11/5-11/11/06 I skipped going up to the property this week because the pass was closed. I knew the pass was closed, but I started out anyway. I wanted to be there at the point of closure when they opened the road up. The signs said that it was closed because of water over the roadway just past milepost 40, but when I got there, the water was a foot or so under the level of the road. The flood crest had passed a few hours earlier and the water was going down so I figured the road might already be open all the way.

I filled the propane tanks at Gold Bar and figured I was past the worst of the flooding. But a mile or two past Skykomish there was a roadblock set up so I parked and waited. I learned that there was a big rock and mud slide over the road and they expected to get it cleared up before dark. I had a book with me so I got quite a bit of reading done while I waited.

When it got dark at about 5:00, a sheriff's deputy told us that at 8:00 PM they were going to make a decision whether to work through the night until they cleared it, or quit work and start again in the morning. At that point I decided to give up and I drove home.