This is what can happen to anyone while exploring the back country. The location of this episode is the Bill Williams river, south of Kingman, AZ. I had my dogs with me and was 50 miles from the nearest town. This happened while on one of my expeditions to search for a lost Spanish gold mine south of Kingman, AZ. The 4WD road I was traveling on, came to this river crossing so I attempted to cross. Needless to say, this was not a good decision on my part. As I started across, the truck fell into a trench in the center of the river and the engine stopped. I tried several things to get it started to no avail. I later learned that starting an engine that has gotten water into it as had mine, can ruin the engine (bent rods, etc.). No damage was done but I won't try that again. I wasn't even sure of my exact location but I wasn't much bothered by the problem because: 1) I had canned food to last me about a week. 2) I had a small bag of dog food for the dogs that would last them about a week also. 3) I carried over 5 gallons of water to drink. 4) This is VERY IMPORTANT, I had let someone know the approximate area I had gone to and when I expected to be back. If I did not call to report that I was back safely, they would have called the appropriate group (such as a local search and rescue team) to try and find me. As it turned out, a jeep pulled up with a winch and pulled me out of the river and onto the sand. The dogs had jumped into the river and were busy helping me work on the truck.
This is where the photo was taken. I still couldn't get the truck started so we exchanged phone numbers and they told me they would call the local search and rescue if they did not hear from me in a day or two. I guess they had second thoughts about waiting because at around midnight a searchlight swept the area. To my surprise, it was the Search and Rescue located in Bouse, AZ. I will never forget the help given to me from the search and rescue team. They took me to Parker where I arranged to have a 4WD tow truck haul me back to town. The dogs enjoyed being towed back to town and spent the rest of the night in the truck. The driver said he pulls lots of people out of that very same spot because the road does go through there but in the spring the runoff is too much making the river deeper than it appears. All turned out well but I never try and cross a stream anymore if I can't see the bottom or haven't walked across it.