There’s a car get-together that happens on Friday mornings in Los Angeles. It’s called the Good Vibes Breakfast Club, and it’s a thing I’ve wanted to attend for some months now. The issue for me is that it takes place at Newcomb’s Ranch up on Angeles Crest and I live down in the southern part of Orange County. It’s a bit of a drive. Regardless, this past Friday I woke up early, knew the roads would be light with traffic, and brought my dog along in the car for the journey. And once I was up there, I immediately wish I had my Montero.
For most of the drive, the roads were totally fine. But about halfway up Angeles Crest, the damp conditions started to change over to an icy situation. Angeles Crest climbs fairly quickly in terms of elevation, with Newcomb’s Ranch sitting a bit above 5,300 feet. We’ve had recent cold and rainy weather (for us) in Southern California, and that left a long stretch of Angeles Crest covered in a bit of ice.
I drove past three different signs saying “Chains Required”. Being from New England originally, I’ve never driven with chains. I don’t know anyone who owned chains. And chains were never a thing required back east. But that’s because the roads get salt, people use (not everyone but plenty) proper cold-weather tires, and the plows get out quickly to clear off the dangerous stuff.
Up on Angeles Crest, I was the first person to arrive at Newcomb’s that morning. And I immediately spun the Jag as I tried to turn around into the side of the road as the Newcomb’s parking lot was completely snowed in. Now I was sitting perpendicular on a two-lane with two to three trucks now stopped on the ice behind me. I spun my tires trying to find any warm pavement I could, but this was on the inside of a tree-lined corner. Still, I knew I could get through the thin layer of ice to at least cold pavement below. So I sawed back and forth a bit, working the car until I found the tiniest bit of grip. I then was able to limp further up the road to a turnout, where I sat for a moment. It actually took the trucks another 30 minutes to get grip themselves and continue past me. They were putting their chains on.
At some point as I was trying to find grip, the steering all of a sudden got very heavy. The act of sawing the nose to find some warmer road put a hurt on my power steering. In fact, I lost it. I’m not sure if I blew the pump itself, a hose, a seal, or what.
As I sat in the turnout, it was icy enough that I couldn’t simply put the Jag in park. I had to leave a foot on the brake, otherwise, the car would slide backward. Once that bit of traffic passed, I fired the car back up and turned around to head around the bend back to Newcomb’s where I wanted to be. And as I got there, the car drifted into the oncoming lane full into the other side of the road towards the built-up snowdrifts. I came to a stop again. About 30 yards down the road, was a young man in a Honda Accord putting his chains on, stopped in the oncoming lane.
My car was going nowhere until the road warmed up. So, I got my dog out of the car and walked across the street to the Newcomb’s lot. Eventually, people started to arrive, including friend of Hooniverse Jonny Lieberman (smartly driving a Subaru). More cars arrived, and this actually led to more sliding. So I let the Jag sit on the wrong side of the road on the inside of a shaded corner. The absolute worst spot for it to be. Thankfully, traffic up here is light especially on a day like that. The car sat there for an hour before I noticed more vehicles had made the drive up. Then a plow went by and it was dropping sand off the back. The sun was higher too. So I hopped into the Jag, fired it up, and carefully made it over to the proper shoulder. Even then, the rear still wanted to slide a little as this corner has decent camber to it. But the car was safer and I hung out at Newcomb’s for a bit more. Some great people showed up in some awesome machines.
Eventually, though, I knew the road was now fine for driving. I said goodbye, loaded the dog in the car, and set off back home. I drove the 85 or so miles home with much heavier steering and the notion that I’m an actual idiot. Oh, and on the climb up the hill in the morning, I forgot to mention an extra tidbit. My poor dog puked in the backseat. So I got to clean that up later too.
I have no photos because I left my phone in the car, and I didn’t feel like walking back across the snow-covered lot to get it. Here’s a good video showing what it was like though, and you can even see my dog in part of it:
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