Sweet mother of Joseph and Mary… winter arrived last night!
Full disclosure: I made my escape from the mountain without chains, in a rear-wheel drive vehicle. However, it was a trick, because the don’t-know-how-to-drive-in-the-snow-yets are making the road into quite a slalom course of wiped out/stuck/chaining-in-the-middle-of-the-road/abandoned cars. I also had some difficulty overcoming the obstacles of vehicles who think that driving extremely slowly UPhill is not going to result in becoming a casualty of ice and gravity. This simply requires strategy: if/when one is behind such a vehicle, it’s best to stop somewhere that will allow the resumption of speed (level, or facing downhill), and wait until the slow, slow, slow vehicle has come to its involuntary stop, at which point you can slingshot past with the required MOMENTUM.
Remember: Fast UPhill, slow DOWNhill. That’s howya do it. I see entirely too many noobs doing it the opposite way, which is a recipe for disaster.
And, at the risk of sounding hypocritical, you SHOULD chain today. I offer my own experience as evidence that you CAN get out of Crestline without chaining, but it isn’t recommended. What I’m saying is, do as I say, not as I do. Chain up.
Okay… so, heavy ice/snow accumulations and hardpack on the roads throughout the Crestline area. Roads are generally plowed but have an icy base, and probably at least a dusting of snow on top of that ice, since snowfall continues this morning, albeit intermittently. It’s slippery, of course, but not the worst I’ve seen, by any means… the road is reasonably tractable.
Hardpack completely covers the road throughout Crestline, down Highway 138, to around the 4,000 foot elevation. Downhill from that point, there are still accumulations of snow on the road but there’s a lot of pavement to latch onto in the wagon-wheel ruts until around Upper Waterman Canyon Road’s exit. Downhill from there, a dusting can be seen on the hillsides but the road is clear (although wet)… EXCEPT: Except that for the next mile down from Upper Waterman Canyon Road’s exit, there are rocks all over the highway. Nothing bigger than a Quarter-Pounder with Cheese, or MAYBE a Whopper, but they could still make hamburger out of a tire that hits it at speed. You don’t want to get fried by hitting one of those nuggets.
I recommend removing your chains at or near Panorama Point, and certainly no lower than Lower Bonnie Canyon Bridge.
Chain control is set up at the San Bernardino City Limit sign, around 2,500 feet, for uphill traffic. (Chain control stations do not stop downhill traffic.)
Fog is not a big issue this morning, although I did encounter a few small patches of light to moderate fog in the Crestline area… nothing below the Crestline Bridge. No biggie.
Ironically, although quite insignificantly, I’ve offered a warning for the past couple of days about a slick spot to be found under the Crestline Bridge. Today, who’da figgered: the ONLY place you won’t find slick at these elevations is one little patch of clear pavement… underneath the Crestline Bridge.
Precipitation continues… I encountered some heavy snowfall on the drive, in random areas as far down as Lower Bonnie Canyon’s bridge. And down here on the flat parts, as expected, that snow arrives as rain. It is wet down here.