What an amazing weekend!

I just got back from three full days up a Hope Lodge, Steven's pass. Friend arranged it all. We spend the days exploring old train tunnels and ghost towns. Coming back in the afternoon for hot tubing and cocktails. We even got to go mostly through the old Cascade abandoned train tunnel 3miles long! WOW!

Friday Afternoon arrived around 6:00 pm. The road was very clear and traffic was not too bad at all. Barbara handled like dream. I picked up my friends Chris and Dean and we had more than enough space for all of our stuff. We took a few detours along the way, our goal being out for adventure with nothing to rush us back into reality. We explored Skycomish a bit took some pictures of a great big hotel right on main street. We then continued up the road a little past Stevens pass. Perry had arranged for this trip and they were waiting for us with dinner ready. There were 13 people invited up and each one of us were in charge of meals and we all split the kitchen and clean up duties. Had a wonderful meal then settled into some cocktails and conversation. I had brought up some movies so we watched Another Gay Movie on Friday night. A totally tacky gay movie that would normally be very long by yourself instantly becomes more fun when you are seeing it with a bunch of screaming queens.

Saturday morning was beautiful and we decided we go exploring some of the old train tunnels and see how far we could get. We started off trying to get to Wellington a ghost town where the biggest Train disaster in history had happened. I guess it had just come out of the old Cascade tunnel and the show was so bad on the Steven’s pass side that they had to stop. Two trains were stopped; well a huge avalanche came through and swept both trains and half of the small town away. The Railroad shortly after that renamed the town Tyre so the people would still ride the line and not get freaked out about stopping in Wellington. So anyway Saturday we tried to drive in but it was still snowed in so we decided to try to head up to windy tunnel. On the way stopped off at the new Cascade Tunnel and met some other train watchers. I guess it is a huge destination for train watchers. We even saw a train go through it. Pretty cool. Then proceeded up the windy tunnel trailhead. We made it almost up to the top but the trail was still being worked on so we were turned back. We came back at that point after walking about 4 miles and sat in the hot tub did dinner then finished off the day with another movie.

Sunday was rainy so we decide we would walk the old Cascade tunnel. It was rainy wet and very very dark. After climbing through some brush and fallen tree we found the entrance. We went in and walked all a long it. Perry was really great at telling us about how they would make the tunnel work and where they had made changes even electrified so the conductor wouldn’t pass out due to lack of oxygen in the tunnel. We saw part of the ceiling collapsed on the floor different sections had been converted in the wars to use for ballistics testing. We walked until we reached some pooling water and saw that there was no more opening at the end of the tunnel. Something had happened. It kind of gave us the creeps so we decided we should probably turn around and go back at that point and would look at the other side on Monday to see if we could figure out what had happened to it. This was the 12th time Perry had walked through the tunnel and the first time he was not able to walk all the way through. Had some wonderful Beef Wellington on Sunday night and finished of that evening with another movie and late night conversation.

Monday we packed and cleaned the lodge in preparation to turn the lodge back over to the owners. Vacuumed and cleaned until about 1:00pm then drove back down to the new Cascade tunnel and up past in on the old Cascade Highway. I love things that have been abandoned like that. The old highway has been turned into more a trail then anything so the road is pretty ruff but still has all the line stripes and road signs from just about 4 years ago when it was still kind of used a s a secondary road. The road gives into pretty big pot holes and lots of trees. It very cool. But you can only drive up so far because the original road bridge was washed out and now it’s only a walking bridge. So we continued on the other side following more of the old highway up to the old Ghost town of Wellington. It was a town until the 20’s when the new tunnel bypassed this area completely. They recently made this area into a great park with pathways and plaques. You can explore the huge concrete overhangs that are still there for a few miles and follow the trails for the old route. We walked around the read most of the plaques then went to see the other side of the Cascade tunnel. On the way we could tell that something had happened just recently. Perry estimated that it probably had happed with days of us actually being in there. The area was completely washed out and it looked as if a flood of mud of water had washed through it. The Park’s wooden walk way was buckled under the weight of something that had hit it on the end and the part where you would read the plaque for the tunnel was buried under debris from the roof of the tunnel. We figured that some spring, runoff, along with trees that are growing on top of the tunnel had finally broke through the tunnel and collapsed that end. It was interesting to see how wilderness was reclaiming what man had worked so hard to tame. We went back to the car and started back home, stopped in Skycomish for linner and then worked our way home in the crazy Monroe traffic. Perfect weekend. My legs are so tight today. I find myself snoozing at my desk. I’m definitely going to bed early tonight to try to catch up from that wonderful weekend at HopeLodge.


Hope everybody's weekend was great!