Every once in a while you get to a place which you don't want to leave, the Columbia River Gorge was such an place. What was originally planned to be a three-day stay turned into 2 1/2 weeks of paddling and chilling bliss. Meeting so many awesome people whilst there helped make our stay truly awesome.
Our days were spent paddling the Farmlands or Green Truss sections of the White Salmon or chilling in Hood River and our evenings around the campfire or on one memorable occasion at a white trash party.
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| Mt. Hood |
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| The Columbia River Gorge |
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| Our daily hang-out spot |
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| Main Street, Hood River |
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| It was a Hindu god, I swear! |
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| Enjoying the Hood |
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| Feeding the caveman instinct |
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| Another fine use for duct tape - today, removing cat hairs from clothing |
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| One of Heather and Nate's adorable cats |
On our final day Nate Herbeck, our excellent river guide, took me onto the Little White Salmon. A stretch of river I will not forget so quickly but which I have fallen in love with. We were joined by the super-friendly Demshitz crew out for a chill cruise down (for them) so I probably couldn't have chosen a better time for a first descent! As usual Nate took me under his wing and showed me all the good lines. One highlight of the day was when Nate, up to his usual optimistic self, quickly explained the line through the island rapid to me and lead on down. I missed the flake and ended up side-surfing the hole. After fighting my way out I got congratulations all around for not swimming which made me feel quite a bit better (this was Demshitz and co. giving me props, after all) right up until the point when Nate in a thoughtful voice goes, 'yeah. Usually people on their first run have a look at this rapid and end up portaging it...' Thanks!
Sadly there aren't too many photos of the run, I was too preoccupied with not flipping.
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| Pretty chill to start out |
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| Todd styling Spirit Falls, I gave them a miss (for now) |
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