Snow heads drivers off at Pass
Published 1:39 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008
NORTH BEND – Shirley Glidewell of Yakima thought she was just going to take a noneventful jaunt to the hospital in Seattle on Tuesday, March 19.
“It was just going to be a quick trip over the mountain,” she said. “I thought I would be back that evening.”
By the time she left the hospital with her friend that afternoon, the snow had started to fall. Driving east on Interstate 90, they heard Snoqualmie Pass was closed until later that day. They waited it out in North Bend as the time for reopening the interstate kept getting pushed back.
Glidewell realized she would not be going anywhere for a while and, along with her friend, joined nine other people who stayed the night at Si View Community Center in North Bend. The group was a small fraction of the travelers and truck drivers who were stuck on the west side of the Cascade Mountains for more than a day while the Washington State Department of Transportation did avalanche-control work along the interstate.
At Si View, the American Red Cross provided food, cots and a television that few watched in favor of conversing with one another. Many shared stories they had heard about other stranded travelers, such as cars that were buried in an avalanche on State Route 2 and a student from Montana who drove over just to see the Space Needle during spring break.
“He came all the way out here just to see that and got stuck,” Glidewell said. “Poor guy.”
Some didn’t even have a car or truck in which to be stranded. Bruce Davis of Pasco was hitchhiking home after working in Mount Vernon for a few weeks when he got caught in the snow. He had hoped to be home in time for his daughter’s birthday on Monday, March 11, but was held up. When he finally got back on the road, he wasn’t able to find a ride after reaching North Bend.
He spent the night of Monday, March 18, outside, and when the snow started to fall the following day he thought he was going to freeze. He heard about the shelter from a gas station attendant and gratefully made his way there.
The whole experience, although harrowing, might have saved him some time he would have spent hitchhiking the remaining 250 miles to Pasco.
“I have met a lot of travelers,” he said. “I think I’ll be able to get a ride home.”
All of the accidental tourists had different lives and different stories, but they all left on the evening of Wednesday, March 20, with something in common: a new-found appreciation for North Bend.
“Everyone here has been so kind and so nice,” said Burt Butler of Prosser. “It was a pleasant stay.”
You can reach Ben Cape at (425) 888-2311, or e-mail him at ben.cape@valley
record.com.
