Out for a Sunday afternoon ride - will 80c be open?
| Heading
west on 80C, where North County Road 59 splits off and heads north,
there's a narrow, deep, canyon that is fairly shaded. There's a
reasonable incline when heading west. This stretch of road is taken
with care and attention unless the jeep is wearing chains (I have no
chains for the car). Often, I'm unable to get up the hill and make
other plans at the bottom. Once I made it up but on the return down I
started to slide and slid off to the side. It took me five or ten
minutes to get unstuck. The local fire department's tanker truck didn't fare so well. Unknown how long it has been sitting here - possibly a while. They might be waiting for the road to melt before pulling it out of the ditch. I drove the car up to the tanker and stopped for a photo - and there I sat. I could not start on the icy uphill. I slowly backed down to a sunny (melted) section and gave the icy slope another try - nope - not enough momentum to make it to a patch with good traction. Cautiously back down again and give it more gas - success (the trip out / down was uneventful but I took it quite slow so as not to get an out-of-control slide). |
| 80c
was mostly clear and dry but there were short sections that made me
think twice. If I stayed "in the ruts" I'd be good but if the car
deviated out of the ruts - I'd be stuck. This section was deep enough
to have snow hitting the underside of the car. |
| Getting near the western section / where I'll be turned around due to snow, sections were single-lane-wide plowed. |
| Somewhere
past here I came upon a pickup, stuck in the snow. A Jeep was trying to
pull it out (with an elastic recovery rope). The elastic rope was
taught and the Jeep, pointed downhill, could not back up to release
tension on the recovery rope. I and the pickup owner, grabbed hold of
the rope, about mid-rope, and pulled to the side while the Jeep owner
reversed. Our pull was enough to allow the Jeep to back up. A couple
good tugs and the pickup was un-stuck.I saw a path to continue west so I took it. |
| Nice views! |
| Through a few more narrowly plowed sections. |
| The
plow tractor. This is just east of the Eaton Reservoir. Someone might
be living in the house nearby and they're keeping the road open for
their use. |
| Not
much farther west - full snow. Hmmm - perhaps to return with the Jeep
and snow chains (and a buddy to pull me back when I get stuck). |
| I
backtracked and near the stuck fire truck I turned north and popped out
at US-287 at Tie Siding WY. From there I headed south for a couple
miles and turned east on Pumpkin Vine Road. I took that to I-80 for one
exit and then headed south through Harriman WY back to US-287 and home. Perhaps the only other time I traveled a section of Pumpkin Vine was back on the motorcycle on September 1, 2007 - pictures here. |
| Tall snow fences make big snow drifts. |
| `just missed a west. bound. train. |
| Harriman WY |
