I gave the theme for the headbangers this week and it is LOST!
The idea came to me because a couple of weeks ago on our trip back across the mountains we got lost. Lost, you say. You sillies! How many times have you traveled back and forth across those passes and you got lost!!!
Well, they do say curiosity killed the cat.
As many times as we have traveled across White Pass and Chinook Pass in the last couple of years--especially after the big landslide on the highway to Chinook Pass which necessitated a detour for two years--we have seen the sign for Bethel Ridge Road--leading off of both highways.
So we decided to explore. From the Chinook Pass side the sign said Hwy 12--27 miles. We knew this would be winding.
The first seven miles were paved one lane road with turnouts. I think in that space we passed only one other vehicle coming toward us. The road wound up into the hills between the passes along the ridge, past several hunting camps. We reach a point where the pavement ended. Okay. Dirt road. We reached a fork, then another, then another. We followed what we thought was the right fork. We bounced along "corduroy" roads. We went up, we went down. the view was wonderful. We met more forks. Then we stopped. Which of these should we take.
Hmm. What should we do?
Wonder if the GPS can help. So we tried this:
The idea came to me because a couple of weeks ago on our trip back across the mountains we got lost. Lost, you say. You sillies! How many times have you traveled back and forth across those passes and you got lost!!!
Well, they do say curiosity killed the cat.
As many times as we have traveled across White Pass and Chinook Pass in the last couple of years--especially after the big landslide on the highway to Chinook Pass which necessitated a detour for two years--we have seen the sign for Bethel Ridge Road--leading off of both highways.
So we decided to explore. From the Chinook Pass side the sign said Hwy 12--27 miles. We knew this would be winding.
The first seven miles were paved one lane road with turnouts. I think in that space we passed only one other vehicle coming toward us. The road wound up into the hills between the passes along the ridge, past several hunting camps. We reach a point where the pavement ended. Okay. Dirt road. We reached a fork, then another, then another. We followed what we thought was the right fork. We bounced along "corduroy" roads. We went up, we went down. the view was wonderful. We met more forks. Then we stopped. Which of these should we take.
Hmm. What should we do?
Wonder if the GPS can help. So we tried this:
The GPS told us where we were. Hey, that's good!! Let's see if it can tell us where to go. So we plugged in Navigate to White Pass. It calculated.
And then it told us in no uncertain terms: "Turn around when possible."
We did.
Were we really lost? Looks like we were on top of the world. And it was easy to find our way back to where we started.
The next trip through we stopped at the Ranger Station and bought a map. We will take Bethel Ridge Road again.
But not too soon, as this was taken a few days later just a bit higher up the highway.
Not doing that on a winding one way dirt road.
Well, Mac, Richard, Tom, and Chris--I wonder where or what did you get lost this week. You can check on Wednesday afternoon with the links in my sidebar.
6 comments:
Well and truly LOST Kathy.
Great journey tho, and wonderful photos of your trip.
Well Kathy getting lost was never so useful. I have been lost while hunting the Pennsylvania woods and it is never a fun happening.
A good picture, so it was worth getting lost for
I bet you had fun turning around!
We spend a lot of time lost - or admiring the scenery as I prefer to call it.
Grampa S called it taking a shortcut, Liz.
I see that you are making up for your lack of hiking opportunity. That seems a lot like a hike by automobile.
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