The Hill

This is a picture of the route to Valsetz. Among those trees is a sixteen and half mile gravel road that snakes its way from Falls City (base camp for flatlanders) and finally ends at the end of the Earth (Valsetz). This picture was taken from an area the locals called "Cold Springs" a place where a shoddy-made fountain was placed to divert cold spring water for drinking and to fill up overheated radiators.

This road was one of our best weapons for sports. When a visiting team arrived to our humble surroundings they most often looked like they had been put through hell. At the top or summit of the road you have to drive along a cliff that appears to have no bottom for three or four miles. Now you must understand these are not standard roads you find in the civilized parts of the world. These are roads you probably find in the "Outback" in Australia. So bumping along a narrow patch of road with pot-holes and washboard bumps with all your insides bouncing around and your imagination pushing you over the edge, you are not in the best condition to play football or basketball when you get to the end of the road. This road, or "The Hill" as the locals referred to it as, was always good for a touchdown or two and maybe ten extra points on the hardwoods.

The scary part today is to think that there are many of us Valsetzians or Cougars as we affectionatly call each other running around on our streets in Willamette Valley and we all learned to drive on "The Hill". This means we have little fear and love to cut corners.

When we were kids it was nothing to have a stranger pull up to you as we were walking the streets of Valsetz and ask if there was any other way out of the town, other then the road they just drove up on. We fashioned our responses depending on the type of car and the attitude the flatlander had. If they were uppity and driving lets say, a BMW or some other sporty Europeon car, we would say with a loving and welcoming smile, "Sure mister you can take the road along the river to the coast." We would spend the next five minutes drawing up imaginary maps to describe their route and with a thank you and flip of their attitude they would gleefully drive towards the coast.

Now let's be honest do you think there ever was a route to the coast that was flatlander friendly? As I already said "The Hill" was by far the best route to the end of the Earth.