My World

This was my world for over sixty years of my life. I miss my mountains damn it.

The Elijah Bristow state park is off Hwy. 58 just before you get to the first of three dams on the Middle Fork of the Willamette River. The highway is on one side of Dexter reservoir and Lowell is on the other side. The road across the lake originally included a covered bridge.

In the 1980's the bridge was retired and turned into an interpretive center coering the history of covered bridges in the county. It was replaced by a concrete bridge, uncovered. The old part of the road is popular for kids fishing off the non traffic side. Lowell has a blackberry festival every summer. The lake is popular for boating, fishing. Wonder how it's doing this summer.

At the head of the head of the reservoir and about two hundred feet higher Is Look Out Point Reservoir. I can remember, barely, the construction of the Look Out Point dam. Actually what I remember is having to wait while the nearby mountain was being blown up to provide the gravel for the fill on the dam. I was probably about four at the time. Wish I could remember what it was like to drive on the old road that went by the river was like.

Honestly this must a really old shot. I haven't seen this reservoir this full in years. Years of low rainfall have meant that the lake has seldom filled. Built mainly for flood control the dam does have a small power station at the base of the dam. The drive is sort of scenic. Can't see much of the lake at least half the time. The trees have grown up since the dam was completed and the new highway completed. Great view of mountain on one side, railroad tracks on the other and road cuts until you hit the head of the reservoir. The RR crosses the river, the trees get closer to the road, the air gets a lot cooler and, smells a lot better.

The Middle Fork of the Willamette from Black Canyon campground.The woods are mainly Douglas fir and cedar with some hemlock mixed in. These are the woods my dad worked in for nearly twenty years. He started his logging years in the Coast Range but the Cascades were his life. My life.

Another shot of the woods near the little bridge that crosses Deception Creek on the way to Oakridge.

There is a fairly straight shot on the highway then you hit a curve near the old LaDuke place and you see the first mountains. Not much really, but an honest to goodness mountain. Something that was tight insside relaxes.