Post by Ken Corbett on Nov 13, 2010 21:25:28 GMT -5
My wife Linda and I just got back from a trip east-to-west across Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and back home again through the States. We spent a lot of time behind the wheel, but it was something we had to do.
We had many adventures, but the one that sticks in my mind the most is the day we got lost in the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon.
I was driving, and we were following the directions to the next waterfall in the Gorge we had printed out from Mapquest, or some internet site like that. I can't be sure now, but the directions said turn right when they should have said, left.
We found ourselves on a narrow one-lane dirt road climbing dizzily and steeply up the side of the Gorge, with nothing on the right-hand side but infinity and a million rocks and trees on the way there.
Up and up we went. I was too scared to back down as there was no margin for error. There was no room to turn our vehicle around and drive down the slope to level ground. It seemed we went on for three or four miles, on some slopes so sleep we had to fishtail to gain purchase and stay on the track. My wife, who is normally brave and craving adventure, was shaking in fear and could not look out her window down the cliff.
Finally, we found a narrow strip where I could twitch and jitter our car around to head back down. It was nearly as scary going back down as it had been going up, if not worse.
Thank god for those rose-colored glasses we always seem to put on after the danger is past. We almost laugh at our escapade now. Country mice lost and innocent in the big scary world.
Yes, the waterfalls in the Columbia River gorge are awesome, I'd go there again.
Ken
We had many adventures, but the one that sticks in my mind the most is the day we got lost in the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon.
I was driving, and we were following the directions to the next waterfall in the Gorge we had printed out from Mapquest, or some internet site like that. I can't be sure now, but the directions said turn right when they should have said, left.
We found ourselves on a narrow one-lane dirt road climbing dizzily and steeply up the side of the Gorge, with nothing on the right-hand side but infinity and a million rocks and trees on the way there.
Up and up we went. I was too scared to back down as there was no margin for error. There was no room to turn our vehicle around and drive down the slope to level ground. It seemed we went on for three or four miles, on some slopes so sleep we had to fishtail to gain purchase and stay on the track. My wife, who is normally brave and craving adventure, was shaking in fear and could not look out her window down the cliff.
Finally, we found a narrow strip where I could twitch and jitter our car around to head back down. It was nearly as scary going back down as it had been going up, if not worse.
Thank god for those rose-colored glasses we always seem to put on after the danger is past. We almost laugh at our escapade now. Country mice lost and innocent in the big scary world.
Yes, the waterfalls in the Columbia River gorge are awesome, I'd go there again.
Ken