Snow in the Mountains Means a Bad Day for Truckers

Well, Northern California is getting snow in the mountains this weekend. I've talked to my trucker friend a few times this weekend and he's not a "happy camper". If you take a look at the image to the left (A screenshot of the CalTrans Traveler Information page), you'll see that they are saying that I80 Westbound is closed to trucks. Well, that doesn't mean my friend can sit back and wait it out. For the simple reason that he's hauling the U.S. Mail, which means he doesn't stop, even if they block all the other trucks. He has to put chains on and run it anyway, he has to deal with the folks in cars, SUV's and pickups doing stupid things on the highway in front of him. For instance, this morning he had a guy in a SUV pass him and then suddenly change lanes and slow down right in front of my friend's truck. It's a good thing my friend was going slow (due to having max chains on his truck) because he was able to slow fast enough to not hit the idiot in the SUV.

Anyway, it's been a few hours since I heard anything from my trucker friend, so I figured I'd check out the traffic cams up on the hill. It looks nasty up there. I started from the Nevada end and worked my way "down the hill" with the cams. Take a look at the screenshot to the left. That is at the Truckee Scales. Normally, you can see the hills in the distance. Not today! Too much snow falling. The wind is blowing pretty good up there too, when you watch this camera, it really sways with the movement of the pole that the camera is on.

The next camera in line isn't working this afternoon. It's at the Ag Station on the Westbound side of the highway. Thats where you have to stop and tell them where you're coming from and what kind of agricultural products you're carrying when you're coming into California.

After you pass the Ag Station, you get into the city of Truckee. So the next camera is at the junction of I80 and Highway 89 which is in Truckee. Lots of snow, huh? If you're watching the camera live, you can really see the snow blowing past the lens of the camera!

I am glad I'm not up there in that mess. I'm sitting here in the comfort of my living room, listening to the rain and wind outside. I feel sorry for the truckers that have to travel in that stuff up on the mountains during storms like the one we're having today! I'm also very thankful that when I drove trucks way back when, I drove for a company that had a "no chain" policy for the cross-country drivers. We carried the chains, but the company wanted us to find a spot to wait out the chain controls rather than put them on and run. My partner and I spent a lot of time in truckstops waiting for weather conditions to improve back then.

The next view is a bit further west at Kingvale. The traffic on the lower section of the road is going westbound. You can barely see the upper/Eastbound side through the snow flying. Although, if you look close right next to the "E" in Kingvale, you'll see the taillights of a car headed east. I was almost tempted to give my trucker friend a call to see where he was when I saw that white truck headed west. I decided not to distract him though, so I have no clue where he is on the hill.

Are you glad that you are sitting in the warmth of your home looking at these pictures on your computer instead of having to drive in that lovely white stuff? lol..

Ok, the next camera is the one at Whitmore Grade. This one puzzled me for a long time because I couldn't quite figure out where the camera was. In a previous post on this blog, I posted a map or two trying to show where it is. I wish Caltrans had a camera on the Eastbound side as well, but I'm guessing that this location is where a camera is needed since I've seen a number of spinouts and such when I'm watching it.

Anyway, you can see all the traffic trying to make it back down into the Sacramento Valley. And all the snow blowing around. No spinouts yet, but I'm sure there will be one or two before the day is over.

This is the last screenshot for today. It's at Crystal Springs and I added it in because of the fellow at the back of the truck over there on the left. I watched the poor guy putting the chains on the wheels of his truck. And watched a few idiots in cars that seemed to try to get as close to him as they could. Dummies...

One of the things that struck me as I watched the cameras today was that I saw very few plows or sand trucks running. My trucker friend's favorite rant about Caltrans is the lack of plows running down the road. He says that he sees more plows and sand trucks sitting alongside the road than he sees on the highway itself. What the heck are those guys doing? Napping?

Snow in the Mountains = Truckers Curse

California is finally getting some snow up in the mountains and my trucker friend isn't a "happy camper". Yesterday he had a long day dealing with the snow up there and it looks like today is going to be a repeat. I just got off the phone with him and he said that he's already had to put the chains on (and take them off) twice getting up the hill this morning! He's definitely dreading the trip back down the hill this afternoon!

Anyway, since his call, I've been playing with the live cams on the CalTrans website. (It's been a while since I watched them. Like last winter when I was his weather/road conditions info person.) The first screenshot looks pretty good. That's at the Whitmore Grade showing the westbound lanes. Road looks pretty good, doesn't it? Pavement is a little wet and there's just a bit of snow on the shoulders. Ahhh.. But wait until you get a little further up the hill! It gets whiter!




Here's the Caltrans camera at Kingvale. The snow is deeper at the sides of the roads and the lanes aren't as clear. This is one of the spots where my trucker friend had to put the chains on this morning. I guess it was pretty nasty between Kingvale and the Donner Lake interchange. I'm not quite sure where he had to put the chains on the truck the second time. With the mood he's in, I was afraid to ask! lol... (And, no.. Neither of the trucks in this screenshot is his! lol)




A bit further up the road, there is a camera on I80 at the highway 89 interchange which is in Truckee. Again, it doesn't look that bad in the camera shots, but apparently the pavement has ice on it. And again, I don't know if this is one of the areas he had to have the chains on. A short while back, he and I went up to Reno for a couple days and on our way up, he pointed out most of the cameras that I've viewed from the Caltrans site plus quite a few more that I've never seen listed on the site.



Caltrans has done some shifting around of available cameras this year. I don't remember seeing this one last year. I'm not quite sure of the position of it, whether we're looking at I80 or if we're looking at highway 267. It seems to be a pretty busy road, though. By looking at a map, it seems to be just down the road a bit from the highway 89 interchange camera. I guess I will have to take a drive up to Truckee one of these days and see if I can spot this one. lol




This camera is a "new" one and I'll have to keep an eye on this camera to see if the snow and ice on the lens clears up later so I can get a screenshot from it. I have no clue which direction it's pointing or what we're supposed to see. The description of the camera says that it's at the Ag Station on I80, which means it's at the inspection area where you have to stop and tell the folks where you're coming from and whether or not you're carrying agricultural products.




There were a couple of the cameras not working this morning. The one at the Truckee truck scale and the one at Floriston. I'll check them out later on today, maybe. Here's a list of the I80 cameras from the Caltrans site, go check them out!;

• 80 at Applegate
• 80 at Colfax
• 80 at Crystal Springs
• 80 at Dutch Flat
• 80 at Whitmore Grade
• 80 at Kingvale
• 80 at 89
• 267 at 80
• 80 at Truckee (Ag Station)
• 80 at Truckee Scales
• 80 at Floriston

Update 1:20pm
Just a quick update. I got another call from my trucker friend. Poor guy. He is stuck in Reno with an "out of commission truck". One of the brake lines on the truck went bad and he can't release the trailer brakes so he's stuck at the loading dock at the Post Office distribution center there in Reno until a mechanic gets out there to fix the problem. It looks like he'll be spending the night in the truck up there. What a way to start your "weekend" huh? His "weekend" normally starts on Sunday night, but he's going to have to stay up there and drive down tomorrow, so the first day of his weekend will be gone. I took a look at the CalTrans camera in Truckee again and it looks like even if he were able to drive, he'd still be stuck. Traffic is at a complete standstill in Truckee and it's been that way for a while now. Somebody must have pulled a really bad boo-boo on the highway west of Truckee.