So on Thursday February –
2004 I left my house in Drain Oregon with my odometer reading 72400 headed for
the Shasta snow trip. My copilots were my faithful retainers: Westfalia the
Yorkshire Terrier and Jetta the sleek black cat. Realizing I had misread the
information page and actually needed to be there by Friday 4:30 am not pm it
was 10:00am for my departure and it wasn’t going to be as leisurely a trip as I
had originally thought. I love road trips. Doesn’t matter whether it is a back
road slow trip or a freeway fast trip just being on the road in a VW soothes
the troubled beast within. Little did I know I would be rearranging all those
words in the next few days.
Had gotten a reading on my engine the day before and discovered a leaking diaghram that was causing me to suck gas, so disconnecting that vacuum line I was looking forward to an extra 50 miles per tank. It was with glee that I passed up Roseburg and Canyonville as gas stops and rolled into Grants Pass. After the fog came the sunshine across the Siskyous and into northern California. But with sun came a head wind. I guess in the winter you just can’t expect optimum conditions. :-) Headed down I-5 toward Hwy 20 to head west for Clearlake. Drove around the south east end of Clearlake and hoped to be headed on 175 to Hopland. Home of my favorite brew pub: The Mendocino Brewery and the raptor beers. Was an extra bonus for me to be able to stop there twice in 2 months. But alas I zigged when I should have zagged. Pretty soon I noticed town names I hadn’t expected. Oops turned around and headed the other way. Unfortunately arrived in Hopland at 8pm and they had closed at 7:30. :-( so into the grocery store I went and just bought my case off the shelf. OK now I knew what direction to go. There were lovely printed instructions on the internet. But wait I had a gazetteer and my map showed this other road that seemed to go exactly where I wanted to go. Westside road out of Healdsburg. Stopped for gas and headed under the bridge. Passed a ton of wineries including Korbel’s. then poof came to a junction and it wasn’t with Armstrong Woods Road. Hhmmm must have missed something on the map but turned right as that should be west and kept going. Turns out I was on River road which was where I needed to be I just hadn’t seen the words on the map. After a few miles came into Guerneville pulled over to see where I was then proceeded. Oh, the first light was Armstrong Woods Road how convenient and lo and behold there is a split window double cab across from me turning that way. Well how many splits can be out at that time of night in this town that aren’t going where I am. So I followed. Then he turned the opposite direction I would have turned into a driveway but I could see buses so I followed slowly. Good thing cuz that is where I was supposed to be!!
Turns out I was following Gene in and Richard from Phoenix had just gotten there too. Brian, Kathy, Tim and 2 other women were inside around the wood stove eating pizza while Brian fiddled with his bus. Warmed up a bit then Gene replaced his plugs and distributor cap at 10pm, Richard exercising common sense went to bed. The women left as we found that the folks they were waiting for would be meeting us at Willits the next day. Aaron and Emily arrived in the logo bus. All of a sudden it felt like a real ‘trip’. I plugged into electricity and considered sleep a logical option. Sometime around then I think Rachael arrived in her 60 single cab. All the chicks in the barn so we could sleep.
4 am and thunk thunk on the side of the bus. Rise and shine. Oh the electricity was switched. But it is back on now. Warmth once again emanated from my heater and my latte was brewing. Got everything stowed away and half finished my latte. No problem I can drink and drive. Line up the buses. OK time to roll only 10 minutes after scheduled departure. 4:40 am. I am third in line behind the shastasnowtrip.com logo bus, cool it is dark, they have 4 big round tail lights should be easy enough. Brian and Kathy are in the lead and he heads directly across the road from his driveway up a dirt road. I think OK then all of a sudden like a bat out of hell up up and fast fast around corners down little valleys up and up oh my goodness I should have finished that latte. I can’t hold my CB and my cup and the steering wheel. So I put down the CB try to drink the latte. Almost wear it try desperately to move my water bottles to make room for it on the floor and realize there is NO lead in to this journey. We were sleeping at the starting line. Good thing I am a morning person or I would have for sure driven straight off the road and thank goodness for Aaron’s tail lights (when I could keep up with them) So this was Sweetwater Road, which connected with Westside road (familiar? territory) and dropped us back into Healdsburg at 5:15 where we all (not me) got gas. (now I am sure I read in the instructions where we were supposed to do that last night). But the gas station attendant seems to recognize the group as we swarm his station.
So now we skip the Geysers and head to Willits straight up 101. Time to regroup, figure out who is who on the radio, finish that latte. Sunrise to the right, pink sky over the coast range lighting up the sky. So at this time I will admit to being the odd duck. Thinking that this might be a little too dirty or destructive for Zapper I am driving Patch and am the only bay window in the group. Sometimes that was a good thing: convenience for cooking and accessing stuff we needed, new tires and shocks, chains, 12v for the CB etc, but sometimes maybe not.... doesn’t match in the photo opps. Oh well such is life and nobody shunned me!! :-)
In Willits we get gas and gather our final duckling and go to Christopher’s house at 7:20am and circle the wagons to check everything out. We came up with enough parts to install a CB with an inverter in Rachel’s truck and after several attempts Brian finally gets a new antenna so his CB works. Richard spent an hour under John and Cindy’s bus, a 62 double door panel converted to a camper that had a brand ‘new’ engine that wasn’t really dialed in or running correctly or broken in. In the end should have let them bring their bay window everyone would have enjoyed the event more. Well it all gets going and we stop at Burger King at 9:47 for some snacks and bathrooms. Who knows when we’ll see either again. A mile north of Willits we head left on Shepard road. Another fun windy twisty road with Brian now encouraging us audibly to go faster faster! So we try. And uneventfully arrive back at 101 where we now go SOUTH to Hwy 162 and head east for Covelo. Up and around and up and fast seemed to be the mantras for the day. Of course after every up and around eventually came a down and around. Good thing those brakes work too. Ultimately it should be said that while this trip is advertised as grueling. I wouldn’t really call it grueling but it does go on and on and on. If your bus is mechanically in shape and you are accustomed to driving a bus and in particular your current bus it is all possible. I believe a good portion of the stress comes from drivers that are not prepared with food, water, chains, communication ability, and mechanically tested rides with good tires. This is not a trip for passenger rated tires. Definitely reinforced sidewalls are a must.
So finally about 11:35 we hit the dirt again. And the boys needed to play right away! Up over a little hill and the rocks. A poor puzzled local was stopped behind us wondering if it was safe to go around us or what the heck he had encountered! A little while farther we had a timed pit stop! Tim’s bus had a flat tire at 12:15 that involved a blown out sidewall. How fast can 8 buses change a tire. About 5 minutes off and on and back on the road. Hardly anytime to even take a photo. At this point for a while I wasn’t really sure where we were or what our immediate destination was. There was a lot of talk about Poonkinney but I never saw it there was talk about Zenia and while I got as close as seeing a sign for zenia 1 mile I never saw Zenia that I remember either. We did stop on a very scenic bridge and had a photo moment before heading up another ridge. There had been talk of changing the route. I recall that maybe it involved eliminating Poonkinney and providing we arrived at Zenia by 2:30 we would take the new route. We arrived at the Kettenpom store to the single gas pump with in 50 miles about 10 till 2! We found a friendly store keeper lady in an old fashioned store with a wonderful enameled wood stove and old refer display cases. Also got some handmade decals for the bus. Again we made a ‘scene’ for the locals, 8 buses helter skelter through the intersection and on the side of the road. After our one at a time fill up we pulled away heading to Zenia and preparing to bypass Ruth lake or so I thought. John and Cindy decided they were really not prepared so they were going to head back straight to Hwy 36 and home to Red Bluff. And coming out of Kettenpom Richard’s bus quit and he had to redo something. Unfortunately we then lost radio contact with the map holder. After an attempt to contact we gave up and decided to stay on the old route so we would be going around Ruth Lake after all. Not sure what the new route had in store although I heard later it had a bear but Ruth Lake was pretty.
While on our now 6 bus route we played leap frog with a poor wood carrying Ford all the way to their house. They courteously would pull over and let us all go by then something would happen and we would be stopped then there they went and it started all over. They lived way the heck and gone and I am sure were finally glad to get home and see us continue on our own way. We stopped at some scenic points around Ruth Lake and took photos. We had our last photo at 3:06 and felt we were safely on our way. We connected with Hwy 36 then Hwy 3 and I think somewhere briefly even Hwy 299. We got to Hayfork after stopping at a ranch at 3:30 about 6 miles south where Gene’s brother was standing by the road!!! Talk about timing. We had just discussed the unlikelihood that he would be there since he had just become a father the day before but I guess the horses need food too. Lucky for us. In Hayfork it was now pouring rain we all got gas and grabbed a bite to eat. It was dark, do now we were back to the beginning. Only 14 hours later and still 4 hours from our destination.
So off we go up Hwy 3 toward Trinity Center and on to Mt Scott. I finally took a minute to look at the map to try and figure out where we were going if not where we had been! A small detour was required at Trinity Center to visit the Sasquatch who was still dressed in his Christmas garb. Due to the continuing downpour photos were foregone and only the Indian guarded restrooms were used. Seems like a great stop in the future since arrival usually happens after dark so the scenery is not an option and food is a desired event. I don’t recall a specific food stop all day so food was always catch as catch can. Maybe not the best plan if you are expecting to drive snowy roads late at night after being on the road for more than 15 hours already. Maybe that is just the mom in me! We are traveling on a paved road but that doesn’t mean it is any straighter than the dirt roads we were on. We pass a sign that says “Snow not removed on a regular basis”. Well we have been looking for snow so lets go. At this point I am bringing up the rear. Gene has stopped filming and we are just driving.
Finally we hit snow at about the 4000 ft mark and we are traveling much slower. The big split window buses are in front and trucking along. Rachel in her single cab is in front of me and chattering back and forth about slipping and sliding. Eventually I close the distance and come around a corner while she is saying “be careful coming around the corner Susan I am a hazard in the road”. And sure enough there she is crosswise in the lane. I was able to slow down long enough and keep going for her to regain traction and start uphill. She had bias ply tires and a fairly empty truck. So we tried to maintain radio contact with the front runners but eventually it was 8:15, just she and I in the quiet night encouraging her truck forward, me trying to keep going with out running into her. Finally she came to a point and stopped. We consulted and she moved her big storage box back over her wheels and brought her lovely aqua Hazet toolbox out and placed it over her tires. The snow was fresh now and easier to drive on. We had been driving in the icy tracks made by the first buses and sometimes that was not the best choice. But hindsight is always good! Pretty soon we came back into radio contact with the upper crust, but once I convinced them we were moving forward it was really better if they didn’t talk as it was hard enough to drive and stay the right direction on the road with out hearing them wonder about our condition or if they should come down or or or, and hold the CB to try and answer them while driving around a hairpin corner. :-))) But soon we came in sight and there they were all lined up patiently. Yeah Rachel! a successful assent for her first snow drive. And no chains. So we got back in motion to find that we were literally 50 feet from the summit sign “Mt Scott Summit 5401 feet”. Well we made it and down we went to find Callahan-Gazelle Road that would take us to Old Stage Rd. Sure enough it was clearly marked and we took it. Rain again but not too intense. Down down down. We actually take I-5 south out of Weed into Mt Shasta City where a loyal innkeeper has left our key under the mat and we collapse on beds in relative comfort and warmth. At this point Westy and Jetta also collapse and sleep like logs glad to not grip their little platform for support. It is hard for pets to sleep on windy roads. ;-)
Gene immediately rearranged the furniture and prepared to show the days videos. Found that Brian had made it somewhere and was staying in a motel in ?. Would hopefully be joining us by dinner the following day. Aaron and Emily are at a different motel as ours is full but the rest of us are all piled into 2 connected rooms on beds and the floor. We crash with the intent to rise at 7am. And we do.
Ok now we are awake and in town and what are we doing. Let’s go eat. See the town, go ice fishing, get stuff for dinner. We are at our destination!! Off to the Brown Bear Diner. S L O W. Looked at pictures from previous years. Aaron and Em had breakfast in their bus, I had breakfast in mine, we shopped at Rite Aid and still no BB diners, so we set off to check out a few things in town. The diners finish and start crusing town also picking up odds and ends. I make a few required purchases of fabric at the quilt shop and get some gas and head across the freeway. There on the corner live the local split window afficianados and we visit for a bit before heading up to Crystal Lake. We hit snow about the 3800 foot level just before the top.