It started as a lighthearted ride off the beaten track on the
Mtn. Loop hwy. We hadn't driven it for awhile and my husband wanted to check out some of the spur roads off of the main loop hwy. The road is paved only as far as the
Monte Cristo ghost town. The gravel road follows the Sauk river and is very scenic. We stopped for lunch at one of the many pullout camping areas.
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| the Foxgloves were in bloom all along the road |
We stopped at
Bedal Campground campground and looked around. It had a map board and boat launch. Little did we know at the time how useful that map picture would be to us later in the day.
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| view of the Sauk river at the boat launch |
from there we took our first spur road, #23 & crossed over the
White Chuck river bridge
There is a nice big parking lot with a restroom just after the bridge on the left. We then took the spur road #2700. We traveled on this for quite a while, going up and over a pass. We found out later that this area slides out quite often and is sometimes impassable. The road other than being gravel the whole way was in great condition and we were enjoying it immensely
.
as we were coming down the long fairly steep downhill we heard a strange sound and casually wondered what it was. Not long after that we arrived at the lowland flatter road that junctioned with road #25. My husband stopped the car to see what was going on with the car since it was driving different and sure enough we had a flat tire.
So begins the epic part of our trip -
We got the smaller spare tire out & it seemed fine until my husband got it on and lowered the car back down off the jack, and we realized the small spare was low on air.
So he decided it would be best to just drive slowly and hope we could get to Darrington and get some air in it. Thankfully I had taken a picture of the map and it gave us a general idea of where we were. We had no cell coverage so it wasn't possible to call for a tow. We had driven an hour and a half and only saw 2 cars in all that time, but we were still trying to be optimistic that we would be able to flag someone down to see if they might have a fix a flat can with them or even possibly a bicycle pump we could use. We drove 10 miles an hour on the low spare tire for about 8 miles before we realized if we continued on it we could possibly damage the rim. Thankfully we came to where the road was now paved after crossing the bridge on road #26 (Suiattle River road). So we stopped and looked at the original tire to see what the damage was. He determined that it had gash in it and wouldn't be able to be repaired so we took the spare off and put the flat original tire back on. Hoping we could drive on it for awhile before we would be on the rim. We limped along for another 4 miles on this tire still hoping we would see a car to flag down or since the road was now paved hoping to see a house where we could get help or at least use their phone (still not cell coverage). FINALLY we spotted a jeep coming up behind us. We frantically waved at him hoping he would stop. Yay he agreed to transport us and our dog (yes we had Lexis our Malamute with us). It was a tight fit for us but he gave us a ride to Darrington. He said he felt obligated to help as he had been in the same predicament once before there himself . He said we wouldn't have had cell coverage until we were in Darrington, which was about 2 miles farther on road #26
and then about 10 miles more after we turned onto hwy 530.
He dropped us off at the Shell station in Darrington, and after giving him many, many heartfelt thank you's I got on the phone and called my AT&T roadside assistance. They couldn't find anything near there that was open and their next move would be to call the State patrol and let them help us. So we said thanks for trying but we would do some of our own investigating. Luckily while we were limping along on our flat tires I had been charging my phone so I would have a full battery when we found coverage. Again nothing was available locally so after taking a deep breath realizing it would be very expensive we called our own local 24 hr. towing company (B.J.'s towing) that was and hour and a half away and see if they were willing to come pick us up with our dog. That way we could get a ride to our home and then have them just drop off the Van at their shop (they are also our regular car repair shop) since we would need new tires put on before we could take it anywhere. Yay they would,
so I called our At&t and asked if our towing deductible would still be honored and they said yes - $50.
Oh well it was better than nothing.
So we found a nice little bench to wait "patiently" for our ride. At about 11pm the tow truck rolled up. We were SO happy to see it. He had a nice long bench back seat so Lexis was comfy but not so happy.
All in all not such a bad day, but never quite so glad to be back home at 1:30 in the morning!
Lessons learned:
check the spare before going on a drive
keep a can of Fix a flat and possibly a bicycle pump in the car at all times
