Portland Trip Part 2

On Sunday, Kerry (my sister), Harry (her husband) and I went into the Columbia River Gorge to do a hike. Since they had both seemingly done most of the hikes along the Oregon side of the Gorge, we ended up doing one that neither of them had done before along the Washington side. It was a 9.5 mile hike on Hamilton Mountain, which starts from Beacon Rock State Park in Washington and seems to climb 10,000 feet to its summit, which is at an elevation of.... 2,445 feet. Well, after 2 hours of hiking up it definately seemed a lot higher than that LOL! It ended up being a great hike, the weather cooperated, and we got some great views of the Gorge from many of its scenic vistas.


Kerry and Harry deciding which way to go


On top of Little Hamilton Mountain


Kerry on top of Little Hamilton Mountain with Beacon Rock in the background


Kerry and Harry at the summit... finally!

Monday I headed over to Hood River to ride with a friend of a friend. My buddy Mike B hooked me up with a longtime friend of his, Tim B, who now lives in Hood River with his family. He had some time available during the day Monday so I drove to his house, then we loaded in his neighbor's truck with our bikes and drove over to Post Canyon for a ride. We managed to get in a good 2 hour ride on some cross country type terrain... which just means it was a little less up and down than most of the trails out there. It was a pretty fun and challenging, mildly technical ride for this Midwestern boy. Just do a google search for Post Canyon if you want to see some of the DH/freeride/technical runs we DIDNT do. Apres ride I headed over to Full Sail Brewery for a beer and some dinner before heading back to Portland.

Tuesday and Wednesday were relatively uneventful as I was a little beat up from the hike and the mtb ride on the two previous days. Thursday I left from my sisters house around noon and headed out on what turned out to be a 45 mile ride mostly along the Springwater Corridor on the southeast side of Portland. I started by heading into downtown again, then did ride around the riverfront and esplanade area, and eventually headed off onto the paved path for a couple of hours. I had intended to do the entire 40-mile Loop ride, but apparently I dawdled too much at my sisters house before heading out, then spent too much time along the riverfront and ultimately just ran out of time. Oh well, I still got in an adventurous and at times spirited 45 mile ride in great, albeit windy, day.




So far its been an amazing trip... what could possibly compare with what Ive already done????