My Jeep club held a one day off-road trip a few weeks ago in the the Wharton State forest here in NJ. The park is mostly sugar sand and good old Jersey mud with some water crossings. Many of us are very familiar with this area. We hold an annual week-end event here every year.
We had almost 10 Jeeps of various models (Full size/Cherokee/Wrangler) out for a semi-moderate day of trail riding. Some of the vehicles are bone stock and some are highly modified. Most of what we did in the early part of the day was very mild, we hit some patches of ice but nothing too extreme.
During the second part of the day we ventured into a bit of more difficult section of the park. At one point we came around a bend into a section we call "1/4 mile road" that can be pretty difficult due to lots of water and mud. On this day we found it completely frozen. The weather had been cold for the 2 weeks prior and we had some snow and freezing rain just a few days before the run. To our surprise we found a fellow just sitting there.
We found out that he and a friend had been out the day before in 2 different vehicles, neither one of them was an experienced off-roader and both had stock Nissans. Neither of them had any recovery equipment or survival gear with them. They both got stuck big time. This fellow's friend had a cell phone with him and was lucky enough to be in a area where there was coverage. Somehow he got ahold of a tow truck to come and get them. The friend's truck was at the start of the road and the tow truck driver charged him $125 to pull him to an area off the ice. The fellow that was sitting there had been able to get to a point further down the road and was up to his front axle through the ice. His rear axle was not through the ice but the bald tires on it just kept spinning on the ice. Tow truck driver wanted $425 to pull him out. He didn't have that much with him.
His friend offered to drive him home and seek some help with getting him pulled out the next day. He didn't want to leave his truck for the night so he stayed in it.
By the time we found him (around 1:00PM) he was cold/hungry/thirsty. He had spent the night in his truck with absolutely nothing except for the clothes on his back. Temps that night had gone down into the low 20's. Every hour or so he would start the truck and get a bit warm. Needless to say he was one happy guy to see a herd of Jeeps with all sorts of equipment coming around the bend. We gave him some hot soup and wrapped him in a blanket while a few of the guys winched him out. He was on his way home in less than 1/2 hour.
These guys did some many different things wrong. This fellow was extremely lucky that we found him, he could have easily been stuck for another night. He had no map with him and didn't have a clue which way to go even if he had decided to try to walk out. No food, no water, nothing to keep warm.
Amazing.

So is he going to join the club?

Nope, the name of the club is MidAtlantic Full Size Jeep Club, he drives a Nissan.

Sounds like a smart guy.

Hey, I didn't think there was anywhere left in NJ that lets you go off-roading (Never mind any off-roading clubs left)? Years ago everyone used to go down to the beaches and the pine barrens to go off-roading. Then they started kicking everyone out (developers I guess). Is there a website with some good legal off-roading sites in NJ? It would be neat to get back into it.

Wharton State forest (in the Pine Barrens) is legal, free wheeling.
Many entrances off rt 206 between rts 70 & 30. We usually start from around the Ranger Station and go from there.
There are a few off-road clubs in NJ also.
If you need or would like any more information just let me know.

No winch. Bald (probably regular road) tires. No survival gear. No brains.

Will he get into a similar predicament again? Absolutely!

Cynical Sue

Paul,

Not familiar with your area up there but here is a link for trails all over the US,

http://www.tellico4x4.com/ride.php

Here is another story of being prepared and still having things go wrong,

http://www.sleeoffroad.com/trails/mahwah_00.htm

If you are looking for trails in your area joining a local club is a good way to go. Often a club can use private land, someone in the club knows someone with lots of land. Went to a military vehicle meet last weekend. One of the members has family with a 100+ acre plot of ground and allowed the club access to camp and run through the muck. The muck was bad enough in one place to swallow 2 Pinzgauers and one Unimog. There was a duece and a half there with a pto winch and 200 ft. of cable, he was very popular.

Did get to go for a ride in a Pinz, that was a cool ride. Here are a couple of pictures,

http://123pichosting.com/images/8466pinz.jpg

http://123pichosting.com/images/5639Mudhole.jpg

The water was deep enough to run into the cab when we rolled though the mud. The down side to all of this is now i want a Pinz.

Yeah probably, after talking with this guy for a few minutes while helping him out I could tell he was not shot full of brains.