Today’s goal was Carson City, the capital of Nevada, about an 8 hour drive from Eugene. All in all, the day started nominally. I was making good progress, watching the landscape change from the kind of west coast rainforest I’m used to, to more rolling hills with farms, and eventually to snow capped hills that I climbed up into.
Here’s where the issues began. As I got into California, the rain picked back up in spots, coming and going from completely dry to torrential downpour. As you may be able to guess, heavy rain mixed with higher elevation equals, you got it, snow! As I got closer to Weed, California (hehe) the snow really started to pick up and it quickly turned into whiteout conditions.
I was also noticing the car was struggling a lot on the uphills, and not changing gears when it probably should. I’ve been meaning to top up the transmission fluid for a few days, so this was kind of the wake up I needed to actually do it. I pulled off the highway into Weed, where I parked in a motel parking lot to assess my options.
I decided it was not pertinent to inform my mother of the current conditions, as if she doesn’t have the opportunity to tell me not to do something, I can’t be going against her advice, right? Despite the snow, none of it was actually sticking to the road, and the highway was remarkably dry, so I decided to push through and get down the other side of the mountain.
I made it with ease to Shingletown for a gas stop, after making a stop to top up my transmission fluid (which was acting much nicer afterward). Being my first gas stop in California, I immediately felt the gas prices hit my wallet at $4 USD/gal, getting 2.5gal less for the same price as when I last filled up in Oregon.
Continuing up the road towards Nevada led me through some beautiful snowy forests. Bare roads but snowy surroundings are one of the best combinations.
I eventually made it to my camping spot of Hallelujah Junction, which had some BLM land with roads I could camp on. I picked a spot about 20m from the highway and settled in for the night. I had better cell service here than last time I camped in Oregon, so I was able to get some stuff done on my laptop before calling it a night.
