The Pacific North West USA is a ‘great if you get the season right’ kind of place. Somewhere behind all the murk that we saw, is a stunning countryside just bursting to get out and show us its stuff. But are we moaning? Noooo. Despite the murky weather we found whilst overlanding the Pacific North West, we had a great time. We had glimpses of scenic fabulousness, alpacas, huskies, snow, cool cities and… errrrm… a bit of mechanical work required on Cuthbert.   

South Oregon: Alpacas and a Rattle

Oregon was US State No. 18 for Cuthbert. All was still nice in the south as we crossed from California, but a chat with friends hailing from the area had led us to expect murky weather at this time of year. We were contacted by all-round-nice-guy Daemian who had seen us on Instagram and invited us to his alpaca small-holding. It was fascinating and brought back happy memories of watching these chaps’ Peruvian cousins wandering the Andes a couple of years ago.

As we blasted up the coastal highway (‘blasting’ being a relative term… around 55mph for Cuthbert 😊) into central Oregon, Marcus noticed a rattle coming from the engine. He reckoned it could be the timing chains nearing the end of their useful life. Hmmm… disappointing at this particular stage of the trip, just as we’re arriving in proper-cold wintery weather. But if we’re honest it wasn’t a gob-smacking surprise.

The mileage interval for changing the timing chains varies between 200K-400K kilometres depending on the type of driving done: off-road, on-road and so on. We’ve done a fair bit of off-roading over Cuthbert’s life so far, but we had reckoned this biggie-job could wait a few thousand kilometres more until summer. It wasn’t a deafening rattle and we could possibly have carried the fault a bit further, but the consequences of the timing chains breaking completely are potentially catastrophic… writing-off the whole engine ☹. Even I, with my extremely limited technical understanding, could work out that this would be a bad thing.

Huskies and Major Surgery

So the executive decision was taken: it’s got to be done. But where? This is major surgery for Cuthbert: taking off the whole front end, the radiator, the intercooler and moving the air-con condenser. It’s several days’ work. We needed a Cuthbert operating theatre. Happily, through the magic of interwebbery and social media, we found our saviour.

Henning lives in the countryside near Bend. He has a large open-sided but covered area for Cuthbert’s surgery and he kindly allowed us to park-up for several days for Marcus to do the work. It was snowing and mighty cold (-10C) up in the hills of central Oregon, but Marcus wrapped up warm under his overalls and got stuck in (if pushed… he’ll even admit that he secretly really enjoys all this tech-stuff, even when it’s chuffing cold 😉)

Henning shares his home with four amazing, huge husky dogs. They’re his pets, but also serve to complement his business of building bespoke husky sledges (click here to check them out). To control and calm their boundless energy, Henning spends hours exercising them daily. It’s a huge commitment, but we were absolutely blown away by the affectionate nature of these beautiful creatures. We were also blown away by Henning’s kind and generous hospitality. Thanks so much Henning! Meeting fascinating people like you is one of the many great pleasures we take from our overlanding lifestyle.

North Oregon – A Big Press

With Cuthbert all back in one piece, we pushed north through central Oregon. Even in less-than-perfect murky weather, it’s a beautiful drive around Mount Hood and down along the Columbia River. Our visa-time-clock was still ticking, so no hanging around. The push to Canada continued, but on the highway into Portland we noticed another little snaggette with Cuthbert. Arrgh!! 😒

This time, there was a small vibration in the wheels at speed. Marcus reckoned it was probably a wheel bearing on its way out. Nothing major, but if we ignore it and the bearing decides to disintegrate in major style, it could damage the wheel hub (which would not only be a bad thing, but also an expensive thing to schlepp-in from Europe). It’s frustrating coming so soon after the big timing-chain job, but we carry spare wheel bearings… you know… just in case.

Last time Marcus changed a wheel bearing was back in Medellin, Colombia (they must be replaced when the brake discs are changed). We learned that although it’s not a major job in theory, it does need a very powerful press to extract the bearing from the wheel-hub. We carry a lotta, lotta tools in Cuthbert, however a 30ton press is not one of them. So Marcus had to disassemble the wheel, take it to a workshop press, then reassemble. The palaver involved an Uber trip across town, but it was all sorted in a day et voila, soon we are off to explore the marvellous coffee shops of Portland.    

Washington – The State

Last state before Canada is Washington, where Oregon’s murky weather stays with us. Mount St Helens might be a familiar name to some of you. That huge eruption of 1980, remember? It was global news at the time and changed the landscape of southern Washington. We were looking forward to seeing it and exploring the National Park, but Mr. Murky Weatherman had other plans for us: rain and thick, low cloud. Not even the foothills were visible, let alone the peak! We made do with the displays of the visitor centre. Interesting, but disappointing.

Heading over to the Olympic Peninsula was a similar experience. Pleeeease Mr. Weatherman give us a break… we just want one whole day without rain. Just couple of hours to see the amazing scenery that Washington is famous for. Finally, in Seattle we had a clear day. Hurrah!! Justin and Scarlett gave us a great city-base to park-up, but Marcus was less than enthusiastic about a day of city sights. Luckily for me, I got to spend a fab girlie day out with my overlanding Aussie friend Jess, who has recently settled in the city. I can highly recommend the underground walking tour there in Pioneer Square. The tour is very well done, but the coolest thing is the extraordinary story behind Seattle’s construction. It has a history unlike any other city I’ve been to.     

Moving on just north of Seattle we visited overlanding legend Alex Smith (anyone currently travelling the PanAm will be familiar with his work). And we couldn’t pass the area without a trip to the Boeing Factory Tour (it’s indoors, so the weather can’t get us here. Ha!). This enormous facility, the largest building by volume in the world they claim, is where they churn out the many airliners we’ve all flown on around the world. The tour and commentary is interesting enough if you’re into aviation stuff, but funnily enough they omit to mention the controversial software issues with their 737 Max and Starliner (maybe the less said the better on those for now 😉).

Canada Bound

Finally, our six month USA visa has almost expired so we’re hot-footing it over to Canada. En route to the border we visited Linda and Jim who had spotted us on social media and very kindly invited us to their home. We left with full tummies and a loaf of Linda’s delicious banana cake! Its great to leave USA the same as we found it when we arrived back in Texas six months ago… full of lovely, generous and hospitable people. We very much hope Uncle Sam will let us back in to see Alaska when we get up that way, but for now… toodle-pip chaps! Next stop… ‘Mountie and Maple Land’ 👍