A good reason to ,carry and hand winch with appropriate cables or if you have a 4wd have a winch fitted.
http://golddetecting.4umer.net/t5383-who-s-a-fool-my-hand-is-up-are-you-game-to-tell-yours
Many years ago I was in a similar situation to this. When I bought an ARB winch kit (a winch was fitted to the series 80 cruiser)the finance minister complained about the cost! Well  a week later we were stuck in mud up to the bottom of the doors at Talbot, it was raining cats and dogs and it was miles to walk to the nearest farmhouse.I was just able to reach a strong tree with the winch cable and able bit by bit to winch the car out.The finance minister never complained again about the cost of the winch kit! Mind you to have the inside of the car cleaned and  it checked for any mud or water damage (there was none fortunately) cost a few dollars.
doug