Well, I did call in for weather one last time before launching on Wednesday and got an actual pilot on the other end. I was surprised when he told me what the weather said and ended with "it all around looks like a nice flight!" I asked him if he was a pilot and he said, ya why? I told him that pilots tend to give much more informative weather briefings and thanked him.

As far as the flight went? It was exactly as described by the pilot briefer, very much different than the first briefing. Low clouds (2000-2500 feet msl), long visibility (10+ miles), very little wind. It was a great flight!

And the reason I drove to Tahneta wasn't because I wanted to! I drove there on the way to the family ranch up in Delta Jct. I was under the impression that there was no way to fly through based on the briefing, which wasn't the case.

A WAY more experienced Sr. pilot/instructor used to tell me to get in the airplane and take a look. Judiciously, of course, and knowing whether conditions were stable, getting better, or you were in a race with descending conditions.
Obviously terrain would be a LARGE contributing factor to the decision to 'check'.
"Go put your nose in it" he would say, knowing I understood the above.

Too many times I have driven when I should have flown based on "VFR flight not recommended"!
lc

I don't think "VFR not recommended" is a cover-our-butts response of the briefers--it's mandatory for them to say it when the weather is marginal. But it's also worth taking note of the warning, because not all pilots have the experience to put their nose in it safely. Sure, if you're particularly familiar with the area and have many hundreds, maybe thousands, of hours and have done a lot of extra studying of weather phenomena, it's fair to second guess the warning--I've done it many times. The complacent newbie who has maybe 2-300 hours and thinks he knows it all should pay attention to it, because he doesn't. And like so much in aviation, the hard part is knowing that he doesn't know.

I do agree that briefers who are pilots tend to give better briefings, even the L-M FSS briefers. They tend to think like pilots (duh!). The other day, when I called for a quickie briefing for my little flight over Rocky Mountain National Park (I had checked DUAT already, via the AOPA website), the briefer was clearly a pilot. He gave me the usual airmet warnings about cloud obscuration of the peaks, icing in the clouds, and that if the wind picked up, which it was forecast to do come evening, there would be a sigmet for turbulence. When I said that sounded pretty normal and that I'd likely be on the ground back at Greeley by 4, he said, "Looks like a nice flight--wish I could go with you!"

But I've also gotten some pretty awful briefings, especially when the L-M computer sends me to a non-pilot briefer in Raleigh who has never seen the Rockies. It's hard for them to identify with what's going on where the rocks extend to 14,000', when the highest peak on the east coast is only 6700'! I can usually identify the beginning of a bad briefing, when the briefer asks "what state is Greeley in?"

Cary