RE: Some of my favorite hills

[AustinBoston]

 
PJay doesn t like to let other people drive.  She does close to 90% of the driving around town, and more than 80% of the driving on long trips.  But there is one time when she gladly gives up the wheel.
 
 At the top of the hill, when the road ahead gets more than a passing mention in the hills books, when we make a point of stopping in the brake check area, then it s my turn.
 
 Going west from Cloudcroft, New Mexico, was one of the steepest hills we had ever seen.  We were expecting a difficult hill.  But unlike most mountain passes, this descent was not filled with switchbacks or random curves.  It was nothing compared to what we expected.  We did the whole thing at 45-55 mph.
 
 On the other extreme (and more common with steep hills) was Highway 120 coming down from Yosemite NP.  I started by downshifting.  Normally, I would start by letting the transmission cool, but we hadn t climbed the hill first, so that was not necessary.  There were short stretches of curved road between the switchbacks.  Many of the switchbacks were posted at 20 MPH or less.  If I let the van coast, we would be going 45 when we got to the switchback - that would have been bad news.  I knew to brake to the posted speed before starting the switchback, and to keep the speed down until we came out of the switchback.  There were places to pull off if traffic built up behind us.  I find I often need to do this on the uphill side, but only occasionally need to do it on the downhill.  I don t recall having a traffic buildup on this hill.  The saving grace on this hill were the fairly wide shoulders (wide here means about 4 feet) and guardrails on the curves.
 
 Another steep descent (and probably the most difficult I have ever negotiated) was the eastbound descent near Bear Lake in Utah.  It s near the Utah/Idaho/Wyoming borders.  I had this hill on both the climb and the fall...er...descent.  The pavement of the road itself was in good condition, but there were significant sections with no shoulder.  Many of the switchbacks had no guardrails.  The going just got steeper and steeper, and there was a lot of traffic.  The rule is (sometimes backed up by law), that you pull over when there are five or more vehicles behind you.  I pulled over three times on the ascent.  Once at the top, I stopped in the brake check area and, uh, checked the brakes.  I also checked the trailer and hitch, making sure everything was in top condition and properly connected.  We sat there for a few minutes while the transmission cooled.  Then I shifted into second and we started down the hill.  
 
 The first thing we noticed was that the drop-offs on the side of the road were not as steep as we had expected (but still would have been disastrous if we had gone over the edge).  The second was that the view was spectacular.
 
 I let the van & trailer coast up to the speed limit, and then I would brake firmly to slow down by 10-15 mph.  Occasionally, I had to brake more or longer than usual in order to negotiate the switchbacks, some of which were posted at 15 mph.  A passenger can t sleep through a hill like this, so everyone was aware that we were going down quite a hill.  Parts of the descent were at 9%, which meant that the back of the trailer was three and a half feet above the front of the van.  That and the frequent, firm braking and constant curves meant that everyone knew we were going down a difficult hill.  Eight miles, 3100 feet lower, and 20 minutes later, we came to the small town at the base of the hill.  
 
 Here, we were to turn north to head toward Grand Teton NP and Yellowstone NP.  But first, we parked the van to let things cool off.  The van & trailer brakes were hot, but were still working perfectly.  The time and air would cool them fine.  The ice cream cooled the rest of us.  I recommend the black raspberry.
 
 Austin
 

[texacokat]

 AustinBoston
Austin,
 I am printing your post to share with DH.  We are planning our first trip out west this summer and since I lived in Colo I KNOW what steep grades mean...
 
 My question:  is there anything in print or some type of tutorial on towing / braking / in mountain country?

[AustinBoston]

 texacokat

ORIGINAL:  texacokat
 
 Austin,
 I am printing your post to share with DH.  We are planning our first trip out west this summer and since I lived in Colo I KNOW what steep grades mean...
 
 My question:  is there anything in print or some type of tutorial on towing / braking / in mountain country?
 

 You might check out my somewhat long post in this Mr. Fixit thread:
 
 [link=http://www.popuptimes.com/members/tm.asp?m=2176&p=4&tmode=1]Major DESCHNITZIFYING[/link]
 
 Austin

[Firefyter-Emt]

 AustinBoston
A long post?? Nawhhhhh it can t be.. []
 
 You know I am just the other way.. I do almost 99% of the driving, in fact last year driving to Tenn. I don t think Andrea got behind the wheel of the ark once.. (I did let her take a turn on the way home though...
 
 Now this year.. Nope, the 4Runner s my baby... []