"stuttgartobsessed" (grantharmsen)
03/25/2014 at 23:57 • Filed to: None
4
6|
"stuttgartobsessed" (grantharmsen)
03/25/2014 at 23:57 • Filed to: None | 4
| 6 |
It was quite sunny and warm this weekend up here in the supposedly cold, wet but always gorgeous Pacific North West. Seeing as Summer was teasing me I decided to go for a couple drives on Sunday afternoon and Monday. For each I had no destination in mind other than to find some fun twists and enjoy some good old fashioned top-down motoring. I ended up driving up Carbon River Canyon and finding a sweet distillery that is one of 3 producers of Absinth in the state ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in Wilkeson, WA). Needless to say I bought some. The Alfa performed beautifully on the twisty sections and I soaked up the rays on the straight bits.
On MondayI started driving down the back roads and after a finding a few dead ends in farm land I found myself pretty close to Mt. Rainier so I decided to drive up to Paradise and see what happened. I was somewhat worried the road would be snow covered at the top and I really didn't want to get stuck on the mountain in shorts. But I also wanted to prove to all of my doubting friends that my car could indeed drive up a hill and conquer the cold stuff. Fortunately Unfortunately the roads were bone dry but the clear sky made for some epic views of the majestic volcano.
While the dry roads made for great driving (and beautiful sounding rev-matched downshifts) the road to Paradise - really it's a place - was undergoing construction and the Hurst equipped Camaro SS in front of me on the way down the mountain was kicking up gravel. Thankfully it didn't crack my windshield. It hit my face instead. Though the Camaro was glorious to listen to.
Now I just need a better camera and a GoPro to document the fun roads and so you all can listen to the Alfa roar!
feather-throttle-not-hair
> stuttgartobsessed
03/26/2014 at 00:09 |
|
Good stuff! Pretty early in the season for this kinda stuff but I wholly approve.
You ever take this road ? It's my favorite in washington, though every year it seems to get bumpier and bumpier, and last year I definitely had to slow down and drive carefully over a couple of sections. Still it's an amazing road that tends to be pretty much abandoned. The stuff on the south side of the Swift reservoir tends to be smoother, though it's not just mile after mile after mile of twisties.
Any good roads you know of? I'm always on the lookout for more epic twisty roads, since the one i linked is a long way away from where I live in Seattle.
|
stuttgartobsessed
> feather-throttle-not-hair
03/26/2014 at 00:43 |
|
Never done that one but now I want to! I'm in Tacoma so its a bit closer to my but not by much.
I found this one but have yet to try it out. Though it's not any closer than yours. Driving up Carbon River Canyon is but but it's short and there are some nice twisty roads on the way to Mt. Rainier as well but you probably know about those. I'm always looking but don't always have time and this will by my first summer with a car that makes me search for fun roads but I'll be working just about 7 days/week this summer so won't have much time to enjoy driving for driving's sake.
|
feather-throttle-not-hair
> stuttgartobsessed
03/26/2014 at 00:56 |
|
Yeah, i'll probably have to go out to Rainier at least once this summer, I love that drive. I also found some a really nice super smooth dirt road up there last summer which was a hell of a lot of fun to get sideways on. I'll have to check out Carbon River Canyon as well, i dont think i've ever hit that particular road.
Here's a video of the road i was referring to. This was taken in the smoother part, further south, but as you can see it's pretty awesome. Apologies for the shaky cam, it was taken with my phone taped to my sunvisor. I need a GoPro as well apparently.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
|
stuttgartobsessed
> feather-throttle-not-hair
03/26/2014 at 01:02 |
|
nice! I took the sun visors off of my car beacuase they never stayed up and fell down whenever I hit anything remotely thinking about wanting to be a bump so there's no way to nicely film a drive with my phone. that road reminds me of the back side of Mt. Rainier (if you go up to Paradise via the road to Crystal Mountain). Too bad it's only open in the summer though.
What are you driving?
|
feather-throttle-not-hair
> stuttgartobsessed
03/26/2014 at 01:11 |
|
I believe I've driven that road on the back side of Rainier if i remember correctly, i've certainly been back there and found some nice stuff. Plus it's like mindblowingly beautiful back there. I wish we didn't have to go so far to find good roads, but i suppose that's the curse of living in a major metropolitan area and having hobbies that require nobody else to be around...
The car is a 350Z, that's why it sounds like a truck and takes approximately a year to switch gears. Nice, short throw, positive feeling shifter...and a flywheel that's so heavy it nearly produces it's own gravity. Which is not to say i don't love the car, but there are definitely times when i wish i had something lighter and more nimble.
mycarneverruns87
> stuttgartobsessed
03/26/2014 at 10:02 |
|
Great pics! The drive is what it is all about! You should definitely get a GoPro and post up some carving sessions for us.