The thumbnail isn’t clickbait—I did get stuck in the mud, and yeah… we’ll get there. This one starts out as a simple “stay off the pavement” kind of Friday-afternoon run down Montezuma Canyon Road, south of Moab. I’m about halfway into my 3‑month road trip where I’m camping, exploring, and still trying to keep remote work rolling from the Jeep. The road is usually easy, but I’m coming in right after heavy rains, and it turns into one of those days where the trail decides how your schedule is going to go. The payoff before the pain was worth it: cliff dwellings tucked into the canyon walls, the Three Kivas site, water in a place you don’t expect it, and that “distant, forgotten past still echoing” feeling that hits hard out there. Then the trail got spicy—deep ruts, soft sand, and finally the slimy, axle-deep mud that buried me bumper deep. I’ll say it straight: I didn’t walk it first, I guessed wrong about the surface, and I paid for it. Big takeaway: check conditions, walk the obstacle, and don’t let a bad timeline push you into a bad decision. Also—trail buddies are everything. Zayn and Sharice saved my butt with a few pulls, and I limped my way toward Hovenweep and a last-second camp spot, exhausted but grateful to be back on dry ground.