BFRO #34954: Stranded motorist has a daytime close encounter with an adult and juvenile near Lake Mack

📍 Location

📝 Description

I want to start out by saying that I have never discussed this with anyone except for one other person. I have not discussed it with my wife, my best friend, or any other person close to me in my life. I was fortunate to have a coworker who had, many years ago, shared a similar personal experience that he had in Utah. He is the only person with whom I have shared my experience. I also want to say that what I am about to describe to you has tormented me for the last several months. I cannot emphasize enough how this encounter has affected me emotionally. Thanks to the encouragement of a fantastic confidant, I am now coming forward to report the incident as a step toward putting it behind me and getting on with my life. I did not ask for this, and had the event been within my control, I would have absolutely chosen not to have the experience. My life was perfectly fine with my previous view of reality, as incomplete and skewed as it may have been. I grew up in a very rural setting, and have always loved the outdoors and being in nature. I love to spend time in the beautiful wetlands and forests of Florida�s vast uninhabited wilderness areas. Monday through Friday, I work as an executive in a very large multinational corporation based in Orlando, FL, and being shut up in an office building throughout the week makes me stir-crazy. My life is a very high-stress environment, with responsibilities that include a multi-million dollar P&L, and oversight of approximately 1,000 employees. My weekends are often spent decompressing in nature through hiking or canoeing, especially in the winter months when the temperature is more comfortable. On the morning of Sunday, January 15th, I was visiting friends in Lake Mack, FL, which is a very small community located in a rural area of Central Florida about 10 miles west of Deland, FL, and about 30 miles from my home. To get to this area, go west on HW 44 out of Deland. Highway 44 will curve south just before the drawbridge that crosses the St. Johns River. The Pier 44 Marina will be on the left and is visible from the drawbridge. Immediately after crossing the drawbridge from Volusia into Lake County, turn right onto County Road 42 and continue west for about four miles. If approaching on the westbound side of the road, the Lake Mack community will be located on the south (left) side of CR 42, and the Ocala National Forest on the north (right). CR 42 traverses the southern edge of the 600 square mile Ocala National Forest.Having never been to Lake Mack prior to the 15th, I had earlier looked at the Google Maps application installed on my Blackberry to get directions. I noticed that the Ocala National Forest was just across the road, and saw that there were several forest service roads that crisscrossed the southern portion of the forest. I decided that after my visit, I would go drive through the forest and possibly do some exploring and hiking. I finished up in Lake Mack about noon and drove west on CR 42 for about 1 mile, and turned right onto Deerhaven Road and proceeded north into the forest. Deerhaven Road is paved for about the first 2 or 3 miles until it turns into National Forest Service Road 420, which to my surprise was a one-lane, very bumpy, unpaved road. Initially, I was very nervous about continuing, but the dirt-road was compacted and my car appeared to handle it with no problems. Feeling a bit more comfortable, I continued deeper into the woods. I drove for what I would estimate to be another 3 miles or so. The road passed through an area that appeared to have been burned in the past by a forest fire, as most of the pines were dead and only a very thick 3 to 5 ft layer of saw palmetto and other scrubby bushes covered the ground. In this area, the visibility was better due to the lack of a forest canopy and I could see the forest line about a mile in the distance. At this point, the road was still good, and so I continued driving until I the road left the burned zone and entered the tree line into a heavily forested area. I would estimate that after about � to 1 mile into the forested area, I started to notice an increasing amount of soft sand in the road rather than the hardened more compacted dirt that I had been driving on previously. I got nervous and decided to turn around and go back out of the forest on NFS 420 the same way that I had entered. At that moment I felt the car sink into sand. I quickly steered left up on the side of the road so that I could get turned around. I was able to get the car turned around in the opposite direction, but when I moved forward about a foot, the car sank deep in the sand. I tried for some period of time to get unstuck, but ended up only digging the tires deeper into the sand. It dawned on me what a stupid idea it was to bring a car into the backcountry�lesson learned. So here I was, in one of the wildest and most remote areas in the State of Florida completely stranded and all alone.I decided to try to dig out the wheel

🔍 Circumstances

just me

🌤️ Weather Conditions

Around 1 pm

ℹ️ Additional Details

Around 1 pm

🔗 Sources (1)

👥 Community Contributions

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