Washington Cascades Overland Tour 2007: Intro

For the past year, I’ve wanted to map out and drive an overland route through the Cascade Mountains of Washington state from the Columbia River near Oregon to the northern border with British Columbia.

Last year (August 2006), my son and I completed a portion of this route from Cle Elum to Mt. Adams (see Cascade Overland Adventure – August 2006) but did not go any further South because of time constraints. At the time, I knew little of any possible routes from I-90 North to British Columbia.

Shortly after that trip last August, I sold my Jeep YJ Wrangler and purchased my Toyota FJ80 Land Cruiser with the goal in mind to make it into an overland expedition vehicle.

Winter and Spring came, and finally, the snow thawed in the high country. With vacation scheduled for August, I started getting serious about mapping out a route through the Washington Cascades.

Just any forest road route wouldn’t do. I wanted more. My goals for the route were the following:

1. To be navigable by any stock four wheel drive vehicle.
2. To stay as close to the crest of the Cascade Mountains as possible.
3. It be scenic and well worth the drive.
4. To avoid dead-end routes and only travel routes that led somewhere.
5. To have scheduled fuel stops every hundred miles or so.
6. To break the route into sections that would permit staying in a hotel on a nightly basis if so desired.

So after several hours looking over forest service and topographic maps, I devised a proposed overland route through the Cascade Mountains of Washington state.

The route I mapped out was broken into the following sections:

1. Carson to Packwood, Washington.
2. Packwood to Cle Elum, Washington.
3. Cle Elum to Chelan, Washington.
4. Chelan to Chopaka, Washington.

With time constraints and projects at home, I finished up a couple of projects on my 80-series Land Cruiser to make it more practical for overlanding (namely a rear cargo box and a second battery with additional 12-volt power outlets.

With everything packed and ready to go, it was time to test the route. My estimate for the route was four days. That’s all the time I had, so I had to make it work in that time.

I departed for my journey early on Friday morning (08.10.07).

Next: Day One: Carson to Mt. Adams

Trip Report: Washington Cascades Overland Tour 2007 – Introduction
Trip Report: Washington Cascades Overland Tour 2007 – Day One
Trip Report: Washington Cascades Overland Tour 2007 – Day Two
Trip Report: Washington Cascades Overland Tour 2007 – Day Three
Trip Report: Washington Cascades Overland Tour 2007 – Day Four
Trip Report: Washington Cascades Overland Tour 2007 – Final Thoughts