March 23, 2010

Got up this morning and decided to head to Ogden to try and find Jon and maybe check out the Mountain as we have never skied at Powder Mountain before. I honestly don't know how these things happen to us....part of the adventure I guess.


We called the Mountain and asked if there was any way we could spend the night up there with our trailer (as we didn't yet know if we were able to stay in the parking lot of the lodge Jon was staying at). The Manager said yes, but to just pick our time to drive up as there as there was a few flurries in the air. We decided we would just go for it seeing as we made it over the Kootney Pass, Mountains in Montana, Tahoe and we were pros with our chains right? Away we went...not too bad, dry roads and then we saw a sign that said steep, windy roads for the next 7 miles....we have seen many of these signs along our travels and just sailed right on past. A few minutes later Bill was like "I can't get the van to go any faster what is wrong?" The road got steeper and steeper by the minute and now there was slush on the road and so many coroners which you could not see around to know what was ahead of you...not that it would have helped anyway as there was absolutely no way you could turn around as there was no shoulder. So we started spinning out and Yep we got stuck....out come the chains...I was trying to direct traffic, but because there was so many twists in the road a few people slowed down when they saw me and yep you guessed it they got stuck too...so now we are in a real mess....So we whipped out the bag of sand we brought with us in case of an Emergency and tried to help the people we managed to get stuck....both of us trying to push these cars up the hill. Fresh snow on the mountain and we are causing all this headache for people..I am sure they are saying dumb Canadians!

Ok...the chains are just not going to help, they are not gripping or biting at all. Well, maybe if we dump out all our water that will lighten our load. (I felt a little tear well up at this thought as I know that means no showers for the week we are here skiing). Let's give that a try....oh shit the lines are frozen now...great....Maybe if we use a hand or foot wamer that will thaw it out...nope...maybe if I boil water....nope...

I better walk up to the chalet and let them know we have a problem! As we are going to really screw up this road without flares or anything to mark trouble ahead. Off I go up the steep hill to find someone. I find 2 ski patrols who look at me and laugh and say "ya that happens all the time...the road is bad huh?". I am thinking maybe the guy on the phone this morning might have mentioned this road is really not recommended for RV's?? He says try your best and come back if things aren't going well and maybe he can send a loader down or something....ok then....back I go.

Oh....a snowplow...he will help us. He stuck his head out the window and started giving Bill a blast of shit...."Those aren't snow tires...didn't you read the sign you need snow tires and chains on this road....do you know how many people die on this road in a year....you think going up is something..just wait until you try and go down....cars, rvs and trucks burn out their brakes all the time here and blow their transmission and end up going off the cliff at 80-100 miles an hour." He proceeded to tell us several stories to make his point and said "you are going to have to try and back it down a bit to the point I have already plowed and I am going to have to make a couple of passes in front of you to see if that helps" and he pulled away in a huff.

Holy shit how are we going to back this down the road without jack-kniffing or going off a cliff. So Bill's idea is to go inch by inch with me behind holding chaulks that hopefully I can stuff under the trailer wheels if it decides to take off backwards....sounds like a dumb idea to me, but what are the other alternatives....so I paid close attention to Bill and we managed to do it.

Oh look here comes the friendly little plow guy again and he has brought a friend with flashing lights. I am now under the trailer trying to thaw the pipes with my bare hands. Oh no....he is going to charge us for sure for not having snow tires. Nope he just sits there with his lights flashing..not going to help I guess. He did eventually get out and he was just a young guy and Bill started talking to him about Tahoe and he just happened to be from there and that made things cool...no charges.. The plow guy does his little run by a couple of times and Bill decides he is going to take the chains off and give it a try. So I run out and grab them and grab the chaulks and watch Bill drive away.....The police officier follows him and oh...here comes the plow guy again..what do I do just keep walking uphill? He stops and tells me to get in the plow with him...he looks a little friendlier now. He is giving me his toothless smile..beats walking with all this stuff...in I hop. It ends up he was a very nice man he just gets so concerned about this road and I can certainly see why. He told us it is one of the steepest hills in North America as did the police officer. It has sections of 21%..yep that is where we got stuck...You would think they would have that posted at the bottom. Most signs that we have seen going to the ski resorts have said the grade and if we had seen 21% we would not have even tried!!!

So we made it to the top...now what???..We are both worn out and the wind if howling, so we are not going to ski...just hang out until we can get a hold of Jon and see whats up. This is really the first afternoon we have just sat and read a magazine....Then there was a little knock on our window and it was Jon and Justin. I guess Jon's flight didn't make it in during the night..he spent the night in Newark..He invited us to stay at the lodge in the parking lot which was great...just one big question...HOW DO WE GET DOWN??? Jon asked if I wanted to ride with them..nope if Bill is going down I am going with him....They said they would go in front of us with their suburban rental in case anything went bad. They were familiar with the road as they hold thier ski tests here every year. We made it down safe and sound, but we did have to stop 3 times to let things cool down as our brakes were burning big time. We might have burned the brakes out in the trailer, we will get that checked out when we go back towards Salt Lake.

Never a dull moment...I guess that is part of this adventure!!

We are all settled at the lodge and have beautiful views (and a spa right across the Street I might have to check out!)

Thanks for saving us Jon!!!
D&B