While I’m laughing about my misadventure now, it is something I never want to repeat, nor something I would wish on anyone else. Looking back, it wasn’t terrible, but it was an experience I will not forget and with lessons to learn from. Long story short, I got myself stuck in mud overnight while looking for a good place to view the northern lights.

Since the temperatures have been warming up, I’ve been wanting to go out more to chase the aurora borealis before the summer when the nights get much shorter. I never go out to chase the aurora in the winter when it’s extremely cold out in case I would get stuck, as it can be dangerous when it’s -20°C or below. I’ve seen the aurora a couple times before, but only briefly and faintly. Last week there was an aurora happening that was strong enough to be seen near the city, so I drove out a little to take a look. I saw it through my camera with 10 second exposure, and after a while I turned back home since I already had a long night. Later in the evening I saw the aurora notifications and updates getting stronger and I thought that since it’s a Saturday night, clear sky, and a good chance to see a nice aurora show, I had nothing to lose and decided to head back out again. With about 15% cell phone battery this was not a wise choice, but at 2am my mind decided it wasn’t a big deal (mistake #1). This time I drove further away from the city (west was easiest for me in my location) to get a better view.

As I was driving west, the main city lights were getting dimmer and I could start to see the aurora with my naked eye. I got really excited and thought it was a good time to find a side road to stop and take photos. Here is when I made my second mistake and went down a muddy road. I should have stopped as soon as it got muddy, but I was confident there was a gravel road perpendicular coming up (again, this is my thinking past 2am). Alas, I got stuck in the mud. The aurora was so strong I could see some of the green colour through my eyes. I figured, well, if I’m stuck now I may as well try to get a couple quick photos before I attempt to get unstuck and make everything muddy. By this time I put my phone on battery saver mode and then sent Matt a photo of my location with coordinates in case my battery ran out, so at least someone will know where I am. I tried to get mud off my tires using my window ice scrapper, which was a futile attempt. I am normally good about avoiding muddy roads when birding in the daytime, but my aurora-high got the better of me this night. I made a few phone calls which were not answered (which was not unexpected at this hour), but I had to be careful with how many calls to make with my phone battery so low. I called CAA to get roadside help, and they did send someone to pull my car out but unfortunately he couldn’t get close to me because of the road conditions and turned away. I called CAA again to ask what to do, and they recommended to call the authorities at this point. So I did that and let them know my situation and they said to hang tight and they’ll see what they can do. While I was waiting in the car, I could see the aurora dancing in the sky. Part of me wanted to go out to take more photos, but I was getting stressed at this point of the night and decided to sit in the car and limit how many times I go out because every time I went out to pee I would bring in cakes of mud from my boots. My breath fogged the windows as the night progressed, and I could no longer see the aurora. I wasn’t in any physical danger – the temperature outside was just above freezing and I had unfrozen water from my emergency stash in my trunk. If I wasn’t worried about my phone dying, I would’ve been looking up who else to call to help get me out, but I figured my best bet now was to wait. In my mind, I was preparing what to do next if my phone did crap out. I would’ve probably stayed in the car till 10am or so, then start walking to look for a home or someone who could lend me their phone for a call. At the moment I didn’t know how far I was from a place like that, and knew it would be better to wait in the morning to venture away from the car (turns out I was about a mile away from the closest residence). I managed to doze off a little bit (maybe 30 min or so). Matt called me back around 6am and said he was coming right now, even if he had to walk down this road to the car to get me. A huge wave of relief came over me and I started bawling. Matt and Lindsey came to rescue me in her car and they picked me up and brought me home. Later in the morning, I called around to see who could get my car out of the mud. Dr. Hook Towing sent a specialized vehicle (a jeep rubicon) to do the job, so we went back to the site to meet with them and get my car. The driver said he was pulling cars out all day today since many people were out last night. I guess I wasn’t the only idiot who got stuck looking for the aurora haha. I spent the next day cleaning mud off my car, going to a car wash station twice, and in between I crawled under my car to pick out what I could with a small garden shovel. I also cleaned the inside of my car where mud had stuck everywhere, washed the car floor mats and vacuumed – the interior of my car is probably cleaner now that it was before! I didn’t use too much gear, but I also cleaned my tripod, flashlight, boots, gloves, ice scraper. It’s absurd how much mud sticks to everything.

Here is my expensive aurora photo coming with the cost of the specialized tow to get my car out of mud. Was the aurora worth this trip? No, absolutely not. Will this experience stop me from going out to chase auroras again? Also no. I’ve learned my lesson for driving down muddy roads and leaving in the middle of the night with a low phone battery charge. Matt and I agreed that the next aurora chase should be somewhere familiar and that we leave more prepared. We’ll probably go to Oak Hammock Marsh, north of the city, to get better views.

One of the first things I bought after this night was a phone charger for the car. Had I not been worried about the phone dying while I was in the middle of nowhere (not completely nowhere, but far) I probably would’ve been less stressed. In any case, don’t drive out far on a low phone battery charge, and don’t drive on muddy roads!

-Evelien