Rainier Loop

Took a vacation day to do a dayride with Joan (Mrs. RedTigre) up around Mt Rainier via 3 mountain passes (Blewett /97, Chinook/410, and White/12).  Had a great breakfast at the Liberty Cafe on Blewett Pass and then wound down into Ellensberg with the winds, wound down the Yakima Canyon road to Selah, a shortcut between Selah and Naches, and then up the 410 to Chinook pass.

They are still doing the road repair on the 410 from the big mudslide there, so the detour was interesting, and the pass beautiful! There are quite a few campgrounds spread throughout, but my favorite one to take a break in is called Lodgepole.  The air is so fresh and the water so clear...

Further up the 410 you get to the summit of Chinook Pass.  I have been by there many times this time of year but have never seen so much snow still sitting around, tomorrow is the last day of June!  

So, as I started the bike we heard a rumble and the mighty roar of precision engineering brought down tonnes of snow and caught Mistress in an avalanche!

If not for the sheer awesomeness of Teutonic technology, this could have turned out much worse...

Here we are after overcoming the challenge all safe and ready to continue our ride!

So off we wound down the West side of Chinook to the Rainier State Park Highway 123 that links State highways 410 and 12.  It was BEAUTIFUL!  Waterfalls galore, and sunny yet still a cool 65°. Speed limit is way too fast to enjoy the beauty, slow down and savor it. 

30 minutes later we connected to the 12 and headed east over White Pass where we stopped at Clear Falls, another place we have driven by dozens of times but never stopped.  On up over the pass, down to Naches and then a backtrack of the route we came down. We hit the Ellensberg winds again and I have yet another reminder why I dislike that area so, but we took the cold harsh winds at 50 mph until Blewett and then back over a most favourite run.

A great day trip, 370 miles,  Joan with me.

Life is good.