Mt. Hood/Columbia River Adventure

Wednesday, we picked up some groceries at Winco, a locally owned Aldi-like store, and then met Josh at 10am at the Brehms to pack up camping gear. After picking up Laura on our way out of town, we were officially on our Mt. Hood/Columbia River adventure. In route, we changed plans due to an accident on 84E and headed east on 26 to Mount Hood instead. We’ve learned in Oregon that roadside fruit stands are too good to pass up, so we stopped for a pint of raspberries to snack on with our apples and granola bars! Our first official stop was at Government Camp for info and a look at the “scooters” on the ski slopes (Skibowl). Next stop was Timberline lodge and Blue Ox pizza overlooking the cloudy peak – what a beautiful building. We exited the lodge from the back and walked a ¼ mile or so up the mountain. Our prayer was that the clouds would part on Mt. Hood long enough for us to see the whole mountain, and God graciously gave us a beautiful view of the peak as the clouds finally broke a couple times for about 5 minutes! We snapped many pictures of the mountain and its surroundings, threw a couple snowballs and observed the “gigantic” chipmunks! As we drove down off the mountain on 26, we enjoyed the striking tall white flowers (beargrass) and a surprising view of the full mountain yet again. We had another opportunity to observe the “don’t pass up a fruit stand” philosophy, as we stopped for more cherries and yet another view of Hood. Josh and Laura enjoyed the site from a huge swing in the backyard of a rental house next to the fruit stand. We purchased the most delicious of apricots and more cherries (this time Bings). Alongside the stand were more loaded-down cherry trees, Rainier and Bing, side by side. That evening we set up our two tents at the Viento State Park camp site and had spaghetti over the cook stove and marshmallows over the camp fire. The campground was a narrow park between Interstate 84 and the Union Pacific train tracks. A fellow camper told us we’d hear maybe 3 trains all night, although some thought it was more like 3 trains an hour! Yet all in all we slept reasonably well.

Thursday, we were up by seven for yogurt, cherries, granola, oj, apples and the last of the wonderful apricots. Em had her own special Marriott brew (cold yesterday’s coffee with plenty of cream from a water bottle). Our first stop was Bonneville dam for a tour of the turbines and a view of fish climbing the ladders. Next was a couple mile hike, starting at Horsetail Falls, then hiking on to Ponytail Falls and Oneonta Falls. The bridge to Three Falls had been washed out by storms, so Oneonta Falls was our turn around point. But, we enjoyed the spectacular views from the trail as we returned. Traveling west on the Historic Columbia River Highway we stopped at several more falls including Multnomah and the Vista house for another spectacular view. Multnomah was definitely the “tourist trap”; we could hardly find a parking space. Yet, it was a beautiful falls and we “needed” to have our picture taken in front of it, because that’s what every true tourist does!! Vista house provided a wonderful view of the whole area! It was time to head down to civilization and a Popeye’s chicken feast and gas in Troutdale. We arrived back in time to drop Josh off in Salem for his soccer “banquet”, and Em, D & Laura returned to the Brehms for showers and downloading of 100’s of pictures. Laura and Darrell went to watch soccer practice; Em stayed to work on photos and visit with Roger and Jan. After practice we dropped Laura off at “her place” and Josh and Darrell returned to Brehms. Darrell and Em enjoyed the Brehms hospitality once more, this time sleeping on a very comfortable, double air mattress in Roger’s office.

Click for Em's Picasa Pictures