Organized by Seattle Jaguar Club as an interclub event with Jaguar Owners Club of Oregon (JOCO). This adventure drive will take about 6.5 hours to complete the 186 miles around Mt. St. Helens. Meet at 10AM at the Country House Restaurant (404 State Rte 506, Toledo, WA 98591). If you need gas there is a Chevron station on West side of I-5 at Exit 59.
Adventure starts at Toledo and finishes in Kelso/Longview for dinner and optional overnight stay at Red Lion Hotel (510 Kelso Dr, Kelso, WA 98626). For those that want to stay overnight we have reserved a block of rooms at the Red Lion in Kelso. Rooms are $135.00/night. Rooms are available with a King or 2 Double beds. Please call their front desk at 360-636-4400 to reserve your room. Let them know you are with the Seattle Jaguar Club to get that discounted rate.
Dinner location is to be determined.
It’s called an adventure for some good reasons
For vintage Jaguars, tow trucks are not even close and cell phone reception is probably non-existent for much of the drive.
“Heaves” and “sinks”, some hidden in the shadows, require continuous attention and instant braking or dodging to avoid scraping or bottoming. Think of hard-to-spot speed bumps that jump out of the ground 20 feet in front of you. If your attention wanders and your underside is pristine, this might not be worth it. Same for your car. But if you pay close attention to what is happening to the car ahead and you are cautious, then any passenger car can drive the road. There are also about a dozen 250-foot sections of compact dirt and gravel that you can usually drive around, or drive slowly, or pussy-foot in Cat parlance.
Plan on five hours of driving time, plus the time to arrive at the start. We are allowing an additional 1.5 hours for a few stops, including Windy Ridge lunch break (bring your own picnic lunch).
Sunshine and a view of the cone aren’t guaranteed, although it is only 3-4 miles from the Windy Ridge viewpoint.
Enough of the “I-told-yous.” All the fast two-lane highways are rural and attractive. Then road between Randle and Cougar continually twists and turns through the trees with speeds varying from 25 to occasionally 45 mph. The road from Cougar to Woodland is faster, curvy and definitely out in the country. If it’s not raining, top-down in a convertible is the best! Getting together for dinner after will be fun. Details on the restaurant will follow.
Many Jaguar club members may have never driven most of these roads. As always, you do not have to drive a Jaguar, all members are welcome!
Register for the drive and let us know if you are staying for dinner on Saturday evening. You need to register on the Seattle Jag Club website. Mt St Helens Circumnavigation | Seattle Jaguar Club (seattlejagclub.org) Please register by Jun 22nd so we can make dinner reservations.
If there are any questions contact one of the following:
Kurt Jacobson, 253.229.6905, KurtGJacobson@gmail.com
Brian Case 253.329.9126 sbcase253@hotmail.com
JOCO members can contact Seth Shenker 541.801.9553 Seth.P.Shenker@gmail.com
For those that want to stay overnight on the joint 6/25/22 Mt. St. Helens drive, we have reserved a block of rooms at the Red Lion in Kelso. Rooms are $135.00/night. Rooms are available with a King or 2 Double beds. Please call their front desk at 360-636-4400 to reserve your room. Let them know you are with the Seattle Jaguar Club to get that discounted rate.
In addition to reserving your room, you’ll need to RSVP to sbcase253@hotmail.com or go to the Seattle Jaguar Club website and register there.
Mt St Helens Circumnavigation | Seattle Jaguar Club (seattlejagclub.org)
We will especially need a headcount for dinner reservations.
