It was a cold night on San Joaquin Ridge. I sat behind the wheel, staying warm and killing time until I grew tired enough to inflate the mattress and try to get some sleep. At the back of my mind was the challenge I would face at sunrise: attempting to descend this rocky, four-wheel drive road with an engine that had tilted 30° and was liable to start scraping the ground if any more bolts sheared off. Needless to say, it was going to require a substantial degree of caution and a heavy foot on the brake pedal.

I had only been in possession of a lopsided Jeep engine for a few hours. While searching for a high-altitude campsite with a sunset view of the spiky Minaret peaks, two bolts that held the engine in place sheared off completely. The gear stick had suddenly tilted to the right as well, eliminating access to the fifth and reverse gears. Too many years of rough riding on off-highway roads had taken its toll. Luckily, I was only about ten miles away from a mechanic in Mammoth Lakes, but the first few miles tomorrow morning were going be tough, especially for a vehicle on the mechanical equivalent of life support.