Tall People Do Not Fear Snow
- Izaak David Diggs
- Mar 17, 2021
- 3 min read
This is day three of leg eighteen, exactly ten months after I left Portland with a casual rain falling. Starting this leg, I left my mother's house and took the farm roads south. California Highway 33 fascinates me; most likely the main north-south route through the Valley (on the west side) before they put I-5 in. There are hints of the past, some would call them ghosts; a crumbling hotel, a disused gas station. I drive, marvel at things passing at fifty miles per hour, piss on farm roads that are more a collection of potholes masquerading as a highway.
I got to Sweetwater Laguna Mountain campground around three. It was a great spot, roughly 35 miles west of Coalinga up this barely civil yet paved road twisting into the hills. There was a minivan parked nearby. just the two of us at a campground meant for up to a dozen parties.
I drank a Guiness and made hot dogs before being lulled into a nap. There was a stabbing sort of wind. I am guessing the campground was a little over two thousand feet in elevation. When I woke up, it was nearly twilight and already it had dropped to 38 degrees. Flakes of snow were coming down; it was too warm for them to stick but I still watched them with concern: What if the snow fell harder in the night? It would surely be cold enough to stick. My anxiety building, I toyed with the idea of leaving, but was determined to stay and talked myself down: I had two weeks of food and water if I stretched it, I had plenty of gas to run the van's heater, I had the means to make fire if I ran out of propane. Besides, a lot of the property I had been looking at got a lot of snow in the winter---I had to just tough it out, work past my fears and understand they were baseless.
The night was cold, I had just enough blankets to remain cozy. The Jackery did an auto shut off in the night because the fridge wasn't drawing more than a trickle; as it was, the fridge claimed it was 29 degrees when I woke up. It was still cold but warming quickly, a beautiful morning. Despite there not being any signal I contemplated staying but dreaded another frigid night.
I followed the Coalinga Road to State 25 which I took south. The area reminded me of West Marin, specifically the Chileno Valley. I went back over the mountains on 198 and back to Coalinga where signs reminded me that "Jesus is lord of Coalinga." State 33 south was initially benign farmland but was eventually surround by derricks lazily nodding in the bright spring light and oil or gas pipelines stabbing in the earth. I looked at them, noted their ugliness, reminded myself of the 36000 miles I had driven in less than a year and all the plastic I accepted into my life.
Driving east on State 119 I saw snow dusting the mountains I would be passing through. Initially, my plan had been to stay in the visitor area of Jawbone, a BLM area twenty miles north of Mojave; my reasoning would be that it would probably be safe there as opposed to the wilds out west where I had been harassed four months earlier. The more I drove, the more I was uncomfortable with the idea and elected to press on to Amboy Crater. There was snow in the distance, but very little close to the highway. It was more than I had seen during the winter, though.
After 395 miles I arrived at Amboy, it was another beautiful twilight. I had a Guiness and made hot dogs, too close to darkness to plan out anything different to make. The night was mild. As it was twenty degrees warmer than the previous night, the fridge kept kicking on. I was worried the Jackery would shut off as it had and each time I woke up and would crawl between the front seats to make sure everything was okay.
As much as I appreciate this place I have never spent two nights at Amboy, something I am going to remedy today. Where after that? It depends on the weather. Despite it being mid-March, technically Spring, there is still snow coming down at higher elevations. The weather grows angrier year to year, there are no guarantees, being closer to it by living in a van you are even more aware of this.
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