636 - Douglas Falls
Today I got my Prius stuck in the snow.
It was one of those moments where you take a turn down a road and just know you’re playing with fire.
It’d been snowing for the past 12 hours straight, and now here I was, cruising down a windy road covered in nothing but ice. My tires were shit, there were deep banks on either side, and it was below freezing out. What could go wrong?
Nothing, I told myself. I’m a certified pro. This Prius has done far more offroading than most pickups these days, and I could handle damn near anything.
And with that mindset, it went swimmingly well. At first.
We made it about two miles down the road to the overlook, snagged a few pics, then decided to head back. It was mid-day lighting, so the view wasn’t at its best.
Our second option for the shoot was Douglas Falls, which, by the looks of the pictures, could be shady enough to shoot in the afternoon. Key word could. That’s what these adventures are all about, folks.
So next thing you know, we were heading down our previously conquered icy road, and the world was our oyster. But another car had the same idea. And at the exact moment we topped a hill and started heading down the next one, a Jeep was doing the same thing in the opposite direction.
This meant that in terms of momentum, we were both heading to the bottom of the hill at exactly the same rate, each taking up more than our fair share of the road. One of us had to make a move, or we’d kiss.
Once I realized what was happening, I angled the car slightly to the right. It was my only choice. If I slammed on the brakes on this ice, there was a 100% chance I’d slide out and lose control.
This led me to narrowly miss the head-on collision, but it also led me ever so slightly into the snow bank on the right side of the road. Since my Prius was entirely front-wheel drive, it immediately became apparent I wasn’t going to make it.
I made it about 40 feet with my right front wheel stuck in the slippery bank before I came to a steady halt.
FUCK. So close, yet so far.
Two more Jeeps trailed behind him, zooming by the scene of the crime. But the last Jeep slammed on his brakes and dipped a Uey.
He rolled down his window as he pulled up: “My buddy is gonna swing back and pull you out.”
Jeeps love a good excuse to use their gear. And this was as good of an excuse as any.
His buddy came back around the corner and pulled out his winch- something most Prius owners have damn near never heard of. In lay-mans terms, it’s basically a rope machine that’s attached to the bumper of a Jeep, and it pulls whatever it’s attached to.
The general idea is that you can attach the rope to a tree or another car if you're stuck, and the machine will pull you out. In my case, they simply hooked it to my bumper.
Moments later my Prius was free from the burdens of society. Then, after a thank-yous and a newfound appreciation for Jeep culture, we were on our way to the waterfall.
Nothing was gonna stop us now.
And it didn’t. I got a killer photo of Douglas Falls, complete with a foamy foreground:
What’s next, West Virginia winter? Bring it on.
