Ageless and Evergreen

Turn back the clock about 40 years on the Santa Clara Valley and you'd have something eerily close to present day Yakima, Washington. To tell you the truth it's a little unnerving. Main Street Yakima has the same feel that San Jose's San Carlos Street used to have. The apple orchards of Yakima bring back memories of the Valley's walnut, prune and apricot orchards, and Yakima even has world class wineries just like the Almaden, Paul Masson and Mirassou wineries that Santa Clara Valley once had.

Add to that the similar climates--warm, mild days followed by cool nights, with Yakima boasting about it's 300 days of sunshine a year, and it really does feel like stepping through a portal to the past. I never would have guessed in a million years that I'd find my childhood again right smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Northwest, but that's what it feels like. Well, not my childhood exactly, but perhaps another glance at the world I grew up in.

Needless to say I like Yakima. I left there this morning on US 12, first driving west past apple orchards and then along the banks of Tieton River and Rimrock Lake up to White Pass. I think it's fair to say that I've driven a lot of roads in America, both east and west and north and south, and in my experience westbound US 12 out of Yakima has to be one of the prettiest drives I've ever taken. It ranks right up there with the Colonial Parkway in Virginia, the Natchez Park Traceway in Mississippi, and of course Highway 1 along California's Pacific coast.

I wish I would have stopped to take some pictures but I was enjoying the drive so much that I just couldn't bring myself to stop. Of course driving it early on a sunny Friday morning meant I had the whole road practically to myself, which definitely makes a big difference. Anyways, coming down from Hope Pass I made a right turn at WA Rte. 123 and began the awe inspiring ascent to Mt. Ranier, where I spent most of the day today.

Mt. Ranier is basically a hiking park (much like Olympic National Park), which means that if you want to get anywhere to see the sights you're probably going to have to hoof it. Keep in mind also that Mt. Ranier is also a mountain, and a rather tall and vertical mountain at that. Now I try to walk everyday and go hiking when I can so I'm not a completly out of shape couch potato, but some of these trails, trails rated moderate I might add, are real lung burners. I went to a place called Paradise and got winded just going from the parking lot to the visitors center (and I wasn't the only one, either. I passed some other people bent over and sucking air along the way).

Rainier is really for the young and fit, and it's probably a good idea for us older folks to bring a cardiologist along if we plan to do anything more rigorous than a visit the gift shop. You think I'm kidding but that's what kept going through my mind today as I was climbing up some of those long, steep slopes. "Has anyone ever died going up this trail?" I thought. "Am I gonna have a heart attack out here?" Believe me, the thought will enter your mind. Trust me on this.

Other than that Ranier is a majestic looking mountain which, unfortunately, is a victim of it's own geography. Namely, it's proximity to Seattle. Even standing at the base it's hard to see the mountain through all the smog that drifts over from the population centers to the west. For those who want to see just how bad the air quality is up there the Park Service has even put out a little machine at the visitors center that continuously monitors the ozone level at the mountain. A healthy ozone level was around 6 as I recall, and the reading on the machine when I was up there was a very unhealthy (bordering on dangerous) 94. That might have a lot to do with my breathing problems today. Anyways, here's a link if you don't believe me.

And that's all I have. Washington's getting too crowded for me so I think I'm gonna head south. I pulled into Seattle today and passed a traffic jam that must have been at least 30 miles long. It ran from Sumner all the way north to Bellevue. Luckily I was going in the opposite direction, but it's always the same old story everytime I come to Seattle. Traffic, traffic, traffic, traffic, traffic. I don't how these people put up with it. They got rid of the Kingdome, I give 'em credit for that. Now if they could only do something about all this traffic and pollution.

Anyways, it's time for me to head back to California so I'm outta here.