Читать книгу Oregon, the Picturesque. A Book of Rambles in the Oregon Country and in the Wilds of Northern California онлайн

15 страница из 44

We realize now that our trip was made too rapidly to give us the best opportunity to see and enjoy the marvels of this wonderful region. For unavoidable reasons we could not start before the middle of September and before we made our round we became uneasy on account of the weather. We ran into showers on some of the worst mountain roads in California, the weather with its proverbial perverseness in the Golden State taking a “most unusual” turn. Snow fell in the Tahoe and Crater Lake regions shortly after we left them and with snow these roads are impassable for the average motor car. So one will be easier and practically sure of avoiding adverse weather manifestations if he will start the latter part of July—though the “unusual” may get him even then, since on the year of our tour the Crater Lake road was not free from snow until the first of August. One should plan short daily runs on such a tour and there are many side trips well worth while if there is plenty of time to do them. There are, moreover, many delightful inns and resorts to be found in the region we covered—some of them closed when we reached them—which might well tempt the wayfarer to tarry awhile to rest and enjoy at his leisure the surroundings of forest, lake or mountain stream, as the case may be. There will be many days on the road when such a respite will be very welcome, especially to the feminine members of the party. Excepting Portland, there is no large city in the territory covered by our tour; indeed, in California, north of San Francisco and Sacramento, there is no town larger than Eureka, with perhaps fifteen thousand people, while Eugene and Salem in Oregon and Reno in Nevada have approximately the same population. The situation of these towns and the territory tributary to them puts them nearer to the metropolitan class than the average eastern town of similar size.