The annoying liberal in me was always somewhat indignant about people buying massive SUV's and trucks who had no real use for them. After this weekend, I have resolved that I will never attempt to travel through northern New England in a vehicle that isn't in the crosshairs of Greenpeace.
Friday night I was headed up to Sugarbush with a bunch of friends in two cars. After seven hours of driving and a McDonalds super sized extra value meal (isn't it funny how when you're on a road trip, fast food is suddenly totally fine?) my rented "full-size" Nissan Altima was about two miles from the condo. There was a major blizzard slowing us down for the final 30 miles, and just when it looked like we were there, enter the infamous West Hill Road.
For those who have never driven in snow and ice, there is an art that one is educated in if you grow up outside of Boston. A good deal of the time you have no control over the car and you just work to control how the car skids. However, as we took one of the final lefts onto West Hill Road (which is in fact a massive hill) and Google Maps told us we had about two miles to go, an ominous yellow sign appeared: "Snow tires and 4-wheel drive required. Steep and winding road ahead".
"This shit is easy, I grew up in Massachusetts" was what went through my mind so I plowed up the hill, probably endangering the lives of the three of us in the car. Probably 100 yards up the hill it was apparent, we had absolutely no shot. As the smokey scent of burning rubber and sound of spinning tires surrounded us, we decided to back down the hill and rethink our strategy. Of course at this point, even with all three of us having omnipotent iPhones, no one had service.
After a bit of consultation, the decision was made: We were going to hike it. There was amazingly a large driveway at the bottom of the hill we could leave the car in, and two miles didn't seem to be the end of the world. As we changed into ski/weather resistant clothing, I asked for the printout of the directions to see exactly what we needed to hike. Already this seemed to be somewhat of a ridiculous adventure. Looking at the directions only confirmed this, as, I shit you not:
29. Turn left to stay on W Hill Rd - 1.3 mi
30. Turn right at Inferno Rd - 1.0 mi
31. Turn left to stay on Village Rd - 144 ft
33. Turn right at Middleearth Dr - 312 ft
34. Sharp left at Hobbit Hill - Destination will be on the right 174 ft
That's right, we were entering into a two mile hike in a torrential blizzard and Google was telling us that we were to travel Inferno Road to Middleearth Drive to Hobbit Hill. After being somewhat suspect that we had been dropped into a reality role playing game, we began the trek. Amazingly, small town America came through big for us. Within five minutes, a very sturdy-looking SUV headed the opposite direction stopped and someone picked us up and drove us to the condo (if anyone is in Sugarbush and eating at Timbers, please look for Chris and continue to thank him for us).
We finally made it and ended our Fellowship. Unfortunately, the other car in our group wasn't so lucky trying to get back to NYC last night and got stuck on Highway 89, ending up at a motel. I'm in Vermont the rest of the week and hopefully the Altima doesn't end in death, but lesson learned: If you're not willing to shell out the extra cash for the SUV rental, just don't go snowboarding.
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