theksmith
Explorer
with fresh snow, i wanted to go north this week. I had posted on the VirtualJeepClub and on OffroadPassport.com to see if anyone wanted to go up tues/wed but wasn't getting any takers. late monday night the storm was going so fiercely, even here in the valley, that i just couldn't stand to not go right then to see some snow falling!
just as the 87 starts climbing and the north and southbound roads start criss-crossing, i came upon another grand cherokee with the hazards on. i stopped to make sure they were ok, and they said just a blown tire and that AAA was already on the way. I asked if they had plenty of water and then went on my way.
as i passed the Mt. Ord turnoff on the 87, the entire area was in the clouds, and they were blowing by. visibility was probably 15ft max.
it was only raining in payson, but soon afterwards, a bit before Pine, the snow started. the road had been plowed but was covering with a little snow again quickly.
i came upon a guy parked in the southbound lane with hazards on. i pulled up along side and the passenger pointed me to a wreck off the side of the road that i had failed to notice. the driver of the parked car was down looking to see if anyone was there still and hurt. i got out with my flashlight and started to help look. the car was some sort of small SUV and looked as though it had rolled one time over some boulders and then landed upright. Within just a few seconds, a fire truck happend upon us and informed us that it was an old wreck. Eager to get out of thier way, i didn't even ask how the passengers had faired.
just past Strawberry, the road was closed, so i headed down Fossil Creek road to look for a nice place to park and sleep. at first i was following someone elses tracks, but once the pavement ended, the tracks soon ended too. with quite a bit of snow there already, and the road getting narrow, i couldn't seem to find a good place to park, much less turn around. i finally found a fork to turn around in after a few more miles and decided this wasn't going to be the ideal place to sleep.
i returned to Pine, pulled into the large church parking lot and backed in on a slight incline. i moved over into the passenger seat to get some sleep. happily, i stayed very warm in my new sleeping bag (it's first test), the North Face Goliath 0* Long: http://www.thenorthface.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=70264
in the morning the road was open past strawberry as i expected. i continued up to rim road which i had plan to drive on, but the berm from the plow was so big i couldn't get through! i really didn't feel like getting out the shovel, so i drove on north. i tried a couple of other forest roads later, but most ended quickly in downed trees.
i finally found what looked like might be a good road, FS 211, it's just after the Blue Ridge Ranger station, and loops you back down to Lake Mary Road. I passed a few hunters camped out, and several downed trees that had broken into pieces and therefore i was able to move. the snow had stopped and the sun even came out a bit!
unfortunately, i soon ran into a large downed tree and no way to get around it without fear of getting stuck. i re-traced my path, which got interesting with getting back up a couple of inclines. no major problems, but some brief white knuckle sliding sideways a couple of times.
once back to the 87, i went back south to Lake Mary Rd. it was plowed, but still had a packed couple of inches of snow on it, so i took it pretty easy. i passed maybe 10 cars the entire time. as i got more West, the skies darkened again and the temp dropped again.
i think that 19* F was the lowest i saw.
where Lake Mary Rd intersected County Road 90 (the road that goes behing Morman Lake), the road was closed and all traffic diverted to CR 90. I continued on this behind the lake and eventually re-connected to Lake Mary Road. By this time the small Morman Lake community was busy with plenty of people shoveling drive ways and plowing parking lots of the couple of small businesses. traffic also drasticly increased and i was passing a new car every few minutes.
once i made it to flagstaff, it was about noon, so i had some lunch at Wendys' and hit the I-17 south back to phoenix. the 17 was still pretty hairy untill you got far enough south that the snow was completely melted on the blacktop, i passed a few people that had spun into the snow banks, but nothing serious, everyone still had rubber down.
here's the last shot i took, the peaks behind Flagstaff barely visible in the clouds...
girfriend, 4yo and i will be going back up to Flag on saturday to sled and play in the snow if it's still there, feel free to join us, signup here: http://www.offroadpassport.com/forum/showthread.php?t=302
just as the 87 starts climbing and the north and southbound roads start criss-crossing, i came upon another grand cherokee with the hazards on. i stopped to make sure they were ok, and they said just a blown tire and that AAA was already on the way. I asked if they had plenty of water and then went on my way.
as i passed the Mt. Ord turnoff on the 87, the entire area was in the clouds, and they were blowing by. visibility was probably 15ft max.
it was only raining in payson, but soon afterwards, a bit before Pine, the snow started. the road had been plowed but was covering with a little snow again quickly.
i came upon a guy parked in the southbound lane with hazards on. i pulled up along side and the passenger pointed me to a wreck off the side of the road that i had failed to notice. the driver of the parked car was down looking to see if anyone was there still and hurt. i got out with my flashlight and started to help look. the car was some sort of small SUV and looked as though it had rolled one time over some boulders and then landed upright. Within just a few seconds, a fire truck happend upon us and informed us that it was an old wreck. Eager to get out of thier way, i didn't even ask how the passengers had faired.
just past Strawberry, the road was closed, so i headed down Fossil Creek road to look for a nice place to park and sleep. at first i was following someone elses tracks, but once the pavement ended, the tracks soon ended too. with quite a bit of snow there already, and the road getting narrow, i couldn't seem to find a good place to park, much less turn around. i finally found a fork to turn around in after a few more miles and decided this wasn't going to be the ideal place to sleep.
i returned to Pine, pulled into the large church parking lot and backed in on a slight incline. i moved over into the passenger seat to get some sleep. happily, i stayed very warm in my new sleeping bag (it's first test), the North Face Goliath 0* Long: http://www.thenorthface.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=70264
in the morning the road was open past strawberry as i expected. i continued up to rim road which i had plan to drive on, but the berm from the plow was so big i couldn't get through! i really didn't feel like getting out the shovel, so i drove on north. i tried a couple of other forest roads later, but most ended quickly in downed trees.
i finally found what looked like might be a good road, FS 211, it's just after the Blue Ridge Ranger station, and loops you back down to Lake Mary Road. I passed a few hunters camped out, and several downed trees that had broken into pieces and therefore i was able to move. the snow had stopped and the sun even came out a bit!
unfortunately, i soon ran into a large downed tree and no way to get around it without fear of getting stuck. i re-traced my path, which got interesting with getting back up a couple of inclines. no major problems, but some brief white knuckle sliding sideways a couple of times.
once back to the 87, i went back south to Lake Mary Rd. it was plowed, but still had a packed couple of inches of snow on it, so i took it pretty easy. i passed maybe 10 cars the entire time. as i got more West, the skies darkened again and the temp dropped again.
i think that 19* F was the lowest i saw.
where Lake Mary Rd intersected County Road 90 (the road that goes behing Morman Lake), the road was closed and all traffic diverted to CR 90. I continued on this behind the lake and eventually re-connected to Lake Mary Road. By this time the small Morman Lake community was busy with plenty of people shoveling drive ways and plowing parking lots of the couple of small businesses. traffic also drasticly increased and i was passing a new car every few minutes.
once i made it to flagstaff, it was about noon, so i had some lunch at Wendys' and hit the I-17 south back to phoenix. the 17 was still pretty hairy untill you got far enough south that the snow was completely melted on the blacktop, i passed a few people that had spun into the snow banks, but nothing serious, everyone still had rubber down.
here's the last shot i took, the peaks behind Flagstaff barely visible in the clouds...
girfriend, 4yo and i will be going back up to Flag on saturday to sled and play in the snow if it's still there, feel free to join us, signup here: http://www.offroadpassport.com/forum/showthread.php?t=302
