These days, har kaam puthha ho raha hai – so I guess this blog will be no different. I’ll start with
the lessons learned during the trip first – and then maybe then will write
about the trip itself.
Here they are:
1. Always plan crazy trips – they are memories of lifetime
(if you come out in one piece, that is)
2. Always choose a borderline bad time of the year. There is
really no fun if everything is sunny :)
3. Hurricane Ridge sucks big time. You will find out later
:p
4. Dew na kia to phir
kia jia.
It so happened that I was thinking about switching jobs, but
wasn’t really sure if I would eventually switch or not. But there was one
thingy I was sure about – that we got to see Olympic National Park before we
quit being its neighbors. The only small caveat was that my wifey was ding-ding at that time.
But – she wanted to go more than I did – so the plan was
final in no time. It was April this year and we were hoping that we would get
nice enough weather. Luckily, we were able to see a couple of days of clear
forecast and off we went!
We decided to see Hurricane Ridge (HR) first. It has the
reputation of being the most majestic place in the park. So we packed our stuff
and started our trip. In accordance with the forecast, the day was bright and
sunny and we took a ferry towards HR.
After getting off the ferry, we took the highway towards the
area, and on then took the branching road towards Hurriane Ridge. On the way,
there were beautiful views of the lakes and as our car climbed the altitude, we
could see valleys down. We stopped the car at a nice point and took some pics –
will share them when I get over my laziness next time ;)
After that, we continued our journey towards the ridge. On
the way, suddenly, the weather appeared to change and there was a stormy
shower. I told my wifey not to worry about it, as rains come and go in these
areas – I like to play Mr. Cool.
We continued proceeding further. The rain stopped and the
life seemed to be lovely again – but little did we knew what lied ahead.
After a few more minutes, I noticed that snow has started ..
What? Snow? In April? Man! – why did I forget that our altitude was constantly
rising. The snow did not “start” – we drove into snow! I tried to brush aside the
snow again by saying that it will go away soon. I asked my wifey how much
distance is left. She said “thora sa”
(means, little bit). Hmm – 10 more minutes perhaps. We kept moving forward.
The snow did
get a bit lighter – only to get ever more thick again. But we were determined
to reach Hurricane Ridge. The car kept on climbing – and the snow kept on
coming down. I increased the heater level in car to keep us warm.
“How much distance is left?”
“Thora sa”
Kept on moving ahead – now there were hardly any other
vehicles to be seen. There were a couple of tire tracks visible on the road –
giving me some hope that someone else was at least as crazy as me too. OK –
maybe lesser, but still crazy enough.
On the side of the road, I saw a couple of snow-plough
vehicles. But they were just standing still collecting snow. Didn’t they know
its easiest to remove snow when it is fresh? Looks like they were in no mood to
move at all. We kept on moving forward.
“Now, how much distance is left?”
“Thora sa”
The road was completely covered with snow – and the car had
started skidding a bit. Thanks to ABS, things were not too bad though.
Personally, I love to drive in snow with skiddy conditions – I had done plenty
of adventure with my Yaris in the last few winters, and my Yaris did not have
ABS. But those were Redmond streets, and this was ONP wilderness. There the
road would be visible at least – here there was complete snow. My wifey was
ding-ding, and on top of that, we were constantly ascending.
But we really wanted to reach Hurricane Ridge.
10 more minutes passed ..
“How much?”
“Thora sa”
This time, I decided to take the phone from her and look at
the map myself. I stopped the car and looked at the map closely. What!?! We
were only a little more than half-way into the hurricane ridge road? There was
at least 30-40 minutes of more dive left! And on top of that, the map said that
the last mile or so was not really a carpeted road. I asked my wifey what she
was looking at? The ridge seemed to be much farther than she thought it was.
The snow was coming down and we felt that even if we reached
there, we wont see anything because of heavy overcast conditions – and there
appeared to be no chance that the conditions will get any better. Sense
prevailed and we decided to back.
I tried to move the car into U turn, but – the car seemed to
be stuck in its place. The tires were kinda just spinning in place. I tried
again, but same result! Oops! My wifey stopped the songs in car and started
praying. Why do we always remember God in bad times?
I tried to joke with her when she stopped the songs, but the
gravity of situation was becoming clear to me: We were in the middle of
nowhere, with no cell phone signals, in the middle of a storm, my wifey needing
something to eat every couple of hours and the car not budging at all! (to
be continued …)
