# Stuck at the brigde



## chasin tail (Mar 31, 2010)

Cut out if work early to make the night hunt and here I sit waiting.....


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## Michael Wagner (Jul 17, 2007)

A few years ago we were coming back from snowmobiling in the YooPee, we had a covered snowmobile trailer, they made us wait about 1/2 hr. then sent us across. The winds were picking up the trailer and pulling the back of our truck sideways, white knuckle all the way. We got to Mackinaw city, stopped at the B.K. for a break, listening to the bridge radio station we were the last ones across before they closed it.


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## GrizzlyHunter (Jun 17, 2005)

Yeah, that is no fun!

Years ago we were going up on Nov. 13th to Deer Camp and the bridge was CLOSED for the entire night due to highs winds. We stayed at a friend of my hunting buddy’s camper in Cheboygan for the night.


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## 6Speed (Mar 8, 2013)

chasin tail said:


> Cut out if work early to make the night hunt and here I sit waiting.....


If you're not driving a Yugo or other light car they should let you pass. Just a physics thing...


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## GrizzlyHunter (Jun 17, 2005)

6Speed said:


> If you're not driving a Yugo or other light car they should let you pass. Just a physics thing...


Yeah, I remember that.


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## Shoeman (Aug 26, 2000)

6Speed said:


> If you're not driving a Yugo or other light car they should let you pass. Just a physics thing...


She was a relative on my wife’s side


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## 6Speed (Mar 8, 2013)

Shoeman said:


> She was a relative on my wife’s side


Oops, sorry for bring it up then...


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## Shoeman (Aug 26, 2000)

6Speed said:


> Oops, sorry for bring it up then...



Nah, distant relative. It only came up in conversation after describing my UP trip to see Dr Suess on my bike.

I left that fool’s house on the western side of the border to head back home. 60-70mph gusts with logging trucks throwing bark and toothpicks at me all the way to St Ignace. Bridge closed...

Got me a jug and bedded down for the night. Got up early and it was still blowing, but they opened her up.

Construction on the paved side and I had to ride the grate (which feels greasy anyway) for most of the stretch. By the time I got off the thing, I swear a week’s worth of luggage was right up my ass.

While telling my story to Uncle Joe (from Manistee/Filer City) he mentions the lady that got blown of was a cousins of ..... SIL of one of his daughters.

That was like 4 years ago....


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## Buddwiser (Dec 14, 2003)

My FIL and his brother owned a trucking company that had the contract for hauling all the sand and gravel used to make the cement for the bridge. When it was finished, the bridge authority made a big deal about the Governor and a few others being the first to drive across. Not true...my wifes uncle was the first, driving a loaded short double across as a test vehicle. We used to have the paper clipping about it with a picture of him halfway across but we believe a nephew decided he wanted more than any one else so he took it. Don't know where it wound up.


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## mattawanhunter (Oct 30, 2011)

All these years and We Never got stuck!
About 4 years ago we left a night early in Nov for deer camp and stayed in St Ignace so we wouldn't be stuck.




Good luck, the Gales of November came early!


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## PunyTrout (Mar 23, 2007)

My friends would try to put the fear in me back in the day. I made a few trips over the bridge in a 1989 Ford Festiva with a 14 ft canoe strapped to the top. That car had tires like a bicycle but it got like 40 mpg. I drove that thing all over the place. I only got stuck once on a muddy logging road and it was so light I just jumped out and pushed it free by myself.


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## Waif (Oct 27, 2013)

6Speed said:


> If you're not driving a Yugo or other light car they should let you pass. Just a physics thing...


Ya. There was the coupe Yugo , and the sedan We-go.


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## M.Schmitz87 (Mar 12, 2013)

That just came up on my Facebook feed:


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## mattawanhunter (Oct 30, 2011)

Oh My, is that why there's so few people on here these days, everybody's on Facebook, I'm not a facebooker!?



M.Schmitz87 said:


> That just came up on my Facebook feed:
> View attachment 331850


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## mattawanhunter (Oct 30, 2011)

*Remember the woman in the Yugo?*
*31-year-old waitress plunged 170 feet to her death from the Mackinac Bridge in 1989*

*I remember driving over the bridge to deer camp after this happened, we laughed about it for years, but we also took a little precaution without letting your buddy know that you were just a little more careful driving over the bridge after that!*

*Anybody on here old enough to remember a Yugo!*


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## OnHoPr (Jul 21, 2013)

That was one of the last years for OTC licenses for bear. I had a late 70s Chevy 1/2 ton that I got U bolts from Mio and put a couple extra leafs on it. I had a 10' camper for it and four of us when up bear hunting that year + or - one year to Newberry, "DOWNTOWN Newberry" from the radieo.lol Yea, I think it was kinda windy on the way up and over the bridge that night. I don't know if they should have closed it down or what. It took me about a half hour to cross it @ 10 to 15 mph. I may have beefed up the rear springs, but it still had that 1/2 ton front suspension. The ole steering wheel was directed to the 10:30 position all the way. Fighting that wind with the steering wheel seemed like old lumber wagon with the worn out worm gears. I definitely had a GRIP on it. The passenger bud gave a "Kinda windy, huh" comment with a concerning look was the only thing he said across the whole time. "Slow dancing swaying with the music, I mean wind". Wheeeeeew. I remember the Yugo incident too.


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## GrizzlyHunter (Jun 17, 2005)

mattawanhunter said:


> Oh My, is that why there's so few people on here these days, everybody's on Facebook, I'm not a facebooker!?


Me neither.


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## Steve (Jan 15, 2000)

I'm in the yoop right now. It's been blowing lik hell all day.


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## sullyxlh (Oct 28, 2004)

mattawanhunter said:


> Anybody on here old enough to remember a Yugo!...


Had the one kid commit suicide and purposely drove over it
News had an overhead pic of where he went thru the ice with his tire next to the hole...


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## Lund Explorer (Jan 23, 2011)

6Speed said:


> If you're not driving a Yugo or other light car they should let you pass. Just a physics thing...


Yup.....









Pretty Big Yugo!


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## chasin tail (Mar 31, 2010)

Luv2hunteup said:


> I talked to the lady in the toll booth today. Reported wind gusts were between 81 & 82mph.


Got across as soon as it opened up, the winds was still moving the 3/4 ton where it wanted too. That was the worst I've seen it as far as wind goes. What's even worse was the camp site had no power, so no air mattress or electric heat in the tent, trying to sleep listening to trees snapping. Was a rough go this weekend, but will be back next again.


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## Shoeman (Aug 26, 2000)

Wild!


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## GrizzlyHunter (Jun 17, 2005)

Ford 800 said:


> I had an 82 Ford Fairmont coming back from Lake State for Christmas break around 1987. South out of St Ignace, 3waves douse me on the flat stretch. Car quit under the first tower. Wet distributer cap. Being next to the railing side, passenger of mine said he could see the side railing along the walkway swaying. Bridge patrol had to push me off. They closed the bridge an hour later due to winds.
> That old fairmont was shaking when dead up there from the wind. Never want to go through that again!!


WOW...I had a very similar experience. I was coming back from visiting my brother in Bruce Crossing with two friends on our college Christmas break in either 1981 or 1982. Heading South out of St Ignace like you with very strong winds out of the West. A couple waves sprayed my car and it was definitely below 32F. The bad part is that I was driving a 1963 Corvair which basically had no heat, so when the spray from the waves hit the windshield it froze almost immediately!!! :yikes: I hit the wipers in record time and slowed way down until they cleared a little spot on the driver’s side of the front windshield. I don’t think we hit 30 mph crossing the bridge that night. It still scares me to think about it.


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## Rick1973 (Jan 22, 2013)

GrizzlyHunter said:


> WOW...I had a very similar experience. I was coming back from visiting my brother in Bruce Crossing with two friends on our college Christmas break in either 1981 or 1982. Heading South out of St Ignace like you with very strong winds out of the West. A couple waves sprayed my car and it was definitely below 32F. The bad part is that I was driving a 1963 Corvair which basically had no heat, so when the spray from the waves hit the windshield it froze almost immediately!!! :yikes: I hit the wipers in record time and slowed way down until they cleared a little spot on the driver’s side of the front windshield. I don’t think we hit 30 mph crossing the bridge that night. It still scares me to think about it.


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## Rick1973 (Jan 22, 2013)

Crossed with my parents in late 70s in a 1/2 ton PU with a bolted on camper that stuck up about 12-18 inches above the cab. My brother and I were in the camper. We were the last camper allowed across the bridge due to high winds. We had to follow a wrecker that had a slide-in camper in a sling, hanging off the back of the wrecker. A couple of times it got swinging so bad it blew up against that little railing. The wrecker had to stop and readjust the straps before moving on. It took at least 1/2 hour to cross the bridge. The truck was rocking and rolling the whole time. My mother DID NOT LIKE IT!!


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## Swampdog467 (Jul 6, 2017)

mattawanhunter said:


> Oh My, is that why there's so few people on here these days, everybody's on Facebook, I'm not a facebooker!?


Nor am I. Glance over my wife's shoulder once in awhile as she's checking hers. We ain't missing much

Sent from my XT1585 using Michigan Sportsman mobile app


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## retired dundo (Jul 21, 2015)

mattawanhunter said:


> *Remember the woman in the Yugo?*
> *31-year-old waitress plunged 170 feet to her death from the Mackinac Bridge in 1989*
> 
> *I remember driving over the bridge to deer camp after this happened, we laughed about it for years, but we also took a little precaution without letting your buddy know that you were just a little more careful driving over the bridge after that!*
> ...


I would not laugh about someone getting killed


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## Biggbear (Aug 14, 2001)

My Grandfather passed away in Nov 1978. On the way home from his Funeral in St. Ignace the winds were just howling. The bridge was a sheet of ice all the way across from the spray of the waves. We were in a car and had to be escorted across with a salt truck on each side of the car. I was only 10 years old, and will never forget that day.


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