Eighteen teams entered the May 9 Mountains to the Sea Rally, including two teams new to Cascade rally. Five Season Ticket entries had conflicts, so thirteen teams competed. Rallymasters Monte and Victoria Saager offered a time-speed-distance road rally that explored less-traveled roads between Portland and the Coast.
The rally route was about 180 miles long and took about seven hours to complete, including transits and breaks. From the start in northwest Portland, the route traveled north into Clark County, Washington, followed the Columbia River west through Kalama, and then crossed back into Oregon at Longview/Rainier. The drive continued over backroads to Clatskanie and then west over the Coast Range, skirting Astoria, to the final leg into Seaside.
The rally route was easy to follow, with mileage accompanying the directional route instructions. Speeds were set at or below legal limits, and pauses were provided as needed. Not all speed changes were included in the printed route instructions. Two automatic speed changes were in effect throughout the rally, except in transits.
One was a speed change to 5 mph below the posted speed limit (at regulatory speed control signs) and the other was to increase speed by 1 mph at each sign with the word creek on it.
About the rally
The 2026 Mountains to the Sea Rally started at Dealers Supply in northwest Portland. The 30-minute
odometer calibration transit traveled north up Interstate 5 to Ridgefield, Washington, to end at the
Catholic Church, less than a mile off the freeway.
The game was afoot almost immediately, with a 60-second pause to enjoy the display of carvings
along the Zylstra Farm frontage. If you haven’t seen this, it is worth the visit.
The farm carvings pause was followed by the sighting of a creek sign, increasing the current
average speed by 1 mph, followed by a Speed 25 sign, setting average speed at 20 mph. Followed
by a route instruction setting average speed at 42 mph. All this in the first two-mile leg of the
rally.
The second leg was under three and half miles long and included five speed changes, four of
which were automatics, and a 30-second pause. What made this leg even more challenging was
that over a mile and a half of the leg is at 20 and 21 mph. That’s almost five minutes of driving so
slowly…try it sometime.
And that’s just the first two legs. This rally had forty (40) scored legs! But you get the idea.
Although it was easy to follow the route, staying on time was a bit more challenging. A couple of breaks provided rest from the constant attention to signage and focus on speeds. The first of two morning breaks was a twenty-minute pause at the Fargher Lake Historic Store. Since this break was given as a pause with no specified Car Zero restart time, it was very important to track your own pause time. Leg 10 scores reflect this challenge.
The second morning break included a short transit and brief stop at the Cedar Creek Grist Mill and
covered bridge, ending at a Car Zero restart time. Leg 13 scores show that most folks figured out how to get started on time after this break. Between the Grist Mill break and the start of the lunch transit, an additional twenty automatic speed changes were encountered. Whew!
The nine-and-a-half-mile one-hour lunch transit through Kelso-Longview crossed over the Columbia
River on the Lewis & Clark Bridge to Rainier, Oregon, and ended at a Car Zero restart at a viewpoint overlooking the bridge and the Port of Longview. Leg 24 leg scores show most folks restarted on time.
After the lunch transit, the route traveled along less-traveled roads, including scenic Beaver Falls Road, to arrive in downtown Clatskanie. A six-minute transit through Clatskanie directed teams to head south on Hwy 47. A bit over ten twisty miles later, the route headed west on Hwy 202 for another almost twenty miles, to the afternoon break at the Jewel Meadows Wildlife Area. The twenty-minute afternoon break ended at a Car Zero restart to leave the wildlife area. Leg 40 scores show that by this point in the rally, most teams are starting on time at the restart. From here it was an easy forty miles to the finish in Seaside.
The after-lunch part of the rally contained over forty speed changes, including almost twenty automatics, plus five pauses and two Car Zero restarts.
The Mountains to the Sea Rally ended at the Pig ‘n Pancake Restaurant where scores were tallied and awards presented to the top finishers.
Thank the workers
Thank you to the team that came out the Saturday before the rally and ran this event top to bottom to make sure we caught all the speed and creek signs and that the rally worked. Their input made this a better event.
Thank you, Bill Kayser and Bjorn Freeman-Benson (Season Ticket Car # 11).
Congratulate the winners
Equipped:
First place – Paul Eklund and Yulia Smolyansky
Second place – Robert Paxman and Katy Sacry
Third place – Rick and Martha Morrison
SOP:
First place – Jason Carlough and Alexis Carlough
Second place – David and JoAnn Gattman
Third place – Andrew Brewer and Kathryn Iverson
Novice:
First place – Arie Sween and Mattie Drobish (first Cascade rally)
Second place – Don and Vicki Atwood
Third place – Ryan Loe and Stacia Loe (first Cascade rally)
The top three teams in each class received award plaques and candy bars. The taste of victory is
