Moon Shot to Portland

Fed up with slow progress, I drove all the way from near Boise to Portland in a single day. I left after lunch---I had a mid-day conference call schedule, and wanted to stay in town until then. After that I did a day-long moon shot drive all the way through Eastern Oregon and down the gorge.

The first week of February the days get longer, so I got good sunlight much of the afternoon. The Blue Mountains had a fresh coat of snow on all the trees and the ground. The roads were good by now, but there were two stranded semi trucks along the road, their drivers beside them with emergency help, and an overturned semi abandoned and encrusted with ice at the top of the pass.

I mostly drove without stopping, but allowed myself small breaks once an hour, up to ten minutes, a rest areas, and even a small detour along the snowpacked forest road towards Mt. Emily. This time of year the light lingers later in the winter afternoon. It feels brighter on the snow than it should be, at 4 pm.

I stood outside the car as long as I could bear the cold, to get a good blast of the serene quietness of the white-laden landscape. Then I got back in the car and pushed on.

Late in the day, as the last light faded, I was already into the groove of the Gorge. The dark hills sprang up on either side. The Dalles was in darkness, all the business lights lit up for the evening, as I passed. The river widens. One senses one is approaching the edge of the continent. One feels a long way from Utah.

The mile markers on Interstate 84, and the exit numbers, count down the exact distance to where the highway officially ends, splitting into the north and south flows of I-5 right at the banks of the Willamette. As one heads south along the soaring concrete pillars, the lit-up skyline of Portland is fascinatingly beautiful, the most opulent such display one sees after leaving Salt Lake City.