While fishing for steelhead on Michigan’s Pere Marquette River one spring, I crossed paths with Dan Suman, a steelheader out of Mears, Michigan. When we took a break for coffee, the talk fell naturally to another of Suman’s abiding passions--deer hunting. A few minutes later, he said, “Look, I’ve got a nice piece of woods; why don’t you hunt it with me this fall?”

“You bet. Thanks.”

“Well, as long as you’re here, stop by tomorrow. My sons have just finished building some new stands. That way you can look the spot over. One caution. Though I’ve bushwhacked a 4x4 trail on reasonably solid ground, the rest of the place is a total bog. You need to be real careful driving in.”

“No problem,” I said. “My F250 is all set up for heavy-duty four-wheeling. No way it can get stuck.”

The next day I drove over Suman’s narrow trail as far as I could before pulling off onto a clearing so I could walk the rest of the way in. As I prepared to turn off the trail, Dan repeated his warning. To ease his mind, I climbed out of the cab and surveyed the clearing on foot. The leaf-covered ground supported my weight easily. “This will do just fine,” I said.

I backed the truck in. It promptly sank to the frame in thick, dark ooze that looked like used engine oil.

“What’s this?” I said as I climbed down.

Suman looked on with a bemused grin. He knew I was in deep trouble; the top of each tire was barely visible.

I climbed back behind the wheel. I had pulled the truck out of some of Missouri’s worst mud, so I wasn’t overly concerned about this little Michigan mudhole.

But try as I might, the mud wouldn’t yield its prize. Even in low-range 4WD, the truck was stuck fast.

“What are you going to do now?” Suman asked.