Mad Rush - Day 1 - AAR

Lessons Learned--

Point one: When the voice in the back of your head says "maybe you should do this thing just in case", you should generally listen.

In this case, it was "put a CB in the rental". I have a CB for my truck, but it's not a handheld. I don't happen to own a handheld CB at the moment. I thought about getting one to take in the rental with me, but I figured... "ehhh, what the hell, I probably won't need it". I also neglected to bring my handheld amateur radio, again thinking, "ehh, we're not going off the interstates, it'd be nice to have, but I probably won't need it".

I was wrong. I needed it. Badly.

Remember that adage, better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it? Yeah...

For lack of information and preparation, we ended up stuck in the midst of literally thousands of trucks, for 5 hours, and 40 miles, of cell dead zone; with no way of getting information about what was happening, or why; and no information about the incoming weather.

The rental truck was supposed to have weather radio, and it does, sort of. Unfortunately, it's not NOAA weather radio, it's satellite weather, and is dependent on the Sirius working. For some reason, it wasn't. We got several sirius stations, but not weather or traffic; and we couldn't call them to fix it. There was no AM or FM local traffic or weather coverage either (thank you very much clear channel), just sports talk, top 40, and spanish language; with no local news, traffic, or weather.

So, I'd made myself blind and helpless, with the wave of a hand.

If I'd been able to listen to the truckers, I could've got off the highway, turned around, and taken an alternate route... or just gone back to El Paso to hang out with Rod. And when it came time for the I-20 split, I could've heard their reports about the nastiness that was coming, and continued down the I-10 down to San Antonio, which stayed clear.

Yeah, it would've added miles, but they'd have been safe and clear miles, and I would've at least been able to make Dallas (or maybe stayed south for Houston) by stop time tonight.

Point two: Internet connected apps are great. Use them, enjoy them... don't depend on them. 5 hours in a dead zone, with no information, NOT FUN.

Similarly, and related, OnStar, SyncServices and other connected vehicle systems that offer emergency assistance, information, weather, traffic etc... don't work in cell dead zones.

We were using an android weather app for weather mapping. It's awesome. We can see realtime weather maps, radar, forecasts etc...

... except when there's no data connection, for hours...

Point three:  Pack the Gear, Check the Gear, Maintain the Gear; so that when you NEED the Gear, you HAVE the Gear.

Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

When making long distance, cross country, or back country trips in rental/borrowed vehicles, make sure to prep the vehicle, with at least the critical elements, of the same gear and supplies you prep your own vehicle with.

If I get into trouble with my truck, I know that I have the gear and supplies to get out of all but the most severe situations. I can self rescue, or safely wait out to rescue. With this rental truck, as is... we've got SOME of the gear and supplies we normally have, but not enough to be confident.

Yeah, we'd be safe until rescue under normal circumstances... but what about abnormal, but reasonably possible, and easy to prepare for, circumstances?

... Like, oh, say, an ice storm in northwest Texas maybe...

So, first thing I did after we ate dinner, was hit up wally world for supplies and gear we'd neglected to transfer from our truck (just a few little things. The one thing I'm unhappy not having is some recovery gear, but it's a rental. If it needs recovery, I shouldn't be doing it, I should be calling someone from the rental company to do it).

Second thing, was to go buy a CB/weather radio, a 12v power lead, and an external magnetic mount antenna (factory rubber ducks aren't worth a damn, particularly in rough country. We radio geeks call them "portable dummy loads" or "flexible test resistors" for a reason).

I will not be blind and helpless again like that if I can avoid it.

Mad Rush - Day 1 - Bloody Hell!

Well....

That sucked.

So, we slept in a little bit this morning, thinking we'd be well ahead of the weather, and still be able to make Little Rock, or at least Hope or Texarkana, before we wanted to bed down.

.... and we would have been.

But for this:

http://www.elpasotimes.com/latestnews/ci_24581851/border-patrol-agent-injured-rollover-accident-near-sierra

Which, by the by, is nowhere near the full or true story. More on that in another post, another time.

What it came down to, was that we were at a dead stop, or slow crawl on I-10 for about 5 hours.

Even better, we were in in a cell and data deadzone for most of that time. Thankfully we had plenty of gas, plenty of drinks and snacks, and audiobooks (and didn't need to use the bathroom).

We first came to a stop a couple miles past Texas state road 34, mile 87. We had literally dozens of emergency vehicles, mostly border patrol, but some county sheriffs and texas highway patrol, and some local ambulance and fire; racing back and forth by us for hours... Even worse, they were inspecting trucks and trailers for the first few of those hours (which, I suspect, is WHY it was hours, not a few minutes).

... as I said, more on that another time, in another post.

After crawling our way a few hundred yards at a time, with 2-20 minutes stops in between, up to mile 107; we were shunted off I-10 onto Texas 1111 in a "town" called Sierra Blanca.

It was after 3pm at this point, with over 4.5 hours spent moving those 20-ish miles.

Even better however, was that they were not allowing access to the eastbound lanes at all. They forced us into a diversion route. It took us almost 20 minutes just to make the turns from the off ramp, onto the state road, under the highway, then onto an unmarked road paralleling the highway, for 13 miles; with a Sheriff's vehicle or Border patrol vehicle blocking all egress from the road, and all access to I-10.

So, we made those 13 miles at about 30mph, in convoy with the hundreds of trucks that had been stopped, finally making it back onto the highway at Van Horn, about 40 miles from the I-10/I-20 split.

By now it was 3:45, 5 hours from when we had first come to a stop.

Now... the whole idea of leaving Friday night, had been to get through Texas before the nasty weather hit Saturday night; then through the southeast before the nasty weather hit Tuesday; and into New England before the nasty weather hit Wednesday.

Basically, were trying to run between the storm systems.

Unfortunately, by the time we got back on the highway, and particularly by the time we hit I-20 around 4pm; the weather had overtaken us, and we started to get some pretty nasty wind, ice rain, hail, fog etc...

By 4:45, we had passed 4 major injury or multi-fatality crashes (a couple we could see directly, others... I've seen a lot of accidents... barring a miracle, they were not surviving those), and the weather map looked like this:

On the ground, it was a hell of a lot worse. We were alternating between torrential rain, frozen rain, and near whiteout conditions; with over an inch of ice, slush, and hail on the roads, high winds, driving frozen rain, and ice fog. Our windshield wipers could barely keep up (though the heater had no problem keeping us comfy... It dropped from 39 degrees to 23 degrees in a matter of minutes).

So, the second we got data signal back, we booked the next hotel we could get into (in Pecos), and white knuckled it the remaining 15 miles or so.

Between the I-10/I-20 split, and our hotel (a total distance of 43 miles), we passed a total of 7 major injury or multi-fatality accidents, including 5 rollovers, and a three car multi-rollover (with one vehicle over the guard rail between the travel lanes of an overpass, crashing down to the roadway below). That doesn't include the half dozen cars we saw off the road (including one in front of us, and one across the median) , two we saw actually spin (one in front of, one across the median from us) and the several wrecked semi's pulled off into the median.

They closed both the I-20 and I-10 behind us, a few minutes after we got off the road. A T-Dot official came into the hotel while we were checking in and told everyone. Their crews were filling up rooms quick.

Every hotel room in Pecos was full before 6pm tonight; and the 18 wheelers are filling up all the local parking lots. There's at least a dozen of them in the Wal Mart parking lot alone; and there must've been 100+ in and around the flying J.

I found out later that they had pulled so many wrecks off the road in this sector of the I-20 alone, that their tow yard couldn't handle them. They used that same local Wal Mart as an overflow. I counted 11 total writeoffs in the Wal Mart parking lot when I went by there later... and who knows how many in their local tow yard(s).

I can say without any exaggeration; that was the single worst day of travel I have ever had, that didn't involve the death of someone important to me.

A Mad Rush... Through a Damn Blizzard... Awww hell no...

Sonofabitch...

Well, we'd planned our trip to be Sunday through mid-day Thursday, arriving in Weymouth, MA in time for Thanksgiving dinner, then heading up to my Aunt Helens place in New Hampton, NH.

Further, we were planning on staying on the 40 through to eastern Tennessee, and stopping at Mels aunt and uncle in Johnson City, so that her uncle can see the baby (he's in ill health and can't travel anymore); and stopping in to see my Aunt in New Jersey (again, so she can see the baby).

...looks like nature has other plans...

If we followed out original plan, we'd be driving up the I-95 corridor in the worst part of this weather, for three days (a 5 day total trip, of appx 2900 miles).

Yeah... no... we're not going to do that.

Well, first thing, we've decided NOT to drive up with the trailer first time up. We're going to drive up bare vehicle, leaving the trailer and the dogs, with Mels dad. This will make our trip faster, with better fuel economy, and, given the weather... not suicidal.

I REALLY do not want to try to haul 20,000lbs and 60ft by 8 foot 6" of combined vehicle on northeastern roads, on a holiday week, in that weather.

... and in the long run, it will be easier to find a house without having the trailer and the dogs to worry about.

We'll come back after Christmas, pick up the trailer and the dogs and do the trip all over again, only slower... but at least we should have a house to take the trailer and dogs too by then.

Second... we're not taking OUR truck. We rented a brand new Explorer (the company is paying for it, not me). It'll be comfortable, safe, 50% better fuel economy (using much cheaper fuel. Diesel is NOT cheap in the northeast, and can be a pain to find off the major highways), it'll save the mileage and maintenance on our truck, and it should be a faster drive in it.

Plus, we'll have it the entire month, in Boston and New Hampshire, and it'll be a lot easier to get around Boston with than the 23 foot long 7 foot tall Truck of Doom.

Third.. we're not leaving Sunday anymore. We're leaving tonight if we can manage it. We've already done all the prep work we need to do in Phoenix, we've just got to finish packing, and packing the truck.

So, tonight, we scoot out of here, and drive until we need to stop to make sure we get a rested and early start tomorrow.

This should give us all day Saturday and Sunday, and most of Monday, before the bad weather hits.

When we were going to take the trailer, our route wasn't even really a question. We were going to have to backtrack from Kearny to the I-17, then north to I-40.

Without the trailer, we're a lot more flexible. Right now, we're trying to decide if it's quicker/safer/easier trying to take the backroads through the mountains of eastern Arizona and New Mexico up to Albequerque to take I-40; adding 200+ miles to the trip backtracking to I-17 and going up to the 40 through flagstaff; or adding 150 miles and taking the southern routing across Texas.

Right now, we're leaning towards Texas; because it's been raining hard all night and all day, and 385, or 585 miles of mountain roads, in the wet, to get to ABQ, vs the broad, straight, fast highways of Texas... yeah...

If we want, and the weather is good, we can still visit Mels family in Tennessee. Depending on how far we get tonight, we could be there Sunday night, or Monday morning.

... Or we might just push straight through, take the midwestern route splitting off I-40 in OKC, straight up into New Hampshire; and try to get to New Hampton on Tuesday, instead of Weymouth mid-day Thursday... we'll decide while we're on the road, based on conditions and the time we're making.

UPDATE:

Ok, we're definitely leaving tonight, and we've got our route and schedule planned out:

We're leaving in an hour-ish (around 1800 mountain), and will be aiming to hit somewhere around El Paso before we stop for the night on day 0.5.

Full day one (Saturday): It's on to somewhere around Hope Arkansas... we may stop in Dallas for dinner with Mels brothers (she hasn't seen them in like 4 years, and they haven't seen the baby yet). We may even stop for the night, and just accept the 4 or 5 hours lost travel time.

Day two (Sunday): We head to Johnson City TN. If we stop in Dallas for the night Saturday that's a bit far, so we may not make it to Johnson city, in which case we'd stop in Nashville, or Knoxville, and head to Johnson city in the morning, stopping there for lunch, and doing an overnight rest, making it day two or three.

Day three or four (Monday or Tuesday): It's on to Medford, NJ, and my aunt Maureen, who hasn't met the baby yet either. That's a relatively short day, for flexibility.

Day four or five, (Tuesday or Wednesday): It's just a six hour ride from NJ to New Hampton, NH., or just a four and a half hour ride to my dads place in Weymouth, MA.

If we push, it gets us off the roads entirely before the snow starts Tuesday night... and gives us a day of flexibility if we have any problems, or if we want to take some time to visit with family, before the snow gets really bad on Wednesday night. If we relax, we're still off the road before things get bad on Wednesday night.

Boston, Covered by Three Feet of Snow

Damn... Click to embiggen... and even MORE Damn...

Taken by an airline pilot from angels 40, the day after the Great Nor'Easter of 2013, aka the Blizzard of 2013, aka Winter Storm Nemo.

The official reported snowfall for Boston is reported as 24.9 inches; but several areas around Boston reported totals as high as 34", and towns in Maine and Connecticut up to 40"(making this the worst blizzard ever recorded in New England history).

There was 30" of snowfall in my fathers yard, in Weymouth, about 10 miles (straight line. About 20 by road) south of Boston.

Owwwww....

That's what I've been saying the last few days.

Why?

Well, the weather here the last month or so has been a bit screwy. We got some pretty heavy snow for a   couple weeks, and then mixed light snow, rain, ice etc...

Then, for the last two weeks or so we've been cycling between as high as 46 (that was a freak day, but 39 hasn't been uncommon) to as low as 4 degrees (again that was a freak low, but 14 degrees hasn't been rare, and 24 has been common) in a single day.

That has meant we've been having lots of melting and refreezing; complicated by some additional wet snow, and some freezing rain.

What that has meant, is that my driveway, which is a fairly steep slope, has been a sheet of ice.

And I've fallen on that ice several times.

I've given up on taking things in and out of the shop for now, or carrying anything heavy around... I'll wait for some more melting so I can break up some of the ice etc...

Anyway last week I took a pretty nasty spill, which strained some things, bruised some things etc... Made me sore enough that I wasn't moving very much at all most of the week.

Then we had some friends over this weekend (had a "friends weekend" combined with a superbowl party)... and I warned them not to try parking in the driveway unless they had 4 wheel drive and good tires.

Unfortunately, not everyone listened to me.

Saturday night, two cars got stuck hard enough that I had to go around them with my truck, then set a recovery rig, and pull them out.

In the process, I had to climb up and down that icy slope several times... and I fell several times.

Twice, I fell and hit very very hard.

In the process I badly bruised my back, ass, and the back of my head, my left elbow, and left palm; and I badly tweaked both my knees, my back, my neck, and my left wrist.

Sunday it wasn't too bad... It hurt, and I was stiff, but I could move... even had a good time with our superbowl party.

Monday was a different story entirely.

I haven't been out of bed except to use the bathroom since Monday morning.

I have been too stiff and sore to even take a hot bath.

My range of motion without pain for my neck has been about jaw to shoulder both side. My back... the best way to describe it is overtightened overstressed cables?

I think I might be able to do so today... maybe even walk down the stairs to the main floor and participate in life for a while.

So, the GOOD news, is that its supposed to be well above freezing every day this week, and the ice sheet is already showing gravel through it in spots, so my driveway and shop are becoming accessible again.

Puppies on ice

Snowed here yesterday (Thursday/Friday overnight) for the first time this winter... or the first time at our altitude anyway. We're at 2200ft, and the snow line has been 3,000 up 'til last night.

There was 2-4" of snowfall around the region, but we had about an inch of accumulation (the first inch or so melted).

Last night, it got down below 20 degrees (its been above freezing most nights), and the black ice was REALLY bad.

...Really bad black ice, on a two lane, unlit 6omph limit highway; mostly with no guardrails, and a couple of long 6% grades with 90 degree turns in the middle...

The one major disadvantage of where we live really.

We went down to Spokane to celebrate our anniversary with friends (a couple days early. Our anniversary is tomorrow), and on the way down, we saw six cars off the road; including two that actually went off the road right in front of us (black ice, on a turn just over the crest of a hill).

The truck handled the ice just fine, but knowing how to drive properly helps. Four wheel drive and good snow tires are great, but they don't trump the laws of physics.

It doesn't matter how good your vehicle is, or how good your tires are; inertia overcomes friction pretty damn easily on ice.

When you are maneuvering in a low friction environment, you want your motion to be a simple vector. You can either accelerate, decelerate, or turn... just one, not two; or the product of your vector components is going to be greater than the friction force acting on your vehicle.

Four wheel drive, and good tires, increase the friction component of your total forces, (and help keep them balanced between your front and rear tires), but there's only so much that they can do.


Simple physics.



It got even colder while we were down in Spokane, and rather than risk driving back up into the mountains, with the rest of the idiots sliding around, slamming into us or running us off the road; we ended up staying over with them (and then going for breakfast in the morning).

Overall, a good night, but ended up a pretty long one, since we only got home late this afternoon.

Overnight last night

We hit freezing for the first time this season. Officially it was 34, but we saw 32 here.

... My instinct keeps saying "this year" not "this season"; but of course, the last time we were below freezing was in early April this year (looked it up; there was an overnight freeze april 14th, but it had been over freezing for most of a couple weeks before that)...

So, we put our first fire of the season in the fireplace this morning; cleared out the flu, took the chill off the morning, and then we let it burn down; before it hit a high of 73 today.

It's been unusually cold overnight for the last few nights, dropping from the high 40s (and even low 50s two weeks ago), to the mid-low 30s. It should be right around freezing (forecast is 33) tonight as well; then it should be back in the mid-low 40s overnight for the next couple weeks (the normal overnight temps for this time of year. It normally doesn't average under freezing overnight 'til late October).

Amazing that four weeks ago it was in the mid 90s. Seasons change faster here than they did where I grew up in New England. Probably something to do with the maritime climate, and the big thermal mass of the ocean there, vs. the mountains (the big lake can't quite match up to the north atlantic).

We've got two cords of two year seasoned birch out back waiting to be neatly racked and stacked by our upstairs and downstairs doors.

One or two small splits in our fireplace insert does a pretty good job of taking a 35 degree outside to a 75 degree inside.

If we have as mild a winter this year as we did last year, two cords should be more than enough for the winter without needing to use the oil heaters at all.

It's good them temps will be going back up, since I start sleeping in the basement tomorrow. Mel and I will both miss the body heat with each other.

Got a blow on

Massive windstorm in north Idaho right now, bad enough for red advisories. In the little valley in which we live we're seeing sustained 30kt winds with gusts to 50kts.

We're gonna see some damage out of this most likely. I've already heard some trees and branches giving out there, never mind the stuff being blown around.

Sitting in the middle of gods own fireworks show

See all those yellow, red, and green spots clustered all up in North Idaho?

Yeah... that's a strike map of the last 60 minutes; and we're right smack in the middle of a thunderstorm 100 miles across. Various strike counter websites are saying there's been about 1600 strikes from the storm in the last 60 minutes.

The strikes have been all around my house for around 20 minutes, along with torrential rain, and winds at around 45 knots. The thunder has been shaking the house, and I've actually watched a few strikes hit the mountain behind us and the lake in front of us, as close as a few hundred yards away.

The dogs were all cowering, trying to cuddle up to us as close as they could looking for us to make it better. Big babies ;-)

It's 51 frikken degrees out...

In January.

In North Frikken Idaho.

And it's GOING to be 57 before the day is done.

IN JANUARY IN NORTH IDAHO...

What the hell?

And Now the Flooding is Disappearing

As reported by the Bonner County Daily Bee:

PONDERAY — According to Bonner County Emergency Management Director Bob Howard, the worst of the flooding should be passing.

At the Ponderay Community Development Corporation meeting Thursday afternoon, Howard told the gathered business representatives that he expected the flood stage to peak by Friday and gradually subside afterward. Between assistance from the Army Corps of Engineers in protecting vulnerable roadways and the improving prognosis, Howard is optimistic.

“At this point, I think we’re doing well,” he said.

Of course the best part of the article is this:

This is part of why I love where we live. The local radio reported on the dressing-up of the memorial on Friday morning. It was still there when I got off of work Friday afternoon.

Back in Phoenix the park service would have already taken everything down and would be looking for the "vandal". Here the park service came in in the morning, let it be, and instead called both local radio stations (which is where I heard about it Friday morning on the way to work) and the local newspaper.

It's nice to live somewhere where most everyone, including officials, has a sense of humor.

Yay Flooding!

Anyone need some extra snow melt? We can spare some.



The lake is attempting to invade the yard. That overflow into the lower yard?



That's 15 inches of crystal clear alpine snowmelt.

The path to our dock is underwater. The dock itself is afloat and mostly safe. Some of our neighbors with stationary docks aren't so lucky.





The nice cedar dock which can barely be seen was built just a few weekends ago.

Even City Beach is about to get inundated. This memorial is usually comfortably above the water line.



Notice the snow in the mountains in the background? We're not done yet.

This is our current lake level:

We're estimated to be at 2064.4 by Friday. At the point we'll be close to the 100 year flood level. Some of the lakeside homes will start flooding at that point. Our house is much higher on the slope, it would take at least another 10 feet to do real damage to us.

Some of those around us don't live as high up, many of those on the more expensive stretches of waterfront.

Wish we could ship some of this water down to the southwest at the moment.

In the middle of what will hopefully be the final blizzard of the winter

Well, it started snowing last night, and we've got an expected 5-10 inches overnight; with wind gusting over 50 knots. It's expected temps will drop down to around 5 degrees, with a windchill of -25.

So far we've seen about 4" today, with gusts into the 40s; and the temp is down to 16, with wind chill around -5.  

The funny thing is, just a couple miles away, they're got winds much lower; like 10kts... Thats the joy of living in the mountains.

For a while, the blowing snow had reduced visibility to zero; but now theres a few hundred yards. It's actually kinda neat when you've got a wall thats mostly picture windows, and the snow has turned them opaque.

The storm is expected to continue through tomorrow night, with temps dropping as low as -10, with continued snow and wind.

I love weather in North IDaho. For the last few weeks we've mostly been in the upper 40s during the day; then all of a sudden, 10 below. 

Keeps you on your toes. 

A bit chilly...

5 degrees, clear and damn cold; with gusts pushing the windchill down to -14.

I believe they call that brisk.

What we woke up to

Looks like 4-6" overnight. It's still snowing pretty steadily right now; though they say it should slow down and become intermittent in the next hour or so.

Glad we got a 4x4. I just hope this doesn't effect people coming to the memorial too badly.

Another blizzard on the way...

So, this time, it's expected to start snowing here around 10pm tonight, and not stop 'til around 4am on Thursday.

They're predicting a minimum of 8" with accumulations up to 24" at our elevation, and 18-36" in the elevations immediately above us. Winds may exceed 50 knots, and severe icing is expected. At least the snow should keep the temperatures in the high 20s low thirties; but immediately after the snow ends, they're expecting a couple days at 37-40... which means massive ice issues all weekend and beyond.

We're fully expecting a power out on this one. Got all the backup battery banks charged up, got batteries and candles ready, got a bunch of firewood ready to go, water and food, and a refill on the propane... we should be good to go, in case of a couple days worth of power outage. Shelter, heat, light, food, and water... all covered.

Great timing eh?

Another Damn Blizzard

Well, now WE'RE in a damn blizzard. 10" so far, another 6 expected, and 40knots of blowing and drifting out there.

Its going down to 11 below overnight, and the power is out. Thank god weve got the wood stove.

Posting this off my droid. The whole town (3000 homes in this grid) is down and they're not sure when they can get us back up yet.

UPDATE: We got power back after about two hours, internet came back a few minutes ago. 

A little peek at conditions in our area...

Spokane is a hilly city, with poorly drained and poorly graded roads; which spends about 30% of the year at under 32 degrees, and raining or snowing.

This is the inevitable result:

We were actually driving up that hill a few weeks back, on the day of the first big snow in fact; and while it wasn't nearly that bad, it took us about 15 minutes to get a couple hundred yards up the hill because some genius decided to stop and parallel park right in the middle of the hill, right in front of us in a way we couldn't get around him.

It's less funny when it's the other way around...

You know, like when there's been over 3 feet of snow in the last three weeks, and on Sunday the five day says you're supposed to get three days completely snow free; so you start some outdoor projects, and instead of snow free, on Tuesday night you get another inch overnight, with another two inches expected during the day, and intermittent snow for the rest of the week.

Put on your shitkickers

Always liked that tune...

What brings it to mind at the moment though, is the snow around here.

We've had about three feet of snow in the last three weeks; and we're expecting another 12-15 or so feet over this winter (yes, it's a heavy winter. La Nina etc...).

As it happens, my existing hiking boots have proved entirely inadequate to the task, and I didn't have any dedicated snow boots.

Until this week that is:

Outdoor Outfitters had a special sale going on, and I was able to pick up a pair of Wolverine Big Skys, normally $200, for just $99. Vibram ice and snow sole (re-solable, though I PROFOUNDLY hope I never have to wear them enough for that), 1000g thinsulate, composite reinforced toe, and DAMN comfy.

Even better, it was a buy one get one one half off sale, and I managed to pick up a pair of clearance Merrell Shivers, normally $90, on sale for $69, then half price off, so $34.50:

Merrell is another brand of Wolverines, and are similar in quality. The shiver has nother Vibram Ice and Snow sole, polartec, and is fully waterproof. So I have something for the slightly less deep snow in say, my driveway AFTER being plowed. 

So, I stand before you, a well shod man.

Update: Og asked me to do a little comparison with my favorite boot brand, Danners.

Specifically, he asked how I thought they compared to the Danner Canadians; having previously taken my recommendation (still in effect) for Danner boots for general use.

I'll never say anything bad against Danners; they're great boots. I've been wearing them since the day AFTER basic. I own a pair right now (uninsulated though). I will recommend Danners (also Corcorans, Rockies, and Hi-Tecs; but Danner are my favorite) for anyone who has to live in boots all day every day.

...But...

The Canadians cost twice as much as the Wolverines, by MSRP, and about the same differential online at discount.

Admittedly, the Canadians are a 10" boot vs an 8" boot for the Wolverines; but they also have considerably less insulation, especially in the shank. Also they're a plain toe, rather than a composite toebox.

The Danners are full leather, while the Wolverines have Gore-Tex and ballistic nylon panels in the shank. The leather is likely to be tougher, while the Gore-Tex is going to breathe better; and if you live or work in an environment where mold or biologicals are an issue, the nylon is easier to disinfect.

I think a closer comparison would be the Danner 42655 Elk Ridge GTX Boots. They're nearly identical to the Wolverines, except they don't have the composite reinforced toebox (which I like for ATVing, hunting, cutting wood etc...). They're also only a few bucks more than the Wolverines, v.s double.

I think having a reinforced toebox is a good idea, but I don't believe in steelcaps anynmore; having seen more than one unintentional amputation because of them. Composite reinforcement is the best compromise as far as I'm concerned.

The toecap doesn't actually cut the toe off; but it does kill the toe, by trapping it in the boot with no circulation. Especially in extreme cold, way out in the woods, or otherwise far from medical care.

I'd rather have steel toes on a construction site close to a major city, than not have them; but I would never wear them in preference to composite toe reinforcement, nor would I wear them anyplace I couldn't get them cut off me and receive medical attention, within a few minutes.

For a similar Danner with a composite toebox, check out the Vandal GTX. They're a little more expensive than the Wolverines, and a little less insulated; but they also have a Vibram sole.

Between the sole, and the composite toebox; both the Wolverines, and the Vandals, are oil resistant and electrical hazard certified, in addition to being great for ice, snow, and extreme cold.

Also, I prefer Vibram soles, especially their ice and snow soles, to Danners "Bob" sole (which is on both the Canadian and the Elk Ridge).

I still think Danners duty boot soles are the best though, unless your command authorizes Rockies or Hi-Tecs. Most commands authorize Danners and Corcorans, but only a few allow Rockies or Hi-Tecs; which are generally more comfortable, but don't offer as much support, and don't last as long under extreme use. Danner also offers a very nice insulated duty boot (as does Rocky).

I think, overall the Danner Canadians are going to be more durable and last longer, but I don't think they're going to last twice as long; and I'm pretty sure the Wolverines are going to be more comfortable to wear for 16 hours. As for the Elk Ridge or the Vandal, I'm guessing they'll perform pretty much identically to the Wolverines, only the Danners are a little more expensive.

Also, I know a lot of guys in Minnesota, and yeah anecdotes don't equal data, but they absolutely swear by Wolverines... and let's just say they know something about cold and snow.