Central Oregon road trip, day three.

Woke up tired with a creaky knee. No matter, I headed off to see about Salt Creek Falls just up the road. It's the second highest waterfall in Oregon...

Remember that foreshadowing thing? Salt Creek Falls may have been there somewhere, but I couldn't see a trail for all the snow. Someday! In late summer!

Back on Highway 58 I pushed through a snow/rain shower toward Lillian Falls. A side road out of Oakridge leads to a moss-covered gravel road which leads to... rocks. And trees.

Did I mention the trees?

And snow. Point-two miles from the trailhead, after running over the fortieth obnoxiously large tree branch, the narrow road suddenly turned into snow. I skidded to a stop in eight inches of drift, tried to back up a little too quickly and sunk my tires deeper into the snow. (No cell phone reception, a twelve mile walk back to the main road and a cranky knee? Fabulous. Still, there was some perspective - maybe I'd get stuck in Oakridge and miss work on Monday!)

Slowly but surely I maneuvered my way out of the snow and back to the road. For a brief second I considered hoofing the point-two miles up the road to see if I could find the trailhead... And then my "check engine" light came on.

Ruh-roh

I begrudgingly backed slowly down the road for about a quarter mile until I found a safe place to turn around. Defeated, knee still creaking, seriously fretting about the car, I packed it in and headed back toward civilization. There were several interesting waterfall hikes in the Salem area that I planned to hit on the way home, but between the crying knee, car concern and persistent rain showers I opted to stay on I-5 until exit 299.

That Saturday in the mountains, though? Priceless. Necessary. Worth every penny I will spend on the car this week.

Returning drive soundtrack: Once More with Feeling, The Hazards of Love, Arcade Fire on shuffle