Reading Into the Wild for the umpteenth time, my yearning for an adventure was at a boiling point. I made a deal with Keegan, my brother, if he graduated high school in June as planned, we would take an epic road trip to Alaska.
The planning began at once. First, I formulated a basic route, the i started researching specific places to go. ExPo was a huge help in that area as it gave me numerous perspectives from people who'd actually done the trip. I started adding must-visit destinations to the itinerary and pretty soon, we had a plan! necessary reservations were made, a departure date was set, supplies were purchased and a to-do-before-we-go list was created.
Keegan graduated on time (yay) as expected and our "hit the road" date arrived!
Our goal on day one was Long Meadow in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest and home to Northwest Fest, NAXJA's annual Northwest Chapter big wheeling run and campout.
Because of my dislike of interstate freeways and constant sense of adventure, I decided I wanted to take a back route towards central Washington. Looking at the map, I found a route from Woodland, WA around the south and east sides of Mt Saint Helens via SR 503 to FS-25 then FS-90. Unfortunately, I didn't do enough research and we discovered the road was still blocked by snow, only after driving 38 miles up into the mountains.
So, we turned around and headed back down to I-5 and headed north, turning off onto highway 12. We followed that up to Packwood then turned north on hwy 123 to hwy 410, cutting through Mt Rainer National Park. The scenery over the pass, the highest we would traverse on our trip at 5,400 feet, was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, because of low clouds, we couldn't see the mountains that surrounded us.
Since we were about to drive thousands of miles, we decided against wheeling, instead showing up the final night for the annual BBQ and raffle to benefit the NWC. Chapter President Darren's wife Brenda made delicious tacos while newly appointed treasurer, known only as TORX ran the raffle.
Keegan and I each put in $20 to the cause. Sadly, Keegan didn't win anything, though I walked away with some Flowmaster swag and a 25% off coupon from ARB! We also got goodie bags loaded with stickers, key chains and other good stuff. Darren was gracious enough to give Keegan and I some leftover swag to drop in Geocaches along the way.
After a fun (and late) evening around the campfire, we hit the sack shortly before the rain started (and the sun came up) along with some distant thunder in the distant. Not a bad ending to our first day.
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