Have you ever been stuck on a wilderness back road and needed help? Pres and I have been stranded in the past and help was tough to find. We’ve had to hike out in the dark, as well as be rescued by BLM Rangers.
Recently we have discovered Off-Road Recovery Groups on Facebook as a valuable resource to find real help when you most need it! We want to be sure you know that there are lots of wonderful, capable folks out there who enjoy helping a fellow off-roader get out of some tough predicaments. Some folks volunteer and others are specialized tow companies who charge.
Early this summer we had our 1st serious wreck in the backcountry and could not find any professional tow service available to help. Or, we got expensive offers to make the drive to see our rig in order to give us an estimate to get us out. A charge running between $600 to $1,000 was only to see if the company COULD or would do the job. We were grateful to have insurance, yet our company proved unable to make any progress towards getting out our truck camper.
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REAL Help from Facebook groups
Feeling very discouraged after our rig was stuck for 2 months with no promise of getting it out anytime soon, our friend Kris told us about a Facebook group that accepts posts/requests for help from stranded off-roaders. The Mojave Desert Off-Road Recovery group has 4.8K followers who help folks driving anything from a giant RV to a snorkeled Jeep.
We posted to this group and within an hour we had a whole bunch of folks offering to help us out. The hard part was simply figuring out who to choose.
Michael and Joseph from SNORR (Southern Nevada Off-Road Recovery), volunteered and told us more about their non-profit organization with a mission to help off-roaders who are stranded, stuck, or broken down. They put us in touch with Wolfpack Towing and a partnership was organized to do our more technical recovery.
Know-how and dedication
Our extraction was complicated by rough and steep terrain, not easily accessible to larger trucks and equipment. Gratefully, 2 of the SNORR members were local and very familiar with the particular trail and wilderness area where our rig was located.
It only took 1 week for Wolfpack and SNORR to organize a group of volunteers to do the work of getting our truck camper out of the mountains. Most of them had to drive 3 hours to reach the rendezvous point and many of those folks planned to camp overnight prepared for a 2-day operation.
Hopefully, you will never need a rescue like this one but if you do, there are folks out there willing to help! From a simple 1 vehicle tow to a chain of trucks with multiple winches, there are resources ready and willing to assist. No membership was required to ask for help. Simply find a group in your area and post a request for help. They will ask for your location and let you know who can come and when or private message you to exchange phone numbers. I’m sure each group is different. We are simply sharing our experience.
Crew rigging tow lines to recover our truck camper
Volunteer or donate
On Facebook, SNORR has 3.4 K followers offering training to learn safe methods for rescue as well as off-road recovery. They welcome donations for equipment, gas, tools as well as repairs.
If you enjoy the adventure of helping folks out in unique situations, you too can volunteer and join a local group of seasoned road warriors. You can find a group in the western United States using a link for a good list at the end of my post. Once you find a Facebook group in your area be sure to like their page as well as join their group to see their recovery posts and get a feel for the kind of work and folks involved. From there you can ask to be invited to their group meet-ups and learn their requirements to join their recovery efforts.
Keep this list handy
Michael from SNORR created a list of Off-Road Recovery groups from the western states and has offered to share it with our Boondocker Camping readers. He welcomes new groups to add to his list as well. You do have to be able to access Facebook to reach many of these groups unless they provide phone numbers via their group page.
Click on our link to get your Western States Off-Road Groups FB Groups List.
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