A Viking’s Walkabout – Day 28 – Viking Navigation LLC

Vancouver, B.C. to Point Roberts, Wash., to Abbotsford, B.C. to Mt. Rainier, Wash. to Morton, Wash.

Distance: 363 miles / 588 km

Time: 9h45m

Waze sent me on crazy routes to avoid horrible traffic. Google Maps only allows so many specific way-points and trying to force the route to recreate what I did is impossible on one embedded map. Part 1:

Part 2:

I crossed the U.S.-Canada border into Point Roberts, Wash. A pene-exclave of Washington… “parts of the territory of one country that can be approached conveniently – in particular by wheeled traffic – only through the territory of another country.” As far as I could tell, Point Roberts had a few main industries, all of which seem to cater to consumers crossing the border from Delta and greater Vancouver:

Beer…

Parcel and package delivery. There are numerous shipping centers in Point Roberts. Here, a brand new huge UPS store. Canadians will ship goods to Point Roberts to avoid international shipping fees (or for packages that cannot be shipped internationally from the U.S.) and then drive across the border to pick them up…

And fuel… gasoline, in the United States, priced in Canadian currency (Canadian gas stations did not use decimals, so think pennies) and measured in liters.

I crossed back from Point Roberts into Canada and proceeded east. Here I am on Avenue 0 in B.C. The road on the other side of the median is in Washington.

I’m standing in Canada. The corn is in the U.S.A.

A Washington forest wizes past, as photographed from Canada.

After waiting an hour at Sumas to cross the border (for third time today), I drove Highway 9 in a failed attempt to bypass Seattle traffic. It was horrible. Hours upon hours stuck in traffic east of Seattle, population 4 million, by far the largest city I have been near during the past four weeks. I’m not happy. After a crazy route, I finally got around it and on towards Mt. Rainier.

Tunnel on State Route 410E on the east side of Mt. Rainier just south of the Chinook Pass.

Tunnel on Stevens Canyon Road on the south side of Mt. Rainier.

Stevens Canyon Road

And then, bam! After hours of despairing that I would never get a photo of Mt. Rainier without the sun washing it out… there it is.

Sunset in the Nisqually River, as seen from the Glacier Bridge on Stevens Canyon Road.

Sunset on the highway towards Elbe, Wash.

The end of the drive off Mt. Rainier could have and should have been so much fun. A drive of paddle shifters and hair-pin turns through the forest. Alas, there were 33 cars backed up behind a Prius with a white-knuckled driver out of their league and going 22 mph. There were perfectly good turnouts every half mile where they could have yielded. But no… Hey, 16-lane-highway-drivers! When people are behind you on a two-lane road, you’re the problem! That’s what the turnout is for.

I spent the night in Morton, Wash. at Seasons Motel… another nice local inn with good rooms and pride in their establishment. Ate good Mexican at Chimis. This is my last night alone on this trip as my son Zeke joins me tomorrow.