Take Tom to work,
then
double
back for Harriet,
and off we go, south on 11, over the Oregon border with the Blue Mountains beckoning,
towards Athena and
Pendleton,
west on 84 across a harsh mistress of the arid Umatilla / Morrow lands, relief provided almost immediately over the
Gilliam boundary
as
Arlington,
the
downgrade to
Blalock
Canyon, and the
John
Day
River roll by.
More Columbia River Gorge, through Sherman
(Biggs, overlooking
Miller Island) and
Wasco (Deschutes River and
Cliffs,
Celilo
Bend
and
Inn,
The
Dalles,
across from
Columbia Hills and
Devil's Hole,
the views opening up to
Mosier
and
beyond),
then into the moist spectacle of Hood River
(Mitchell Point,
the somewhat-snowy Cascades,
including Wind Mountain) and
Multnomah (the Falls and
Crown Point).
Beyond Troutdale, we turn southwest on 205 into Clackamas,
over the Willamette River, then hit the main route at I-5.
South,
south,
the land migrates by:
through the
Valley,
up the gentle incline
towards Divide,
down Pass Creek to
Sutherlin,
Roseburg
on the
South Umqua,
the Myrtle Creek country (Round Praire,
California Hill,
the Rock,
and
the
Ranch),
up-down-up-down-up-down-up-down through
Canyonville,
Canyon Creek,
Glendale,
Stage Road Pass,
Wolf Creek,
Smith Hill Summit,
Sunny Valley, and
Sexton Mountain Pass.
At
Grants Pass, the lights definitely lower, and we proceed through
increasing aridity beyond Rogue River and
Table Rocks towards distant
Mt. McLoughlin.
Beyond
Medford,
Ashland's
highlands
are
mostly free of stratus and snow,
so up we go,
and over
Siskiyou Summit
with no more incident than the beauty of California's rosy colored-sky extending to distant Mt. Shasta.
The playlist, all the way home through hours of darkness continues to be George Crumb, back-tracking a bit with Ancient Voices of Children and Black Angels, then continuing with:
Vox Balaenae
Makrokosmos I-IV
(including III Music for a Summer Evening, in two performances,
and IV Celestial Mechanics)
Dream Sequence
Star-Child
Apparition
A Little Suite for Christmas
Processional
A Haunted Landscape
An Idyll for the Misbegotten
Federico's Little Songs for Children
Zeitgeist
Easter Dawning
Quest
Mundus Canis (A Dog's World)
Otherworldly Resonances
Unto the Hills
