North Cascades Pass

Tag: North Cascades Pass

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GREAT ROADS: North Cascades Pass

Posted by Ted Edwards | May 22, 2025 | Rides & Roads | 3 |

Better Than The Tail

Posted by Ted Edwards | May 8, 2023 | Rides & Roads | 67 |

GREAT ROADS: North Cascades Pass

by Ted Edwards | May 22, 2025 | Rides & Roads | 3 |

North Cascades Pass Highway 20 opens in early May if we are lucky, when the snowplow coming from the east meets the snowplow coming from the west. For a few brief months during the summer the gates to heaven open. It is seventy miles between dots of civilization so if something goes wrong, you are on your own. This is the Pacific Northwest, remember.

Better Than The Tail

by Ted Edwards | May 8, 2023 | Rides & Roads | 67 |

Legends grow as they roll along. Like snowballs they gather hyperbole packed deep in layers until the truth is buried somewhere way beneath. Telling and retelling of ancient stories swell the past until they take on a life of their own, only resembling the original in hazy memory. Good days far removed become epic, the older I get the faster I was and ancient asphalt snakes become the Nurburgring.
Highway 129, i.e. The Tail Of The Dragon, is such legend. Its 318 curves in 11 miles are fact, but there is also some legend around this stretch of twisty tarmac. The Tree of Shame, that tree at the beginning whose bark is a mangled plastic fairing testament to poor decisions adds to the lore, attracting swarming moths of sporty pretenders on everything from Honda Groms to McLaren hypercars. They make the pilgrimage to ride The Dragon, to get the sticker, buy the refrigerator magnet and say they were there.