GOOOOOOOOOONG
Hoooooooly shit. Wow. What should have been a simple drive home from Lillooet was anything but. I have a feeling that the next time I suggest that we take the scenic route, I'm going to be unequivocally beaten and told that I have a snowball's chance in hell of that happening.
We (Amber, Gavin and I) left Lillooet at about 10:00AM this morning with the hope that we would be home by around 2-3:00PM. It seemed perfectly logical. I wanted to take Hwy 99 from Lillooet through the mountains, down through Pemberton and make a stop at Whistler Village (just for shits and giggles) before heading home (we'd already seen the stretch of mountains through the Fraser Canyon, and I wanted to see something that I'd never seen before). The drive up the mountains between Lillooet and Pemberton was INCREDIBLE. Like completely amazing; something out of a nature book (with the snow and the mountain streams and lakes). The roads were pretty good and the weather more or less held out well (there was some snow falling, but nothing worse that what we might get down here, and TOTALLY drive-in-able). In fact, I pretty much drove without incident almost the entire way through the mountains.
Almost.
Near (until about 10:45AM) the bottom of the mountain (like, maybe a km? It was only about 4-6 curves from it) there was a steep grade (like, I'm talking 15%) with a double hairpin. I'm thinking "No problem. I'll just go slowly down and it'll be no different from the rest of them" (I'd already gone through a couple of other 10-13% grade slopes with hairpin curves).
Wrong.
I was going through the first curve, and coming out of it I was thinking "I'm going a little fast". I hit the brake a little harder as I took the second turn, and right away I felt that something wasn't quite right. It really wasn't. I caught a patch of gravel (that had been put down for the ice), lost control and plowed into a ditch full of snow.
To preface the questions I KNOW we're all going to hear: we're fine.
We were lucky (other than not being hurt) in that just as we were coming down the curve, someone was heading up, saw the accident and stopped to help us. A second truck also stopped shortly after we got out of the car, and a third stopped and helped pull us out of the ditch with a towline. Turns out I was leaning on the breaks too hard and they got too hot. When we got out of the car, the breaks were burning. The worst we seemed to wind up with was a flat tire (on the rental car), which the wonderful gentleman from the first vehicle helped us change. I was also advised to not drive over 60km/h and to put myself into first gear going down hills (which I wasn't smart enough to think of on my own, and which would have probably saved us this headache in the first place).
So with that, we were back on our way down the mountain to Pemberton along a Hwy that was 80km/h most of the way, with me going 60. People behind me got kinda agro...
During the ride down, Amber had been trying to talk to Budget to sort out what we needed to do next (get the tire fixed/replaced/swap cars). Their customer service is less than useless, so it was decided that we would stop for food (we hadn't eaten yet, and it was now roughly 11:45AM) and I would talk to them (heh...).
We got to the pub and I called. Between Amber and I, we made like, 6 calls, just TRYING to figure out what to do. Finally, I called BCAA and they were actually helpful. The only shop that was open (fucking Sundays in small towns can lick my hind leg) was the Canadian Tire in Squamish. Off we went.
Here's a note to all: If you are ever required to drive down the Sea-to-Sky Highway driving no faster than 60km/h because you have a flat tire, make sure you put a note in your rearview saying that's WHY you're dragging your tail. I wish I had. People get aaaaaaaaaawfully grumpy and like to use their horns.
We magically made it down to Squamish (no stop in Whistler, which was mightily disappointing) and to the Canadian Tire. We dropped off the car (time now being about 4:00PM) and were told that it would be done "in the next 2 hours". So we wandered over to Starbucks to kill time. Then when we got bored with that, we wandered into the Whistler/Blackcomb merch outlet store. Then we wandered back to Canadian Tire to the toy section. Then we finally said "fuck it...Let's go for food" and wandered over to Boston Pizza. And, of course, after we ordered our drinks the phone rang ("Car's ready!"). We ordered a plate of wings, finished our drinks, and proceeded to get the hell outta dodge (the tire only needed to be repaired not replaced, thank god).
Now that we were on the Sea-To-Sky with four good tires and able to drive the speed limit, I felt much better. It was raining, but hell! This is Vancouver and I can handle the rain! Honestly, I don't see why everyone is so shit scared of driving on the Sea-To-Sky...If you don't drive like an asshat, everything is peachy! But I digress.
So it was smooth sailing down the Sea-To-Sky until we hit the exit just north of Horseshoe Bay. Of course, traffic was stopped dead. North AND south-bound. Turns out that someone lost control and went OVER the concrete barrier and down the embankment. It was bad enough that they had to MediVac the 2 people in the car out. We wound up parked on the Sea-To-Sky for 2 hours (roughly 7-9:00PM), all the while Amber and I had to pee. This is where I can hear everyone say "so get out and pee at the side of the road!" No so easy...we had a cliff beside us which was not conducive to side-of-road relief. Finally, seeing as no traffic was getting by in EITHER direction, Amber and I decided to run over to the other side of the road to pee. Lucky for us, there's a ditch on that side. Unlucky for us, just as we got down to business, they started letting traffic through (single lane, alternating). We kinda hope that no one got to see our pitiful pasty white asses.
Shortly after the peeing adventure, HOORAY! our traffic started to move. It took another 15-20 minutes, but eventually we went past the accident scene...Turns out there was a second vehicle, and I noticed behind that vehicle were 2-3 car-seats (I swear to god that my heart almost stopped). The first vehicle looked like it had gone through the car crusher at a wreckers (the top was sheared off and everything...wow).
The rest of the drive home was uneventful. Just a regular drive through Vancouver.
This whole trip took roughly 12 hours for a drive that should have taken no more than 4 hours.
Now I go get Wii-tarded with the Dragon, Dan and Geo.
I'll add pics to this later, when Gavin or Amber oblige me with them.
Doom, doom, doom...
THE END
We (Amber, Gavin and I) left Lillooet at about 10:00AM this morning with the hope that we would be home by around 2-3:00PM. It seemed perfectly logical. I wanted to take Hwy 99 from Lillooet through the mountains, down through Pemberton and make a stop at Whistler Village (just for shits and giggles) before heading home (we'd already seen the stretch of mountains through the Fraser Canyon, and I wanted to see something that I'd never seen before). The drive up the mountains between Lillooet and Pemberton was INCREDIBLE. Like completely amazing; something out of a nature book (with the snow and the mountain streams and lakes). The roads were pretty good and the weather more or less held out well (there was some snow falling, but nothing worse that what we might get down here, and TOTALLY drive-in-able). In fact, I pretty much drove without incident almost the entire way through the mountains.
Almost.
Near (until about 10:45AM) the bottom of the mountain (like, maybe a km? It was only about 4-6 curves from it) there was a steep grade (like, I'm talking 15%) with a double hairpin. I'm thinking "No problem. I'll just go slowly down and it'll be no different from the rest of them" (I'd already gone through a couple of other 10-13% grade slopes with hairpin curves).
Wrong.
I was going through the first curve, and coming out of it I was thinking "I'm going a little fast". I hit the brake a little harder as I took the second turn, and right away I felt that something wasn't quite right. It really wasn't. I caught a patch of gravel (that had been put down for the ice), lost control and plowed into a ditch full of snow.
To preface the questions I KNOW we're all going to hear: we're fine.
We were lucky (other than not being hurt) in that just as we were coming down the curve, someone was heading up, saw the accident and stopped to help us. A second truck also stopped shortly after we got out of the car, and a third stopped and helped pull us out of the ditch with a towline. Turns out I was leaning on the breaks too hard and they got too hot. When we got out of the car, the breaks were burning. The worst we seemed to wind up with was a flat tire (on the rental car), which the wonderful gentleman from the first vehicle helped us change. I was also advised to not drive over 60km/h and to put myself into first gear going down hills (which I wasn't smart enough to think of on my own, and which would have probably saved us this headache in the first place).
So with that, we were back on our way down the mountain to Pemberton along a Hwy that was 80km/h most of the way, with me going 60. People behind me got kinda agro...
During the ride down, Amber had been trying to talk to Budget to sort out what we needed to do next (get the tire fixed/replaced/swap cars). Their customer service is less than useless, so it was decided that we would stop for food (we hadn't eaten yet, and it was now roughly 11:45AM) and I would talk to them (heh...).
We got to the pub and I called. Between Amber and I, we made like, 6 calls, just TRYING to figure out what to do. Finally, I called BCAA and they were actually helpful. The only shop that was open (fucking Sundays in small towns can lick my hind leg) was the Canadian Tire in Squamish. Off we went.
Here's a note to all: If you are ever required to drive down the Sea-to-Sky Highway driving no faster than 60km/h because you have a flat tire, make sure you put a note in your rearview saying that's WHY you're dragging your tail. I wish I had. People get aaaaaaaaaawfully grumpy and like to use their horns.
We magically made it down to Squamish (no stop in Whistler, which was mightily disappointing) and to the Canadian Tire. We dropped off the car (time now being about 4:00PM) and were told that it would be done "in the next 2 hours". So we wandered over to Starbucks to kill time. Then when we got bored with that, we wandered into the Whistler/Blackcomb merch outlet store. Then we wandered back to Canadian Tire to the toy section. Then we finally said "fuck it...Let's go for food" and wandered over to Boston Pizza. And, of course, after we ordered our drinks the phone rang ("Car's ready!"). We ordered a plate of wings, finished our drinks, and proceeded to get the hell outta dodge (the tire only needed to be repaired not replaced, thank god).
Now that we were on the Sea-To-Sky with four good tires and able to drive the speed limit, I felt much better. It was raining, but hell! This is Vancouver and I can handle the rain! Honestly, I don't see why everyone is so shit scared of driving on the Sea-To-Sky...If you don't drive like an asshat, everything is peachy! But I digress.
So it was smooth sailing down the Sea-To-Sky until we hit the exit just north of Horseshoe Bay. Of course, traffic was stopped dead. North AND south-bound. Turns out that someone lost control and went OVER the concrete barrier and down the embankment. It was bad enough that they had to MediVac the 2 people in the car out. We wound up parked on the Sea-To-Sky for 2 hours (roughly 7-9:00PM), all the while Amber and I had to pee. This is where I can hear everyone say "so get out and pee at the side of the road!" No so easy...we had a cliff beside us which was not conducive to side-of-road relief. Finally, seeing as no traffic was getting by in EITHER direction, Amber and I decided to run over to the other side of the road to pee. Lucky for us, there's a ditch on that side. Unlucky for us, just as we got down to business, they started letting traffic through (single lane, alternating). We kinda hope that no one got to see our pitiful pasty white asses.
Shortly after the peeing adventure, HOORAY! our traffic started to move. It took another 15-20 minutes, but eventually we went past the accident scene...Turns out there was a second vehicle, and I noticed behind that vehicle were 2-3 car-seats (I swear to god that my heart almost stopped). The first vehicle looked like it had gone through the car crusher at a wreckers (the top was sheared off and everything...wow).
The rest of the drive home was uneventful. Just a regular drive through Vancouver.
This whole trip took roughly 12 hours for a drive that should have taken no more than 4 hours.
Now I go get Wii-tarded with the Dragon, Dan and Geo.
I'll add pics to this later, when Gavin or Amber oblige me with them.
Doom, doom, doom...
THE END