Deadman’s Pass

Originally Posted On Just We Family Blog

Vacation Blog – Day 13

Today would be our last full day of RV travel. I was nervous about the unknown of course, but little did I know way back in California when we were trying to look at alternative routes home, that Mt. Emily’s roar was being overlooked when I was looking at what the route home had in store.

Although yesterday’s early travels in Idaho saw the state as quite flat, as soon as we hit Twin Falls, we truly started to see its beauty. Half of our trip today was through Idaho and she has her mountains and valley towns too.

We travelled through Boise, Ontario, Baker City, and La Grande, before climbing Mt. Emily. She was a beast of its own right, with stunning cliffs towering above on either side. The view is breathtaking but just when you think you are coming out the other end of Mt. Emily, you see a sign for Deadman’s Pass (Cabbage Hill/Emigrant Hill).

‘What?’

Once again, we are going up. Chain up area. View point. That has to be high right? The mountain’s to the left and right are now flat. I can see the road winding along the mountain’s edge ahead.

‘Never look ahead. Focus on the road.’

Runaway truck ramp; a sign that depicts a truck tipping over. I look at the GPS; lots of sharp turns ahead.  I see mostly sky, lined by a guardrail, ahead. We start going down. Chiselled rock towers on either side where they have cut into the mountain to create this pass through. I catch a glimpse of another zip around the mountain.

‘Don’t look ahead!’

Another runaway truck ramp ahead. We make it through. I take a deep breath.

“That was crazy,” I say to the crew as I stretch out my hands as I do after every gut check.

Our trek hadn’t been that intense since day’s three and four through Mt. Hood and Mt. Shasta. It still didn’t compare. Maybe Mt. Hood wasn’t all that bad, but adding snow and ice at the top of a mountain is not a cool trick to play by Mother Nature.

From that point, we were a fairly short drive to our campsite, arriving once again in the daylight. We were getting good at this. This time thankfully, we were even there before the camp store closed which meant we were able to buy firewood and hotdogs. We were going to finally be able to have a campfire.

We made a smorgasbord of items from packaged mashed potatoes and Mac and Cheese, to sliced cheese, pickles, lunch meats, and hot dogs. What was a camping trip without fireside dogs, smothered in peanut butter, at a picnic table fire side?

I didn’t say we were eating healthy on this trip.

After dinner, we went for a hike to a local state park called Hat Rock. We had bought a few bags of duck food to feed them, and ventured about 15 minutes down to the inlet that was fed by the Columbia River. Just across the way, was Washington state. We probably spent a good hour down there fattening up the birds, before making our way around the pond to make our return trip to the campsite.

It was dark by the time we got back, so I sparked the fire again so we could enjoy this mild evening before hitting the sack. I was probably out there a good hour, before heading inside. We were still a month or so from enjoying this kind of a night at our seasonal campsite back home, so I was going to make the best of it.

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Back to Day 12 – Leaving Las Vegas

Day 14 – Snoqualmie Pass