The day started off fine. The kayaks had been loaded the night before so my plan was to leave reasonably early from my brother’s place in Burnaby, B.C. Was cool enough overnight to deposit a light film of frost on the windows but that was easy to remove.
Hadn’t counted on the fog,though, so had a bit of difficulty getting onto #1 and getting off onto #15. Once I got that bit of directional difficulty sorted out, it was a straightforward trip to the US border at Blaine, Washington.
I was a bit concerned that I might encounter some difficulty at the border. After all, here I was, driving a truck that I didn’t own, transporting three kayaks that weren’t mine, and carrying a large bag of camping gear. The border agent asked numerous questions but in the end was just as interested in asking about the adverse weather conditions in Eastern North America (ice storm and -25C temperatures) as he was in slowing down my travel. We both agreed that -25C was colder than he wanted to experience and, with that decided, he sent me on my way.
The last time that I drove in the Seattle area, I was driving a Miata. This time, I was higher up in the cab of a Ford 350. The traffic certainly easier to deal with when you can see over top of most of the vehicles in front of you. Didn’t help me much though when I was supposed to make a highway change. Found myself in the wrong lane at the time and the better manoeuvrability of the Miata might have come in handy. Eventually got lined up to head east and started to climb into the mountains. My next challenge would be to get through Snoqualmie Pass. I was ahead of schedule and the weather forecast was fine so when I reached the area of Snoqualmie,I decided to play tourist and go to visit Snoqualmie Falls before heading through the pass.(More Snoqualmie Falls images)
