June 12, 2018, Chinook Pass

Wapiti Woolies served up hot cinnamon rolls in honor of Tootsie Clark for our trip to Chinook on opening day of highway 410 this year. We found 1-2" soft grainy corn on north slopes above 5500' from the weekend's fresh snowfall. North aspects have nice coverage, south are much drier than normal. There was lots of yellow (evergreen tree) pollen but none of the tarry sticky black stuff. Blue skies and light breezes made for a pleasant day with great views. We enjoyed seeing a skinning mom giving her two year old skier a piggyback ride for ski laps.

We are very thankful to WSDOT for opening the road even while much work still is underway. There is a half mile section of one way traffic a couple miles north of Cayuse pass alternating every half hour during the day.