This is gonna be a long one but it’s one for the books! I can’t even summarize because the adventure/nightmare was so intense and long I just gotta tell it.
Frances, Zoya, and I set out Friday at 6:30pm from Huntington Beach to drive my car to Big Bear for the winter retreat. We picked up Mary in Downey, grabbed some In & Out, and headed to La Verne to drop of the puppies at Brenda's. Maya and Jenna were going to watch them for the weekend while I hit the mountain. We depart from there around 9:30pm.
The weather was rough and it was really slow going. It rained hard and visibility up to Hesperia was bad. Being a good driver I had already checked the route on Google and even did street view of the main junctions.
In Hesperia we remembered we needed cash in case we needed to put chains on the car (which I had borrowed from my friend who also has a civic). We were told we would be able to pay people there to put them on for us. Already knowing the route, I mention Main Street looked like a main road and we would parallel the road we needed and we could get cash etc. Goggle showed the street as a yellow road which usually means it is a main road because a white road means it is residential.
This was supposed to be our route:
We get cash and continue on our route and all of a sudden there is a sign that says the pavement ends. Hmmm. Not good.
Being optimistic, we give it a shot. A few miles in we start to get real nervous because the road becomes treacherous. The dirt road has been washed out a couple times and the Vic is about to bottom out on a couple of pot holes. We are also in the middle of nowhere and although the houses are "nice" this is the boonies. We are deciding what to do when we roll up on this 45 foot straight drop off. We tried to shoot a video but you can't even see down it, it's nothing but blackness. Here is the video right before we come to the "hill".
I start to trip. We gotta turn around this is all bad and a real waste of time. It's already 10:30pm.
Shaking, I turn around and get outta there.
This is the map with the dirt road:View Larger Map
We get back onto the main road. At one point, I think we’ve missed our turn so I pull over to check the map. I don’t want to drive in the rain, on my phone, looking at a map, so I pull over. I take a quick glance, realize we are on the right route, and I look up to see I have pulled into a fire station. I was about to reverse out when I see the garage door open and a man squeezed out. I roll down my window and say, “Sorry, just had to look at my map on my iPhone and I didn’t want to do it while driving.” He barks back, “Well could you do it somewhere else and not in a fire lane!?!” I swear I was only there for about 30 seconds. We all felt hurt and defeated after what we had gone through and this guy had to be a complete ass to us. We all thought he was going to see if we are okay but not have that kind of an attitude. So disgusted.
Back on the main road, we travel another 45 minutes through Apple Valley, through Lucerne Valley until we are met by CalTrans. It’s time to put on the chains. It is approximately 12:00am. I ask the guy if there is anyone around who can put them on for us and his answer is that there are usually some people on the front side of the mountain, but since it washed out a year ago, he hasn’t seen anyone on the backside.
Great.
I’ve never put chains on a car. I’m not even sure these chains will fit. After untangling them in frigid temperatures and blasting winds, we get them on. I drive about 40 feet and pull over because something feels terribly wrong.
We must’ve looked like a bunch of helpless women because a group of 6-8 Argentinean or Peruvian men walk over to see if we need help. Through broken English and translation by Frances, they tell us we are missing a critical piece to the chains, this web thingy, that is supposed to hold them in place and secure them over the hubcap. They attempt to rig it with “zip ties” and this is when I am at a complete breaking point and completely done with the whole situation. There is no way in heck I am taking 4 girls up some sketchy snow filled roads, in a Honda Civic, relying on zip ties as we traverse a mountain. No way. I’m done.
This is also when I also get super pissed at the boys for not even calling us to see how we are or to even suggest this in a Honda Civic with jankie ass chains to begin with.
I instruct Frances to kindly call Izzy and tell him we are not in a good situation.
My suggestion was to go back to Hesperia, find the nearest hotel, and crash until the morning when we go home. It is currently 12:30-45am.
Izzy and Jason suggest Jason come down and pick us up. I head back to the last bit of “civilization” at the 247/18 junction. Yes, a “junction”.
I tell the girls that if I don’t feel comfortable leaving my car at the junction we will continue back to Hesperia. They are cool with this idea and of course the junction is a ghost town with creepy closed down motels and the only thing “decent” is a Valero with crappy lighting and partial paved driveway.
We were hoping for a Sherriff station or a Church and found Crossroads Chapel Church, 32525 California 18, Lucerne Valley, CA 92356 and pull into it.
This is my car parked in front of the church. Creepy.
Not even 2 minutes into our stay, a Sheriff pulls up to make sure we are okay. Finally a civil servant who actually does his job and isn’t an ass. He asked if we are headed up the hill and I said yes our friend is coming to pick us up. His answer, “oooohhh weeee….well, be careful” Great, even the Sheriff knows the mountain is a serious situation right now.
Of course it’s about 1:00am and I have to pee. I asked Frances to come with me and post up on lookout for any ravenous animals or inbred hillbillies and start to head around the side of the church to find a bush. This is what I shine my flashlight on…
What the heck!?! Statue animals!?! Are you serious? As if this town could be any creepier, I find a playground area for children with fake animals!!! I run back to Frances and decide to pee next to the car. Covering it up with dirt, I Purel my hands and run back into the car to get the girls to show them the creepy fake animals. Mary lasts about two seconds and runs back to the car screaming and laughing. She was dying because there was even this creepy chain clanking sound. I swore I saw a noose hanging around a tree. It doesn't look so spooky in the daylight pictures google has but you can see the creepy place next to the church.
1:45am Sheets arrives. I have never been so happy to see him in my whole life. I just wanted to hug him and not let go and I don’t want to be alone in the boonies with a car full of women without a man every again. We drive another 40 minutes back THE OTHER DIRECTION to Apple Valley where there are nice, well lit parking lots to leave the Vic. I climbed in the back of his truck and finally felt warm, safe, and sleepy.
Oh, but the trek doesn’t end there, we still have to climb the mountain in a blizzard! Thankful for Sheets snow driving skills and huge girthly mud tires, I realize half way up the hill, there is no way in hell I would’ve been able to drive that in the Vic, chains or otherwise.
There was this awesome moment that Sheets told us a story how he and Izzy saw a couple of wolves the other night. I asked how he knew they weren’t coyotes and he said they were definitely wolves. We start talking about the difference between a wolf and coyote and Frances says, “They’re like a Husky but a lot wolfier.” That provided us a few minutes of laughter…especially in our exhausted, delirious minds.
We finally got in around 3:30am and of course I forgot my awesome relaxing sleep medicine so I didn’t fall asleep until well after 6am. I had one of those horrible 3 second nightmares that jolted me awake when I dreamt that a red car swerved in front of me and hit me while I was driving. I hate those jolting nightmares.
I ended up not even snowboarding the next day. I was so tired and emotionally drained from the experience. The weekend felt like a total bust but it was nice to be with my church crew and be together playing games, watching movies, while it snows, and the fire crackles.
Here is a video of us at Sheets house while its snowing. I should've taken the video horizontally. Oopss..
The two lessons I learned was the “highway 132” and “man with the gun” lesson. You can ask my mom about highway 132 and the man with the gun is the idea that women shouldn’t go anywhere without a man with a gun. Although I had a knife, a man, and a gun, would’ve come in handy.
It was a very humbling experience sitting on the side of the mountain putting chains on my car, and actually feeling like a helpless woman and I really didn’t know how to handle feeling that way. I realized how independent I am and how I think I can do anything. 99% of the time I CAN and DO anything and everything on my own. To sit there and realize I couldn’t do this alone and that I really needed a guy to come and rescue us was very strange emotion to feel. I actually hated it. It was a crazy reality check.
All in all, we maintained pretty good humor and rational through the whole experience. We never argued, got short with each other, or lost it. We discussed the situation and worked together as a team. I definitely can say Mary, Frances, Zoya and I will be a whole lot closer.
We decided that the Argentinean/Peruvian guys were actually angels because without them we probably would’ve attempted it in the Vic and come to a lot worse of a conclusion to the story. We were protected and although we were scared, we knew we had each other.
We also decided next year we are renting a 4x4 truck, or hitching a ride with the boys. J
Sunday as we headed out the weather was finally perfect and probably one of the best snowboarding days ever. Here are pics as we were heading out....
Me and my puppy that night watching the Oscars. Finally warm and snuggly and happy to be HOME!
More pictures of the weekend to come!
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