The Cascade Loop

I’ve been jonesing for a good road trip for a while. And sadly, as long as I’ve been in Seattle, I’ve never ventured much further east than Steven’s Pass. With a slow weekend on my hands, I took the advice of some colleagues and did the Cascade Loop.

The Cascade loop is 440 miles of scenic highway driving in the state of Washington. It stretches from Anacortes, though the Cascade Mountains, past the Columbia River, and back down through Leavenworth. In a lot of ways, it was reminiscent of my trip to Anchorage last year when I cruised the Seward Highway. While the Cascade can’t match the natural beauty of the Alaskan highway, it is truly amazing in its own right. The upside is that this time around, I did it with the top down in my Boxster with a full tank as opposed to a rental cavalier riding on fumes. My momma may read this, so I won’t go into the performance difference between the two cars. I’ll just say I didn’t quite match my freefall velocity form last weekend’s skydiving trip. Consistent with my usual weekend sense urgency, I got started bright and early at 1pm. And I stopped at a 7-11 to pick up a free Slurpee (Note: if you ever go to 7-11 on July 11th, you'll get a free 7.11oz slurpee. How cool is that?). I was originally planning to stop about half way through and find a hotel. However, I had such a great time driving and taking pictures I covered the whole route in one day!

Ok, one confession: the actual route takes 526 through the islands. I skipped this leg since I’ve already done the islands and knew it would substantially slow me down to have to either take a ferry or bridges. Instead, I took I-5 straight to Highway 20. The first half hour or so was kinda dull. The real fun started in Concrete (yup, that’s the name of the town). Here you leave the small towns and start getting into the long empty straights and winding country roads. It became a bit of a struggle to convince myself to stop every once in a while to see and shoot some of the sights I was flying by. The wineries and fish hatcheries got no love from me, but views of Skagit river and the Diablo and Ross lakes were breath taking. Plus, merging back into traffic required me to take my engine up to the red line for the first couple of gears.

Winthrop was half time for me. Upon entering the town I noticed a sign that read, ‘Limited parking for RV’s’. Shockingly, when I made it to the downtown strip, it was nothing like the bustling metropolis of Seattle (which, I guess is nothing like the bustling metropolis of, say a New York). Instead, I was greeted with a strip of quaint small shops and the local biker club. After grabbing a light lunch and another bottle of water, I was right back at it.

As much as you hear about the rain in Seattle, you’d never guess there would be parts of Washington as dry as the stretch between Winthrop and The Columbia River. With no small towns or rest stops, this section’s expansive views were a reminder of how big a world we really live in. With no small towns or rest stops, this section was also the fastest. I took some guilty pleasure seeing how many cars that past me when I pulled off to shoot the Columbia River I managed to catch up with.

My final stop was Leavenworth. This Bavarian themed town is a popular tourist attraction in Washington. For dinner? Tradition German fare, of course. Initially, I figured this would be where I stopped for the day. However, still full of energy, I decided to put the top up and finish the tour. By the time I entered King County’s east most limit, I was pretty much sick of driving. This was perfect, when I made it home a little after 11pm, I had completely exhausted my road trip desire. Gotta love Summers in Washington!

Links:
- Pics
- The Cascade Loop

Jump

Now would be a good time to mention that I have a mild fear of heights. I don’t really like rollercoasters. I say a short prayer before taking off in a plane. So, when my good friend J mentioned that he was getting certified as a skydiver, I was happy for him, but not really interested. However, one day we started talking about it over IM and it didn’t sound that bad. I thought, if I could not be a wuss for about 60 seconds, I could totally do it. In true J fashion, he then kept egging me on and getting my friends involved until I agreed to do it. My friend Rod jumped too. The whole event was an interesting experiment in conquering a fear.


I knew for about a week that I’d be jumping on Friday. My general strategy was to not think too much about it (despite the previously mentioned friends sending me video a failed jump). We jumped in Snohimish, about a 45 minute drive north of Seattle. I was pretty cool until we got off the highway and into the surrounding area. Normally, the wide open fields, clear skies, and mountain views would be calming; however, this day it only served as a reminder of the vast open space that I’d be jumping into.


We jumped at Skydive Snohomish. The training was cool. I did a tandem jump, so there wasn’t really much to learn: smile, arch your body, and lift your feet when you land. They had us watch their own intentionally cheesy instructional video that walks though the whole jump. We then put on our equipment and met the tandem instructor we’d be jumping with. These guys are all certified and have jumped hundreds of times. Plus, the backpack they have carries a backup parachute and a computer that will automatically release a parachute after a certain amount of time if one hasn’t already been released. That said, I still had to have a brief chat with my instructor, Colin, to make sure he was generally happy, emotionally stable, and not going through a major breakup with a significant other.

I was calm for the plane ride up too. I spent most of it thinking about how I’ve spent my whole life afraid of this and how if I did this, I could do anything. The view going up was amazing as well. At altitude, a little green light comes on and they open the door. It is a strange feeling to be in a plane and see someone hop out. Even stranger to know you’re next.


This would be my second round of freaking out. We jump out at 13,500ft. and accelerate to 120mph. There is a little rail at the top of the door frame which I held on to for dear life. Colin told me to let go then started rocking. “1” he leans forward. “2” he leans forward. “3” we’re out of the plane. I think this is the most scarred is I’ve ever been in my life. It’s also why there’s no video on this post. I definitely screamed for the first couple of seconds. You are very aware that you’ve plummeting to the earth. However, after about five seconds, you begin to realize it is not going to get any worse. You can’t hit anything and die. So you might as well enjoy the view. This is where people fall in love with skydiving. The feel of the air is invigorating. The views are amazing 360 degrees. It is a feeling of freedom that can’t be match. That said, the feeling of a successful deployed parachute is even better.

You’ve got a couple of minutes to get to the ground. The parachute has cords that let you turn and guide it. At a more relaxed pace you can enjoy the view and actually talk to your instructor. The landing was funny. Apparently you can either stand or slide down to the earth. At the last minute, my instructor decide to switch from standing to sliding so we hit pretty hard. Colin was very apologetic, but I thought it was kind of funny. I just jumped out of a plane 13,500ft. up and my butt’s a little sore. I think that’s a win!