Roslyn, WA, March 18-19, 2006

 

This was the last weekend of Winter and I was keen to see the snow pack up in the Cascade Mountains.  It has been dark and rainy in Seattle nearly every day for the last 5 months, and what falls as rain at Puget Sound falls as snow in the nearby mountains.  The snow pack this year is at 120% of normal, and more than that in some places...

 

 

Saturday, March 18

 

I started the day in downtown Renton with a visit to the Met coffee house...

 

     

 

 

 

From the Met I walked around the block to Renton Western Wear, where I oft stop in to chat with the charming deputies...

 

       

 

   

 

 

 

Leaving Renton I passed Bigfoot Java...

 

 

Through Issaquah on my way out of the Seattle area...

 

       

 

 

 

 

It wouldn't be right to be in Issaquah on a Saturday without stopping in at the XXX Root Beer Drive-in...

 

     

 

www.triplexrootbeer.com

 

 

From Issaquah to Snoqualmie Pass...  about 35 miles...

 

Mount Si, at North Bend...

 

       

 

 

 

 

 

Snoqualmie Pass...

 

       

 

       

 

       

 

       

 

 

 

From the Summit I continued eastward on I-90, destination Roslyn.  Roslyn is about 20 miles east of Snoqualmie Pass, on the dry side of the Cascades...

 

   

 

 

 

Roslyn is on SR-903, about 5 miles north of I-90, near the Cle Elum River.  I parked Bigfoot for the night about 25 feet from the Roslyn Cafe and spent a delightful evening at the Brick...

 

       

 

       

 

   

 

 

Sunday, March 19

 

 

A beautiful clear morning breaks on Camp Roslyn...

 

I breakfasted at the Roslyn Cafe...

 

 

After breakfast I drove north on SR-903. All I knew about this route was that it traced the Cle Elum River and that it came to a dead-end in the Wenatchee National Forest, about 25 miles north of Roslyn and about 20 miles south of Stevens Pass...

 

       

 

     

 

 

 

North of Salmon La Sac I reached snowmobile country and the end of the road...

 

   

 

 

I spent a couple of hours at the end of the route, with only the occasional snowmobile whizzing by...

 

 

Back down SR-903 toward Roslyn, and to I-90...

 

   

 

 

East of Cle Elum, facing north, with the Stuart Range in the background...

 

 

Heading westward back over the mountains to Seattle...

 

 

Just as I crossed Snoqualmie Pass I was passed by another Bigfoot motorhome. I've had my Bigfoot for a year and 9 months now and during that time I've seen perhaps a dozen other Bigfoot Class-C rigs on the road...  but this was the first time I've been passed by one!