Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Running I5

Running interstate 5 from California to Washington is a common run for trucks. Its also a very scenic route. the normal starting points from the south on this run are San Francisco / Sacramento in northern California or Los Angles / San Diego in Southern California. The other end in the north is Portland Oregon, Seattle Washington and Vancouver British Colombia Canada. My run took me from L.A. to Seattle this time, but i have traveled the entire route. Coming out of L.A. going north the first obstacle you hit is Tejon Pass at a little over 4100 feet high it is a steep climb for trucks and an even steeper decline on the Grapevine side where you drop down into the Great San Joaquin valley.

The valley is a flat and some what straight run for a little over 400 miles and not much to see except farms. At the other end is Red Bluff and the start to climbing the Cascade range.

The Cascade Mountains will run all the way to Canada. The Cascade's are full of volcanoes, Starting with Mount Shasta.
Although Mt. Shasta isn't really the First volcano, it is the first you can get a good picture of. Mt. Lassen is very hard to photograph from I5 but on a clear day you can see it way off in the east.

Next to Shasta in Black Butte.
There are several more to be seen in Oregon and Washington like Mt. Hood, Mt. Washington, Mt. Adams and Mt. Saint Helen's but if i showed pictures of them all it would take forever to upload this page. So the last one you see when you get to Seattle is the highest Mountain in the Continental United States, Mount Rainier at over 14,000 feet you would think the mountain would be easy to see but, unless it is a clear day , Rainier can hide behind clouds created by its height. Rainier makes her own weather and can be ringed in clouds when every thing else is clear. As you can see in this picture if you click on it, there is a ring of clouds at the base of the mountain.



Be safe.