It's approaching faster than you think!

Let's get this on the board so we can all work magic with our calendars! This Jaguar drive has become our signature event, and it has grown yearly! We have been honored to see so many wonderful examples of our favorite marque, and certainly the good folks that drive them!

This is an all day drive across scenic Hwy 2, for lunch at Andreas Keller! We return via I-90 in time for a light dinner and fond farewells.

Last year we discovered the Autumn Leaf Festival parade disrupted our parking plans, forcing us a distance out of town. We may be able to adapt, now that we know what to expect.

Here are our available dates.

Sep 17th -18th = No events happening

Sept 24th - 25th = Autumn Leaf Festival and Parade (Note: 24th is also State Parks Free day)

Oct 1st - 2nd = Oktoberfest
Oct 8th - 9th = Oktoberfest

Anyhow lets hear some thoughts, and date preferences!

Vince

Past Events!

 

Thanks for getting this started, Vince. My vote is September 17th or 18th only because we're likely to have better weather than in October.

 

Hi- new to the forum and excited to join the event with our FPace. I agree, Sept 17th or 18th feels like it will work best

 

By all means! Welcome FPacePNW!
We are always excited to see our event grow with as many Jaguars and owners as possible!

Remind me to point out Old Blewett Pass Road to you. If you have never driven it I would highly recommend it. A part of motoring history that has fallen just far enough in disrepair to prevent our low ground clearance cars any more. Bet your F Pace would make it a simple and enjoyable drive!

Vince

 

Welcome to the group, FPace!

 

Welcome! It will be great to have you! I also vote for mid September.

Thank you Clever for posting this thread. Guys/gals I might have to step back and let others do the planning this year. Clever is the expert in our group, but I don't want to take advantage of him and I'm sure he'd love a co-planner to step up and get involved in the behind-the-scenes work.

Anyone willing to help out? Might involve mapping, marking waypoints, printing drive handouts, coordinating contact points, making restaurant reservations, etc.

 

The earlier the better for us too. K. and I are planning a "bucket list" couple of weeks in Bavaria, Austria, & Switzerland in late Sept. to Oct. so will be gone at those times. Oh, before I forget, PLEASE let us visit Wellington (on old highway a few miles from the Stevens Pass summit and the site of America's worst avalanche disaster and railroad disaster all in one, 96 killed 3/1/1910) this year.

 

I'm probably not going to be ready this year but a drive to Leavenworth sounds like an awesome "test-drive" when we are ready

 

I thought you were going to say the site of America's worst JAG disaster (9/27/2104)!

 

Well, the 17th sounds good, but to be fair, what I would like each of you to do is pick 2 dates that would work for you.
As the month of August winds down we will try to get the date that generates the larges number of cars.

I'm down for the 17th or the 8th.

Swimref, Wellington sounds like a great idea! I might ask someone on that side of the water to drive to the location (hint hint), because when I Google Earth it, I'm almost certain it's the same gravel road with potholes (capable of swallowing a VW) that I had to turn around on, for fear of damaging my car.
To be fare, I only went about a half mile, but you know me... If I was willing to drive Old Blewett, and this one made me turn around, you know it had to be bad! A little gravel is harmless (other than we will all be in clean cars) as long as I'm not scraping bottom!

gene61jag - Wish you could make it. Bet we could find you a few empty seats if you like!

1.) Clevername 17th or 8th
2.) XJDanny 17th or 18th?
3.) FPacePNW 17th or ?
4.) Swimref 17th or ?
5.)
6.)
7.)
8.)
9.)
10.)

 

Vince, I drove it about 4-5 years ago, and it was a nice paved road with a large parking lot, many new informative graphics, and short paved wheelchair accessible trails to the west portal of the original Cascade Tunnel and the avalanche snowsheds. They were enforcing the NW Forest pass requirement for parking.

I'm going to try a drive up there tomorrow if I have time, then will report back.

You KNOW how I feel about "goat tracks."

 

Okay, here's the report.
The road to Wellington, known as Tye Road or Old Cascade Highway, turns off Highway 2 about 1/4 mile west of the summit. The road is exactly 3 miles long to Wellington, with no signs of any kind posted now. The road is not as good as the last time I drove it, but nowhere near as bad as Vince described. The first .8 miles are the worst, but caution must be exercised the whole way. The road is paved and quite wide except for the last .3 miles which is gravel and narrow. The paved road showed evidence of recent patching and grading, but still has many bad spots. There are a few other very short gravel sections, but the gravel has been graded smooth and has no holes or ruts. The pavement is in poorer shape than the gravel, but in general at least as good as Old Blewitt the last time we drove it and also better than the St. Helens "goat track." At every single "bad spot" there is at least a car width smooth part so every problem can be driven around.

The biggest problem is that holes and ruts are somewhat hard to see and not marked with paint as on Old Blewitt. If your speed gets up too high you can find yourself on a bad spot before you know it and you might not be able to react in time to go around the problem. No hole is deeper than 2 or 3 inches so no VW swallowing but nothing you want to hit with soft Jaguar 20" wheels. I strongly recommend that speed not be allowed to creep above 20mph to allow time to see problem areas and avoid them.

When we arrived at Wellington we found 8-10 cars and a large group on an organized "ghost town" tour. Although clearly the Forest Service and WSDOT are no longer encouraging tourist traffic there as they once did, there are toilet and garbage facilities and nice graphic boards explaining the tragedy and short trails to the original Cascade Tunnel west portal and to the avalanche site and snowsheds that were built as a consequence.

We had no problems (except getting the car dirty) but I will understand if the group does not want this slow (but only three mile) sidetrip. I think it would be pretty great to visit it once however, and the road may be in worse condition in the future.

 

Awesome info!
Thanks for the efforts you put into this Swimref! Lets let folks talk about it, as the site and distance will not effect our drive time across the pass. I'd like to see it myself, but have always enjoyed pulling into Leavenworth with a clean car. It could certainly be a road trip in itself if we wanted to gather a group for it... I'd be all in.

Heads up everyone! Muddydog has requested the JaguarForums banner, and has this years decals in production!

Lets look hard at the 17th, and get some folks chiming in on their availability to make it! We had 11 beautiful Jags last year, and we turned heads everywhere we went!
If we can lock down a date, then maybe we can get our Seattle Jag Club members to give a shout-out in their circles as well (hint hint)!
XJDanny did a fantastic write-up on out drive last year, and perhaps we could see even more classic beauties for 2016!

Start speaking up, so we can anticipate lunch and such!

Vince

 

I'm game for goat trails (goat for game trails?) any day.

 

I can make 9/8, 9/17 or 9/18. I would probably skip the side trip through the pot-holed, gravel road. Finally my schedule allows me to join you in one of these drives!

 

So... I can't do either Sept 17-18 OR Oct 1-2. I can do either the last weekend in September or the 2nd weekend in October.

 

September 17th or 18th still look good.

I'm up for the goat trails or whatever trails!

As soon as we nail down a date and time and meeting place, I'll invite the Seattle Jag Club members.

Can't wait! :-)

 

I'm hoping for Sept. 17th, meeting in Monroe at 8AM or so to get an early start. Looking forward to Schnitzel Cordon Bleu for lunch at Andreas Keller.

 

If I hit the 7:05 ferry the earliest I can get to Monroe is 8:30.

Decals are en route from the printer in New Jersey! Waiting to hear about the banner.

 

Sigh....
Always that 7:05...
I'm tagging along with Muddy, and for me that 7:05 means a 5(ish) wake up.

Hmmmmm
I might price out hotels in Monroe, just to save me from being beat at the end of the day...

V