Caltrans, in the interest of public safety, decided abou14 years ago to close forever the dirt segment of State Highway 173 between Lake Arrowhead and Hesperia. Having driven this road several times in the past, it’s easy to see why they would want to close this hellish highway, once and for all.
No stop signs, no speed limit, nobody’s gonna mess me round. Paid my dues playin’ in a rockin’ band. Hey, mamma, look at me, I’m on my way to the Promised Land. I’m on the Highway to Hell, Highway to Hell. (“Highway to Hell” – AC/DC – 1967)
With all of the catastrophic wildfires throughout the Southland of late, this last remaining, unpaved highway in the entire state of California should be adopted by the great state of California as a last-ditch emergency route in the event of a wildfire or other life-threatening emergency. I’d recommend bringing along some Depends, just so you won’t soil your tighty whities. I’d also recommend fitting your vehicle with a tractor blade for pushing VW-sized boulders and broken-down VWs out of the way.
Sure, this menacing, one-lane, narrow, rutted, winding washboard route with no guardrails is a real challenge to navigate, especially if you happen to encounter another vehicle coming from the opposite direction, but I’m willing to take my chances if I’m being chased by flames and it’s the only route out of here.
If Caltrans does decide to keep this sorry excuse for a roadway open, they’ll need to scrape a few feet of dirt off the side of the mountain to let vehicles safely pass one another.
In the meantime, continue using Highway 138, which I used when I had to evacuate my family and pets off the mountain during the Old Fire, back in 2003, or you could save a lot of time and money by relocating to the High Desert. As for off-roaders, don’t you have anything better to do than wasting gasoline and destroying our national forest?
There’s no denying we need another safe evacuation route off of this mountain. What would be cool is if, someday, when either the state or county is not going broke, one of them could widen and pave the entire length of SR-173, all the way to Hesperia. When this concept was proposed to a Caltrans official a few years ago, he responded that we would all have flying cars before that ever happens. I think what he really meant to say it would happen when monkeys learn to fly.
Another potential route off the mountain would be the road down the back side of the mountain to Squint’s Ranch, where there is or used to be a landing strip. Again, we’ll probably all have flying cars – or else monkeys will have learned how to fly – but at least we’d have a landing strip for our flying cars. In the meantime…
Keep it flyin’,
Uncle Mott
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