jimk
Active member
Ski road tripping misadventures:
March 2018, memorable drive in a remote part of western Montana traveling from Jackson, WY, toward Canada. We exited I-90 southeast of Missoula around 8:30 pm to head north in the direction of Revelstoke. There was a motel at the Interstate exit, but I was not sleepy and decided to drive a few more miles. Oops. From then on we saw very little civilization traveling on dark, two-lane roads in what turned out to be an area of National Forests and designated wilderness land. At 10:30 pm we came across an unattended gas station with self-service pumps and a small, 1950s-type motel, the Seeley Lake Motor Lodge. I was ever so glad to make stops at both! My wife and son were in the car with me, but I didn't let on that we'd been driving on fumes for 30 minutes at 10pm in the middle of nowhere. My wife was pissed when I told her the full story the next day. When we hit the road again in the morning, it took another 90 miles on MT Route 83 before we came to the next motels and gas stations in Kalispell. Lesson learned; don't let your gas tank get below one-third full in Big Sky country.
During the winter of 2019 my wife and I drove over Monarch Pass on the way to Crested Butte. We have a Subaru Outback, but only all season radials on that trip. We hit a snow squall about 530pm on the western descent of Monarch Pass and our car slide uncontrollably for about 50 yards. Fortunately, we were going slow and there was no other traffic on the road. I now run the Outback with snow tires during ski season.
I could go on and on, but those are a couple of recent incidents. What sort of misadventures have you experienced on ski trips? Not necessarily car problems.
March 2018, memorable drive in a remote part of western Montana traveling from Jackson, WY, toward Canada. We exited I-90 southeast of Missoula around 8:30 pm to head north in the direction of Revelstoke. There was a motel at the Interstate exit, but I was not sleepy and decided to drive a few more miles. Oops. From then on we saw very little civilization traveling on dark, two-lane roads in what turned out to be an area of National Forests and designated wilderness land. At 10:30 pm we came across an unattended gas station with self-service pumps and a small, 1950s-type motel, the Seeley Lake Motor Lodge. I was ever so glad to make stops at both! My wife and son were in the car with me, but I didn't let on that we'd been driving on fumes for 30 minutes at 10pm in the middle of nowhere. My wife was pissed when I told her the full story the next day. When we hit the road again in the morning, it took another 90 miles on MT Route 83 before we came to the next motels and gas stations in Kalispell. Lesson learned; don't let your gas tank get below one-third full in Big Sky country.
During the winter of 2019 my wife and I drove over Monarch Pass on the way to Crested Butte. We have a Subaru Outback, but only all season radials on that trip. We hit a snow squall about 530pm on the western descent of Monarch Pass and our car slide uncontrollably for about 50 yards. Fortunately, we were going slow and there was no other traffic on the road. I now run the Outback with snow tires during ski season.
I could go on and on, but those are a couple of recent incidents. What sort of misadventures have you experienced on ski trips? Not necessarily car problems.
The next day I drove to Bend, which fortunately has a Porsche dealer who determined that there was no structural damage that would make the car unsafe to drive. There was a lot of wind noise so I got a ton of duct tape to put along the B-pillar and door joints.
