The Gadabout: The Cascade Lane

"Vision is the art of seeing things invisible."

Jonathan Swift

Gentle Readers,

The Muse has finally moved me to post.

My friend, Patrick, whom - due to the magic of the internet - I've never met in person, lives down south of Portland Oregon. He has a blog where he recently posted a nice mental image: "I count nine vapor trails heading north, the Cascade lane."

The Cascade Lane....what a great phrase! I've cruised the Cascade Lane a number of times and made those contrails.

Normally, it being the Pacific Northwest, the ground is covered in clouds - or because I work for FedEx, it's dark. Yet for one glorious week in 2003, it was frequently clear and I got some great pictures.

The FedEx version of the Cascade Lane routes us from Oakland due north over Portland, Oregon to Seattle Washington. Here is a map. When you take off from Oakland, the noise abatement departure routes you over Oakland Bay. This is some of the most picturesque low altitude flying in the world. I apologize for the quality of these pictures..

In this picture, we've just lifted off from Oakland and you are looking directly north. Downtown Saffron Cisco is center left, the Bay Bridge, Treasure Island, and Alcatraz are also in the center. On the right is the runways from the closed Alameda Naval Air Station. If you've ever watched "Myth Busters" those runways are where they shoot many of their episodes.

The Golden Gate Bridge is under the fog north of San Francisco.

When the fog rolls into San Francisco only the tallest buildings stick up above the undercast.

This is one is from just north of San Francisco looking back south. The top of the Trans America building is just peaking out of the clouds. I think the California Center is the building just beyond that.

Further up the bay, looking back south, it looks like this:

Then you turn north and the first real landmark is Mt. Lassen,

and then Mt Shasta.

Mount Shasta begins a nearly continuous string of volcanoes caused by the subduction of the Pacific Plate under the North American Plate. You fly directly over the top of Mt Shasta.

Soon after that you pass what I think is one of the best volcanic features of the Cascade Lane: Crater Lake. It was formed by the collapse of a volcanic caldera.

Then comes the Three Sisters.

So far, these volcanoes have been smallish. (with the exception of Mt Shasta...) As you near Portland, Oregon, you begin to see the monsters. Here is Mt Jefferson and Mt Hood.

Mt Jefferson up closer:

Next you pass directly over Portland, Or.

This is a bad picture, looking east up the Columbia River. Mt Hood is just visible.

Just north of Portland, you pass abeam Mt St Helens and Mt Adams. In this picture you can see the gray area north of St Helens that is the ash lahar out-flow from the 1980 eruption.