Black Ice
Driving home from downtown tonight near 8pm I encountered a solid sheet of black ice at the top of the SW hills near Council Crest. When my car started spinning and sliding sideways, I quickly slowed to 10 mph and tried to head back downhill where it wasn’t as cold. I pulled off the road to turn around and realized I wasn’t going forward or back. I had to abandon my car in a pullout next to the road.
When I got back to SW Patton Avenue, taking baby steps to keep from falling on the sheet of ice that coated every surface, a police officer was lighting emergency flares and closing the road in both directions. I continued walking downhill but got to a spot so steep and slick that I could not continue on foot.
Drivers coming up the hill turned around to head back when they saw me sliding down it and clutching the fence posts to keep from falling. I stopped one whose window was down and asked if I could get a lift down the hill out of the danger zone. He gave me a ride back to downtown where I caught the MAX train home.
Masterpeace 
December 30, 2009 at 10:46 pm
[…] of weeks, I abandoned my wheels on the side of the road due to poor weather conditions in Portland. The first time I was driving home in the upper elevations of the SW Portland hills on a quiet, cold Saturday […]