Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Mine was a learning experience..traveling from Yakima to The Dalles on BLACK ICE...didn't know it at the time and doing the speed limit...was noticing the car acting funny..Police crusier stopped us and asked us to slow down to 35 mph. Could have easily lost control at 70 mph and killed us all. Still appreciate that officers direction.
Mid 80's lived in Nashville and planned a trip to Chicago to visit relatives. We stayed at a hotel near Arlington Race Track, and the temp read -70! Could not start the car until the sun came up a bit. When it did warm up a bit we bundled up and took our boys sledding in a park in my husband's old neighborhood. I stayed in the car....too cold for me and watched as they had a bit of fun. Suddenly I saw my husband scoop up small child and start running for the nearby homes. My boys came running back to the car on the direct orders of their dad. What had happened was a child of about 8 was in charge of his sibling of about 4-5. The younger had lost his mitten and boot, and my husband thought he was frostbitten. When he came up to the kid's home with the help of the older child, he knocked on the door and the mother answered. He explained what had happened. There was not a thank you or anything. She only got upset when she saw that his mitten was missing!
Was either 1993 or 1994 in late December. Me and my friend loaded up for a few days for some late season muzzle loader hunting east of Keysers Ridge (right on top of the eastern continental divide) MD. We were to camp out on private land and some of our local friends were to meet up with us in the morning to join us.
We left Frederick MD after work on a Friday, and by the time we hit Cumberland MD we were in a full blown white out on US 68. We pushed on in my buddies little S-10 blazer, back loaded with firewood, towards Keysers Ridge.
By the time we made the turn off from 68 there was over a foot of snow on the ground and still coming down, wind blowing like mad.. It took us over 5 hours to get there, but by 10p.m. the tent was pitched, a fire started and we were happily passing a bottle of George Dickel back and forth to calm our nerves..
I pitched the tent a few yards inside a grove of hemlock trees for some protection from the wind, and parked the Blazer such to further cut down on the wind. We crawled into the tent, half baked, and passed out. Our buddies were to meet up with us at 5:00 a.m. or so for breakfast before hunting.
Needless to say we overslept. By a long shot. I could hear crows calling, and as everyone knows- crows don't sound off until after dawn... It was maybe 8:00a.m. when we got out of the sack. Went outside and the Blazer was completely covered in snow. We saw no tire tracks coming into the site, so we assumed our buddies chickened out on us.. So we decided to head out for breakfast on our own and went to the Green Lantern restaurant down the road a bit.
When we got there, there were all our buddies, a few Maryland State troopers and a host of other folks standing around. When we dragged in, they were like "WHERE IN THE HELL HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN?? WE'VE BEEN WORRIED SICK ABOUT YOU!!"
Apparantly they had gone out to the campsite at the appointed time, but the wind driven snow completely covered our tracks into the property AND our campsite/tent/Blazer was completely covered from view. They assumed we never left Frederick, so they went to the Green Lantern and called our wives. Our wives said - "Oh yeah- they left last night!! What blizzard are you guys talking about??!?!"
So everyone thought we were broken down in a ditch somewhere along 68, frozen to death because the overnight temps were 20 below with the wind chill . Our wives were worried sick, the Troopers were ready to mount a search, and our buddies thought we were dead for sure!
Anyway- that was the absolute WORST weather I have ever driven or camped in. Thank-god for my 4 season North Face tent, Marmot down bags, and that bottle of George Dickel!!
Couldn't afford a cell phone then, and I don't think they would have worked out there anyway, lol.
I believe only 2 deer were bagged. I remember we took one back with us.
My buddy Bob did get a goose. When we were trying to start our fire, he took a large piece of oak and set it on some cleared but frozen ground and grabbed the axe to split it down for kindling. I remember saying "Bob, that piece of wood is likely to bounce back at you".. He said "Nah"- WHACK.. *BOING*... it bounced back up and left a goose egg square between the eyes on his forehead
After all the commotion at the diner settled down, our friends didn't believe that story about how he got that goose egg. They all said Bob tried to snuggle with me to keep warm and I bopped him in the head to fend him off
It was mid-March, two years ago. My GF and I were spending Spring Break in a cabin at Watoga. We're part of the State Parks' VIPP program, so we decided to visit Kumbrabow State Forest, which we had never been to before, and then continue on out the west side and go to Pickens for the Maple Syrup Festival.
There had been maybe an inch or two of snow at Watoga overnight, but the day was sunny and 219 was clear, if a little wet. The temperature was into the low 40s as we crossed from Pocahontas into Randolph county. A ways above Mill Creek we turned left onto the little road that leads to Kumbrabow from the east.
Pretty soon the road begins climbing a mountain, and the pavement became slushy. A little farther on, it became snow covered, but there were still tracks of other vehicles to follow.
In another mile or two, we're breaking virgin snow, which by now is 2-4" deep. Progressively, I put the Trailblazer into Automatic AWD, then true 4WD-High. On we go, rising higher and higher, until we can see the peaks of the surrounding mountains. Finally! The welcome sign for Kumbrabow!
By now, the snow is hub deep. We descend a short grade with a sharp right turn at the bottom. As we round the curve, all I can see ahead of me is unbroken snow climbing what must have been a 20% grade.
All I could think of was... "If you get stuck here, they won't find you till June." I'm sure we were in a cellphone "no-bars" location. Finally deciding that discretion is the better part of valor, I decided to turn around and retrace my tracks down the mountain.
Easier said than done. How do you turn a vehicle around on a one lane road, when you have no idea if there's a shoulder, or a 100 foot drop? For the first time ever I used 4WD-Low, and basically crabbed the Trailblazer around in a circle, a few feet at a time, until I was headed back the way I had came.
We eventually made it back to 219, and went "around", so that we reached Pickens via Helvetia. Where it was snowing and sleeting, so had we continued to Kumbrabow things would have even gotten worse.
I was a kid and we were going to Mannington Wv from Maryland, this was before the interstate and it was an 8 hour trip as it was. There was a huge snow storm and we got stuck in our cars overnight because the road got shut down. The next morning they brought in the National Guard to take the women and children out to a shelter. I remember my dad and his friend walking back a couple of miles in the snow to a restaurant that we had passed to get us something to eat. The place was pretty much wiped out but we all got 2 slices of bread with sliced eggs on it and a bottle of Mountain Dew. I give it too the owner because my dad said that he didn't overcharge and was only giving milk to people with babies. I guess it was an experience, luckily the other couple had a huge warm blanket in their trunk.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
