Brian Piercy This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. Shasta Snow Trip -2002

   www.rustybus.com/shasta2002/st - [Cached]

   Published on: 6/16/2005   Last Visited: 6/16/2005

   The Ground Hog's Day Shasta Snow Trip is the brainchild of Brian Piercy. I met Brian 2 or 3 years ago at the Kelley Park show in California when I purchased a 1955 bus engine case from him for my barndoor. That was another trip where I was 'guaranteed fun'. That trip my friend Greg Noble drove his late 50's standard with original interior, 36 HP, and bias ply tires from LA to Phoenix to pick me up. We then headed to San Jose, CA. From somewhere outside Phoenix we decided to do the Lake Havasu City leg of the trip on dirt roads (well power line access trails anyway). 26 hours later we had completed the 3-hour trip to Havasu, and 12 hours after that we were at the show in California. What a blast, but I digress, so back to the story. Anyhow, last year I had seen Brian again and we spoke about a story he wrote for the NEATO newsletter about a trip in his single cab through 20" snow with his only saving grace being a pail full of rusty tire chains he found along the way. That was the catalyst for this show and knowing Brian was responsible for planning the trip I knew we were in for some fun.
   ...
   To make a long story short, I made about $50 worth of phone calls, had Brian straighten the airline out, and got my boarding passes.
   ...
   As Brian and I wandered along in the dark I thought my eyes were finally adjusting and I could see the drop off. A moment later my brain reprocessed the vague information being sent by my eyes, and I realized the sloping hill down to the river I though I saw was in fact an optical illusion, and in reality a 150-foot sheer drop was what awaited me in 3 more steps. That was a bit of an awakening event. We scooted as close as we dared to she sheer cliff, not sure when the next chunk of the earth might choose to make the plunge to the river below, bringing us with it. It was quite a site, but the trip was just beginning. Back to the buses and back down the hill to civilization, momentarily at least.
   
   The first hour of the trip had us passing no more than 4 or 5 cars, but now we found ourselves at a small town with a few more people about. We gassed up, received an official introduction from Brian, had our fearless leader explain the plan, and then explain again for video documentation, and then we jumped on the 101 freeway for a few miles. After driving miles in the backwoods earlier we spotted a pair of deer in an unlikely place, next to the freeway underpass a stones throw from the gas station. I guess California isn't all one big city as we sometimes think. From the start, one of the best parts of this particular caravan was the fact that all but 2 buses had CB radios, allowing us to chat along the way. Since Brian and Britt were the only people in the group I had met previously, this gave me a chance to get to know a little bit about everyone, although it took me a while to connect the CB voices to the faces associated with them.
   ...
   After jacking up the bus and laying a tarp over the mud Brian tried to adjust the clutch. No luck, the problem persisted. After a little more research, and some talk of pulling the engine, Meredith decided she would limp it home clutch-less and meet back up with us in Shasta in her bug if possible.
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   At this point I decided to move from Britt's bus to Brian's in order to get some pictures from the front of the pack.
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   Brian asked if he should stop the bus, but being a veteran climber on transporters in motion I opted to climb up at speed, rather than make everyone stop and wait for me. I opened the forward cargo door and pulled myself up onto Brian's sundial fridge, then grabbing the roof rack I hauled myself and my camera onto the roof, closing the door with my foot, all the while Brian was speeding down the muddy trail, around corners, and under low hanging trees. I got some great shots, although many were a bit blurry from the speed and motion. As I said earlier, we were climbing a pretty steep hill and soon the mud turned to snow and the temperature dropped drastically. We also found ourselves driving through fog or clouds, and within a minute or two I found my camera lens and glasses completely saturated with moisture and my digits were beginning to numb. We were now in the back of the caravan so Brian stopped momentarily so I could jump back into the bus and thaw out a bit.
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   This was sort of a catch phrase for a good portion of the trip and I experienced it first hand a lot since Brian liked to slide and skid and fishtail along the icy roads. This felt much like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride; one minute you're sliding gracefully toward a cliff, then suddenly you catch traction and lurch violently back onto the road before doing it all over again. We spread ourselves out a bit during this stretch to give us more room in the case of an incident, but with the unfortunate side effect of missing all of the good action. At one point we heard Jon on the CB, a bit excited, and soon found that he had hit a patch of ice and spun almost 180 degrees in the middle of the road.
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   I was up ahead with Brian, and after hearing about this we headed back to assist while the rest of the gang headed for Zenia.
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   Brian took this opportunity to do some 4X4 driving in the median, adding a new scratch to the side of his bus a pop-out window when he came a little too close to a road sign.
   
   We stopped in Hayfork for gas and what dinner we could scrounge up in the gas station quickie mart. Most of the day Brian, our timekeeper, had been urging us to go faster so we could make it to our final destination before the next morning, and our gas stop took a bit longer than I think he would have liked, but it gave everyone to stretch his legs before the final leg of the trip. Once we got on the road we drove partway across town and pulled over in an empty parking lot to wait for the stragglers, and Officer Friendly showed up within seconds, telling us we couldn't park there. We continued on and hit the highway again. Everyone but Brian and I stopped at a scenic overlook at sunset to take pictures.
   ...
   Tommy, Gene, Shawn and I chose the quite, free bar, and some of the others, including Brian, went into the happenin' bar. After a drink or two and some good conversation we headed off to the Motel for bed. Most of the others wandered in soon after, with Brian being the lone straggler.
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   I called the other guys on the CB and Brian stopped to help me get things back together, him bolting it back on while I held things in place underneath the bus.
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   A great big thanks to Brian, and everyone on the trip, for making this such a cool experience.