I was thinking of the chains to get OUT, or at least back to camp. If it's raining, only an idiot (no hunters in that group, right?) would try to drive down into the breaks.
We hunted there a few years back, and the best expense we incurred was to hire Dave Rummels of Zortman as a "guide". Dave's idea of guiding was perfect. He'd drive us out to areas where he's had success with bulls before and drop us off to hunt on our own. We'd agree on an approximate pick up time and location, and off we'd go. He'd then drive from high point to high point, glassing for elk to hunt the next day. His charge was downright inexpensive, and worth it simply to not tear up my own pickup out there.
Anyway, he was also guiding 4 fellows from Milwaukee at the same time. Talk about clueless! They'd never hunted anything except whitetails in and around Milwaukee. One of them was afraid to get off the road, but he's out there elk hunting. The first evening, Dave drops me and my buddy off by some canyon and we dive off the top and have a nice hunt, saw a good bull but couldn't close the deal. We hike back out and crash alonside the road, waiting for Dave to come pick us up. Well he gets there, but he's worried because one of the Wisconsin guys is missing. He dropped the guy off on one road and told him to hunt across country to the west till he hit the next road, and wait to be picked up there. It was only a mile or so, but the guy never showed. After it's been dark a while, we see a fire off in the distance. Thinking he'd killed a bull, we flashed our lights toward him, and he flashed back with a flashlight. This goes on for about an hour and we finally realize that he isn't moving. Now we're worried that he's hurt, so Dave and my buddy start hiking cross country, while I take his pickup around to the other road to get closer and pick them up. They come hiking out with the guy well after midnight. Nothing is wrong, and he hasn't seen any elk. He never got more than about 500 yards off the road, got scared and plopped his butt down on top of a hill and waited for someone to come rescue him. My buddy and Dave walked up to him in the dark, and when they asked if he had a bull, he said NO, when they asked if he was hurt he said NO, when they asked him what the hell he was doing he said he was scared and afraid he'd passed the road he was supposed to get picked up on, so he sat down and build a fire to get rescued. Talk about someone who has no business elk hunting!
And, for icing on the cake, his buddies didn't heed our warning when it started raining and we told them they needed to drive their truck back to pavement. They spent a very cold, wet night huddled together in their pickup while we were back in Zortman. Gumbo totally packed into their wheel wells. It wasn't funny, but we sure laughed about it. They left and headed home the next day.
You still wonder why I made the comment about easterners out west????????