The second part of the Hood River section of our trip started poorly, after a day of sightseeing that was supposed to be relaxing but did not turn out that way. It turned for the better the following day as we got up to Post Canyon to do some mountain biking. We had a great day, including another swim in the river, before heading to Mount Rainier for the last stretch of our trip.
A Day of Touring About that Did Not Go as Planned
Tuesday we decide was going to be a relaxing day. After the epic hike on Monday, our legs needed a break. The plan was to take it easy, drive around a bit and see some of the sights we’ve been missing over the past few years.
We started with a drive up to Panorama Point. This lookout provides an amazing view over to Mount Hood, and it was a very clear, sunny day. The light wasn’t great, but it still provided a spectacular view. Oddly, I didn’t take any pictures on my phone, so you will have to wait for the follow on posts.
From there, we wanted to head over towards Mosier and the Historic Highway. Instead of taking the highway, we found a back road drive to Mosier that was way better. It was a long, windy grave backroad that kept giving us great views of Mount Adam’s along the way. It was a beautiful drive - just what we were looking for!
After working our way through the backroads, we were rewarded with some views of Mount Adams.
After making our way back out of the forest, we headed up to Rowena Loops along the Historic Highway. This has always been one of our favorite road riding loops, but as we only had mountain bikes we decided to drive it this time. It’s way better on a road bike, but the drive down is still pretty nice.
Looking down on the Columbia River.
The Rowena Lookout gives an amazing view out over the Columbia River, and looks down over the Rowena Loops, a crazy feat of engineering when the highway was first built. It’s hard to imagine how they would have done so.
We hiked around a short bit at the lookout, checking out some views we don’t normally see. Then we drove down the loops, and got on the highway to head back into Hood River for a late lunch.
When we headed into Hood River, we made our way to what’s called the “Event Site”, where all the wind sport people gear up for time on the water. There are a bunch of great restaurants and breweries down there, so we planned to have lunch at one of our favorites - Pfreim.
Sadly, this is where the day went awry. I dropped Jus off to get us a table while I went looking for parking. It was quite busy and there was nothing available along the main drag. So I headed down the dead end stretch, and went to turn around to head back. I guess I wasn’t looking as closely as a should have, as I got hit making the u-turn. I had checked my mirrors before making the turn, but clearly that wasn’t enough. This incident was not what we needed on our vacation. Fortunately, the damage wasn’t too bad and the truck was still drivable. But what a way to ruin a perfectly great vacation.
After dealing with the details of the accident, we had lunch at Pfreim. It’s a German-style brewery that we’ve always enjoyed. Lunch was a bit muted with all that had happened, but it was still good.
After lunch we went over to the Event Site and spent some time watching the wind surfers/kite surfers/wing foils on the river. It’s amazing how much the technology has changed over the years, and how the mixture of the different styles has changed with it. In the early years it was mostly windsurfers; then it switched to mostly kite boarders; and this year it must have been 90% wing foils - these new inflatable wings that they hold while riding a smaller board with a hydrofoil that rides them up over the water. It’s crazy to watch. We stayed for about half an hour before heading out on our next stop.
From there we drove up to the Lavender Farm. It wasn’t where we remembered it being, and it was now combined with a winery that had not been there before. The views were not as good as they used to be, but we snapped a few pics and headed off again. Again, nothing on my phone, so more to come.
From there, we drove through the orchards and out to Solera Brewing. This small, unassuming brewery has the best patio/lawn in the area with amazing views of Mount Hood. We were still a little subdued, but had a beer and enjoyed the views. We were trying to compare the amount of snow and glaciers to the last time we had been there (four years ago…), but it was hard to tell.
The amazing view of Mount Hood from the Solera patio. We were lucky to find a table with some shade!
From there, it was back to the campsite. It was late afternoon, but still quite hot. We got changed into swimming gear and went for a swim in the river.
Floating down the river…
It was actually more floating than swimming - the current was strong, and the river was quite deep in that area, so you could walk upstream, jump in the river and let it whisk you downstream to a spot where you could haul yourself back out. It was so much fun! The water was cold but refreshing, and we did it a bunch of times before the sun went down behind the trees, and we decide to call it.
A quick jump in the river to cool off!
We made dinner, had a relaxing evening at the campsite and called it a day once the sun went down.
Mountain Biking at Post Canyon
Wednesday we needed to get active again. We had brought our mountain bikes with us, so we made the short drive over to Post Canyon, the local mountain biking hot spot. We had a vague recollection of the area and trails, and found the parking area without too much trouble. After gearing up we picked a trail that we wanted to try and headed up.
For the first lap, we decided to try the ride up the forest road. It looked like the straightest path to the area we wanted to try, and star of Mitchell Ridge, the path back down. The ride up was brutal! While a road, it was really steep - too steep to ride in places. Eventually we made it. From there, we got a bit lost trying the find the trail we wanted. We made a couple of wrong turns and rode a few alternate trails, before eventually finding our way to the top of Mitchell Ridge. The downhill was fun - fast and flowy, but it got a bit much towards the bottom, with some big, steep berms that were tough. But we made it.
After an epic climb up the forest road, the downhill on Mitchell Ridge was almost worth it.
We then figured out that we had taken a different route up than we had done previously. Instead of the forest road, there was an uphill road called Seven Streams, that lead to a part of the area that looked much more familiar! It took a little while for us to find our way, but we eventually found the right trail (Float On) which took us down a fast, flowy section with big berms, then over to the other side of the canyon and down the fun Kleeway downhill route back to the parking area. We had so much fun we did a second, if protracted lap. It was a good set of runs, but we were pretty tired and called it at that.
Our second and third laps were a little easier, but no less enjoyable!
We headed back to the campsite and got changed, then went for a swim in the river. We first staken out an area in the it rocks, which formed some natural pools. The water wasn’t any warmer, but it was out of the current and nice to relax in. We soaked and cleaned up the dust from mountain biking, and generally cooled off. We eventually went back to jumping in the river and floating back down to the rocks, and did that for a while, until we got cold.
The rest of the afternoon and evening we spent relaxing at the campsite, as we were packing up in the morning to start the drive north, with our next stop being four nights at Mount Rainier.