Hwy 20, north cascades closed

[JamesW]

Morning paper over coffee revealed a 10 mile stretch of the North Cascades hwy east of Newhalem will be closed indefinitely because of rock and mud slides. The road is closed at the winter closure gate at milepost 147 to rainy pass at the Chelan County line. GO GO WSDOT.

 

[Niehart]

Skagit Valley Herald Staff


Highway 20 near Rainy Pass could be closed for days as state Department of Transportation crews clear multiple mudslides that happened sometime Saturday evening.

DOT spokesman Dave Chesson said up to eight mudslides of undetermined severity have closed the pass.

“We can’t confirm at this point when it will reopen,” Chesson said. “It could be days.”

The highway is closed between mile marker 147 at the winter gate and mile marker 152 at Rainy Pass. Chesson said the DOT will have more crew members at the slide location today.

However, Chesson said bad weather is also expected in the coming days.

“If that weather comes in when we are trying to clean up, we may have to move out of that area for the safety of the crews,” he said. “It must have been one heck of a storm. In my eight years of being here, I’ve never seen this.”

 

[CHIA]

Damn!! Thx for the head's up.

 

[Duster19]

Holy Sh*t, I just rode through there on Friday. The North Cascade Highway is one of the best in the PNW. Being closed, really sucks...

My ride report (video) was just posted yesterday....

 

[Travelin Man]

Thanks for the heads up, I was heading that way on Saturday........would have been a real disappointment to not find out till I got there

 

[Tyler]

Holy smokes... we were just there a few weeks ago!! I guess timing is everything... really glad we were able to ride it then because it is beautiful!!

 

[escapefjrtist]

News has been all over it the last couple days. Must have been some pretty bad T-storms to bring down that much mud...

Hoping WSDOT gets it plowed bulldozed so we can enjoy a few more lunch trips to Twisp!

--G

 

[dcarver]

Looks like good dual sport riding to me..

Come on boyz n' gurlz, break out the knobbie tired machines, ride, take pix,post up!

 

[Niehart]

Great picture Tyler!

 

[Tyler]

Great picture Tyler!

I wonder who took it...

 

[redneckj]

Here is the link to the DOT pics.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/sets/72157635037166187/with/9495958514/

 

[Niehart]

"Pass status: CLOSED, likely through the weekend: We can’t make a firm reopening prediction yet, but hope to be able to provide a firm date on Friday.

For now we can only recommend travelers should make plans to take an alternate route." Aug. 15, 2013

 

[escapefjrtist]

"Pass status: CLOSED, likely through the weekend: We can’t make a firm reopening prediction yet, but hope to be able to provide a firm date on Friday.For now we can only recommend travelers should make plans to take an alternate route." Aug. 15, 2013

Latest report looks like next week...

--G

 

[ahchiu]

Closed until at least Monday.