Almost a foot of snow fell here in Sierra Nevada Foothills… A white Christmas in apparently a good portion of the Northern USA. Finally get a chance to try out the Blizzak WS-50’s that I purchased from Tire Rack. I went ahead and got a nice set of alloy wheels, since the white 16 inchers looked so nice.

By the time I decided to see if I could make it down to the plowed road, the snow pack had thawed and refroze to what the local skiers refer to as Sierra Cement (10 inches). Before tackling my relatively steep driveway, I elected to back in to the garage. I noticed an “out of place” piece of plastic lying in the snow from where I had backed out. A piece of the “wimpy” skid plate had caught on the crusty snow while I was in the reverse mode, breaking off.

The moral of this story is… GET THE STEEL SKID PLATE… Especially if you live in snow country.

I decided that I better do a little shoveling before I tackle the steep drive, as the snow usually drifts in there and is a bit deeper. I did not want to sacrifice any additional plastic parts, but might have been OK if I kept going forward. Whether or not I could make the return grade was a question. I really should have taken my MC down the hill while the snow was still powder, but wanted to avoid roadside parking (spoiled BRG Mini). It was couple of days before I had to tackle the driveway, and my wife had blazed the trail with her studded CRV. It took me three attempts, making the driveway approach turn slowed things down a bit. After much second gear spinning and accompanying snow and gravel flying, I crested the garage approach pad. MOTOR ON, INDEED!