Off the Shoulder on Kanan or the 23: Canyon Winch-Out Steps

Published 17 September 2026

Picture three cars on one wet weekend: two wheels in the brush between the Kanan Road tunnels, a pickup reversed off the lip of a Decker Canyon turnout, a hatchback beached at the edge of a trailhead lot after the season's first rain. None of them is a tow yet. Each is a recovery first, and how the recovery goes decides whether the car leaves under its own power.

The sections below follow a recovery from the moment the car stops to the moment it is back on asphalt, with California's Move Over law and the question of who pays along the way.

From Westlake Boulevard, Kanan Road runs 19 miles south to Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, rising to 1,800 feet and passing through three tunnels, named T-1, T-2 and T-3 from north to south. The last tunnel you drove through tells us where to find you.

The 23 offers the second route to the coast: about two miles of Westlake Boulevard south of the 101, then Decker Canyon Road, a steep, twisting descent often described as notoriously dangerous, where rusted frames of cars that went over the edge remain visible. A car far below the road may be more than a light-duty tow truck can handle, and you hear that during the call.

Trailhead lots generate still more: Wildwood Regional Park at 928 West Avenida de los Arboles, with 58 stalls and a dusk closing; the main Los Robles trailhead at the south end of Moorpark Road; and Rancho Sierra Vista off Potrero Road. Once the stalls fill, drivers park on the dirt edge, which is firm in August and crumbles in winter rain.

On loose dirt or dry brush a spinning tire only digs. The first turn breaks the crust that was holding the car up, the second flings the loose soil backward, and by the third the wheel sits in a trench. Carry on and the floor pan or differential comes to rest on the ground between the ruts, which is high-centering, and tires that no longer bear any weight cannot move the car at all.

On a sloping canyon shoulder it gets worse, because a wheel hunting for grip creeps sideways as well as down, and sideways on Kanan means toward the drop. Make one gentle attempt in your own tracks; if the car stays put, lift off the throttle, set the parking brake and switch the engine off.

The anchor is the tow truck itself: it parks on the asphalt above the car, square to the direction of pull, and its weight holds everything in place. From there the winch cable runs down to one of two rated places - the tow eye that comes with the car (a Tesla Model 3 keeps it in the front trunk) or a frame hook. Bumpers, control arms, axles and tow balls are never used.

Sometimes the tow truck cannot square up with the car, or one straight line is not strong enough. Then a snatch block goes in - a pulley that opens on one side to take the cable. Tied to a tree or to the truck, it changes the angle of the pull; hung from the car's tow point with the cable run back to the truck, it gives twice the force at half the winching speed.

The cable comes in a few feet at a time, with a stop after each stretch to see what has shifted. The front wheels are steered to follow the cable and the driver keeps off the throttle so the tires roll rather than plow, and a car resting on its underside has one end raised first so it clears before being dragged. Until the car is back on asphalt and the cable hangs loose, nobody stands downhill of it or along the cable's path.

On the 101 and the 23 freeway, California's Move Over law, CVC 21809, tells anyone coming up on a tow truck whose amber lights are flashing to shift out of the adjacent lane when it is safe and practicable to do so, and if not, to cut speed to a level that is reasonable and prudent for the conditions. Kanan Road and Decker Canyon are not freeways and offer no second lane, so on them the amber lights and the caution of the next driver around the bend are all the protection there is.

The wait before we get there is when most canyon recoveries go wrong:

• Refuse the tow-ball strap. The ball on a hitch expects the even load of a trailer, and the shock of a jerked strap can break it loose and send it flying.
• Nobody pushes while the wheels spin. Spinning tires hurl stones, and a car that suddenly finds grip lurches with no one in control.
• Leave the car on a slope. Step out uphill and keep well clear of the edge.
• Stay out of the lane. Put the hazards on, and if the car sits beyond a blind curve, phone 911 right away, since only an officer can shut down a lane.

Plenty of cars simply drive off after the pull. The ones that ride the flatbed instead have a wheel folded under, steering that yanks to one side, or floodwater that rose above the floor inside; so does any all-wheel-drive or electric car that cannot be driven, since Subaru's owner's manual rules out towing its AWD models with just one end lifted and Tesla's manual for the Model 3 prefers a flatbed to any other method.

No public program does this work. The Ventura County Freeway Service Patrol covers the 101 during weekday commute hours and never the 23 or surface streets, so a car off the edge on Kanan or Decker Canyon is always a private recovery: our canyon winch-out service prices the pull, the rigging and the time on the slope as a single job.

The only road where the state sends help is the 101 on a weekday, explained in what happens when you break down on the Conejo Grade. Anywhere else, both the recovery and any tow after it are yours to arrange: no benchmark, no yard, no release fee, just one total agreed by phone before our light-duty tow trucks in Thousand Oaks head out.