Saturday, May 18, 2013

Nope, That is NOT our Tana

Copyright 2013, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

The main reason we stopped here in Garbeville California is so that we could drive over to the Lost Coast and Shelter Cove.  Friend Ron and Rose said we just HAD to do this day trip.  They were sooooo right.  I'll show you lots more about this in the future.

So, this is about a 25 to 30 mile trip from our campground.  The road is narrow, sometimes single lane, curvy (REALLY curvy), hilly, (REALLY hilly), more narrow, more curvy and more hilly, the grades are some of the most severe we have encountered yet.  This is how it is represented in one of the books we use to figure out what we can and cannot do when towing Tana.


Yes, that says 12 to 15% grades!  Oh, and note that little tidbit about scouting the road in a small vehicle.  OOOOO!!

It was a slow drive, took well over an hour for us to drive it.  We don't drive fast, just what we hope is safe.

Here is a photo I took, which I do so I can remember the numbers surrounding the trip, speed, time, altitude, those sorts of things.  This is where those 12 to 15 % grades were, lots of squiggles in the road and we were dropping about 100 feet in elevation in one minute, give or take, at less than 20 MPH!  

For the record, there is little shoulder for most of this road, in fact, there are areas where there is NO shoulder and the side of the pavement has fallen away from the road bed.  There are NO guardrails.  The drop offs are somewhere between 200 and 1000 feet, straight down, and I mean, straight, there is no hill here, just a vertical drop further than you can see.  Of course, it is possible, I guess, that the huge trees might stop you from the free fall, but, it is gonna hurt and hurt big time if you go over the edge.


Not even one minute later I snapped this photo.  This Montana is at least as large as our Tana, maybe a bit larger.  We just cannot believe he tried this, obviously, he made it in, as he was leaving Shelter Cove.  We did not see him again, so, he either made it out safely, or he is at the bottom of some long mountain drop off somewhere.   Since we saw no evidence of a vehicle off the road or any accidents, we figure he is safe in a new campground, somewhere.  We are not sure how he made the more than 180 degree hair pin turns.  This unit is between 53 and 55 foot long when hooked up and running.  Man said this was the most curvy, steep road we have driven yet, and that he would NEVER try this with our Tana, which, is 53 foot running.


We did find a campground (commercial) in Shelter Cove, this photo is a bit deceiving  as it does not show any hard sided trailers or motor homes or 5th wheels. There were some in the campground tho.  That said, NONE of them were "big" rigs like this Montana.  


It is impossible to explain or show you in photos just how severe the driving conditions were going over to Shelter Cove.  The only other large and long vehicle we saw driving in this area was a concrete truck, and I'll tell you, he looked HUGE, and scary.  Man chatted about this Montana all day long, shaking his head in disbelief.  Will say this, that Montana owner waved and was smiling as he passed us, guess he was not worried.  

Shaking my head too, WOW.



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