Slid past Abbottsford…just across the 49th parallel…
and headed east to have a better look at Mt. Baker.
Direct Yakima would take me over the most remote high terrain in the area, so I hugged the western edge of the coastal ranges…
crossing the Skagit between Cement and Sedro Woolley
and I-90 west of where it runs through Snoqualmie National Forrest.
Were I driving to Yakima, this would be the route.
Mt Ranier soon appeared and is the visage standing over the Yakima Control Tower and the aiming point for all Rwy.22 departures.
Dirty mouthed St. Helen…still showing ash from her 1980 eruption …lies further south and west.
What’s in Yakima?
fun things!
I was given a wonderful tour of the Cub Crafters plant by a knowledgeable and lovely young woman whose enthusiasim extended to the “sling” rear seat in which she had ridden to Oshkosh….now that’s enthusiasm!
Demand is so high for the Carbon Cubs that they have curtailed some production of other models to satisfy this demand.
After a little more than an hour on the ground I was off to Portland to visit a neighbor from Baltimore.
The approach to Hillsboro from the north required a mid-field crossing of Portland International….
the resultant view of the city was great.
A RON filled with reminiscence and catching up and I was off in the morning….thinking Tahoe.
Again, a direct route would have me hung out over some pretty thin terrain so I went south toward Salem, then flew the drainage of Detroit Lake toward Mt. Jefferson, then south passing west of the 3 Sisters…still pretty empty.
The terrain was otherworldly…
but lush and watery.
Soon came I-80 and Truckee Lake where the Donner Party came to grief 160 odd years ago…
and then the remarkable blueness that is Lake Tahoe.
There are hundreds of boats, but I didn’t see many out in the middle of the lake…superstition, or just good sense?
Rain threatened the airport and warm temps provided an 8800’ density altitude.
This was a bad call on my part. Again, it is the busy (read “expensive”) season, the town is a good ways from the field and there just wasn’t a reasonable way to stay…so…off to Reno…a short 30nm back track.
Where the very friendly folks at Atlantic Av. were hooked up at a nearby casino.
I slept that night overlooking 1-LP…somewhere down there.
