My friends and I play with our cars. We enjoy spirited drives through back roads and mountain passes. We push it somewhat but not too much. I wish everyone else did the same.
Today our PCA Los Angeles Region had a driving event. The first part of our drive was on one of the most well known recreational roads in Southern California, Angeles Crest Highway. The problem with that is it is a two lane highway crowded with lots of vehicles moving at various rates of speed. There are normal (read slow) drivers that clog the road. Some are nice enough to let us by. Many are not. There are drivers like us who enjoy a little speed around the bends but are generally safe. There are the bicycle riders who slog up the hill and always seem to be just too far to the left. There are the motorcycle riders, most of whom are generally safe. Then there are the crazy motorcycle riders who think the road is for a Moto GP event. They dart in and out of traffic, angle their bikes to the left and right and make insane passes on both sides of the double yellow line. The combination of all these 
vehicles can be deadly. It was today.
Our ride up Angeles Crest was fine. There were all the usual characters I described above, but we had no issues getting to our first turn, Upper Big Tujunga Canyon Road. Angeles Crest is fun, but Upper Big Tujunga is sublime. It is recently paved and has a great assortment of varying radius turns. That combined with less traffic then Angeles Crest made for an awesome ride until we teed into Angeles Forest Highway. Angeles Forest Highway is just about as awesome as Upper Big Tujunga. We powered down it for about 10 or so miles until we teed into Mt. Emma Road. Mt. Emma Road is pretty isolated. There are very few cars on it, and we just tore it up for about 10 miles until we teed into Fort Tejon Road, another empty patch of turns which we tore up for another seven miles or so before we turned onto Valyermo Road. At this point in our drive we were literally in the middle of nowhere. And the roads just stretched on for miles with no one else on them.
Our Porsches were screaming. The flat six engines, either air or water cooled, were just howling. Drives like this are an assault on just about all of my senses. I have the window down and the tunes turned up. I love to watch the line of Porsches strung out ahead of me. As we pass through Valyemo, the turns just keep on coming. We hop onto Big Pines Road and Highway before finally getting back onto Angeles Crest in Wrightwood for stories and a well deserved lunch at the Grizzly Café. As we had about 40 Porsches today, the parking lot was overflowing, and we were parked three deep.
After lunch I was on my own. There was no organized ride back, and I just felt like driving by myself. I was vacillating about how to get back. I thought about just going up and over Angeles Crest, but a huge sink hole had opened up on it early in the summer. It was unclear if the road was open or if there would be lots of delays for construction. So that left the freeway or pretty much going back the way I came. The freeway was not compelling. So I pretty much retraced my route to get back. That is with one exception. I opted to stay bypass Angeles Crest on the way home and stay on Bug Tujunga. Too bad I missed the turn and ended up back on Angeles Crest, which is not usually a big deal. It was today.
On the way down Angeles Crest, I noticed that there was a lot of traffic coming the other way. I also noticed lots of Porsches coming the other way. Many of them looked familiar. Many of them flashed their lights. I was a little surprised by this, as the turns come quick on this road and I do not usually get that many acknowledgements from 911s when I am in my Cayman. I kept driving and soon I was within five miles of the run out into La Canada, where we had started this morning. All of a sudden I came to a dead stop. Literally.
S
oon the cars in front of me, two of which were my Porsche friends I had caught up with, turned around and started going back up the hill. One of them stopped and said, “Angeles Crest is closed. There has been a fatal accident just ahead of us.” Thankfully, I have no idea what happened, and thankfully I did not see the carnage. So I turned around and followed them back up the hill, knowing that I had about a 30 mile detour to get back out of the canyon.
I drove that 30 miles slowly and carefully, reflecting on how fun can turn fatal. As I thought about it, I was actually surprised that given the traffic on Angeles Crest that there are not more accidents. As I was meandering down Big Tujunga Canyon, my thoughts became reality. We came to another complete stop for yet another accident. Thankfully, this one was not deadly.
For the past few hours I have been thinking about my drive. I love my car. I love driving in the twisties. It takes so much concentration that it is unbelievably relaxing, in a tiring sort of way. I am somewhat depressed, though. Mostly for the person who lost their life, but somewhat for me, as I may never feel the same way about spirited drives again.