The Water Gulch Road in Hereford, Oregon is definitely a victim of some terrible misnomer. The only time I’ve ever seen water in the gulch is after a pretty bodacious rainstorm. Other than that, it’s either dry or covered in snow, not much in between. Although it’s just a dirt road, it’s pretty decent most of the year. It’s the main drag from my wife’s Grandma T’s house to the upper end of their place. From one end to the other, the ranch is about seven miles, and the Gulch Road stretches most of its length. I’ve been up and down that road so many times in the fifteen years I’ve been around the family that I’ve lost count. Whether we’re hauling deer or elk out of the hills, pulling horses, or toting juniper trees, the road has three seasons: dry, frozen, or slicker than snot. That clay just turns to butter when it gets wet, and there’s a few places along the trail a person does NOT want to go off the edge. On a muddy day, most steering wheels get strangled coming off that hill. One good thing about the road is that it will teach a lesson pretty well. A person doesn’t mess up more than once on that road. Once could be enough to kill a man, but if he survives one mistake, he’s more than likely trained not to do it again. I hate to admit it, but I can speak to that from experience. Back when Mandi and I were courting, we decided we’d go to Hereford for the weekend and visit her family. Being young and not terribly forward-thinking in nature, we had made the decision at the last minute and without calling ahead. Winter time had laid its blanket all over the Burnt River Valley, and Mandi was pretty confident driving around there in her four wheel drive GMC. When we had finished the winding trek over Dooly Mountain and ended up in Hereford, no one was there. Grandma’s house was empty. Uncle Alan and Aunt Bev were gone. Oh well, we’d just go for a little drive. We headed up the Gulch Road to check out the winter wonderland up at the Gettis Place, which is a big meadow that tends to have a few elk hanging around it. As we made our way up the snow covered, harrowing road, we were simply admiring the country and dreaming about our future together. As we sang each other cute little love songs, the rig started to slide sideways on a pretty wide corner. In an instance, we were in the ditch. Fortunately, it wasn’t as deep of a ditch as it could have been, but we were stuck. I got out and noticed that we were not only stuck, but we had a flat tire, as well. That probably added to our sliding. We tried for quite a little while to get that pickup moved, but we were truly out of luck. So, when it finally had set in that the pickup was foundered, we started the walk back down to Hereford. The worst part of the deal is that we had made it most of the way up the hill, about four miles, as a matter of fact. The walk back was dark. The snow kept the air pretty quiet other than our breathing, and there wasn’t a whole lot of talking going on. That was even before the honeymoon, so we weren’t about to go playing the blame game. It was pretty late by the time we got to Alan and Bev’s house, but they weren’t home, anyway. We went in, started a fire and slept on the couch. In the morning, they got home from wherever they had been, and it shocked them to find us in the living room, as we had no rig there. Storytelling time. Uncle Alan grabbed the tractor, went up the road, and pulled us out. I changed the tire, and Mandi and I headed back to school. Wisdom is pretty critical, and it comes through experience. You can bet Mandi and I pick our trips up that road pretty carefully, nowadays. The Bible talks in 1 Corinthians about learning from mistakes: “These are all warning markers - danger! - In our history books, written down so that we dont repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel - they at the beginning, we at the end - and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were.” We should definitely learn from not only our mistakes, but others’ as well. Then we’ll enjoy our trips up the gulch a lot more, and we won’t be doomed to have the same wrecks again.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 03:32:55 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015