Historic "drive through" Sequoia knocked down in storm

[Max Rockatansky]

MOD NOTE: By request, posts in this thread about the Oroville Dam situation have been merged into a separate thread and moved to "Off Topic". –Roadfro

Dam...

I was really hoping CA 1 would be open through Big Sur today...but it would seem the closures are going to be ongoing until March.  Hopefully it doesn't rain too much next week I'm heading to the Bay Area.  The one lane segment of 35 is currently shut down between 17 and 9... 

[coatimundi]

I was really hoping CA 1 would be open through Big Sur today...but it would seem the closures are going to be ongoing until March.  Hopefully it doesn't rain too much next week I'm heading to the Bay Area.  The one lane segment of 35 is currently shut down between 17 and 9... 

They're predicting ~1" just tomorrow in Big Sur, with more on the way. That won't help anything as the ground is already saturated here. We got very little sunshine in between storms.
March is pretty optimistic for Highway 1. I'm guessing May.
35 is shut down. 9 is shut down. 152 is shut down. 17 is one lane in both directions. 41 is one lane in both directions. Not a good time to come to the coast (or the mountains, for that matter). Time for a party weekend in Modesto.

[Max Rockatansky]

I was really hoping CA 1 would be open through Big Sur today...but it would seem the closures are going to be ongoing until March.  Hopefully it doesn't rain too much next week I'm heading to the Bay Area.  The one lane segment of 35 is currently shut down between 17 and 9... 

They're predicting ~1" just tomorrow in Big Sur, with more on the way. That won't help anything as the ground is already saturated here. We got very little sunshine in between storms.
March is pretty optimistic for Highway 1. I'm guessing May.
35 is shut down. 9 is shut down. 152 is shut down. 17 is one lane in both directions. 41 is one lane in both directions. Not a good time to come to the coast (or the mountains, for that matter). Time for a party weekend in Modesto.

Looks like there will be a window in the weather next Thursday/Friday on the preliminary forecast.  Ideally I would like to try to clinch 35 if possibly but we'll see what happens.  Really I have some work stuff to do in downtown San Francisco and I'll probably hit up some stuff north of the Golden Gate that I've been meaning to get to.  Getting to Point Reyes will probably entail a creative solution given 1 north of the bridge is shut down for the next couple months, hopefully the Panoramic Highway holds up next week.  Really I screwed up last year and didn't take the Challenger out to Big Sur, but then again I wasn't really chomping at the bit for another Nacimiento-Furgusson Road jaunt at the time.   We'll see what happens, so far I've been able to do almost everything in between storms and land slides so far this year. 

[kkt]

I envy all the great drives you get to take... I'm stuck in this job that involves being in place in the city, not driving around even the scenic rural drives we have here, let alone Calif.

[Max Rockatansky]

I envy all the great drives you get to take... I'm stuck in this job that involves being in place in the city, not driving around even the scenic rural drives we have here, let alone Calif.

There was actually a time where I drove about 80,000 miles a year and about 70,000 of it was for work.  At the time I had a work area that included; all of Arizona, all of New Mexico, Clark County in Nevada, Southern California, and western Texas.   Really the job wasn't much of anything but it included mileage and really let me go really in depth with most of the southwest, I want to say I was in a hotel 120-150 nights a year?  After that I was largely in the southeast which had some okay stuff, but was really nothing by comparison to the West Coast.  Nowadays I'm really not on the road all that much for work by comparison but I have a lot more free time and daily driver that is cheap to maintain.  Having work involved in getting me places was definitely the motivating factoring to getting me on the road so much, but it definitely isn't anymore. 

That being the case my ideal route IF everything is open would be to take 9, 236, 17, and 35 to get across the Santa Cruz Range to San Francisco.  After I go do what I have to, I would like to see Lombard Street before getting north over the Golden Gate.   I have some family photos from 1993 at the Muir Woods and Point Reyes I would like to replicate since it is coming up on almost 25 years.  I'm hoping to be able to stay somewhere near Sacramento that night and maybe go check out Lake Berryessa (National Monument 52 for me), CA 220 for the ferry, and maybe even the village Locke.

Anyways....that's the plan, we'll see how butchered up it gets by the storms.

[coatimundi]

From 101, it's quicker and easier to use the route through Fairfax to reach Point Reyes anyway. SR 1 is too curvy. And I believe that's an old state highway proposal.
Nacimiento-Fergusson opened briefly between the fire and the storms, but is now closed again. I don't think it'll be open until at least Highway 1 is totally open, and I doubt it will be even then.

The Delta ferries have been closed. I wouldn't count on them being open either.

[Max Rockatansky]

From 101, it's quicker and easier to use the route through Fairfax to reach Point Reyes anyway. SR 1 is too curvy. And I believe that's an old state highway proposal.
Nacimiento-Fergusson opened briefly between the fire and the storms, but is now closed again. I don't think it'll be open until at least Highway 1 is totally open, and I doubt it will be even then.

The Delta ferries have been closed. I wouldn't count on them being open either.

I doubt it will be open also on 220. but since I'm heading northeast via 160 to hit Locke it probably won't matter too much.  All I really want is a picture of the ferry ramp and the BGS sign if it isn't open.  Kind of what I had in mind for Point Reyes was to take CA 1 to Muir Woods Road, north to the Panoramic Highway, and west back over to 1 past the closure.  From there I was thinking about maybe cutting over to Petamula or really anything that might have some curves to it.  Speed isn't really much of what I'm looking in regards to the area north of the Bay, I'll have basically a full day to myself that Saturday.

I was actually mainly looking at the first couple miles east from CA 1 in regards to Nacimiento-Furgusson.  There is a really nice bend about 2 miles up that has the best over look of the ocean and the road as it descends out of the Santa Lucias.  Really I'll be able to get that at least knocked out even if it is closed to cars via foot or cars if need be.  But then again like you said that really is so far down the line now it really isn't even worth worrying about the closure. 

[coatimundi]

According to the USFS and Monterey County, the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge, on Highway 1 near Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, will remain closed to all traffic - pedestrian and vehicle - until at least 2-21, when it will be reassessed.
http://www.ksbw.com/article/pfeiffer-canyon-bridge-closed-indefinitely/8940534

The news showed the damaged column in question, and it looks like it could crumble at any time. This is an active landslide, so the rains this weekend may totally destroy the bridge.
The businesses in Posts, mostly resorts and tourist-oriented restaurants, are shutting down.

Caltrans posted a pic of the column as well: https://twitter.com/CaltransHQ/status/830930226255319040

[kkt]

All part of the fun of locating in an unstable rural location.

[Max Rockatansky]

^^^

Hey now it is just another thing to go for "disaster tourism."  Anyways, I guess I'll have to focus on just Nacimeinto-Furgusson in a month or two...and I was really looking forward to dodging Fort Hunter Liggett.