Return to The Gorge

Made it back to the Columbia River Gorge and Hood River for a few days in late August.  In the spirit of keeping it more interesting, here we go....more pics (I may post some video later), less words....in no particular order of events...

Looked out the airplane window on the way out and saw this awesome red glow under the clouds...we must have been over a desert (Nevada maybe?) and with the sun setting, it had this pretty cool effect.

I'm not a very good jumper but you can't help but get some good air in the Gorge.  Airing it out at Doug's Beach on the WA side of the Columbia River Gorge.  I still have an image etched in my brain of my buddy Rob just getting some serious hang time on one jump just downwind of me - I could see him through my sail panel stuck in midair.  We liked this place a lot because it was less crowded than other spots like The Hatchery, it was still close to Hood River, the launch was sandy, and it has a beautiful backdrop with the hills.

Doug's Beach didn't have big swells like The Hatchery, but they were still plenty big enough to have a lot of fun in.

Horsetail Falls

at The Hatchery

heading back into the town of Hood River from the WA side, Mt Hood in the background

Hiking at Mt Hood

This pic was taken by Rob, awesome sunset shot taken outside Pfriem Brewery looking back across the river towards WA.  Speaking of breweries, we also sampled Everybodys Brewing in White Salmon WA, Double Mountain and Full Sail in Hood River...and of course a couple others in Portland on the way to the airport.

The view atop Wind Mountain, an excellent hike

We looked for Bigfoot and didn't see him, but did find this.

Multnomah Falls

Post Canyon mtn biking

At the top of Post Canyon overlooking the town of Hood River.  This was a no wind day that brought a little bit of rain, some lightning, and haze from The Dalles wildfire east of us.  We went from an unusually mild wet summer back home to an unseasonably fluky, mild, and wet pattern in OR.  Usually it's so hot & humid back home in August and OR is such a relief.

The Hatch

Rob at The Hatch - although some early flukey fall weather had set in during our visit, we still lucked out on 25mph winds and powered up 4.7 windsurfing 2 days in a row out of our 4 whole days there.  The rest of the time was spent hiking and mountain biking.  If the wind had blown one more day, we were going to do the Big Winds shuttle for the SUP downwinder from Viento to Hood River, but that unfortunately didn't happen.  But there is so much to do here even when the wind doesn't blow.

We wanted to go sail some of the sites way out east like Maryhill and The Wall but we heard reports that it was too smoky from The Dalles wildfire.  So it was The Hatchery (pictured here) and Doug's Beach for us during our visit.

Fun swells to play in

Hiking around Mt Hood

historic Timberline Lodge at the base of Mt Hood

Lost Lake...a bit cloudy this day otherwise you'd see Mt Hood in the distance behind those clouds.  That's a fly fisherman in the water.

Doug's Beach - Beautiful

The hike up Wind Mountain

Wind Mountain is a fascinating and historic Indian spirit quest site

Falls Creek Falls - There were at least 3, maybe 4 or more layers to this waterfall....hard to tell even from halfway down.  A bit of a drive to the trailhead from Hood River but also an excellent hike.  One of the better waterfalls out of many great waterfalls in the area.