Stevens Pass Stories

Stevens Pass Stories
I drove the Jeep over the Cascades many times with my tools in the back. I’d take Highway 2 over Stevens Pass (4,000′), which is very scenic. One of the longest railroad tunnels in North America is at Cascade Pass. It gets a lot of rail traffic.

Stevens Pass was the scene of a tragic accident with one of the Kenmore Air Harbor de Havilland Beaver floatplanes. This happened before I worked at KAH. A Kenmore Beaver took off from Lake Washington and headed for Lake Chelan (I think). The plane was full, eight people on board. A pilot and seven members of one family- three generations.

The pilot didn’t know mountain flying. Most KAH flights are up and down Puget Sound to Canada and the San Juan Islands. The plane was heavily loaded. The pilot headed up the valley, headed for Stevens Pass. He didn’t have enough altitude. The plane was trapped at the head of the valley. There wasn’t enough room for the plane to turn around or circle to a higher altitude to get over the pass.

The plane crashed into the mountainside and everyone died.

As for me and the Jeep, I remember one trip to Chelan Airways well. I’d brought my son along with me. He was a teenager. I was in my thirties. Mason washed and gassed the Chelan Airways floatplanes while I did an engine change for Nick Nolen, the owner/pilot.

On the trip back over Stevens Pass, it was spring; rain had been falling on the snowy, icy highway. I had to put chains on to get over the pass. Stevens Pass was deserted. It turns out that Mason and I in the Jeep were the last vehicles allowed over the pass that night. Water on ice is damned slippery. It wasn’t so bad going uphill, but going down was really dicey, even in four-wheel drive.

About 11 PM, the Jeep made it low enough on the western side of the pass that we could take off the tire chains. It was raining. The road had some slushy ice on it and water running down it. Mason on one side and I on the other, lay in the icy water, taking off the tire chains. We were soaked and cold.
Fortunately, I always bring along dry clothes. We changed into our dry, warm clothes and headed home to Puget Sound. That is the only time I’ve ever had a mountain pass to myself on a highway.
TJM