Car Blocked in By Trees No Help from Loj

[rambler]

While employed by a ski area, I was told never to use a screw driver to help someone fix or adjust a binding, but I could give them a screw driver and watch them use it. A bit different than a chainsaw. I have had one kick back a tear into a shoulder. Not pretty. Then again I had a Vermont oldtimer pull my car out of a ditch during mud season with his tractor. He just did me the favor, took no money for it. When I commented on how well his tractor was running he said, "Well it should be, I've had it since 1944!" I also had a passing pick-up truck pull my car out of a snow bank in Maine for nothing, too. That was the time I found out that all-wheel-drive does not work in reverse. I guess I'll have to add a saw to the chain, sand and shovel I now keep in my car in the winter. On one of those home video shows on TV, I saw a guy hook a rope upto a bumper to pull a car out of a snow bank. The bumper and a good chunk of the rear panel was yanked clean off. Wonder whose insurance paid for that one?

 

[spaddock]

Then again I had a Vermont oldtimer pull my car out of a ditch during mud season with his tractor. He just did me the favor, took no money for it. I also had a passing pick-up truck pull my car out of a snow bank in Maine for nothing, too.

I would never accept cash for helping someone out. (unless of course my job was a tow truck driver or something like that) I would let them buy me lunch or a coffee though.

-Shayne

 

[Warren]

I once stuck a car on the access road to the beaver pond trailhead for Pharaoh Lake. After an hour of digging in the mud we slept along the road. The following morning two fellows in a suburu came up the road and pulled us out. My buddy asked if we should have given them some cash as a thanks. I thought not, it was a karma debt sort of thing.

Later that trip a hiker who had been a jerk to us the day before had gotten lost. His buddies "didn't have the gear to go looking for him" and asked us to in the rain, at night. After being lost for 5 hours we found him in 25 minutes and made every effort to be nice to the jerk. Symmetry.

You should be prepared to be as self sufficient as possible when traveling to, from and past trailheads. You should offer help to those that need it. And remember when asking someone to help you're asking. There is the option to say no implicit in a that question. Whatever the persons reasons for declining, it's their reason.

As for all the liability crap; I hope I don't let that prevent me from helping someone out. It's too much like letting the "other side" win. I don't have an expectation of any business, non profit or not to act in any way against it's best interest. I do like to think that people will, especially the hiker community that should have some sense that out in the woods and elements (and on the way to and from) we're all in it together.

 

[Stan]

Heartwarming story, Warren, on what is otherwise a gray crappy day. I agree with you and also with Grumpy but I'll say this, if I were sitting around a lodge with a chainsaw out in the shed I'd go help clear that road. Deeds like that eventually come back, maybe in the form of some new Adk loyalists or maybe some tit for tat from the highway department. Even if they don't, the satisfaction of helping is its own reward.