Good morning, mountain people!
Roads in the Crestline area are icy today. All main lines, and most of the smaller side streets, are well plowed, but yesterday’s slushy base has become a very solid hardpack of ice overnight, as temps are in the high teens to low 20s. Now, while the hardpack is thick and plentiful, at this time, it’s still tractable: The surface is rough and uneven, which lends itself to good traction. A little later in the day, the top layer of this ice will melt, and things will get very slippery then, but for the early morning hours, the drive is not difficult. Chastise me if you like, but I’ll confess that I drove from VOE through Crestline, and Top Town, then down Highways 138 and 18 with no chains (in my rear-wheel drive vehicle) without any difficulties whatsoever. If you are reasonably comfortable with winter driving, you’ll be able to do the same.
Please remember this, though: The “trick” is to go as fast as safely possible when going UPhill, but slow and steady DOWNhill. You MUST maintain momentum while going up, or else you WILL lose traction, and things will go south from there. Also, avoid spinning your wheels… while there are certain unique situations where spinning the wheels for a brief moment may be of use, the vast majority of the time, it’s a bad thing. ESPECIALLY if you are chained… never, ever, ever EVER spin your wheels when you have any traction device—chains, cables, Spike Spiders, Sox, tank tracks—attached to your vehicle. Spinning your wheels under those circumstances will NEVER help, and will almost always do damage.
Okay, as you descend Highway 18, I recommend removing your chains 1/2 mile downhill from the Crestline Bridge. However, please be advised that there WILL still be ice to contend with, all the way down to below Upper Waterman Canyon Road’s exit. If you are not real confident in your snow/ice driving skills, you may want to wait to remove your chains until Panorama Point… but please, no lower than Lower Bonnie Canyon Bridge. Remove the chains, but maintain “ice awareness” all the way until you get to 40th Street.
Incidentally, the chill is real: I’m writing from Rancho Kook, and can report that the highest temp I have seen today is 37 degrees…
Honorable mention needs to go out to BOTH of the Bonnie Canyon Bridges… Upper and Lower. These bridges are notorious for being very icy, even when the rest of the highway exhibits good traction. When it’s cold and icy, it is simply a given that there will be accidents on both of these bridges… please avoid being that guy today. Both of those bridges require extra caution.
Chain control for uphill traffic is in place at Upper Waterman Canyon Road. There’s no way around it. Note to the newbs, downhill traffic is not affected by the checkpoints.
So… other than ice and snow on the roads, it’s pretty easy drive! Skies are very clear (the full moon has now dropped out of the sky, but it was spectacular until just a few minutes ago), rocks and wind are of no concern, and traffic isn’t too bad just yet. The only other concern I feel compelled to warn you of is that Anthony Wiener has been released from prison: This means that underage girls everywhere may still end up being exposed to that full moon after all. Oh, and R. Kelly is still on the loose… but maybe those MAGA country noose/bleach guys will get him. Wait… that turned out to not be a thing. At least there are jobs for those guys with the new Amazon center in New York… wait, dang it, no, that fell apart, because it turns out, jobs are BAD, now… and there are politicians willing to fight the creation of new jobs, in order to preserve the rights of people to not have to work. Oh, and, CA wants to keep the billions of dollars for the bullet train that misfired. Turns out, CA thinks the money is really nice, so, in spite of not building the train, CA wants to buy itself some nice stuff with the money. So, CA is suing the Federal government. Or something.
Okay… even writing this stuff down just doesn’t even seem like it could be possible. Maybe we can get some clarity, maybe light can be shed on these things by some of the brilliant minds out there, like Chrissy Teigen, or some Kardashians/ Jenners/ Beibers/ Gagas… or Pelosis, Newsomes, or that classy, “impeach the MFer” freshman. Maybe some celebrities can offer their opinions… maybe Jim Carrey can do some fingerpainting, or perhaps Kathy Griffin some restore some class to the media.
Riiiiiiiiiiight… enjoy your Monday, and we’ll see y’all tomorrow!