More from my trip with Sig ... Sorry for the delay in the story (did you even know I was telling you a story??) :D Computer troubles ... I've been reduced to borrowing laptops in order to get on line and comment, and just got my own computer back. Yay! Anyway ... When last we saw our intrepid heroes (that would be Sig and me) they had turned around in Winthrop and headed back up into the mountains ... We got about halfway up to Washington Pass and had to stop. While we were down in the valley taking pictures of fences, there had been an avalanche that covered the road! They said it would be eight hours (or possibly overnight) until the snow was cleared. Going around the other way meant a seven hour drive, but waiting to see how fast they could clear the road just wasn't an option. Sig had a boat to catch the next day, and neither of us wanted to just hang out by the side of the road. Besides ... there were other avalanche chutes that could have gone any time, so we decided to take the long way home, and got back to my place at 11:00 at night. Sig still had more driving to do to get to his accommodations - it must have been 11:30 by the time he got in! I found out later that one of the guys at work had a buddy who had gone up Highway 20 Saturday afternoon, and he got there just as they were clearing the last of the snow away. He waited five minutes and got through ... that was at about 7:30. If we'd waited, it would have been four hours of sitting there, plus the drive back to my house, and it still would have been 10:30 or 11:00 by the time I got home. For those of you who are still awake, let me tell you what you're looking at ... The top image is the view looking back down the valley. Can you see the triangles of snow along the road? Those are places where they cleared out previous avalanches. In the center section, the top left-hand image is looking back down the road. There's a fairly sharp turn there. You can see how much snow there still was. Oh ... for those of you who keep saying "where's Sig?" ... he's the guy walking up the road. That's his white car behind him. Center bottom left-hand image shows the DOT (Department of Transportation) guy talking to some people who were heading back down the mountain. Center right-hand image shows one of the avalanche chutes in the area. What happens is that the snow melts, the water runs underneath it along the rock, and eventually the whole thing just slides off the mountain. It happens really fast! I was standing next to somebody's car (not Sig's) taking this picture, and the DOT guy came over to me and said, "That's not a good place to park - that's an avalanche chute there, and it could come down at any time." I said, "Yeah I know, but it's not my car." :D He settled for telling me I shouldn't be standing there, either. (Well, heck ... how else could I get the photograph to show you? Of course I had to stand there!) The bottom image is as close as they would let me get to the actual avalanche that was blocking the road. Right after I took this photograph, the cop waved me off. It was a long day, but we had a good time. .......... Full view will give you a better look!