Warchild
Banned
Yesterday was so very, VERY uncool..... a typical 650-mile ride home from western Nevada to Washington state proved to be a complete nightmare thanks to the freaky-ass snow-storm... in the middle of May! 
So I departed my friend Brian's home in Fernley, Nevada at 4:30 am... made it only 15 miles up HWY 447 before the snow was coming down *so* hard, I could not see beyond two dashed lines on the road. I decided if if was snowing this bad down here at 3900 ft elevation, wonder what the 6300' summit at Cedarville Pass was like? ???
Turned the Hayabusa around and went back to Brian's, fired up the laptops to study the weather situation. It was grim. The *best* chance I had at getting home was right then and there, as the snowstorm was only going to worsen down there in west-central Nevada.
I decided to go for it. What a bad call *that* was!
By the time I reach Gerlach, this is pretty much what I was riding through:
I followed a 4-wheeler out of Gerlach, and I did more or less okay following in his tracks.... until he slid off the road himself! This was in the mountainous area about 30 miles northwest of Gerlach. I sure as hell couldn't stop to help him out, but losing him meant I also lost his wheel tracks to ride through.
Continued on slowly until I made the California border, with only one more close "moment" on a downhill sweeper... where I drifted into the other lane with no say-so in the matter. Fortunately, I was the only idiot on the road at that hour of Sunday morning, so there no oncoming traffic.
Cedarville Pass was, thankfully, on the northern tip of the massive cold front, and therefore only had snow at the summit. I was able to traverse the summit (quite slowly) without incident. Surprisingly, the snowfall got WORST on the western side of the Pass, but was sticking to the road surface less and less as I descended . While it was still snowing hard, by the time I reached HWY 395, the roads were clear of snow, just very cold/wet. The snowing continued all the way to Lakeview, where it turned to flurries.
I was out of the snow completely by about 20 miles north of Lakeview, OR.... the rest of the ride home was dry and uneventful.
The Hayabusa actually handled the snow quite well..... but this was still poor headwork on my part. This whole thing could have ended up very, VERY differently.
So I departed my friend Brian's home in Fernley, Nevada at 4:30 am... made it only 15 miles up HWY 447 before the snow was coming down *so* hard, I could not see beyond two dashed lines on the road. I decided if if was snowing this bad down here at 3900 ft elevation, wonder what the 6300' summit at Cedarville Pass was like? ???
Turned the Hayabusa around and went back to Brian's, fired up the laptops to study the weather situation. It was grim. The *best* chance I had at getting home was right then and there, as the snowstorm was only going to worsen down there in west-central Nevada.
I decided to go for it. What a bad call *that* was!
By the time I reach Gerlach, this is pretty much what I was riding through:
I followed a 4-wheeler out of Gerlach, and I did more or less okay following in his tracks.... until he slid off the road himself! This was in the mountainous area about 30 miles northwest of Gerlach. I sure as hell couldn't stop to help him out, but losing him meant I also lost his wheel tracks to ride through.
Continued on slowly until I made the California border, with only one more close "moment" on a downhill sweeper... where I drifted into the other lane with no say-so in the matter. Fortunately, I was the only idiot on the road at that hour of Sunday morning, so there no oncoming traffic.
Cedarville Pass was, thankfully, on the northern tip of the massive cold front, and therefore only had snow at the summit. I was able to traverse the summit (quite slowly) without incident. Surprisingly, the snowfall got WORST on the western side of the Pass, but was sticking to the road surface less and less as I descended . While it was still snowing hard, by the time I reached HWY 395, the roads were clear of snow, just very cold/wet. The snowing continued all the way to Lakeview, where it turned to flurries.
I was out of the snow completely by about 20 miles north of Lakeview, OR.... the rest of the ride home was dry and uneventful.
The Hayabusa actually handled the snow quite well..... but this was still poor headwork on my part. This whole thing could have ended up very, VERY differently.
