Washington Highways

and boy was that a long drive. Did it yesterday. Lewiston to Enterprise Ore via SR 129 and OR 3 is a freaking crazy road. Idaho 71 is pretty gnarly too.

On Wednesday I’ll be heading up to the southeast corner to tie some loose ends and take a generally scenic drive through Oregon/Washington/Idaho. Bold indicates new highway

Here’s the plan

ID-55 North to New Meadows, ID

US-95 North to Moscow, ID

ID-8 West to Washington State Line

SR 270 West to US-195

US-195 South to US-95, with a quick side trip to clinch SR 194

US-95 South to US-12

US-12 west to SR 129

SR 129 South to Oregon 3

Oregon 3 South to Enterprise

Oregon 82 West to LaGrande, doubling back East to Joseph so I can clinch Oregon 82

I-84 East to Baker City, Ore.

Oregon 86 East to Idaho 71

Idaho 71 East to Cambridge, ID

US-95 North to New Meadows, ID

ID-55 South home

I had some extra I-84 and I-205 photos in Oregon, and those are now up.

In the next couple weeks I’m going to clinch SR 129, and then loop back through Oregon on my way home to McCall. So I’ll get SR 129 in Washington, but also OR 3, part of OR 82, possibly OR 237, OR 86, ID 71, and the Winchester ID US-95 business loop, plus more of US 95 and ID 55

Huge update!

I took several drives without announcing them out of laziness or something, and now

I have added photos for

I-82
US 195
SR 11
SR 17
SR 24
SR 96
SR 99
SR 104
SR 170
SR 262
SR 271
SR 528
SR 529
SR 531
SR 532
SR 534
SR 538
SR 543
SR 548

Later this summer I will clinch SR 129, and possibly SR 26 depending on various circumstances. But I am in Idaho for the summer so no drives for a while. I’ll keep you notified as I get nearer my return to Washington

Also for more washington highway goodness, check out this site. It’s quite an undertaking driving every mile of highway in Washington. Attempting to do it in numerical order is even more impressive (for instance SR 902, 903, and 904 will require two separate trips to the Spokane Area to drive 12 miles of highway (with a trip to Redmond in the middle). If he completes it, that will be awesome. I bid him the best of luck.

Just a knot tier, allowing me to (finally) clinch Jefferson and Kitsap counties plus getting some vital missing King/Snohomish county links

Got SRs 96, 99, and 104 clinched.

Got really lucky on the Edmonds Kingston SR 104 ferry. I was on the ferry that had the pump problem.  I happened to watch the pump problem in action, although I stupidly did not take pictures- not realizing the magnitude of the situation. Had I missed that ferry, I’d'a been stuck which would not have made me a happy person.

I’m a big fan of SR 96. If I have to ever live here full time, I want to live off SR 96. It’s near the city but seems rural and has lots of barns and windy hilly roads and it’s just awesome.

SR 99 was not so much fun, nothing like 40 miles of 35 MPH stoplight traffic (minus the viaduct)

Anyway, next week I’ll probably head out again but I’m not sure where. I’ve got three more real drives planned, one down south to get SRs 504-506, SR 508, US 12, and SR 122, and then another to head north to get the remaining 52x/53x/54x highways.  A third would clinch SR 530 and get the North Cascades portion of SR 20 done, but I have to hold out for the opening of the pass.

I’ll probably go north, south, SR 20 and I have 5 weeks to complete them

All sorts of stuff going on. First, the highways:

Since I last posted I have clinched and uploaded photos of SRs

• 14
• 141
• 141 SPUR
• I-205
• 290
• I-5
• 500
• 501
• 502
• 503
• 503 SPUR
• 902
• 904
• 906

So, tons of fun reading there. I’ve also got some more stuff from Idaho and Oregon to put up, and to simplify things I’ve moved them to their own separate pages as I’m beginning to accumulate a decent number of photos from each of those states.

As far as the future, I’m in a fund jam right now, probably in a couple weeks you’ll see me take some drives, namely the “North” drive I’ve been putting off forever.

Also, I’ve finally clinched a subset of highways (admittedly the shortest one). I have now driven every mile of three digit interstate in the state of Washington (and I’m only part of I-82 away from having the whole Washington interstate system).

First off, I uploaded and posted all the photos from the drive home, so there’s some stuff to check out with  regards to US-97/SR 14/SR 142/SR 10/US-395

Tomorrow, weather permitting, I’m going to head back south and make some big progress.

Right now the plan is to clinch the following:

I-5, I-205, SR 14, SR 141, SR 141 SPUR, SR 500, SR 501, SR 502, SR 503, SR 503 SPUR

That’s a lot of mileage and will be a lot of fun. As long as when I wake up the weather isn’t insane, I’ll be going for it.

I’m a little bummed because when this is over I’ll have all of I-84 from I-205 to the Idaho State Line clinched except for the stretch between OR-35 and US-197. If I had time I’d do it, but for now the primary focus of this site is on the state of Washington and I don’t have time to go another 50 miles out of my way to take pictures in Oregon- I’m going to be pretty pressed for time as it is.

I did everything I intended to, so I am halfway done with SR 14, clinched SR 142, US 97, SR 903, SR 10, and all is good.

A few quick notes before I go to bed:

• I clinched US 97! If you would have told me I’d finish that before I-5 I would have said “WTF mate?”
• Speaking of that, I may head to the Portland pretty soon (maybe as soon as this weekend weather depending) to finish SR 14 and then all the 500-503, I-5, etc
• SR 142 is fucked up.

One lane, narrow switchbacks with no guardrails. It’s a primitive, scary highway to drive on. To the right is a 1000 foot drop. I only encountered one incoming car and it was a tight squeeze. You can sort of see how the width of the car matches with the highway from that photo. More on that in the SR 142 page whenever I put it up, though.

Welcome to the first half of 2008! This should be a fun-filled year. I have several drives planned in the next semester. Here they are in order of expected completion:

1. “The Drive Back” (clinch SRs 10, 142, 903 and US 97, make progress on SR 14, US 395) (roads looking good, I am confident this will happen)

2. “Mossyrock” (clinch SRs 122, 504, 505, 506, 508, US 12)

3. “North” (clinch SRs 11, 92, 528, 529, 531, 532, 534, 538, 543, 548)
4. “Portland” (clinch SRs 14, 141, 500, 501, 502, 503, I-5, I-205)

5. “Ferry” (clinch SRs 99, 104, 160, 304, 305, 339 (if possible), 519)

6. “Pateros” (clinch SR 530, progress on SR 20)

7. “Back East” (clinch SR 172, 203, 207, 281, 283, progress on SRs 17, 21, 28, US 2)

8. “The Drive Home” (clinch US 195, SRs 28, 170, 171, 262, 271, 282, 906, progress on SR 17, SR 26, US 2)

9*. “Skiing” (clinch SR 542)

*I plan on going skiing at Mt. Baker. I just don’t know when

Those are the big foci. I am committed to completing those this semester. Ideally I will also make an additional trek or two out to north-central Washington to drive some highways.

Should be a fun year.

If that all works out as planned, I’ve got a pretty paltry list of highways left.

Something like,

Finish:  I-82, US 395, SRs  17, 20, 21, 165 (165 is washed up to its southern terminus, who knows what will happen), 240,  241

Start and Finish: SRs  25, 26, 27, 31 ,123, 129, 194, 206, 211, 221, 225, 231, 243, 260, 261, 263, 270, 274, 278, 290, 291, 292, 821, 902, 904

And I should get SR 129 done next summer. I’m one drive away from 26, 270, 194 being completed. All the Spokane area stuff is just one big drive,  SR 27 corridor is one drive. My only real concern is SR 20 and 21. Everything else is quite doable in the upcoming calendar year.

The drive home was a certain disappointment on the Washington Highway front. I left Tacoma at about 5:30 in the morning and drove down to Vancouver. I killed some time down there for the sun to come up and then started motoring down SR 14.

As soon as I got on 14 it started raining like there was no tomorrow. All photos were blurry, rain soaked, and disgusting. I cut my losses and drove all the way to US 197 with the camera off. I got gas in Dallesport and it started raining again. I managed to clinch US 197 but I decided that if the weather was going to be cloudy and crummy I may as well stick on I-84 in Oregon, where quality pictures are desired but not demanded.

I did get off and drive the Biggs Bridge (US 97) before it closes. I may clinch US 97 on the way home, but I’ll talk more about that in a minute.

So essentially I clinched US 197 and made tiny progress on US 97 (not even finishing the segment, for some reason I forgot to photograph the intersection with SR 14).

But I also drove I-84 from The Dalles to Pendleton, so now I have photos (not with pages attached yet) from US 197 all the way to Idaho.

I obviously continued taking pictures in Idaho, having not done that last time I was on I-84 over there because the construction was insane and taking pictures would have given no indication of the actual I-84 experience. So I did manage to do that. I now have all of I-84 photographed in Idaho except for the stretch from I-184 to the US 20/26 Broadway Ave interchange and from ID 82 to the Utah Line (about 20 miles). I’ll get the 184 to 20/26 next time I’m down there, that’s not a big deal.

Anyway, no significant new developments. I did, however, notice that I-84 in Idaho has four new Clearview signs. I hate Clearview. I don’t have pictures of the old signs on I-84 but they were a lot more visually appealing (Id Ctr Blvd?)

I also never noticed it but I-184 is due for some sign replacement. The overhead reassurance shields are all pretty faded.

As far as the next month or so, I have quite a lot of stuff from Oregon and Idaho I need to post, and then get US 197 up. I will be driivng back to Tacoma, and right now I’ve got two options but no control over which arises:

If I have to go through Boise:

I-84 back up, leaving early in the morning (like three or four), hitting up US 30 trail offs where appropriate and light enough in Oregon. I’ll then head up US 395 through Hermiston and into Washington over the Umatilla bridge. I’ll hop on eastbound SR 14 up to SR 142. I’ll clinch SR 142, head south on US 97 back to 14. I’ll photograph the junction sign, turn around and photograph from a northbound US 97 perspective. I’ll then drive 97 all the way up through the I-82 and I-90 concurrencies to SR 10 where I will replace the old photos. I’ll clinch SRs 10 and 903 and then head home, clinching 906 if light permits.

If I don’t have to go through Boise:

I’ll head north on US 95, clinching US 95 BUS in Winchester (light permitting). I’ll head into Washington via Moscow and clinch SR 270. Then I’ll drive over to SR 194 and clinch that and take local roads into Colfax. From there I will clinch SR 26 while also clinching SR 262, SR 170 and making (small) progress on SR 17 on the way. I’ll then head over to I-90, drive over to the end of the US 97 concurrency (photographing the concurrency from a US 97 perspective), and then I’ll drive up US 97 to SR 10 replacing old photos and then clinch SR 10, SR 903 and SR 906 as light permits.

Both drives have their advantages and I will be happy to do either. Hopefully the roads hold up.