Escape From Summit County 05Mar19

What a long strange trip it's been (Jerry Garcia & David Coffin). I set out for COS from the Nest this AM at ~9am with Maps showing 2min15sec via I70... not bad. I screeched to a dead stop several miles from the tunnel at 9:20am.

At the same time basically CDOT posted on Twitter that I70 eastbound was closed. CDOT's avalanche mitigation on the Loveland side caused an avalanche which covered the road both directions - it was gonna take ~4hrs to clear. I was dead stop for about an hour and there was no one coming at us westbound either.

Ultimately we started to roll a smidge and a trickle of traffic began to show coming down to Summit. An hour later all 3 of our lanes were combined into a single lane and turned around back down to Summit from the tunnel. Sheesh. Two hours in and all I had needed was 5 minutes more at the Nest to understand to go the back way - timing is everything.

Resigned to the long day I stopped to grab gas and a sandwich in Silverthorne before moving through Breck. Back on the road quickly to take the back route I was stopped dead again with I70 fully blocked westbound headed into the 10 Mile Canyon area. WTF! All lanes were again crushed into one and made to exit to Frisco.

I headed, slowly with others, through Frisco and Breckenridge. At ~3 hours I was finally through Breck and headed to Hoosier Pass at a respectable clip through Blue River. Whoa - stop there buddy - the climb and descent were not decent.

At Fairplay things really queued badly with another ~1/2 hr delay as my direction was THE direction out of Summit Co. Several miles of stop and go to Fairplay - I looked too late at a snowpacked country road #214 around the mess and around Fairplay & the show mine. How often does one need to know the workaround at Fairplay for gosh sake.

Once I got through South Park and onto #9 & #24 to & through Hartsel very few were on the road my way and there were no other delays. This all reminds me of the fine IPA I enjoyed with Kala and Cody & the Hanson family last night... Southbound Or Die (SOBO or Die DDH) - ORB reigns.

This was the longest trip ever for me between Summit and COS but I note that I70 is still a mess and closed as I sit in my office and update the blog.