Portland, OR to Seattle, WA trip advice

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wannabeowner2

New member
Hey folks,

Steve and Sioux Toburen from the Dominican Republic here again. (Some of you may remember us from the Chesapeake Bay gathering two years ago.)

My computer crashed last year and I lost my log-ins to the site. But I've been a faithful lurker at least weekly.

Anyway, Sioux and I find ourselves working in Portland, OR this week and totally by accident we will have next Saturday, Sunday and Monday free in the great Northwest and then leaving out of Seattle on Tuesday! My tentative plans are to work ourselves north to Seattle on Saturday by way of a Mount Rainer scenic route and then Pike Street Market on Sunday (yes, I know it is touristy now. But almost forty years ago I "discovered Pike Street Market as a 16 year old punk on the way to Outward Bound in the North Cascades.)

And of course my secret plot is to accidentally stumble on the C-Dory factory on Monday and suggest to Sioux a tour! :)

So my apologies for a too long post but I wondered in great C-Dory tradition if anyone would be willing to share driving route suggestions, Seattle lodging/ must see ideas or any advice on touring the the factory. Many thanks in advance.

Steve

PS After 12 years doing the volunteeer work in the Dominican Republic Sioux and I took a "leave of absence" four months ago to take care of her parents in Kansas City. so since we are inthe great midwest anyway MAYBE a C-Dory might be inthe cards ... :)

BTW, if Bill had to have a problem, wasn't it great that it happened in Denver instead of halfway through the Inside Passage? (We'll be forever grateful for a great afternoon spent with Bill and El on Halycon two years ago.)
 
Hi, Steve. Portland to Seattle is a straight shot on I-5, no reason to try anything else as far as I know. Sights along the way, nothing really to recommend, but we enjoyed St. Helens - it is a bit of a trek off the freeway, but we found it worthwhile. Lodging in Seattle? Try hotels.com or something like that, all depends where you want to be and how much you want to spend. You might actually try a suites hotel in Kent or Auburn to be close to the factory.
 
A great side trip from seattle is to take a float plane from lake union to the San juans , go whale watching for a few hours then fly back and have dinner on lake union. Also I have it on good authority that the duck is a fun tour. have not been but I keep saying I will.
 
Actually she loves IKEA. Thanks Roger!

Steve

PS I know I can do the I-5 thing but thought we could go the "back way" in around Mount Rainer to see some pretty scenery. Or is it too early in the season? Also I have heard that some roads are now closed due flooding in the past? (I know this thread is a bit off boating but we ARE on our way to the C-Dory factory!)
 
Steve and Sioux --
Welcome back to the C-Brat group -- long time, no hear, and been wondering how you folks are. Sorry to hear about the family health problem. Are you folks thinking of staying stateside for awhile? We'll be up in the Pac NW this summer and although we know you are leaving soon, if you're back up that way we'd sure enjoy visiting and 'catching up' with you and your news.
Glad to read that you are still interested in some boating and looking at C-Dorys -- lots of options to choose from now. How about trying to schedule the Bellingham Gathering into your future -- great place to visit with lots of good C-Dory folks and would enjoy seeing you two folks again. Welcome back to the site and keep posting about your activities.
 
Yes, Tom, we've been for a great ride with El and Bill. But thank you for thinking of us. I know that a C-Dory 22 is what we want. It is just making the logisitics and timing happen. And justifying it too when we are landlocked in Kansas City and reasonably constricted on time what with caregiving two elderly and infirm (and fairly demanding) patients. But hey, given enough desire I say a person can justify almost anything ... :)

Steve

PS Hey Bill. REALLY good to hear from you! We were seriously worried about you there for awhile. We won't make Bellingham but don't count us out for the future. We are "stuck" in Kansas City till sioux's parnts improve and given their advanced age and general health that just isn't going to happen. But we are happy to be of service and trying to make the best of things- which just might include a C-Dory!!!
 
Just north of centralia is a wolf sanctuary. If you are into wolves it is a pretty neat facility. They do rehabilitation there. The howl of a wolf is pretty cool, even in the sanctuary.
 
Another perhaps somewhat off-the-wall suggestion - have lunch at Hattie's in downtown Castle Rock. We pulled off there returning from a conference in Vancouver, WA. Downtown Castle Rock is right out of the 50's, could be a James Dean movie set...and Hattie's is a real family restaurant, head and shoulders above anything you will find on the freeway interchanges!

I really don't know any "back way" to get from Portland to Seattle, somebody else with more knowledge of those roads will have to answer that one.
 
Steve - if you want to really go by back roads, go east on Hy 14 on the Washington side of the Gorge.
Turn left on Wind River Rd (to Carson).
You will go between Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams to Randle.
As an alternate route you can continue farther east on Hy 14 to Bingen and turn north on Hy 141 to Trout Lake then again between Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams to Randle.
The Carson route will take you closer to Mt. St, Helens and the Bingen route will take you closer to Mt. Adams.
From Rundle go east on Hy 12 to Hy 123 then north.
This will take you around the east side of Mt. Rainier.
Just east of Mt. Rainier you will come to Hy 410. Go north on 410 to Enumclaw.
From there you can go west to Auburn and visit the C-Dory factory.

The only thing I would suggest is get a forest service map at a ranger station for the trip to Randle from Carson or Trout Lake or have a GPS with you. When I first made the trip 40 yrs ago, it was only passable by 4 wheel drive and took six hours. Now most of the way is black top roads.

If you want more info on this route let me know.

________
Dave dlt.gif
 
Using Streets and Trips 2001, specifying Freeways to "dislike" and choosing intermediate waypoints of Longview, Chehalis, Puyallup gives a "backroads" route that closely parallels I-5. Predicted travel time is about 5.5 hours, however. Roughly, the route is US-30, WA(-433, 411, 506, 603, 6, 507, 161, 99). You'd probably want GPS or County and city maps to do it that way.

Bartman
 
oldgrowth":1yzikvrk said:
Steve - if you want to really go by back roads, go east on Hy 14 on the Washington side of the Gorge.
Turn left on Wind River Rd (to Carson).
You will go between Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams to Randle.
As an alternate route you can continue farther east on Hy 14 to Bingen and turn north on Hy 141 to Trout Lake then again between Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams to Randle.
The Carson route will take you closer to Mt. St, Helens and the Bingen route will take you closer to Mt. Adams.
From Rundle go east on Hy 12 to Hy 123 then north.
This will take you around the east side of Mt. Rainier.
Just east of Mt. Rainier you will come to Hy 410. Go north on 410 to Enumclaw.
From there you can go west to Auburn and visit the C-Dory factory.

The only thing I would suggest is get a forest service map at a ranger station for the trip to Randle from Carson or Trout Lake or have a GPS with you. When I first made the trip 40 yrs ago, it was only passable by 4 wheel drive and took six hours. Now most of the way is black top roads.

If you want more info on this route let me know.

________
Dave dlt.gif
Click to expand...

I'll second this advice. My brother in law has taken us on tour of all the routes described by Dave. He was falling timber on a main ridge just east of St Helens and directly in the blast zone the day before it blew. He would have gone up with the Mountain if He hadn't taken Sunday off. This area is well worth seeing. Have toured this area every few years since and the continuing regeneration of this area so soon after is absolutely amazing.

Jay
 
Dave has a great plan except for one thing....I could be wrong but
think hiway 123 got washed out last winter and maybe not repaired
and you would have do either go to Packwood and north on the
Skate Creek road or back to Morton to head North and then it would
be on the west side of Mt Rainier, if all that makes sense.
The national park got kicked pretty hard last winter and roads
got washed away 40 million dollars worth and I think SR123 got
to the back burner to speak.
Bob Heselberg ex road guy at Mt Rainier
 
Thanks to everyone for the thoughtful replies. And I apologize for not getting back to you sooner. I stupidly left my computer in the trunk of one of our seminar attendees cars and was off the internet for 24 hours. I still have the shakes from that traumatic incident!

Sounds like I better just scoot straight up I-5. All this mountain road closing and GPS stuff makes Sioux nervous. And we will stop in Castle Rock.

So IF the weather plays ball on Sunday is there a nice half day "drive to look at the mountains" route anyone could recommend out of Seattle?

Also lodging options you would recommend near the factory? (We're not fancy people. Sioux likes older, "antique" style places. Me? Just happy tobe along for the ride!)

As usual, thanks in advance for your help.

Steve
 
Try this - head up to Leavenworth, about a 2 hour drive with some great dramatic mountain scenery along the way.



Here's a mapquest from Pike Place to Leavenworth:


http://www.mapquest.com/directions/main ... %20Markets


MVC-001S%20E.jpg
 
I want to thank everyone for the great suggestions. We are back in Kansas City now but really enjoyed our time in Seattle. The weather was a bit skunky but it IS Seattle. So we did Pike Street market, the aquarium, etc. (And yes, Pat, we did stop in Castle Rock and went to the famed Hatties.)

The day we wanted to do the leavenworth trip the snow line was at 3,000 and all the Cascades were socked in. BUT the Olympic peninsula was pretty clear so we drove up to Port Angeles and went up on Hurricane Ridge. Stunning. Then we detoured back by Port Townsend on the way back to Seattle and had a great early supper at the Fountain Cafe. Then we took the ferry across.

Thanks again for the posts and the personal messages. You are a very special group.
Steve

PS Oh yes, Rich at the C-Dory factory gave us a nice tour on Tuesday morning before we flew out. Very impressive. We saw the just arrived mold for the 29 foot boat. Wow.
 
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