2/5-6/08 I went up to the property for 2 days: Tuesday and Wednesday.

The weather was pretty bad on the way up. It was snowing and there was a lot of snow on the ground and the road. I stopped at the Skykomish Ranger Station for a rest room break and I got stuck trying to get back out onto the highway. There was a little rise that hadn't been plowed going up to the highway. The snowbank was so high that you couldn't see the traffic on the highway until the front wheels were almost up to the lane of traffic. When I got up there, I had to stop for oncoming traffic. Then I couldn't get started moving again. I backed up and engaged the 4WD and tried again. This time I was able to pull out onto the road and get going. That was the first time the 4WD had done anything positive for me. I left it engaged all the way over the pass and up to the property. It seemed to work pretty well, although it's hard to compare with how 2WD would have worked.

I arrived at the property at 12:50 and got stuck crosswise in the road again trying to turn the pickup around. This time 4WD didn't help at all. I had to put the chains on again like I did before. There was about a foot of new snow and the driveway hadn't been plowed since last week. Bert and Ernie showed up during the process and had their usual dog biscuits.

I got parked at about 1:30 and made all the trails using snowshoes. I started the heater in the trailer right away and then went up and made a fire in the wood stove. Then I moved my gear into the trailer and had lunch. It was snowing the whole time so my clothes were wetter than usual. I arranged them around the heater to dry while I put on my work clothes and went up to the cabin to get some work done. I got all the surfaces due for another coat of varnish sanded and I vacuumed the walls and floor to be ready for varnishing. I had to leave the next day in order to be home in time to attend a meeting of the Kenmore Heritage Society at which Priscilla was to receive some very special recognition.

On Wednesday morning there was only about six inches of new snow so I didn't need the snowshoes to break the trails. I didn't start a fire in the cabin stove because I was going to leave right after I varnished. I varnished all the prepared surfaces, washed out my brush, locked up, and left for home at 9:30 AM.

The White River Road hadn't been plowed yet so there was about 6 inches of snow on top of glare ice. I was glad I already had the chains on. The road was plowed starting at the Parkside Grocery, so I pulled over and took the chains off there. I put it in 4WD and had no problem getting to Highway 2 and up the road to where I had been stopped last week.

There I saw that the sign was flashing "Chains Required". I had never seen that before. At all other times it alternated between "Chains Required" and "for trucks over 10,000 lb." or "except 4WD". The road at that point was plowed almost bare in places so I was surprised that I had to put the chains back on. I pulled over, put the chains back on, getting pretty wet in the process, and then I pulled out and then back in to the chain-up lane further up so I could tighten the chains. I tightened them up, and then saw a state trooper slowly driving toward me talking to people in the chain-up lane.

When he got to me, I asked him why 4WD wouldn't be acceptable instead of chains. He told me that the sign was broken and that it was being fixed right now. 4WD was OK, so I got back out and took the chains off again. I put the pickup in 4WD, got back on the road and drove home with no further problems. It was a good thing I left when I did. A huge storm moved in that evening and if I had stayed much longer, I probably would have been stuck up there past the weekend.