I departed town about the middle of the day on July 4th so I could avoid dealing with fireworks at home - The neighbors up and down my street pool their fireworks and have a big block party, so they spend 3+ hours shooting off fireworks in to the wee hours of the morning.

The weather looked good, so I expected an uneventful drive over to Naches. That changed when Ireached the summit of Cayuse pass (HWY 410/123 junction). Tere was an extreme rainstorm that moved through the area on the other side of Chinook Pass that created a few mudslides, so a few park service people we re-routing trtaffic down highway 123 to highway 12. ARGHH!!!!! I hate highway 123, it's all down hill and is steep and winding. It's fine in a car or empty truck, but not fun towing a 7000+ lb RV. Last time i went down it I nearly smoked the brakes even while descending in low gear. Oh well... I had no choice, so I'd make the best of it.

Lower gears in the newer truck helped control my speed, and the heavier duty brakes on it.

I made it up over White pass without inicident and then found how much mayhem the rain storm caused on highway 12. In several places, the road is a sheer rock wall on the left side. The rain washed an immense amount of loose rock off the top of the rock shelf and dumped it on the road. There was no choice but to drive through it. It was baseball to softball sized sharp jaggedy rock. There's a few pictures showing it. I made it all the way to Naches with no problems. The American River was running high and fast, and was very murky from the fresh rain, same for the Little Naches River.

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