DIABLO — It had already been a long day for Tootsie Clark when she opened the gate on the North Cascades Highway on Thursday morning.

Clark, 89 and holding, swung open the gate at 8 a.m. She had been up since 2 a.m., baking cinnamon rolls for her fellow travelers.

It’s Clark’s tradition. People lined up at the gate at Milepost 134 just to get one of the precious three dozen or so rolls that Clark baked.

Clark is always first in line at the gate. She made sure of it once again by arriving sometime before 5:30 a.m.

“I’ve never been beat. Nobody’s been stupid enough to bake cinnamon rolls,” Clark joked. “But it’s fun.”

Clark, with her cinnamon rolls, makes sure of that.

Fishermen David and Neil Green were fourth in line, ostensibly on their way to a couple of lakes in Okanogan County. But David Green, sitting in the driver’s seat of their pickup, said Clark’s rolls were why they made the early morning trip from Darrington.

They’ve known about Clark’s treats at the pass gate for the last decade or more.

“We wanted to be one of the first in line,” they said.

Before Clark swung open the gate promptly at 8 a.m., her daughter, Judi Brooks, had some kind words for the Department of Transportation. The agency worked through some extra obstacles to open the highway.

Crews could not use their quick-working snow blowers in certain places because avalanches had brought down too many trees and rocks.

“It wasn’t an easy fix up there, but bless their hearts, they came through beautifully,” Brooks said.

The pass has opened as early as March 10 and as late as June 14. In 2005, the year of the earliest opening, the pass had to be closed again for 10 days in late March and early April due to avalanches.

“The same potential exists every year,” DOT Avalanche Forecast Technician Mike Stanford said in a written statement released on Thursday.

He said temperatures should remain cold enough to keep the snow stable over the next two weeks.

“After that, we may have to do some avalanche-control work if it warms up too quickly,” Stanford said.

Clark’s tradition honors her father, Richard Buller. He pushed for a cross-state highway in the 1930s and 40s, even running for county commissioner on the issue.

Buller’s vision was realized in 1972, when the North Cascades Highway opened. Clark has been there since year one.

“She thinks very highly of him, and that’s why she honors him, this year and every year,” said Brooks, who calls the occasion as “Tootsie’s tailgate party.”

Penny LaFleur Mitchell of Sedro-Woolley was clearly excited to be in the line of about 20 vehicles that arrived before the pass opened. Mitchell grew up in Rockport.

“Everybody’s got cabin fever, I think,” she said.

Curt Leighliter, who lives and works at Clark’s Skagit River Resort near Marblemount, shared in the mood at the pass gate.

“It’s something really exciting that goes on here on Highway 20. It’s the beginning of the season for people going over the pass. ... It brings all the tourists to the restaurants and the resort, and all the other people that have businesses,” he said.

That’s certainly true on the other side of the pass. Clark was in a party of eight headed to Three-Fingered Jack’s Saloon in Winthrop for lunch.

Jess Brown of Anacortes sat fifth in line, astride his 2003 Honda motorcycle, waiting to head over to Antler’s Saloon and Café in Twisp. He goes there for breakfast every year on the day the pass opens, he said.

He also likes to say he’s the first of the 100,000 motorcyclists to cross North Cascades Highway every year.

Temperatures at the gate were above freezing, but not by much. The sun was having trouble finding its way through persistent clouds that crowded around the snowy peaks.

Putting on his helmet just before the gate opened, Brown said, “It’s a beautiful day in paradise.”

* Ralph Schwartz can be reached at 360-416-2138 or .