The Historic Columbia River Highway bridge over Multnomah Creek with Multnomah Falls in the background.
This week marks the one year anniversary of my Image of the Week posts. On March 29th of 2012 Column in Fogwas the first entry in the series. There are a few images that have come to represent my work that have been noticeable in their absence from this series. Gorge Serenity has become one of my signature images that I’ve been saving for a special post; I’m proud to present it as the One Year Anniversary Image of the Week.
Anyone who lives in the Portland area will remember the Arctic Blast of 2008. It was the biggest snow storm to hit our area in 40 years. In the early hours of Saturday, December 20th I decided to catch the Gorge blanketed in the snow that had already arrived before a major new storm hit. It was an adventure!
The big push of the storm was supposed to hit us in the early afternoon on Saturday. After checking the weather and road reports I loaded up at sunrise Saturday morning to visit my favorite place to play photographer, the Columbia River Gorge. The roads were pretty good on the way to the Dodson exit to access the Columbia River Historic Highway. Horsetail Falls was the fist stop where there was about 8 inches of new snow on the ground, it wasn’t as icy as I’ve seen it in the past but the snow really added to the scene. Multnomah (including the capture of Gorge Serenity) and Wahkeena falls were the next stops and were also blanketed in snow with more starting to fall and the wind picking up. My final stop was Latourell Falls where I spent quite a bit of time shooting different angles and trying to keep the mist from freezing on the lens.
It was passing eleven o’clock and time to head back for Portland before the weather got any worse. I headed back to the Escape and after knocking the ice off of the windshield wipers put my coat, gloves, and hat in the passenger seat to dry and my phone on the charger. That’s where the fun began!
Just after getting back on the historic highway I had to stop to knock another chunk of ice off of the driver’s side wiper that was causing a big blind spot. I picked a spot where I would be easily visible to any traffic that might come along and stopped in the road to hop out and knock off the ice. The problem is that I somehow locked the door, I still haven’t figured out how (the electric switch won’t lock the door with the engine running and in park so I somehow managed to hit the actual lock switch way up next to the door handle.) So, there I sat with the truck sitting in the middle of the road idling, doors locked, keys inside, phone inside, coat inside, and me outside. All I had was my light sweatshirt with a blizzard set to hit in the next few hours, in a deserted section of the gorge where the temperature was 19 degrees, and the wind and snow were picking up. Needless to say I was seriously kicking myself, I couldn’t believe I had managed to get myself into such a fix.
I started walking back towards the falls to see if I could find anyone at home in one of the homes down below. As I approached the parking lot I was very fortunate that a vehicle was approaching from the west. It was a Coast Guardsman and his visiting family and they very graciously called AAA for me and allowed me to warm up in their vehicle for a few minutes. While we waited for AAA to call back I saw a vehicle (it also happened to be an Escape) with state license plates approaching from the east and I flagged it down. Apparently my guardian angel was watching over me because the driver was the supervisor for the state parks in and around the Gorge. His name was Kevin and he went far above and beyond the call of duty to help me. After taking his family home he returned with coats for me to wear about the time AAA called back to say it would be at least two to three hours before help would arrive from Gresham. He let me use his phone to call Michelle so she could meet up with Todd who was in Troutdale and he could come rescue me. Kevin took me back to his house, fed me hot tea, and then took me back up to the Escape to wait for Todd. We had some nice conversation while we waited and he truly saved the day for me, before he arrived I was very close to deciding to break a window rather than waiting for AAA. Soon enough Todd arrived and we were back home eating brisket with the wives and kids before the brunt of the storm hit.
The trip produced a memorable story and one of my signature images. Kevin has a couple of framed 8x10s as a small thank you from a very grateful person! I hope you enjoy this series as much as I enjoy creating the images. Thanks for following year number one!
Historic Highway. Horsetail Falls was the fist stop where there was about 8 inches of new snow on the ground, it wasn’t as icy as I’ve seen it in the past but the snow really added to the scene. Multnomah (including the capture of Gorge Serenity) and Wahkeena falls were the next stops and were also blanketed in snow with more starting to fall and the wind picking up. My final stop was Latourell Falls where I spent quite a bit of time shooting different angles and trying to keep the mist from freezing on the lens.
It was passing eleven o’clock and time to head back for Portland before the weather got any worse. I headed back to the Escape and after knocking the ice off of the windshield wipers put my coat, gloves, and hat in the passenger seat to dry and my phone on the charger. That’s where the fun began!
Just after getting back on the historic highway I had to stop to knock another chunk of ice off of the driver’s side wiper that was causing a big blind spot. I picked a spot where I would be easily visible to any traffic that might come along and stopped in the road to hop out and knock off the ice. The problem is that I somehow locked the door, I still haven’t figured out how (the electric switch won’t lock the door with the engine running and in park so I somehow managed to hit the actual lock switch way up next to the door handle.) So, there I sat with the truck sitting in the middle of the road idling, doors locked, keys inside, phone inside, coat inside, and me outside. All I had was my light sweatshirt with a blizzard set to hit in the next few hours, in a deserted section of the gorge where the temperature was 19 degrees, and the wind and snow were picking up. Needless to say I was seriously kicking myself, I couldn’t believe I had managed to get myself into such a fix.
I started walking back towards the falls to see if I could find anyone at home in one of the homes down below. As I approached the parking lot I was very fortunate that a vehicle was approaching from the west. It was a Coast Guardsman and his visiting family and they very graciously called AAA for me and allowed me to warm up in their vehicle for a few minutes. While we waited for AAA to call back I saw a vehicle (it also happened to be an Escape) with state license plates approaching from the east and I flagged it down. Apparently my guardian angel was watching over me because the driver was the supervisor for the state parks in and around the Gorge. His name was Kevin and he went far above and beyond the call of duty to help me. After taking his family home he returned with coats for me to wear about the time AAA called back to say it would be at least two to three hours before help would arrive from Gresham. He let me use his phone to call Michelle so she could meet up with Todd who was in Troutdale and he could come rescue me. Kevin took me back to his house, fed me hot tea, and then took me back up to the Escape to wait for Todd. We had some nice conversation while we waited and he truly saved the day for me, before he arrived I was very close to deciding to break a window rather than waiting for AAA. Soon enough Todd arrived and we were back home eating brisket with the wives and kids before the brunt of the storm hit.
The trip produced a memorable story and one of my signature images. Kevin has a couple of framed 8x10s as a small thank you from a very grateful person! I hope you enjoy this series as much as I enjoy creating the images. Thanks for following year number one!
Technical Specs:
- RAW image with Nikon D300 @ 200 ISO
- Tokina AT-X 124 AF PRO DX – AF 12-24mm f/4 @ 12mm
- 1/15 seconds @ ƒ/16
- Saturday, December 20, 2008 @ 09:29
- Multnomah Falls, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, USA
