Ladies & Gentlemen Take My Advice, Pull Down Your Pants & Slide on the Ice Monday Surf & Culture Report
Lost Boys & Co...
Thanks to Gidget this morning for some help on the remote report! 15 miles visibility, with hazy sun this morning. Winds are calm and the sea surface has a bit of roll to it. The air temperature is 56.2° and the water has finally dropped below 60 to 59.9°. High tide at 8:28am +6.4' and low tide will be at 3:50pm -0.7'. The buoy is reading a west swell out of 272° at 5.2'. Get your booties in the car and make sure you check it out!
We're in Boise (Eagle, actually) this morning and the weather is featuring a lot of puffy clouds (in the sky) and snow (on the ground.) The news is warning everyone that a blizzard is coming tonight (along with Boomfwappa!) They're even suggesting laying in a couple of days food supply! So we're snug and happy, but it wasn't exactly that way on our trip up. Read on...
It started out fine - honest. Snowy, but wet. Traction was fine. Everyone warned us about the black ice. Everyone. And we listened. I know - you told me - I nodded - yes, yes, yes. Go slow. Leave lots of room between you and the car ahead. Don't hit the brakes. Yeah, I know, I know, I know... We're going over the last pass before dropping into Idaho, from the southeastern corner of Oregon. Not a palm tree in sight. No wind. Snow on the ground everywhere. There's a truck in front of us. He's going slow - maybe 25mph. I'm 100yds behind him. No, I'm not going to get any closer. All of a sudden he starts to fishtail. Big wide sweeps. He locks up and now I'm catching up. I throw it into 1st. Whoopee shit! Now I'm sliding too. I look in the side mirror - the trailer we're pulling with the couch for the Flying Burke Fam is now trying to pass me on the left. I turn left (in the direction of the skid) Now we snap around the other way! I turn the other way and the trailer responds with a quick little slide to the right. One more turn to the left - WHEEE! - now we're straight but headed for the ass end of this huge gravel truck. But like in slow motion. We're getting closer and closer and I look and on the back of this rig and there is the radioactive sign! I find out later, this guy is hauling tailings and radi☢active sand and gravel. No shit - if he dumps I'm imagining we'll glow in the dark for the remainder of our short, irradiated lives. In incredibly slow motion we start slowing down. I end up 20 feet behind him. Considering I started out a hundred yards behind, this was way too close. We all jumped out and started to put on our chains. Now, when I put on chains, I like to swear. But my mother-in-laws boyfriend is with us and he wants to help, so I am obliged to say things like, "Gol'darn these things," "Holy mackerel, my ass is cold," and "This is upsetting me." LoLa keeps patting me on the head, telling me how wonderfully I'm doing. Incredibly, the chains go on without much trouble. Now I'm really skeptical... We ease out and head down the hill at a breakneck 5mph. There are trucks and car strewn all over the landscape as we melt through the crowd. People are trying to put on chains and figure out what to do. We drive for about a mile and then we kick it up to about 9mph. We get down a bit lower and I pull over next to a trucker who is coming up the hill. "How is it further on down?" He says it's good in about 4 miles, so we're off again. Finally, we get down to the point where we're thinking this has got to be good. We take off the chains and I goose it up to 5mph and then hit the brakes. Those fine new Yokohama's on the X-terrible grip like a mother and we stop on a dime - okay, maybe twelve cents. Whoopee! Onward...
Pic #1 today features a little prep action. Photo credit: Katie Bucci. #2 The frozen north. #3 Note the radioactive sign☢
The Professor!!
