My troubles didn't stop after The Great Reverse that I talked about in my last post. That very same day I ran into more upon returning home from work. They started again where they had left off; on my mountain.
The day had stayed quite cold and there was just as much ice and snow on our dirt road as there had been that morning. I was apprehensive, but spurred on by the fact that I would be driving forwards this time, although it would be uphill instead of down.
The drive up our mountain begins with an initial decline that levels out around a couple of turns before you begin your climb. The first incline is a moderate turn up around a corner, after which it levels out again for a ways before you truly start your climb. I wasn't anticipating any difficulties this early in the game so I was completely caught off guard when my car stalled, tires spinning to no avail, halfway around the turn. "Well, I almost made it up. I just need to hit it with a little more speed." I reversed several yards back onto the level trail and hit the turn with a little more speed, stalling at the exact same place. Despite the dangers of speeding on ice it was apparent I would have to hit this turn as fast as I possibly could. I reversed again, said a little prayer, then absolutely floored it. I made it past my original stall point only to stall out six feet from the next bit of level ground. As my tires spun wildly I threw my body forward and began yelling at the car and the mountain just in case it was the lack of verbal coaxing that kept me just shy of success. I tried this top speed approach four more times to the same result. I finally accepted that I would have to reverse to a pull-off on the initial decline and abandon my car.
Halfway to the pull-off my car stalled again. "You've got to be kidding me." I pulled forwards a ways then reversed up the hill a little faster. No luck. Once again, top speed would be absolutely necessary, only this time in reverse. I tried several times, falling just short every time. I decided to go try my luck again driving forwards on the other hill. Seven tries. Seven failures. This was bad. I couldn't just abandon my car where it was on this one lane road because I'd be blocking my handful of neighbors who have 4-wheel drive trucks...and low tolerance for silly, hopeless Californians that "mess" everything up. I had to get to that pull-off.
Flying up this icy hill in reverse was a very tense scenario. The mountain dropped off on my left side and if I slipped off the right side I'd get stuck in a ditch. The ditch was the better of two evils, but more than once I debated just driving off the edge of the mountain and being done with it all. Each attempt forced me to drive about 30 yards forward around a curve to find a flat stretch that I could build up some speed on as I flew in reverse around the turn and up the hill. It took me somewhere between 13 and 20 attempts before I finally made the pull-off. I abandoned my car and began the long hike through the ice and snow from the bottom of the mountain to the top; a hike that would see me climbing 2800 ft. A hike that from that day forward would become very commonplace; up and down, day and night, good weather and bad.
If I'd known then just how much snow trekking the future held for me, I probably would have invested in a sled team and some muck-lucks.
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