Pictures taken by John J. O’Dell

These are pictures that I took on the way to Grass Valley.  Click on the pictures to enlarge them and view them with Pic Lens which is the best way to see these pictures.

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We're about to sail off, soon as we start the engines

For all your real estate needs, call or write:

John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
O’Dell Realty
(530) 263-1091
Email John at jodell@nevadacounty.com

This video was taken by Blancolirio off of Quaker Mountain Road

This only shows the tip of the iceberg of the storm damage. Power was out for 6000 people or more for several days and I still see a lot of trees that have fallen or lost their tops.

For all your real estate needs:
Call John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
(530) 263-1091
DRE# 00669941

Snow storm came during the night and decided to have a seat.

Friday night, November 19 2010, it started snowing and by Saturday morning I had about six to eight inches of snow.  Just as I started to go to work on my computer, the power went out.  With no power, I have no heat so I figured…  I’d better leave for the weekend.  On the way out, there was a pretty good size tree branch in the road.  I managed to drive around it but I could tell this was going to be a bad storm.

The leaves are still on the trees and the snow is very wet, resulting in trees and tree limbs coming down all over the forest.

Looking up the road away from my house Saturday morning

Checking on my house Monday, November 22, 2010, there still was no power.  The road I live on loops, and I came up the first turn to my road and went up to my house. Everything was fine until I decided to continue out the other end of my road. Guess what? There is a tree lying across the road. One wire has fallen off the power pole and is lying across the road also. If you look closely at the picture I took, looking up the hill, you will notice the wire on the right hand side of the pole is not there.

Look at the right upper side of pole, wire has fallen off

Notice the tree and power line across the road - Monday evening

PG & E called me on my cell last night and informed me that there would be no power until Tuesday.  At this point there are about 7,000 homes without power.  Tonight, I received another friendly call from PG & E and they said there would be no power until Wednesday. (my house is at 3,700 foot elevation)

Well another night not at my house!

Looks like a nice Christmas Tree

The top outside edge of the hot tub has 14 inches of snow.

There's 12 inches of snow on top of the table

Looking downward from deck

Scotts Flat Lake Feburary 2009

There was a nice blanket of snow which fell last night at my house. I would guess that there was a little over one foot of snow which made everything outside look like a winter wonder land. My house is located in Cascade Shores about 11 miles from Nevada City and at an elevation of 3,700 feet.

From my house you can overlook Scotts Flat Lake and notice that the water level is very low. It is normal for the lake not to be full this time of the year, but it is lower then normal. In January according to Susan Sindt, of the Nevada Irrigation District, the level of the lake was 31,000 acre feet. (An acre foot is one acre filled one with water one foot deep). We have gained some benefits from the recent rains, since the water level has gone from 31,000 acre feet in January to 32,200 acre feet as of today, according to Susan.

Scotts Flat Lake Febuary 2009

The last time the lake was lower was in the 1988-89 season at which time the water level was at 30,000 acre feet. Susan also said that NID’s overall water supply for the district is at 87 percent of normal for this time of the year. Hopefully we’ll get a lot rain this winter-spring season and the water supply will get back to normal.

By the way, if you are interested in camping, boating or fishing at Scotts Flat Lake go to the website of the Scotts Flat Lake Resort

Looking at the Cedar Ridge Post Office

Today I took my Prius down the mountain instead of my trusty four wheel drive chevy. With all the snow on the ground and having lived in Nevada County since the miners founded this area, I should know better. But driving slowly and carefully I made it to my office.

Having to go to Loomis tonight for an appointment, I was working in the office when I looked out the window and saw that it had started to snow like in one of those movies you see where the hero is suddenly in a blinding snow storm and winds up completely lost.

I decided I better hurry up and get going before I got snowed in with my two wheel drive Prius. Going slow and careful again I made it all the way to Highway 49 where I was forced to a crawl. Managing to continue all the way out to the end of the freeway, or about a half mile, all traffic in the south bound lane came to a complete stop. As I sat there, my thoughts were that some unfortunate souls might have gotten in an accident. I also thought that it was funny that the north bound lane was flowing smoothly and with a lot of traffic.

Stuck in traffic

After about forty five minutes we started moving and I figured they had cleared the accident. As I continued on my way, I was listening to NPR and they said that Highway 49 out of Grass Valley was closed due to ice conditions. Now, if Highway 49 was closed for ice conditions, why was the north lane flowing like the Autobahn? I guess that’s one of those mysteries of life that we encounter once in a while, but never quite know the answer. If you were there, let me know.

Thursday started off in Grass Valley and Nevada City with a beautiful Hollywood-set snowstorm. I

Raining before it snowed

Of course, as with most snowstorms around here, the next day dawned with a small amount of snow remaining in town, soon to be washed away by further rain.

It’s always a bit amusing to watch people drive in the snow.

I came into Grass Valley in the morning, driving in from Penn Valley. It was snowing but no snow was sticking, and people were driving fairly normally. I went to Flour Garden and read the paper, enjoying the frisson of excitement as people discussed the storm, over coffee. There was talk of sledding and snowmen.

As usually happens, those without 4wd get a little nervous about getting home. And then people take to the road, afraid to get snowed in. The drive from the Brunswick basin towards Grass Valley was slow, and careful. Sensibly, most people stayed in the slow lane, following in each others’ tracks. The funny thing was, once in Grass Valley, while the snow was still falling apace, the roads were merely wet, yet people kept chugging along at about 30 mph.

The biggest problem in traffic on a freeway under normal conditions is not so much speed as difference between the speed of adjacent cars. The other problem is people doing things which are unusual and unpredictable. Once the snow starts falling, these problems are exaggerated. Some people drive extremely slow and others drive aggressively (typically inexperienced drivers with 4wd). The best policy is caution, and to accommodate those who are intimidated and avoid those who are not. Yet, I had to laugh, when halfway to Penn Valley, as the snow turned to rain, that many cars were still crawling along at about 40mph.

I took a side trip to Raley’s where I took the little video, above.

Just a few hundred feet above Grass Valley and Nevada City the snow was deeper, colder and more slippery. This morning the trees of Banner Mountain and Harmony Ridge were still dusted with white, while the downtown areas were thinly covered with a couple of inches of snow. Little enough snow remained that the daffodil sprouts along the offramps were poking through, promising warmer days ahead.

Post by Richard Webster

Wolf Creek at Grass Valley

Yesterday, a welcome rain after a dry January filled the creeks. This photo is of Wolf Creek rushing by the Northstar Mining Museum in Grass Valley. Taken here

This blog by Richard Webster