Winter Watch

teledork said:
I'm thinking not just snow.

Who else here has watched Matts Off Road Recovery on Youtube?
He's often pulling out 4Xs that are so new they don't even have plates on them.
Click to expand...
I do wonder how many of those brand new 4X4s never again venture off the paved roads after their first experience with getting stuck?

In the 70's I worked for a federal agency (which will go unnamed) doing fieldwork in the southern Idaho boonies. One summer they hired a bunch of college students to do a mass measurement thing. Gave them all 4X4s. Those youngen's found lots of creative ways to get themselves in all kinds of rollovers, mudholes, sand pits and such. Since then, I thought it ought to be mandatory to take, and pass, a backcountry driving course before getting the keys to a 4X4.

Some of us, me included, were raised around jeeps and scouts and Dodge Powerwagons. But far too many buy their shiny new jacked up big wheels toy and immediately head out to 'tear up the backcountry'! Many of them don't even know how to change a tire or pitch a tent.

​I am not trying to be judgmental, but when I encounter a brand new 4X4 in the backcountry, I now assume the driver does not know any rules of road and will get me in trouble if I don't give them plenty of room. Like the guy we encountered on Cedar Mesa coming towards us in his brand new bright blue 4X4 with two bikes in a fancy rack in the back. Rather than back up 30 yards, he just tore off through the sage brush around us and in the process ripped up 40 yards of previously untouched landscape.

Contrast that with the guy in his 4 or 5 year old plain 4x4 we encountered 3 times on cedar mesa during the same trip. Each time we gave each other plenty of room and consideration. He wasn't a talker, more like a one finger raised from the steering wheel type, but I would bank on him being the right guy to trust in a pinch.

Things are not worse now than before. You only have to read Mark Twain's Roughing It to know that fools, greenhorns and dudes have always infested the wild lands. I still try to avoid them if at all possible.
 
There are a few reasons why I no longer go to Leavitt Lake. The road has deteriorated to the point that I can walk it faster than I can drive. The washouts and uphill cones have become a fear factor and too many drivers refuse to let the uphill driver have the right-of-way even when there is a pull out a couple of yards behind them. After I backed down and tore off a mud flap I decided the next time I was going to stop, pop up the camper and make some tea. I quit driving past the first creek crossing instead.

A few years back I drove up the Leavitt Lake road to just before the first creek crossing and set out on a week long backpack trip. I was hiking back out on Labor Day weekend. Besides the half dozen kayaks on the lake while lightning was hitting the peaks around the basin (I was all but running down from the pass) there were more than a few shiny jeeps and trucks that looked like they did not get out much either. One of them, a big black pick-up - was stuck on a boulder near the lake - a boulder that was put there to keep people from driving right to the shore of the lake. I could hear the conversation - something like, "dude - looks like you bent the tie rod". I have no idea what they ended up doing - they already had a high lift jack on it.

Another incident: We had just made it back to hwy 108 from the lake. A cowboy was unloading horses and he came over and asked if we would speak with another driver in a BMW SUV. We told him he did not have enough clearance and the walk to the trailhead was only 3 miles. He decided to argue with us; "the guidebook said!" and "I have to get there!" and other laughably immature and entitled type language. My friend finally said, "you're gonna need a new car - either now or later" and we drove off.

Oh yeah - I had to tell someone in a rental Prius that she would not make it. I told her I had seen a Prius stuck in the creek, no driver present and the drivers who were stuck on the wrong side were contemplating how to get the thing out of the road - one speaker suggested dragging it a ways and dumping it down the hill.

I think a lot of these people need to stick to Tonka Trucks and pavement.
 
.......and again, this is all so familiar................... :sneaky:

I miss those old signs, "You have to be this tall to go on this ride."
 
Today is a cold crisp winter Sunday morning. We are home, a rarity. It's the perfect time for a big pot of french onion soup for dinner tonight. The house is really starting to smell yummy. We've been using micro-spikes on our morning walks for a week now. We still manage to be quicker than the sliding vehicles.
 
If this forecast holds it'll be a wild ride from the high on the 22nd to the low the next morning. 49° drop from high to low.
IMG_20221218_224856.jpg
I care because I'll be camped near Sabine Pass, at Sea Rim State Park on the Gulf of Mexico... And thinking about the water system in my camper.
 
As they say BYTM (better you the me :) .... but we have similar coming on Friday but only in single digits. The temp is forecast says 50 on Thursday and 7 on Friday! The beauty of being a geezer is we love to talk weather!
 
Fog has returned to the valley. The cold just seems to go bone deep. Worse than it if it were actually colder. Be nice to see the sun again.

Gotta love people who won't listen. You made it. Yes but I'm driving a Jeep specifically designed for offroad use and I expect and don't care if it gets dented. I'd love the hear some of the conversations with the insurance carriers :)
 
Ventusky: Weather Maps & Radar
IMG_20221222_160138.jpg
Am I the last person to hear about this excellent app?! As The Weatherman, it's dang embarrassing... But I'm grateful to friend CraggyMan for pulling me out of ignorance. On the live app those wind arrows are animated -- cool!
The CMan says there's a web version, too, but I haven't checked that out yet.

On a personal note, you can see the map of the cold heading for the Gulf...and me.
 
Got 6 weather alerts here, southeast Texas, from the National Weather Service:
IMG_20221222_172028.jpg
My concern is for the low temperature and not letting that freeze any part of my trailer plumbing. The forecast low is 20°F...and I've camped in sub-zero temperatures a number of times... But those were always dry camping with my camper -- or with no camper at all.
I think I'll be ok with the heater on and cabinet doors open -- to warm the plumbing hidden in the cabinets.

It's quite windy -- sustained about 20 mph and gusts of 40+. Trailer is a-rocking. I'm camped just a couple of hundred yards from the Gulf of Mexico, surrounded by miles of marsh without a tree in sight. So the falling trees and limbs hazard isn't an issue.
The wind does make a pretty big windchill factor. That doesn't change the temperature that exposed plumbing 'feels', but it does cause exposed stuff to cool off faster.
 
I mentioned above, "surrounded by miles of marsh". Well... here it is late December and there are still mosquitoes active here! But after tonight and a low of 20°F I reckon the only ones still active will be the few that took refuge in my trailer.
 
Big warm storm hitting us. No snow but we are forecast to receive 10 inches of rain over the next two days. Creeks will be rising.
 
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