The driver was led down a snow covered dirt road by aGPS system to an alternative route to the closed I-80 on Monday night. The Washoe County Sheriff's Office is in The New York Times.
Stagecoaches used to travel through the national forest and the Sierra Nevada on the road that was once used during the Gold Rush.
The Quincy-La Porte Road is closed in the winter.
Wendy Becktold, an editor from the Bay Area who was on her way to visit an ailing relative in Reno, Nevada, on Monday, said she had been unaware of that when she steered her rented car.
The New York Times has a morning newsletter.
She said in an interview Wednesday that she had been guided that way by the help of the internet, and that she was concerned about the potential dangers of using too much of a gps application.
They said that the mapping programs owned by the company wouldn't always account for seasonal road closings.
Becktold said there were a lot of cars behind them. Everyone was routed the same way.
Becktold, a senior story editor for Sierra, a magazine published by the Sierra Club, said she and her cousin had seen a tree limb on a power line and had passed many cabins as they were unaware. Becktold said that a worker in a safety vest waved them off.
Becktold said that the man said that everyone just keeps showing him their phones. He was like frustrated.
The tech company said in a statement that it was taking steps to provide accurate route information.
In light of the unpredictable conditions from the current snowstorm, our team is working as quickly as possible to update routes in the Lake Tahoe area using details from local authorities. We show a winter storm warning to alert drivers in the area, and encourage everyone to stay alert and attentive.
There are no warnings about winter road closings or unpaved roads on the maps. The detours were reported by SFGate.com.
A family of five from Southern California were stuck in the snow for two hours on a two-lane dirt road in Nevada.
The family wanted an alternate route to go to visit relatives in Truckee, California, during the storm, which closed an 81-mile stretch of I-80.
According to the Central Sierra Snow Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, more than 17 feet of snow had fallen by Thursday. Highway 50 was closed for about 50 miles in the Sacramento Valley and the Lake Tahoe Basin before I-80 reopened.
The family ignored the warnings and used the Dog Valley-Henness Pass roads.
The sheriff's office said in a post on Facebook that the family had been rescued, and that the family's gps won the battle of which technology to listen to.
The family had been using a gps application.
The Washoe County Sheriff's Office warned the public last week about drivers taking the same detour when using the gps device. Emergency responders were called to 11 rescues over the course of a year.
Caltrans tried to reinforce that over reliance on gps apps could be risky, according to an email from a spokeswoman.
Borrayo said that when people try to use mapping apps to avoid highway closings, they can be put in dangerous situations with unplowed roads and no cellphone service. People are always told to stay on highways and find alternate routes. We recommend that people stay put until the highway is reopened.
The Sierra County Historical Society describes the Henness Pass Road as a secluded and winding mountain road that rises to an elevation of 6,920 feet. According to the historical society, the road is a primary emigrant trail from Virginia City, Nevada.
The detour is about 40 miles away from the Donner Pass, which was named after the doomed pioneer family who used to cannibalism.
The company is committed to helping drivers navigate efficiently and safely, according to an email from a spokeswoman.
The spokeswoman said that the community map editors keep their maps updated with the latest real-time information. Drivers are encouraged to stay alert on the road.
Drivers can use the filter on Waze to avoid unpaved roads.
Crystal A. Kolden, a geography and disaster scientist at the University of California, Merced, said she was shocked when she saw that Henness Pass and other backcountry roads were suggested by the search engine.
In the summer, they are barely drivable. How reliable are these companies?
The 44-year-old woman, who was at her home in the foothills of the Sierra during the storm, criticized the maps on the internet. Some commenters said that drivers should take responsibility for monitoring conditions and that she sounded like a young person.
She said in an interview that blaming vulnerable people for going down the wrong road is the same as blaming poor people who drowned in their basement apartments in New York City.
Becktold was shown red dots with dashes on the road that she took on Monday. She said that the road closure warnings hadn't been there before.
Becktold said that it wasn't like they were just looking for a day in the snow.
Becktold had to return to Berkeley when she was about 150 miles into the trip. She said that her cousin flew from San Francisco to Reno through Los Angeles to reach her brother.
She said that it was silly that there was no clear information online about the closed roads.
The New York Times Company is owned by The New York Times.
