Bicyclist Crossing the Tualatin River South of Cornelius

5:03 pm, July 29, 2016

Wednesday afternoon found driving out to Hillsboro to visit one of the campus of the Giant Computer Chip Maker, where I had spent many hours working on a software project during January and February. My role in the project had ended months before, but circumstances had left me in possession of some specialized hardware that belonged to the Giant Computer Chip Company. I was actually glad because of this, as it gave me an excuse for a reunion with one of my colleagues there, with whom I'd developed the inevitable bond of brotherhood that comes from mutual side-by-side participation in any intense project.


Unlike most of my trips out to Hillsboro (which were by train), in this case I went by car. I didn't get out there until almost 4:30. By then the traffic back into Portland is always ferocious. Around Xmas time it had taken an hour to get to the Beaverton (only fifteen miles away), because of everyone trying to get into the city.

I decided that I would take the opportunity of being out there on a sunny June afternoon with the car to take a little drive through rural Washington County. I could make a big leisurely loop around Portland through the valley of the Tualatin River, a tributary of the Willamette, which drains a nice valley on the west side of the West Hills from Portland, and was perhaps the first true agricultural heartland of Oregon.

Here the road zigzags along the drainage of the Tualatin. The historical planting of orchards (which require stable tree growth) meant the road designs are almost medieval by American standards, seemingly changing direction every quarter mile. No grids out here.

The bridge here is actually very long, and crosses over the river for maybe twenty feet of its length. The rest of it is elevated above the floodplain.