Worst roads encountered on a chase

[Dan Robinson]

What are the worst road situations you've encountered on a chase? This one I found myself on in Warren County, Missouri ranks up there:

https://twitter.com/stormhighway/status/1104561165756186629

On the Mulvane day in 2004, I was on a road in Texaco Hill, Kansas that turned into one of those two-dirt-wheel-paths-in-grass with cows walking on it. At least it was passable all the way through!

https://goo.gl/maps/a62fQm6BkWD2

I've also encountered plenty of the usual slimy Plains mud. I've never been stuck, but that's mostly because I turn around immediately once I realize the road is risky.

 

[Quincy Vagell]

The first one that comes to mind was in southern Oklahoma on a chase. I came up a hill on a dirt road and immediately saw that there was a small river of rushing water at the bottom. I broke quickly and luckily didn’t slide too far.
https://twitter.com/stormchaserq/status/726128224325918721?s=21

Somewhere in northwestern South Dakota, I followed a dirt road for a few miles before it turned into two tire tracks with tall grass between. It quickly got even worse (increasingly hilly/rocky terrain) and since it was the only road going east for the next several miles and storms on my heels, I was forced to bail out.

I also had a chase in western South Dakota that involved more than 100 straight miles on a dirt road with multiple instances of farm animals on the roadway in darkness.
https://twitter.com/stormchaserq/status/763265737842499584?s=21

 

[Bob Schafer]

May 2, 2001 I was watching a storm develop just SW of Childress TX from a dirt road. The storm trapped me such that I couldn't get back to my paved road, even though it was less than a mile away. I ended up stuck and slept in the car, pulled out by a passing farmer the next morning. That night changed my level of chasing preparedness in a big way, forever.

 

[Mike Thornton]

One of the worst roads I ever chased on was in Kansas. I was chasing on the back roads, and then my GPS told me to get onto another county road that was dirt to go South. Seems normal right? Well halfway up this "dirt" county road, it turned from dirt to complete grass. Now instead of the road being smooth with dirt, it was bumpy and dangerous with grass. What's crazy is that at the end of this road it had a stop sign. So it was definitely a county road. But I have never seen a county road in my life that turned from dirt to grass.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Stormtrack mobile app

 

[Marc R. O'Leary]

There are so many "grass" roads in eastern CO. Maps say one thing, eyes say I'll just go ahead and go back.

My worst was my first experience chasing Western KS. It was the first time I encountered the "creme brule" road. Looks dry, can actually walk on it, but under that crust is a primordial ooze that takes away all control of a vehicle after you break through. I barely managed to escape it, and by the next morning it had turned into concrete under, on and inside my car. It literally took days with a power washer, a screw driver and a hammer to finally remove it all.

 

[Quincy Vagell]

There are so many "grass" roads in eastern CO. Maps say one thing, eyes say I'll just go ahead and go back.

My worst was my first experience chasing Western KS. It was the first time I encountered the "creme brule" road. Looks dry, can actually walk on it, but under that crust is a primordial ooze that takes away all control of a vehicle after you break through. I barely managed to escape it, and by the next morning it had turned into concrete under, on and inside my car. It literally took days with a power washer, a screw driver and a hammer to finally remove it all.

I had a similar experience the first time I got stuck while chasing. It was 2014 and I was chasing in south-central Nebraska near the Kansas border. I turned on a dirt road that quickly had a downhill slope. Little did I know that this road was the “creme brule” that you describe. Knowing that I couldn’t get back up the hill, I continued forward, only to find another hill going up.

To make a long story short, I tried sloshing my way back up both hills with no luck. My cell service bordered between 1X and no signal, so several attempts to call AAA were lost. Eventually I got connected to a towing company and they said no one would tow me off that road, after they initially said they would. In hindsight, I can completely understand why.
https://twitter.com/stormchaserq/status/473205991417597952?s=21

After probably three hours or so I finally plowed my way back up the hill and got back on the main road. I think the sun helped to slowly dry some of the mud. I’m also fortunate the severe setup more or less busted, so I didn’t become trapped in a storm or miss something good.

Anyway, my car was covered in this slop. I couldn’t even get up to 50 MPH without the car violently shaking. Everything had hardened to concrete and it took a few days and several trips to a self service car wash, along with using an ice scraper to pry apart all the junk that was lodged in every crevice underneath my car, including the tires, which caused the violent shaking.
https://www.quincyvagell.com/2015/12/04/whats-challenging/

I got stuck a few more times here and there over the next two years, but I’ve been good in recent years with avoiding similar situations.

I do recall a dirt road in northwestern Oklahoma last spring that turned to sand... Since I was going downhill and saw the next main road in the distance, I didn’t bother turning around. Doing so probably would have gotten me stuck, since the sand seemed to be several inches deep.

 

[Marc R. O'Leary]

I do recall a dirt road in northwestern Oklahoma last spring that turned to sand... Since I was going downhill and saw the next main road in the distance, I didn’t bother turning around. Doing so probably would have gotten me stuck, since the sand seemed to be several inches deep.

I think dry sand roads catch people off guard. It's sort of like driving in soft snow or slush where it sort of just pushes you around. I have a tactic to these roads called "drive lightly". I sort of let the car float where it wants to go while maintaining soft control and not driving too fast but also not too slow. I can drive these roads usually at speed...the first time my wife drove one she white-knuckled and over corrected so bad she had to stop so I could take over. Again, lots of these types of roads as well in Eastern CO.

 

[James Wilson]

This is a photo of a road we were on chasing the Lyons EF-4 in 2012. Note the white vehicle in front of us down in a hole.

 

[James Gustina]

The Smoky Hill River Valley in western Kansas takes the cake for me (I believe it was June 4, 2015). We were due south of Quinter and cut east towards the Castle Rock Badlands area and it just went to hell the minute we got off pavement. The dirt roads are mostly chalk and when wet, are borderline impassable. I knew the area around the river had a shoddy road network but it did an absolute number on my chase partner's Honda.

A close second would have to be Texas Route 70 in the Panhandle between Clarendon and 40. Some of the largest potholes I've ever seen on a paved road made worse by even the slightest amount of rain.

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[Jeff Duda]

I'll nominate "Road 8" in Chautauqua and Elk Counties, Kansas. Experienced this road while trying to keep up with the lead storm (the Wakita storm) on 10 May 2010. Thankfully we were in my friend's SUV which was able to chuck through the rain-soaked mudbath of a road, at times able to hit 70, but fishtailing throughout much of it. 17 straight miles of this just to get from US 166 to US 160. And no, we were not able to keep up with the storm.

 

[S Kalka]

I also have to say that the worst roads that I have been on were in western Kansas. I have had those go from dry to holy shit with no visible clues at all. I try to stay off them if I think that the storm has crossed them, but I don't always follow that rule. So far I haven't gotten stuck, but I have rutted the hell out of a couple, which I try to avoid because I'm sure that pisses off the locals.

 

[Randy Jennings]

E2110 Rd in southeast OK. Was going from Durant to Hugo, but storm was tracking right along US 70, so we dropped south to this east/west road that we thought was paved because it had Google Streetview. It wasn't. We got behind and missed the tornado as it went thru Hugo on 5-9-16.

 

[Todd Lemery]

While trying to take a shortcut on a county road to get to our hotel in Childress at about 11:30 at night, previous rain had turned the road into a clay mosh pit. During a 1/4 mile struggle to keep the car moving in the slop (we were afraid to stop and turn around, fearing we wouldn’t get going again) we finally came up to a bridge where we decided to stop and assess our options. My brother got out to use nature’s restroom and discovered the bridge had been washed out. The only option was to turn back the way we came and hope we could make it back.
We found out the bridge had been washed out a long time and someone had moved the road closed signs out of the way because they were still using the road and just driving alongside what was left of the bridge and driving across the stream bed when it was dry.
The pic is from a dash cam when he realized the bridge was gone.

 

[Jason Boggs]

I don't take dirt unless I have to, but the absolute worst pot holed paved road ever is 287 from Stratford, TX to Boise City, OK. That road sucks ASS! I'd rather take a good dirt road than that one any day!

 

[Drew Terril]

Worst one I was on was somewhere south of Velma, OK. It was a county road, and there were so many ruts that I actually did a little articulation with my axles on the pickup. It was interesting to say the least.