Ode to Backroading it

I don't have any new pictures that are free from photos of my students... so here is an older photo. (It isn't that I am against putting up pictures of my students, but I feel that I should check with both the student and my employer... and that requires more effort and organization than I'm willing to put in my blog.)

This is a shot of a new disasterous backroading experience I had last April. You see - my usual route was shut down and the detour was a long way in the wrong direction - so I consulted with my map and tried to take a short cut - with the predictable result that some of the roads that looked like proper small dirt roads, were perhaps more intermittant that the map led me to believe. My route slowly narrowed and became more snow covered and rutted until finally I was funnelled down a steep, icy and rutted hill too narrow to possibly turn around on... so... my options were to slowly pick my way down the road and hope that things didn't get any worse or that the road randomly dead ended without enough space to turn around so at least I'd have the chance to drive back up the steep, and somewhat blind hill, going forward rather than in reverse. This shot is taken about halfway down the hill were a small parking/turnaround area allowed me to park the car and then scout the next bit of road before driving it. It turns out that the road got significantly better as I went further down the hill and did not dead end... so the rest of the adventure involved a lot less of me having my heart in my throat and I think I treated my car to a proper wash when I got home.