Winter Road Trip

It wasn't a great adventure. It wasn't even a little adventure. It was more like a stupid adventure on the designated drivers (Troutbirders) part. The genesis began with the annual New Years Eve party.

Our guests, good friends Gary and Rosie, had arrived a few days early because of a threatened winter storm. The storm had somewhat fizzled into a day of fog, mist and then sleet. The next day looking to go outside for a "little fresh air" and a hike, we discovered sidewalks and streets with a veneer of ice. Senior citizens tend to be a little more cautious about walking on ice than average.

Still never one to give up easily, I proposed we all grab our binocs, hop in the 4 wheel drive truck and do a little "road birding" in a nearby state park. The goal would be to look for snow birds and hawks.

Things went quite well, on the sanded state highway, till I got the brilliant idea to take a shortcut through a wooded area with a gravel road. That road had often shown "snow birds" (horned larks, lapland longspurs and snow buntings) in the past. That day it showed mostly compacted snow and sheets of ice. I was doing well enough as we passed thru the beautiful woods, till I came to a short but fairly steep incline. I slowed down to avoid a barking dog that appeared from a nearby house. Big mistake. When I tried to speed up, to make the top of the hill, the wheels spun and then we began sliding backwards toward the ditch and a 15 foot dropoff. I had visions of the truck ending up upside down at the bottom. Fortunately, the roads edge had a snowbank, which we plowed into. Now the back end was stuck in a snowbank and I couldn't get any traction to pull out even with 4 wheel drive. Birding had never been so exciting! Grrrrr....

Assessing the situation.

All was not lost, however, as their were sand tubes (for weight) and shovels in the back

The mission now was to get the sand, for traction, under and around the wheels of the truck .... and hope for the best.

Getting ready to go..... maybe.
Luck was with us and we started up the hill. At the top there was a ninety degree dogleg to the left and a man standing in the road with his dog wanting to chat. Foolishly, once again, I stopped in the middle of the road. We talked for a few minutes and then I was unable to get going. And slid backwards stopping about 6 feet from his parked car. At which time, a road grader approached, blade down scrapping ice, slammed on his brakes and began sliding toward me.

At that moment, I was quite sure this was not going to be my day. The grader was only a few feet from my front grill when his tire chains on the back wheels gripped and enabled him to stop and then back up to go around me. Whew! Inspired, I was then able to get going and we headed off to Forestville Park. There across the valley, in the distance, Rosie spotted a rough-legged hawk. Just another exciting day here on tundra in Bluff Country.

Pictures taken by birder/photographer Rosie A.