Dirty Werks

About Dirty Werks

When a real storm does reach San Juan Island, it tends to arrive after dark, and the Dirty Werks truck is usually already parked at the top of the Roche Harbor Road with its lights cutting through blowing snow. An island depends on its handful of roads more than most places do, since there's no next town over to detour through, and a lane left uncleared overnight can be the one thing standing between a house and the morning ferry. The switchbacks above town collect drifts against their cut banks first, so this crew works those before anything else. It's short, hard winters here, finished before the island wakes rather than admired after. Down in Friday Harbor by full light, the road out looks like nothing happened at all.