Mateo Supertramp

I can't remember if it was one or two days after the great computer crash (maybe more), but I awoke at 3:50am to get ready for work and the TV was already warning of a "Winter Storm" that would hit us that day. I remember I was still fairly shell shocked about my recent loss and was struggling to start the day with optimism and positive thoughts. I hoped the reports would be wrong or that at least the snow wouldn't start until later in the afternoon so that I wouldn't have to drive home on snow and ice, or worse yet, get stuck in town all together.

By 7:00am it had already started snowing, and it was coming down hard, thick and steady. Almost immediately one of my coworkers was sent home early since he lives one city over on the Interstate. I guess the one thing worse than getting stuck in town during a snow storm is getting stuck in someone else's town. I didn't blame him for taking off so quickly, but the act of it made me more anxious about the driving conditions than I already was. The thought of all the hills and mountains I have to climb to get back to my cabin and the fact that I've never driven on snow or ice before, coupled with this image of the locals running for cover was anything, but comforting. I tried to push the thought out of my head though as I finished sorting hanging items on the trailer dock, watching the snow fall with increasing intensity.

At 8:15 my supervisor approached me and cleared me to go home early as well. I was next on the list since I live on top of a mountain. Lucky for me, Phase 2 of the snowstorm dismissal roster is hillbillies and mountain folk. I felt guilty leaving early with lots of work still to do, but I had failed to put a flask of whiskey in my glove box that morning and I wasn't prepared to spend the night in my vehicle if I ended up stuck in a ditch in the middle of the woods. I thanked my supervisor, gathered my belongings, and headed out into the storm.

When I got to my car I threw a few belongings in the backseat and then got in the front. As I prepared to start the vehicle I suddenly noticed that I had brought about three shovel fulls of snow in with me. I'm still not sure quite how I managed to do that, but there were these massive piles of snow that threatened to soak the entire interior of my vehicle when it melted. I leaned across the car and opened the back passenger door in an attempt to shovel one of these piles out with my hands, but so much snow started blowing inside that it proved to be a fruitless effort. I would be forced to do my first ice driving in a rolling snow cone.

I slowly made my way through the parking lot and onto the main road which was busy with people like myself who were scrambling to get back home while they could. I drove at about 10 mph below the speed limit, thankful that I still have a California license plate. Californians can't drive in the rain (make that a drizzle) let alone a massive snow storm so I figured people would keep their distance and not expect too much out of me. I was both extremely tense and overconfident all at the same time. (An insight I now have as I've gained more experience driving in snow and ice.) Less than 5 minutes from work I passed a car accident where one car had slid into the back of another. Both cars had North Carolina plates which made me feel better. "Hey, I'm doing better than the locals."

As I headed further out of town I became the only car on the road which initially relaxed me somewhat. There was less pressure to perform and I could go as slow as I needed to. I soon realized though that less cars also meant more ice and snow on the roads. I rounded one corner at a slow and cautious speed and even still almost slid into a cow pasture. "Sorry sir. It appears I've killed one of your livestock and looks as though I'll be needing a place to stay this evening...Yes sir, that is a California license plate...No sir, I'm not a homosexual."

I was forced to slow my speed even more, but eventually made it through the flatlands and into the hills. Each hill was a little harder to crest than the one before, but I managed to make it to the steep and winding hill that leads to my mountain. It was the steepest of them all and I just barely made it up to my dirt road. If I had left work 10-15 minutes later than I did I don't think I would have made it up the hill. Now that I was off the paved roads I no longer was worried about slick asphalt, but I was now climbing to 28oo ft. above the town I'd come from and the trail already had two to three inches of snow on it. As I fought to climb uphill my car weaved back and forth across the thin trail as I jerked the wheel back and forth like a chimpanzee to counter the movement. I got three quarters of the way up my mountain, before my car stopped climbing. I fought to continue forward, but my engine started to overheat. There was no way my car could continue. I had to ditch it where it was and hike the last quarter of a mile up the mountain in the snowstorm.

It continued to snow all day and through the night dropping well over a foot onto my mountain and the community below. My car was buried and wasn't going anywhere. The snow was almost knee deep. Fortunately, I had just gone to the grocery store so I had food to eat. I ended up being completely trapped on my mountain for about a week and a half; the last portion of which I began rationing food. To this day I'm still partially snowed in, but with effort I can get into town when I absolutely have to. Things are getting better, but this Winter has been all about survival. It's like I'm having a Chris McCandless experience 15 miles from a thriving community. Fortunately, I maintained electricity and had satellite TV, but without Internet, at times I felt as though I might as well have been living up here in a bus.