the spare tire absorbed all of the impact from hitting the tree.  The jeep seemed to be firmly planted on the ground.  I wondered how we were going to get it out of this extreme off camber position.

Peter put his jeep into position on the hill and winched to my roll bar, just above the passenger seat.  I was nauseous as I started to get in the driver's seat to get myself out of this predicament until Marty warned "If it starts to roll just remember to tuck" as he showed me the position of covering my face.  Off camber is not my favorite place to be.  Marty volunteered to drive it out.  My seatbelt was locked from the impact so we used a tie down strap wrapped around Marty's chest and the seat as he and Peter worked together to right the jeep.

Of all the possible outcomes, the best had happened.  No one was injured while trying to stop my jeep, Marty's jeep wasn't damaged, despite being in the most likely path, and my jeep didn't crash into anything except a tree - which was also not damaged.

After this experience the guys raced to put rocks behind my tires when we stopped along the way.