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

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And yet, when we called on the well-informed Automobile Association in San Francisco, we were assured that the Pacific Highway was the standard route to Portland and when we proposed to proceed north from Lake Tahoe on the eastern side of the Sierras through Central Oregon to The Dalles and to return through Eugene, Grants Pass, Crescent City, and Eureka, we were regarded as being afflicted with a mild species of dementia. We were assured that while it might be possible to make the round with a good car, it was certainly not worth while; we would find rough, stony roads and endless steep grades, and the trip would try any machine and driver to the limit—all of which we found to be verily true save that we can never agree that it wasn’t worth while—a mere matter of opinion, after all.

A few extracts from our road-book covering some of the route seemed to prove that the auto people knew what they were talking about. We found such cheerful information as “Roads poor; many sharp curves and heavy grades up to thirty per cent” and again, “Roads mountainous, heavy grades, sharp curves.” Of the hills about Eureka we were cautioned, “Roads poor, heavy grades up to thirty per cent; sharp curves; use care,” and I might quote similar data concerning our prospective route ad infinitum—but we found that really the worst parts of the road were not charted at all, for the book did not cover our proposed tour in Oregon.