Extreme Commuting / Storm Of The Year

I'll give you a little personal run down on the "Storm Of The Year". I worked Friday, despite the urging of all local news suggestions to stay home if possible.

For those of you who don't know, I have a fair commute to work. To make matters worse, part of my commute is over the Santa Cruz Mountains via HWY 17. The summit of the drive usually get snow at least once a year.

My drive to work over Friday morning was uneventful. The real adventure was the commute home. HWY 17 was closed around Noon because of downed powerlines at the summit. A few hours later, conditions were further worsened by a mudslide. The quickest alternate, HWY 9, was also closed due to fallen trees at multiple locations.

The only road over the Santa Cruz Mountains that was still open was HWY 152. So I started my journey. If you see the map below you will notice that this route is WAY out of my way. Please note that this is my best guess at my route. As you read on, you will see why.

What makes things worse, is that once I summited the Santa Cruz Mountains via HWY 152, i got there just in time for them to shut it down. They directed us through Mt. Madonna State Park. This is where it gets fuzzy.

I followed a van that appeared to know where he was going, but upon reaching a fork in the road, I pulled up next to him and to find out he had no idea where he was going. I had no idea where I was, but I told him to follow me anyway. How hard could it be, just head downhill right? What resulted was a hair raising drive down a one lane back road, littered with fallen trees, steep inclines, flooded road, and blinding clouds.

Eventually I made it. What should have been a 35 Mile, 45 Minute commute turned into 90 Mile, 2.5 Hour stormy ride.

Here are some pictures Steamer Lane. The ocean was pretty angry during this storm.