With the kids grown up and out of the area, we with a couple of close friends Bruce and Joanne
have been traveling to interesting places for Thanksgiving. This year it was Yosemite National Park
for their legendary Bracebridge Thanksgiving Dinner. We had submitted our names for the lottery in
the previous January and were lucky to win a place. This year we had also bought a new Jeep Grand
Cherokee and thought we would drive from Portland for the trip. Our friends were flying to
Sacramento where we picked them up and drove the rest of the way down highway 49 through the gold
country to Yosemite. Great plan which went well until coming back. We had good weather on the trip
over the Siskiyou Pass down through Redding and Red Bluff and figured the return would be the same,
not realizing, of course, how changeable the weather is in the mountains at that time of the year.
The Siskiyou Pass, incidentally, is renown as the most treacherous pass on Highway 5 (the summit elevation
is at 4,310 feet with a 6% grade).
We did the mirror image on the return, dropping our friends at Sacramento. There was some severe
weather with very high winds in Sacramento the previous day and the forecast was for worsening
winter driving conditions with blowing snow and ice over the Siskiyous in the evening.
Chains would be required and there was a chance that the pass might be closed.
However, it was about 1 pm and we had little to worry about since the summit of the pass was only
4 hours away. We would be well past that and into Oregon before the weather turned nasty.
The Jeep was four wheel drive and I had brand new chains but I really dreaded the thought of having
to mount them at night on a freezing highway. They were strictly an emergency measure that
I didn't want to use. Besides I could return them unopened to when the season was over.
We've had four wheel drive vehicles for 12 years and never needed chains despite living at 1000'
in Oregon.
So here we are driving on the Saturday after Thanksgiving (we figured we'd be smart and avoid the
heavy traffic on Sunday) headed for Portland ETA about 9 pm. Of course with the forecast storm
coming and the status of the pass on Sunday questionable, everybody else also figured to leave on
Saturday. In short, traffic on Hwy 5 was heavy. And got really heavy just past Redding, averaging
only 40 mph and getting slower. Everybody wanted to get over the pass before the storm.
It was now raining and dark and we were 3 hours behind schedule in heavy traffic with the summit
(elevation: 4300 feet) about 60 miles away. And it was getting colder. Our Jeep was equipped with
an outside thermometer and we watched it as it steadily fell toward 32 degrees and snow. The rain
had turned to slush and started sticking to the shoulders. Wipers were turned to heavy. We were
sweating with concern.
It was 8:30 pm. We gassed up in Weed and passed through Yreka all the motels were full
everywhere. Just beyond Yreka the incline over the pass gets steeper and the traffic was bumper to bumper
traveling about 5-10 mph. It was now snowing and the highway was very slushy in the tire tracks
and snowy elsewhere on the pavement. We still had at least 15 miles to go. The temperature was
hovering at 32 degrees and we still had another 1800 feet to climb. 18 wheelers were pulling over
to chain up. A trucker we talked to during a stall said that he heard over the CB radio that the
CHP (California Highway Patrol) will be closing the pass if it gets much worse.
We continued on. Soon the blowing snow turned heavy and visibility was poor. We were worried that some vehicles may
get stuck and no one would be able to get around them. Temperature dropped to 30 degrees and we
pressed on at 5 mph. Traffic was astounding it seemed everybody was there. For miles and miles
the three lane highway was bumper to bumper with all sorts of vehicles. No place to turn off.
No place to stay. No place even to turnaround (the northbound/southbound lanes of the highway were
widely separated with no connecting roads).
Occasionally we would speed up to maybe 15 mph but had to watch for trucks throwing their chains.
Some cars were damaged by this and here we were with a brand new car. There were chains all over
the highway. Our main worry was that the CHP would be around the next curve stopping anyone without
chains or, worse, saying that the pass was closed.
It was the longest 15 miles of my life. With the total darkness and the blowing snow we really had
no idea where we were.
Suddenly the summit appeared and we knew we had made it. Actually the steepest and most hazardous
part of the pass was coming down into Oregon. But once over the summit it warmed up and stopped
snowing, instead raining so the highway was wet but not slick with ice or snow. And traffic was
moving again at a reasonable rate.
It was now 10:30, 91/2 hours after leaving Sacramento and 15 hours since we left Yosemite. Still
had 5 hours to go, at night and in the snow and rain from Ashland to Portland. What a day!!
What a trip!! Heck of a way to break in a new Jeep!
While we lived to tell about it, looking back it was a really unadvisable thing to do!
We're thankful that we made it and that our friends Bruce and Joanne had an uneventful
short plane ride home. Here's to many more Thanksgiving trips ahead!
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