I've only had a quad for just under 2 years now. But I still remember my fisrt week and my first stuck. I bought my quad on the first day of a weeks vacation.
Before owning a quad, I did alot of hikking and already knew a couple places where folks go riding. And since I was off for a week, this was the second time in the week I was riding at this particular place. I was at this dredge pit in far-n-away south jersey and riding trails for several hours when I came to this terrain that looked fundamentally different. It was extremely dry, light colored and cracked with large cracks. It looked and felt like concrete under my feet. And there were quad tracks all over it.
I started accross this barron area and noticed way down to one end there was a bit of a POND of water standing on top of this wierd surface. Knowing what I do now about this particular terrain, I should have scratched that really quick. But then, I didn't know anything.
Well, I was moving over the face of the deep with no concept of how much trouble I was in when it occurred to me that I should slow down just in case. Just in case what? Well, in case the ground I was driving over, which by the way was no longer lightly colored but getting darker with every yard, got soft and I might get my front wheels stuck. I would then just back up.
Unbeknownst to our hero, it was already way too late. As soon as I let up on the gas a little, the semi-solid surface I was riding on gave way and all four wheeles broke thru into thick pudding. Now the quad was not sinking, yet... because the surface area of the bottom of theframe was enough to keep it from doing that. But there was just no way to get any traction to drive it out. And the more I walked arround it trying to lift one side or the other out, the worse the surrounding surface became. The contrast between the surface and what lies beneath was surprising. If you walked fast you could cross it easily. But if you stood in one place and tried to lift something you could be in past your knees in a few seconds.
I was lucky enough to find a 3x6 foot peice of plywood and was able to use that to get the quad a little closer to shore. (It was stuck only about 12 feet from solid ground). But even the plywood began to sink after I was walking arround on it long enough. By the way, the plywood was and old "Danger: Keep Out!" sign.
Eventually I gave up. I figured that if I couldnt get it out, no one else would either and left it there for the night. It was about 7:30pm and I had a 3 mile walk back to the car. It was july 4th and no self-respecting tow truck would have come out to help me then anyways.
I went back out there the following day and located a nearby towing company that was willing to pull quads out of mud holes... for $70... Which I gladly paid to get my quad back undented...
So the moral of the story it this. Dredge pits have lots of roads and trails to ride on. Stay off the actual dredge material... or at least don't ride on anything that even has the slightest chance of being guey underneath. You have no way of knowing how deep and how guey it might be.
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