Well, Yakima, like everywhere else around here got winter-blasted last night and today. 8″ of snow, or something like that, with more potentially on the way. That might be a normal Michigan December day, but not ’round these parts. The plows are none too efficient and they hit the slippery stuff with gravel instead of salt. My drive home from work was treacherous enough for my blood, so no road trip yet. I hate winter.

It looks like I’ll be holding tight for a bit. I had been thinking of scooting east on Wednesday, but I’ll have to see how the icy apocalypse plays out. Here’s the headline today on weather.com:

Winter storm will pummel the Northwest

Heavy rain and snow plus fierce winds will make traveling across the Pacific Northwest quite miserable through Tuesday.

The Northwest is about to be struck by a fierce storm rolling in from the Pacific. heavy rain will fall along the coast and in the valley areas while the mountains become blitzed with heavy snow. Over the next few days 1 to 5 inches of rain are possible with the heaviest amounts falling in northwest Washington and the northern California coast.

Snowfall of 1 to 3 feet should pile up in the mountains of western Washington, western Oregon and northern California. An avalanche watch has been issued for the mountains of western Washington overnight with warming temperatures loosening the existing snow pack and new snow falling on top of it.

I’m surrounded by a ring of angry purple. (Or maybe something different if you’re looking at this picture a couple days later and it’s updated.)

I was a walking cliche as I packed up my office on Thursday, walking out with my one box of stuff and my one potted plant. I’m not the only one though. The whole office is moving from one building to another next week. So chaos and emptying cubicles all around. I’ll be working in the new office for a couple days at a temporary workstation before hitting the snowy road later in the week.

The forecast for my departure day looks pretty rough at the moment, snow, sleet, and freezing rain for WA and parts of the bordering states. East of that though, it actually looks decent. I just need to escape this pocket of bad weather and it looks like I could hammer from there. Unfortunately that pocket is about 8 hours of driving on a normal day.

I can either head northeast or southeast from here, so it seems like one of the two routes would be driveable. Or wait a day or two I guess.

We humans have made some remarkable advancements to fight off old frosty, but I tell you this, there are some temperatures that we just shouldn’t have any part of. Man it’s cold out. When I got in my car for work this morning the temp was -2 degrees F. The windchill was -13. Getting near the Yakima records. My freshly showered hair froze stiff almost immediately until the heater finally started to kick in ten minutes down the road. The high today is supposed to be in the teens. At the very least, the one advantage Yakima has when it’s this cold is that it’s usually accompanied by sunshine. The better to see you with my dear.

I’m planning on driving back to Michigan late next week some time and have been keeping an eye on weather patterns and road conditions of my possible routes (90/94, 90, or 80). I’m almost guaranteed to hit weather no matter which route I go. I mean 196 just south of GR could be as bad as anywhere. It would be nice to at least minimize my chances of being stranded in a blizzard or freezing rain in the mountains though.

I’m leaning toward going the high route, I-90 to I-94, WA-ID-MT-ND-MN-WI, which may seem counter-intuitive, but I think actually provides more predictability than either of the other two routes that send me through Wyoming. I just get a bad vibe from that state. The I-80 route (lowest route of the three, WA-OR-UT-WY-NE-IA) especially, has hundreds of miles exposed to those gusting Wyoming winds. Too many issues with blowing snow and black ice, though really any of the plains states could bring that fun as well. I also could take I-90 all the way across (middle route, WA-ID-MT-WY-SD-MN-WI) which could be a fine option if the weather there looks better.

Really any of these states could have some spectacular winter event this time of year, so my plan is to check the forecast the night before and shoot for the least bad one. I’m anticipating that this trip will take a little longer than my standard two days. Shouldn’t be any worse than driving to Alaska though.

Continued from the last post.

Day 4: Whitehorse to Anchorage. Another early morning, fueling up near Whitehorse. Fas Gas, it rhymes. Also note the gas can strapped to the roof of the car, finally in use after a close call with an empty tank the day before.

Hey, traffic! Weird. Noteworthy as the only car we’d see for the next twenty minutes or so. Mountains ahead. In my head before we left WA this is how I pictured the Alaskan Highway looking. Near Kluane National Park Reserve.

The sun came out. We could actually see pavement. Maybe today will be alright.

The picture below-left was taken about thirty minutes after the one above-right. Gets gray and snowy pretty quickly.

The last gas station in the Yukon. Another Fas Gas, luxuriously outfitted compared to most of the other stations we stopped at. Almost to the Alaskan border. This was where I took over driving for the rest of the day.

And 11 hours later, Anchorage! Survived another blizzard and a 180 across the highway, but how to break into the back of the frozen trailer is another story. I was very happy to check into our well-appointed hotel suite. Day 5: And a picture the following morning of some of the peaks around Anchorage.