White Sulphur Springs vs. Lewiston

[imbobbbb]

Originally Posted by Reziac

Of course then we wouldn't see you for 6 months of the year... when's the snowplow coming through again, March?

Do you think all the people going to ski at showdown from great falls arrive by helicopter?I wont claim its always a fun ride but i have made it from great falls to gillette,wyoming in pretty much every month of the year at least once.My brothers friend whose family owned the little store in neihart seemed to have the ability to make it to great falls to barhop on a regular basis all year.

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by imbobbbb

Do you think all the people going to ski at showdown from great falls arrive by helicopter?I wont claim its always a fun ride but i have made it from great falls to gillette,wyoming in pretty much every month of the year at least once.My brothers friend whose family owned the little store in neihart seemed to have the ability to make it to great falls to barhop on a regular basis all year.

Just you wait til the snows of 50 or 60 years ago come back
http://www.mdt.mt.gov/photogallery/i...y/kinghill.gif
http://www.mdt.mt.gov/photogallery/i...ghill_plow.gif

Back in the 1960s, my uncle drove the state snowplow on Hwy 89 from Great Falls to King's Hill -- to be accurate, they used a road grader, since a regular snowplow (like the ones you see on a big truck) didn't cut it. Tho there used to be a LOT more snow back in the 1960s than the area seems to get now. The highway got nasty once you got into the mountains south of Belt, and the pass was closed fairly regularly in midwinter, til the plows could get to it.

One winter back around 1966, my uncle was towing his heavy equipment through there and the load started to shift. He stopped at the pullout near Neihart to tighten it down -- and as he was walking around the flatbed, the load abruptly tipped and the whole thing came down on top of him. If it tells you anything about how locked in the highway could get, he wasn't found for three days. (I vaguely recall that my grandmother had to call the state highway office and holler at them -- back then some guys stayed out on their routes and it didn't occur to anyone that he was missing. Of course, meanwhile the highway didn't get plowed either!)

Being a good Norwegian he was dressed for the weather and didn't freeze anything off, but (since the load was upsidedown and he was pinned under it) the battery acid dripped onto his elbow and ate a hole in his arm. Took 9 months to regain use of it.

I've driven all over MT in midwinter too -- the weather never stopped me, not once!! I think we should have our collective heads examined.

(more great old photos Historical Information and Photos )

[rickers]

Anyone want to buy an unused set of tire chains ! I haven't used them once in the 10 1/2 years I've lived here and I drive all over back and forth the Rockies any time of year. Note; while driving in a blizzard either follow a snowplow, or go from reflector to reflector. Stopping in the roadway because you can't see can get you plowed off the road. !

[imbobbbb]

Originally Posted by Reziac

Just you wait til the snows of 50 or 60 years ago come back
http://www.mdt.mt.gov/photogallery/i...y/kinghill.gif
http://www.mdt.mt.gov/photogallery/i...ghill_plow.gif

Back in the 1960s, my uncle drove the state snowplow on Hwy 89 from Great Falls to King's Hill -- to be accurate, they used a road grader, since a regular snowplow (like the ones you see on a big truck) didn't cut it. Tho there used to be a LOT more snow back in the 1960s than the area seems to get now. The highway got nasty once you got into the mountains south of Belt, and the pass was closed fairly regularly in midwinter, til the plows could get to it.

One winter back around 1966, my uncle was towing his heavy equipment through there and the load started to shift. He stopped at the pullout near Neihart to tighten it down -- and as he was walking around the flatbed, the load abruptly tipped and the whole thing came down on top of him. If it tells you anything about how locked in the highway could get, he wasn't found for three days. (I vaguely recall that my grandmother had to call the state highway office and holler at them -- back then some guys stayed out on their routes and it didn't occur to anyone that he was missing. Of course, meanwhile the highway didn't get plowed either!)

Being a good Norwegian he was dressed for the weather and didn't freeze anything off, but (since the load was upsidedown and he was pinned under it) the battery acid dripped onto his elbow and ate a hole in his arm. Took 9 months to regain use of it.

I've driven all over MT in midwinter too -- the weather never stopped me, not once!! I think we should have our collective heads examined.

(more great old photos Historical Information and Photos )

pretty cool pictures!

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by rickers

Anyone want to buy an unused set of tire chains ! I haven't used them once in the 10 1/2 years I've lived here and I drive all over back and forth the Rockies any time of year. Note; while driving in a blizzard either follow a snowplow, or go from reflector to reflector. Stopping in the roadway because you can't see can get you plowed off the road. !

Following an 18-wheeler works pretty good too

Trying to think of all the times I've used my tire chains...

One time over the Bozeman hill, for weird slick ice, not snow. 1974 or 75. Didn't see another car the whole trip back from Livingston to Bozeman, and it was only about dinnertime.

A couple times to get out of deep mud -- chains work really good for that!

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One winter ('81-82 maybe?) I had to break out of my driveway on Tower Road east of the Belgrade airport... blew in 3 feet deep but was warm enough that it was thick lumpy stuff, then that night it got down well below zero and all that wet snow froze hard as iron. I put chains on my truck and took turns first hacking cracks into the big snowbanks with an axe, then backing into it hard (I've got a heavy step bumper on my truck, but it's a 2WD) to bang big chunks loose and out of the way. Couldn't have got up the traction without chains, the wet snow that started this mess had turned to glare ice underneath everything else. Took a couple days to make the 100 feet out to the road, then for the next month still had to chain up to get to the highway -- you almost couldn't stand up on it, let alone drive on it.

The guy next door had a 4WD but no chains. He got stuck. The guy at the end of the road brought in a bulldozer to clear the north end of Tower Road to his driveway. It got stuck, and sat there for a couple weeks waiting for the next chinook. Airport Road was clear, it always blew completely clear like that. So did Tower Road, right up to about 10 feet past my driveway. This was the only time I ever had to dig my way out, and I lived there 7 years. My neighbours wound up parking on Airport Road and walking down to their houses for the next month.

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Hit the big March '82 blizzard north of Yellowstone... had stormed the day before then cleared off, and we all wound up creeping along at 10mph even with chains; couldn't move at all without 'em, thanks to warm air and a thick layer of ice coated with a nice melty layer of water. It was a busy day and most people gave up and just parked along the side of the road -- probably 30-40 cars in that little stretch where the ice got bad, plus 2 or 3 highway patrols (one was stuck). Anyway, while I was stopped to put chains on, this 18 wheeler comes ripping down the road between the two rows of stopped cars (you shoulda seen how big the driver's eyes were!), goes on around the next bend, then we hear CRASH. Not 30 seconds later another 18 wheeler comes ripping through, on around the bend, then another CRASH. When I got that far half an hour later, I was treated to the odd sight of one truck jackknifed one direction, the other truck jackknifed with its cab pointing the opposite direction, tucked against each other like lovers, and not a ding or dent on either truck. And they'd managed to do it in the only wide flat spot for miles (so traffic could go around 'em), and somehow didn't hit any trees or cars either!!

Took my chains off a bit beyond that where the road got solid again... hit the rest of the blizzard (fluffy wet snow AND high winds) above Idaho Falls about dark, and followed an 18 wheeler all the way to the Utah border, doing 30mph the whole way -- 8 inches of snow on the Interstate and still coming down hard, and I couldn't see anything but the trucker's left taillight!!

Cleared up about there and I stopped in some little town in northern Utah, looking for a place to stay (I had a passenger, so couldn't just sleep in my truck) ... couldn't find a blessed soul. The hotel was wide open but no humans in sight. We thought about sleeping on the benches in their hallway, but wound up going on to SLC instead. (Not that this was progress... banged on four motels' doors before we found one with a human in evidence. Does Utah roll up the entire state at sunset?!)
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Following the road markers ain't always the best idea... I used to have a 1963 Olds F-85, and it would go over deep snow just like a snowmobile. Midwinter 1975 I was somewhere south of Livingston on a farm road ... the road was wide and flat and had fences on either side, but all you could see was snow. So I drove down the middle, like anyone would... Er, well... came back in the spring and learned that the road was actually narrow, meandered all over between the fences, and was flanked by deep ditches, which in winter had been completely full of snow!! Half the time I'd been driving on top of 10 feet of snow-filled ditch!!

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by imbobbbb

pretty cool pictures!

Aren't those great? And such fun to scare SoCal natives with

Once in a long while they unearth some more and add 'em... wonder if my uncle ever took any pics when while in his secret identity as Snowplow Man?

(There's one downside of these newfangled digital cameras... mine quits working at about 45 degrees. It's sure not a Montana camera!)