Fri - Aug 14 – Fri
Randle, Wa.
Weather-cloudy/no rain



Up again at 7am (not sure we can handle these early hours too many more days in a row) to partly sunny skies. We drank the essential cup of coffee and then organized our day.



We’d planned on a second trip to the Ridgefield WLR today, but the weather wasn’t cooperating and the light was poor, so we decided to postpone Ridgefield until tomorrow. This gave us a chance to catch up on some of our electronic tasks.



Unfortunately the wireless Internet connection in the park doesn’t quite reach our site so we hauled our two laptops up to the club house, connected and spent some time catching up on our website, email and various other items that needed attention. Sure do miss having on demand Internet access…even on trips it’s become a necessity for us.



We fixed lunch and prepared to explore some new areas and hopefully find some sunshine. We headed east and along the way met two elk crossing the road, but we didn’t stop (surprise!) as we wanted to get to our destination...Naches, near Yakima, in eastern Washington. We were looking for fresh fruit and vegetables, mostly tomatoes. Once we crossed the summit of White Pass into the eastern part of the state the sun came out and things started to warm up…it really felt good! We took a lot of scenery shots along the way and eventually ended up at a fruit stand…loaded up on cantaloupes, tomatoes, and fresh sweet corn.



As we turned back to the west and drove up highway 410 on our way back to Randle the skies started to cloud over. The road wound through a nice valley and then began to climb, as we neared the first pass (Chinook , elev. 5,432 feet) the scenery was magnificent, when we reached Cayuse Pass we crossed the Cascade Crest Trail and found scenic overlooks all along the roadway. WOW!!! ... but there was a small problem, the darkening skies settled in on top of us and we’re in the clouds, could barely see in front of the car and could just make out the side of the road. Oh well…until then the trip had been great. Up the road not too much further we noticed another road to the left...there were no signs, everything was fogged in, so we pulled off and realized it was the road we were looking for to get home. Off we went and eventually (with only a few stressful moments) came out of the clouds into a forest with a lush green floor and beautiful, magnificent cedars, firs, and hemlocks were all around us.



When we neared Packwood we made some guesses as to how many elk we would see on the way home…50? 60?...turns out we only saw three, but the skies were clearing and tomorrow looks promising. Once home it was our basic routine, download/sort and crash. We’re hoping for sunshine and looking forward to a big trip tomorrow. The adventure continues…



To see more of 'The Great Adventure 2009' images click HERE