One Pass, Three Days- Overlanding Washington's Central Cascades - onX Offroad Rugged Adventures

Welcome to Stampede Pass. For the next three days and two nights, my friends and I will make our way across the Cascade mountain range, following remote roads and trails through the heart of the mountains. Our journey will eventually lead us to one of Washington's most iconic locations, Mount Rainier. My name's Carl with Offroad Landscapes and this is my rugged adventure. Said it before and I'll say it again, never hit a trail on an empty stummy. I'm serious. I'm gonna give it 10 minutes before one of those guys asks me if I have any sandwich. I might tell him no. Oh no. Oh, we're going. Welcome to a rugged adventure with Onyx Offroad. My name's Carl with Offroad Landscapes. If you've seen any of my other rugged adventures, I usually start a little slow, kind of tell you what we're doing, but Tim and I had a long day of traveling with my friend Tim. He's helping me out with filming and he was in our last rugged adventure. We're a little late in the camp. Then tomorrow we're going to start our journey which is going to be Stampede Pass. We're out in the central Cascades of Washington state and we're going to cross over the Cascades and drop over into Mount Rainier area. That's a crazy smoke. It's forest fire season and it's getting really bad right now in Washington and Oregon, but we woke up today to clear skies. The winds were kind to us. Hopefully we have some pretty awesome views for this trip. We'll find out here in a bit. For this rugged adventure, I knew we were going to get a little bit of a late start. I didn't want all of us heading out at the same time and risk losing a campsite, so I had Justin and Dale head up earlier that day and claim a spot overlooking the lake in the valley below. This is not ideal weather for a thick gentleman like myself. And that's where location sharing on Onyx really came into play. I could see exactly where they had set up on the mountain, exactly where we were, in an all in real time. It took the guesswork out of it. No wondering where they were, no trying to explain which turn to take. All that was left was getting up the mountain. Oh yeah, what do you think? You gotta hug it. Yeah, you'll get a nice shot in the morning. Yeah, I did a uh. Oh no, we didn't spot you until the um the actual spots where you were like parked in front of us. Yeah dude, this is a sick spot though. Okay, they look kind of like a glacier. That's Cle Elum. So Cle Elum's like under like dark red right now. Right. I'm gonna, Tim, I'm gonna pull forward here and then I'm gonna back in. We got up here. The guys captured a great spot for overlooking the lake in I-90 below us and then looking on the other direction we have Mount Rainier and a lot of haze but not too bad. It's been a lot worse these last couple days. Game plan is going to be Stampede Pass. I'm with these three awesome fellas and they have all explored this area different times of year, different areas, but this whole region they explored and I haven't. So they're my guide and I'm kind of excited for that to take a little bit of a different role. We'll wake up early tomorrow morning, get some sunrise, get packed up and we'll have a long day of traveling and traversing towards Mount Rainier tomorrow. It's gonna be a blast and I'm excited to see what the trail gives us. I think tonight we're gonna do some light trails of the cars down in the valley going on I-90 and then probably go to bed because it's been a long day of traveling for us. So anyways, I'll see you guys in the morning. I saw one the other day where a guy, he has um, is anybody gonna actually use that in the face? Yeah. He's like, yeah. Logan, come eat. So basically every time we're all together and we post a video, we have to put the... All right, all the trucks are packed up. The guys are ready to rock and we're gonna head down the mountain and then back up towards Stampede Pass. Let's get this rugged adventure started. Well, today's our big travel day with more than 70 miles ahead of us. We'll start by dropping back down from our ridge campsite into the valley. Once we're into the valley, we'll traverse through the old evergreens and old growth forests that make the Pacific Northwest famous. From there, the route turns upward again, climbing back into the mountains and traveling along the ridgelines towards Mount Rainier and Night 2's campsite. Day 3 takes us back into the valley and into the Greenwater area. And if the fires allow us to continue, we'll make our way to the Suntop Fire Lookout before bringing this journey to an end with a little bit of history. Guys, we got these uh, energy drinks, but Tim's been running up and down the mountain filming and so every time he gets out, I've been slowly pouring mine into his. So we'll never know until this video comes out. Boy, I tell you what, this running 50 yards, setting up your camera and running back, this whole influencer thing, it might be the actual thing I need in my life to get me in shape. Growing up in these forests, they always felt ancient and mysterious. Towering evergreens that disappear into the mist, the forest can swallow the landscape around, making it easy to lose yourself. I think that's what makes it so captivating. Summer or winter beneath the canopy, the forest almost feels timeless. Before Stampede Pass was a road through the Cascades, it was a battle against the mountain. In the 1880s, the Northern Pacific crews fought their way across Stampede Pass, carving a railroad through the most unforgiving terrain in Washington. Towering timber trussels and steep switchbacks carried trains over the summit, while men were drilling nearly two miles into the mountain itself. For years, they worked in darkness, blasting rock, hauling debris, and slowly forcing a path through the Cascades. Then in 1888, the mountain finally gave way. The first train passed through the Stampede Tunnel, opening a vital route between eastern Washington and the Puget Sound. Today, the trains still pass through these mountains, but deep in the forest, the old bridges, grades, and forgotten remnants remain a reminder of what took to conquer Stampede Pass. It really depends on what's on there. You sure about this, man? Yeah, well, I think so. I think I think if I hit it, if Tim hits it fast enough, he'll clear the junk and we'll be okay. Yeah, and if things break, you can just blame him. Don't back off that throttle. Just what's the saying? I think it's, I think, grip it and rip it. When in doubt, throttle. I didn't even know there was a jump. Well, yeah, I think with my rig being wide, I'll have to go up as high as I can right there, and then just watch how soft this is. It's definitely falling off. I say we go one at a time. First person gets through, everybody gets out. See if they survive. See if they survive, get out, spot the people coming through next. If I don't survive, you guys have a great turnaround right back there. That's like the Raptor. The bunker factor? No, the Raptor. If you don't survive, you have it. Yeah, if the Raptor doesn't make it, have a beer for me, okay guys? Yeah, I'll steal your, I'll steal your monster. Monster's mine. I'm gonna get quite a bit. All right, well, I think this will be good, huh? There's one thing that I hate more than anything, and it's shelf roads or exposure with off camber and crumbling sidewall of the road. It's the one thing that I just don't like doing, and if you throw snow on top of it, I'm turning around. Say what you will, it's not worth it. By late afternoon, the fires we'd been watching all day began to intensify with the heat. Luckily for us, we were putting miles under our tires and steadily pushing towards our second camp for the night. With every mile, the fires seemed to grow smaller in the distance until eventually we left them behind in the dust. This is where we're at in the day. A lot of driving, a lot of seat time. Oh, I went to the eclipses. Ah, take me away. Oh, juice of the gods. Anyway, it's been a hell of a day. It's been hot. Oh, back in the driver's seat, then off to camp. Hopefully nobody's there, and we'll get some good views all around, actually, I think. I think it's 360 degree views from where we're gonna be at, so fingers crossed. What's the kick out? What's the little thing left? Yeah, that's Tahoma. Tahoma? Yeah, it's like 11,000 feet. So when you're climbing, you go right, uh, alongside it to come up the Disappointed Cleaver, and then you get on the Cleaver, which is 15 and a half percent. No, the Disappointment. I was going to say Cleaver, Tim. And then you cross on the Cleaver to go up. So I climbed it. You can't see it, but there's a point right there in the smoke, you know, in that layer. There's a triangle, and at the point of that triangle is Camp Sherman, and that's where you camp to go for Edmonds. And Edmonds is just straight up the glacier. Which peak, the left or the right, do you climb to? The true peak is the We're kind of watching this fire. It's exploding here from camp. Luckily the smoke's not moving towards us. Amazingly, the views are here. The smoke overall in the state has kind of cleared out for us, so we got really lucky with this rugged adventure. But we've been watching all day. It's gotten quite a bit worse around four o'clock. I actually need to go on Onyx and look and see what the name of that fire is, and then I can look at the layers of air conditioning and everything. So see if it's gonna blow over here or not. Anyways, this camp is amazing. We're gonna have some dinner. Being out here is addicting. I still haven't figured out exactly why. Maybe it's the freedom, the adventure, or the people you meet along the way. I met these guys earlier this year, and somehow we instantly clicked. We're all here for the same reason, to get away and chase a See what's around the next corner. Somewhere along the way though, the miles turn into memories, and the people you meet become part of the adventure. He's running down or going to get his camera. I tried to get my steps in. I was gonna lie. We're running hills. Oh, this was a bad idea. Bad idea. I can't even speak, dude, because I'm trying not to run to leave without me. We're gonna wrap things up, hang out on the fire with the guys for a little bit, and probably check in pretty early since we've been driving and filming. There are some fires going on in the area. A lot of smoke in the park, so they've shut down the park it sounds like. I don't think the fire lookout will have that problem, but we'll check in the morning to double check everything and make sure we're squared away. Catch you in the morning. This part of the video is gonna be like, why is Tim doing that when the fire's already lit? Excuse me, boys. You know, they're not as bad as you'd think. Oh, we're really doing burgers for breakfast. I will play with the boys any weekend. I think I got Kenny on speed dial. Perfect. Well, with any good adventure, things don't go as planned. As we made our way down the mountain, we learned that Suntop Fire Lookout had been closed because of the approaching wildfires. For me, the destination was never the most important part. It was the people, the miles we shared, the unexpected challenges, and the laughter around the campfire. Three days in the mountains can pass in an instant, but the memories stay with you. I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to share this adventure with, because when I look back, I probably won't remember when the road ended. I'll remember who was beside me when it did. So every video we've done with a rugged adventure, there's been a challenge. This one was fire, so we've had a pretty intense wildfire season this year. I was hoping Suntop would be open. We got informed by the Forest Service as we were coming down the road. But the gate would be closed, so we checked it out. Obviously, they were right. So Suntop, which is an awesome place to check out, some great history, and one of the more beautiful fire lookouts in the state, is totally worth visiting if you do this trip and hang out in green water. But sadly, we couldn't showcase it for you on this one. So we're going to wrap things up. It was a great trip. I want to say thanks to all the guys that came out here and helped me make this happen. It was a super fun adventure, and we're looking forward to the next one already. So thanks for watching, and we'll catch you on the next rugged adventure.