Looks like a day when some people might have to hang some iron!
Some shmuck ate his chains on the Paulson just above the bridge. Nose is in one ditch, rear trailer in the other one in a full jacknife. I am detouring through Washington.
Some shmuck ate his chains on the Paulson just above the bridge. Nose is in one ditch, rear trailer in the other one in a full jacknife. I am detouring through Washington.
It was a good day, a long one ... 13 1/2 hours, but good. I will update a bit tomorrow, but here is a pict I took from the car on 395 just North Of Kettle falls on my way back to the border .....
It was a good day, a long one ... 13 1/2 hours, but good. I will update a bit tomorrow, but here is a pict I took from the car on 395 just North Of Kettle falls on my way back to the border .....
When you leave Cranbrook, and you are heading towards Vancouver there are three basic routes, with each having a variation depending on your chosen route.
The fastest is straight to Vancouver on Highway three. It is also the twistyiest and the most fun. There are Five mountain passes, many fast sweepers, and lots of tight slow speed twisties. You climb from low valleys and up and over some 5,000/6,000 ft passes. There are some great variations, as up Kootenay lake and through the West Kootenays and onto Vernon. Now, that works great as a summer route, but it can be hell in the winter. Because if the Kootenay Pass is closed, and I have seen it closed for several days, then you will need to reroute and that can add a lot of hours onto your drive.
The next quickest is up through Golden, over the Rogers, onto Kamloops and down the Coquihalla. The problem with this is that you are now dealing with the Vancouver/Okanogan/Calgary traffic... and that can be a Gong show to say the very least. And you need to get through 3 Valley Gap.....which can slide and be closed for hours and hours.
The third way is to go south through Idaho/Washington, and then you are dealing with Spokane/Seattle rush hours on the Interstates if you time it wrong. Highway 2 over the mountains into Bellingham is a good route, but then again you got snow. And skiers if you time it wrong.
So pick your poison this time of year.
I choose highway three. that is because there was a two hour road closure all yesterday morning on Highway one around Glacier Park, and I heard that the Coquihalla was a Gong show. and Highway 3 had no slide closures reported.
I got over the Kootenay pass nicley, and was in Castlegar on time, which was only about 15 minutes longer than my summer time. Most of the road I was driving along around 60/70 mph, even though all of it was snow covered.
My Chrysler AWD 200 with the Walnut embedded tires handles like a Bobsled... fast and it tracks. I love the car. It is at least 10 mph faster everywhere than my Ram 4x4 was and that truck had the best winters I could get for it. I had it up to 80 mph on snow covered roads and it was like summer.
So... I get about 1/2 hour west of Castlegar, and the traffic comes to a complete stop. As I said earlier, there was an 8 Axel Super Train jackknifed across the highway and blocking all traffic in both directions. The traffic control guy says two hours, and taking into account I have close to a Million miles on that highway, and most of it was in similar trucks back in the day, I know that he is being very optimistic. I sat there for a few minutes then turned around and starting thinking about Plan B. It was not to go home, and not to go back and over Highway One (Just might as well go home and start again the next day).
Now, I never EVER travel without my passport (almost never anyway), so I dig it out and aimed at the border just below Rossland. I cross and head south to highway 395, then head back North to BC. I cross again, and get back onto Highway 3 and head west again. The highway was still closed and was for another two hours. So even though I added almost 2 hours of driving I was still ahead of the traffic that waited by 2 hours.
It got nice and sunny, and I was in Hope about dark which is what I wanted as I don't really like driving in the dark with opposing traffic, and it is freeway from Hope all the way to Vancouver. I dialed in the speed sensing cruise control and just followed the cars in front of me all the way in.
Normally, it is a 10/11 hour day.... 13.5 hours door to door this time.....
This is about 1/3 of the way down the Kootenay Pass. I use to run over "The Hump" five days a week for years, hauling just about everything. I would call this a light day for snow..... I have seen it snow 8 inches in an hour up at the top. The peak in the center has a Microwave tower on it, and I pretty sure the peak is close to 7,000 ft in elevation. This is a true 8% pitch for the first 6 miles, and then 5-7% for another 6 miles. The East side is not as steep, but has its own challenges.
Some shmuck ate his chains on the Paulson just above the bridge. Nose is in one ditch, rear trailer in the other one in a full jacknife. I am detouring through Washington.
That wreck was covered on the evening news. RCMP officer at scene wouldn’t Identify the driver but said the driver graduated with honors from some truck driving school in Cranbrook. Investigation will be launched.
That wreck was covered on the evening news. RCMP officer at scene wouldn’t Identify the driver but said the driver graduated with honors from some truck driving school in Cranbrook. Investigation will be launched.
Another Star student with Advanced Mountain Training from the incubator......
I watched that video a couple of times. His rear wheels have locked up, and for those that don’t know, a locked wheel will always try to pass a rotating wheel. What might cause that is a faulty air brake relay valve on the rear trailer , (most likely) or possibly an air line to the rear trailer came off (not likely as it would cause an air leak which would dynamite all the brakes on the front trailer causing a complete Jack Knife). It took some skill sets for the driver to keep it as straight as they did.
I watched that video a couple of times. His rear wheels have locked up, and for those that don’t know, a locked wheel will always try to pass a rotating wheel. What might cause that is a faulty air brake relay valve on the rear trailer , (most likely) or possibly an air line to the rear trailer came off (not likely as it would cause an air leak which would dynamite all the brakes on the front trailer causing a complete Jack Knife). It took some skill sets for the driver to keep it as straight as they did.
I thought something was going on. The police escort was a tip that something was wrong with the truck. He definitely wasn't out of control.
12-20-2017, 12:28 PM
A Winters tale of....
