Now for the recap of the weekend getaway.
We were on our way to Afton, WY. My sister and BIL had a cabin up in Star Valley from the mid 80's through 2000 so the wife and I spent a lot of time up there from the late 80's through the late 90's. My BIL died of cancer in 2001 and they sold their cabin just prior to his passing. He was a great guy, treated my sister fantastic and was an all around fun guy to be around. We would usually go up to their cabin 3-5 times a year so we became somewhat familiar with the area. That was where I learned to fly fish and tie flies, although it lost its luster and I had no further desire to fish after my BIL passed.
We were looking for somewhere to go and my wife suggested Afton seeing as how we waited too long to make reservations at any of our usual places and they were all booked.
We left Thursday morning with my in-laws following us with their truck and 5'er. We decided to go over and through Logan Canyon to Montpelier, ID seeing as how there was a wind advisory and the interstate was closed at Tremonton, UT. It was just raining and we are very familiar with the route.
HOWEVER, as soon as we turned up the canyon the rain turned to light snow. By the time we passed the chain up area it was a full blown blizzard but the roads were only slushy. Well that changed as soon as we passed the chain up area.
The roads quickly got snow-packed then icy with snow on top. The pavement disappeared and I was following ruts in the snow as by now there was about 3" of snow on top of hardpack or ice. We were approaching the summit and just prior to the summit is a state shed where they dispatch snow plows out of. I figured if we could get to the rest area/pullout at the top of the pass then we could wait it out as it is an 8% grade dropping down into Garden City/Bear Lake area and I didn't want to descend that with snow packed roads.
Just as we were passing the state shed I slowed slightly to allow a couple of cars to pass. I began accelerating to get some speed up for the last 1-mile to the summit. That is when I lost traction and spun my tires. I tried again and simply spun my drives. I applied the brakes and the coach started sliding backwards down the highway. My first thought was I was going to get tangled up with the Jeep in which we were towing because anyone who has ever flat-towed knows, you don't back up a flat-towed vehicle.
I set the e-brake the coach started sliding as soon as I released the pedal. The e-brake only locks the drive axle so I had to have my wife slide into the driver's seat and hold her foot on the brake while I went out to disconnect the Jeep. My thinking was as soon as I shed the 6k pounds of dead weight I could get going again and make it to the summit rest area.
My wife was nervous as hell but she was a trooper and held the brakes while I went outside to disconnect. Here is where the plot thickens, with the Jeep hanging off the back of the coach down hill, I couldn't release the tension on the tow bar to disconnect the pins. I had to get creative and use the safety cables to wrap around the levers to hold the release while I started the Jeep and moved forward about 4 inches to gain slack in the tow bars, this is after clearing the 2+ inches of snow off of the Jeep of course.
I was able to disconnect the Jeep and run it about 100-yards up the highway to a wide spot, barely wide enough for the Jeep, in which I figured I would have my wife follow me with.
After shedding the weight of the Jeep it still wouldn't progress. I tried backing up a couple of feet but could only progress a few inches. At this point I sat back and told the wife I was at a loss and didn't know what to do. She said she had never heard me say that and to be honest, didn't feel good having to say.
While I was sitting there for what seemed like half an hour but realistically only a minute or two I noticed that a large front end loader was coming from the state shed with a bucket full of sand. He pulled up the front of me and commenced shaking the bucket to disperse a trail of sand about 100 feet in front of me. The problem was I couldn't get to it and he was driving away. I went outside the coach and started grabbing handfuls of sand and throwing them under my drive tires.
Then here he came with another scoop and pulled up behind me to dispense about a half a bucket 30 or so feet behind me. I backed up onto the sanded area behind me while he dumped the remainder of the bucket where the coach was stopped. I figured this would allow me a run at the hill but I still worried about the 8% descent down into Garden City. I stopped to thank him and while I was standing there a snowplow pulled out of the state shed and hit the road with plow down and sand coming out of the sander just ahead of me where the loader had put sand. I hopped in the coach, the wife hopped in the Jeep and we progressed up the grade fairly trouble free.
I was going to stop at the rest area at the top of the summit but it was unplowed as well with about 8 inches of freshly fallen snow and I just figured the snow plow was ahead of me and I would take it slow going down the grade and it was pretty uneventful from there. As soon as we got down into Garden City the snow turned to rain and we stopped and reconnected the Jeep and proceeded on our way to Afton, WY.
That was one for the books for sure. My wife and I were joking about the sequence of events and how fortunate we were that it happened where it did and that the state employees were as great as they were and came to our aid when she mentioned that we didn't even take any pictures. I told her I was a little busy trying to figure out a way out to take pictures but now looking back that would have made for a great post.
Once we arrived at our destination it was relaxing and mostly rain all weekend but it didn't keep us from exploring and sightseeing. On Saturday we decided to take a nice drive up into Teton NP and all in all a nice getaway once we arrived.
