48. A lot has happened from comment 47 and this one. I decided to drive up to the west portal of the Mullan Tunnel. Rough snow covered roads led me in. The sun was nowhere near where it needed to be but I wanted to take a peek. I got out only to hear the hissing of a tire leak. I hurried to get some fix a flat in which I always try to carry and made a bee line back to I-90. If I was going to break down the middle of nowhere wasn't the place. The tire seemed to be holding well but I was still nervous that the rock would work it's way out causing a major leak. I went down into Helena and got it fixed. So I made a trip up the east side of the mountain. I found a road that went back to the trestles. The higher we went the more snow covered the road. You could tell that the road I was on gets slushy once it warms up so I needed to make sure to get down asap as the temps were already rising. The road I was on just got worse and worse and I needed to find a place to turn around. With nowhere to turn around I noticed the road was now a snowmobile trail. Not good. Came into a clearing where the trail split and I took the wrong one. Down into the snow I went. We spent an hour and a half trying to get back on the snow pack and turned around. We did everything from putting stuff under the tires to emptying the truck. we pushed, we pulled, we lifted, we rocked. We finally got it out. No people, no buildings, no cell service, no nothing. I'm glad we made it. Back down on some better roads I caught some MRL helper action before we headed east.
An exclamation attributed to TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson, it is this eponymous expression of which certain images convey man and machine versus nature . . .
