Recap: 2026 Spring Tour - Mt. Hood Loop

Twenty-six cars rolled out of Sandy Pioneer Park at 9:32 on Saturday morning. The forecast had threatened sideways rain all week. Ten minutes into the drivers' brief, half of us had stopped checking our phones - the sky was already breaking up over Mt. Hood.

The first leg was the usual Highway 26 climb out of Sandy. Smooth, fast, generous. Phil's 996 Turbo set a slightly quicker pace than last year and we lost two cars at the gas station in Welches - they caught up at the Government Camp pullout, which was the first photo stop. Several members noted that Mt. Hood looked exactly like it does in every brochure ever printed for the state of Oregon. We agreed this was a feature, not a bug.

Lunch at Timberline went smoothly. The dining room had set aside the same long table the chapter has used for fifteen years. Tom told the story about the time it snowed in June on the spring tour, which he tells every year, and which we let him tell every year because it is a good story. The elk stew was excellent. The coffee was strong.

The afternoon leg over Lolo Pass gave us our drive of the year. Wet sections in the trees, dry sections in the open. Three of the air-cooled cars decided to push hard through the lower section after Zigzag and the rest of us were happy to watch them disappear. We re-grouped at the gas station in Sandy. There was a brief discussion about whether this had been the best spring tour in chapter memory. The discussion was inconclusive but spirited.

Photos from the day are in the gallery. If you took some that we missed, send them to <a href="mailto:newsletter@cascade-pca.org">newsletter@cascade-pca.org</a> and we'll add them to the next der Auspuff issue.

Next chapter drive: the June Cars and Coffee Eugene Sunday meet, then the Cascade Lakes summer tour. See the calendar for details.