Chris Tanner

Rockies

July 7, 2014December 7, 2016 Chris TannerLeave a comment

Nearly back in the USA. Nearly, because we’ve been sat here in a traffic jam just north of the border in the hot, hot sun for over an hour, with various emergency and traffic vehicles coming up and down the road. One guy says that there’s a trailer turned over further down. We passed an overturned haulage trailer a few miles back up the same road, too. A few police cars are starting to come back up this way, so maybe it’s clearing. We’ve been sat here long enough for the trailer folk in front of us to get out their generator to power their AC.

On Wednesday last week we left Marble Canyon and headed via Kamloops towards Jasper. It was another hot drive, through arid canyon country and then back into endless trees and meadows flanking the North Thomson river. We found a campsite by the river and cooked dinner while the mosquitoes swarmed in. The river was really full, and moving fast. All the rivers in the Rockies over the next few days were the same, and some lakes were overflowing.

Thursday morning; on towards Jasper, where we stopped off for a shower before heading south on the Icefield Parkway – supposedly one of the world’s best drives. Yes, it’s a pretty amazing view, all the way. So much BULK in these mountains.

The trees are very different from those on the Pacific Northwest coast – they are smaller, skinnier and more open. I guess they get a much harsher winter. I keep meaning to read up on all the different types on fir, pine and spruce trees – we’ve seen so many different species.

We spent a few days camping at Waterfowl Lakes campground with family; Iain and Helen, cousins Andrew and Alastair, their wives Kara-Lise and Kim, and two baby/toddler boys. Not doing a huge amount of activity, and staying in the same place for 3 nights in a row has been nice. We had a short walk up to Bow Lake Summit on Friday, and a kayak around Waterfowl Lake on Saturday. Plenty of eating and resting.

Last week we had our first mechanical breakdown – the 12v plug for the fridge melted and shorted a fuse. We didn’t have any spares so I stole the wiper fuse, expecting not to have any rain. We did end up having a bit of rain over the weekend, but we weren’t driving. Last night we discovered the gas regulator off our cheap cooker had failed, and even after multiple dis-assemblies, tweaks and re-assemblies it still wasn’t working. I don’t like it when I can’t fix something. So today we spent a while looking around stores in Cranbrook for a new cooker, ended up with a cheapo from Canadian Tire. The reviews are good, let’s see if it survives the next couple of months on the road.

We’ve got three weeks to get across to Thunder Bay where we’re meeting Olly and Kate, so we’re going to head south into the USA and spend some time in Glacier National Park, Yellowstone and a few other places along the way.

Eventually the traffic cleared and we arrived at the US border. The guard waved us through and told us to park up and go into the office, where we filled out an immigration form and waited while they searched the van. We’d declared our fruit and veg, but not our firewood … luckily we were just scolded and allowed to continue on into Montana – a new state!

So far, nothing to report other than the Rockies have disappeared and made way for rolling, tree-covered hills. There’s a LOT of this kind of driving up here!

We’re now camped at Dickey Lake, about 30 miles south of the border. There are a few camp fires flickering in the trees, and the half moon is bright over the lake. One thing we’ve not seen much of so far this trip is the night sky – we’ve always been tucked away in mountain valleys amongst tall trees. I’m looking forward to the desert and open plains.

Far away in the darkness I can hear the rumble of a train coming closer, along with the characteristic hoot of a North American diesel engine. Over the past few weeks we’ve camped close to train tracks many times – the roads and the railways tend to follow the same winding routes through the mountains.

It’s another warm night, just under a sheet, with the van all closed up apart from one window with a net over it. Need to make a net for the other cab window so we can get some through breeze.

Vancouver and Whistler

July 2, 2014 Chris Tanner1 Comment

Wolves are howling on the hill, across the other side of the lake, making noises I never knew a pack of wolves could make; yodeling, yelping and ululating all at the same time. I think they are getting closer. The birds are having a good sing song, sharing their morning gossip. The clouds rushing past the top of the canyon are seared salmon pink with the first light of dawn. The valley floor is still in shade, but it’s warm enough for just shorts and a tee. A breeze is starting to ruffle the surface of the water, and shooing away the mosquitoes in camp. When the wind dies off, I can hear the sound of the waterfall we scrambled across to as the sun went down last night. It’s 5am and I’m sat with a hot cup of fresh, dark coffee and a couple of Aunt Jemima’s pancakes, enjoying the start of what is going to be another scorcher of a day.

I’m up early having been woken by something crawling over my leg in the van – most likely a massive spider. The day beginning outside was too tempting to ignore, so I’m up and about. It’s been too long since I last got up with the sun. It’s also the first time in nearly a week that I’ve had to sit down and catch up.

We’ve traveled down from the Sunshine Coast, through Vancouver and Whistler, and we’re now on our way up to Jasper. Arriving in Vancouver was strange. We’d been planning to visit for a long time, throwing around ideas of maybe moving here in the future. But as soon as we found ourselves surrounded by the buildings, streets and hundreds of people, we both felt unsettled. Mainly the fact that we’d been out in the country for a couple of weeks, just the two of us, and being suddenly thrust into a heaving mass of humanity was a shock to the system. We parked up and had a wander around Granville Island, stopping in at a few galleries and studios, had a bite to eat and soaked up the buzz. In the evening we met up with Jim – the guy with the broken down motorbike we met back down in Oregon. He runs a Community Laboratory in Vancouver, where people can join and use the tools and workshop space. He was still working on his bike. A few people were building some micro-houses. Sawdust, grime and shaggy beards. A good “making things” vibe. Over the road was a micro-brewery – Parallel 49 – where we grabbed a couple of beers and a box of poutine from the food truck outside; one of Canada’s national foods I’m told. It’s essentially just chips and gravy with a fancy name, but tasty!

One of the ferries on the Sunshine Coast

We camped by the side of the road half an hour out of town as the campsite was shut by the time we got there at nearly midnight. Friday morning brought rain, we spent the day in town. A couple of hours in the library in the afternoon gave me some time to catch up with a bit of work, and then in the evening we smartened up (a little) and headed off to the circus! Driving out of town the night before we’d seen that Cirque du Soleil was in town – something we’d always wanted to see – so we booked tickets. It was impressive. The usual acrobatics, trapeze work and strong-man feats, with amazing costumes and live music. One act involved a huge, upside down, transparent cone – like a big funnel – with a man stood inside throwing glowing balls around the inner walls. It was dark, so all you could see was the man surrounded by smoke and whirling globes. Too late to find a campsite and in need of a freshen up, we hunted down a motel for the night.

On Saturday we met Will – a buddy of mine from Uni I hadn’t seen in perhaps ten years. We had breakfast and then spent the day hanging out and catching up. Knowing someone in a town, rather than being a complete stranger, makes a huge difference. Maybe also because we’d been in town for a couple of days by then, I felt a bit more comfortable with the place. But we both decided that we don’t want to live in a city again for a while.

In the evening sun we drove up the 99 – the “sea to sky highway” – through Squamish and into Whistler. The original plan was to stop for the night in Squamish. I’d heard about it being “the adventure centre of British Columbia”, there was a kite surf beach, climbing and biking all within the same place. But even on a Saturday night, it felt dead as we arrived around 7pm. We had a quick drive around, and decided that heading on up to Whistler was the best plan. After drinks and dinner in town we found a pull-out on a mountain road a few Kms south for the night.

Sunday morning; breakfast in Whistler and then on to Ali’s place. Whistler is one of the world great mountain biking destinations – a purpose-built ski resort in winter, and a mountain bike mecca in summer. The surrounding mountains are covered with hundreds of awesome trails, and the slopes north of the town form the Whistler Bike Park. The chair lifts are converted to take bikes, and the town is packed with downhill warriors in full face helmets and body armour. Rose, Ali and I started the day’s riding with a loop around the Lost Lake trails, then leaving Rose at the house we joined up with a few other guys to ride a couple of trails called “Business Time” and “AM PM”. Steep climbing and steep, fast, technical descents through twisty woods, over rock drops and slatted wooden bridges. So good to be out on these trails with strong riders to follow. A gang came around to Ali’s for the evening where I cooked up a massive carbonara to fuel us up for the next day’s ride.

Back on the hill on Monday. We started with a long, tough climb all the way up the side of the valley, perhaps a couple of hours. Hot and humid. Amazing view from the top. But squadrons of mosquitoes were out and in fighting mode so we gobbled down our snacks, hopped on the bikes and dropped into the trees, onto a trail called “Howler”. In 20 minutes we were back amongst the houses on the valley floor. Spent the afternoon hanging out at Lost Lake, and then another evening relaxing at the house. The Kiwi gang were busy making plans for the next stage of their endless summer; chasing the seasons around the world, riding bikes and working where possible. Most people are here purely to ride bikes; mostly in their early twenties, single, living in shared houses, “doing a season”. All talk is about bikes and travel. One of the guys, Nick, was planning to head to Europe in August to get back into work and career for a while, and was having to make some tricky decisions about whether to follow his mates to New Zealand and ride the southern summer or step back from the party and drop into a 9-to-5 job. Was interesting to have a chat with him, about how it can be possible to work full time in a city whilst also fitting in enough play, and whether just playing out at the weekends could compare to immersing yourself fully into a scene for a whole season.

On Tuesday folks were either back at work in bike shops or workshops, or having a rest, so I headed up to the bike park on my own with a 3-lift sampler pass. Couldn’t go through Whistler without riding the park. As I was by myself I didn’t really push it, but had a blast down some famous lines; Freight Train, No Joke, A-Line. My riding has improved in just three days here; I can easily see how spending a season in this place can take you to another level completely.

We left Whistler at lunch and drove north into the hot, hot, hot valleys around Lilooet. I wasn’t expecting it to be so dry. I was thinking it was just going to be more of the same pine trees and forests that we’ve seen all the way up the coast so far, but it’s dry and arid. A huge river has cut a deep gorge into the limestone cliffs, exposing huge slabs of rock and creating some incredible scenery.

Here at Marble Canyon, the morning sun is chasing the shade down the slope on the other side of the valley, and it’s going to charge into camp any minute now. I hear Rose stirring in the van, best get the kettle on.

Sunshine Coast

June 25, 2014 Chris TannerLeave a comment

By 8am the sun was already hot, so we had a quick dip in the lake, packed up camp and paddled along the south shore back to the van. I’d wanted to leave earlier to be ahead of the wind, but as we put the boats back in the water it picked up where it had left off yesterday – which meant an upwind paddle where we’d had a downwind ride before. No big deal though, we still made it back in about the same time.

A successful little expedition and a real taste of kayak/canoeing around here. One day I’d like to do the whole Powell Canoe circuit. Our island didn’t have a name on any of the maps we could find, so we called it Stump Island.

Headed to the ferry to catch an early-ish ride around to the next spot on the Sunshine Coast … but discovered that the next ferry was 4.30pm; the schedule I’d been planning from was only valid until June 24th! Ah well, we just had to kill a few hours. Had a coffee and chatted with a couple of locals, took a wander around the local provincial park (lots of them up here) and then managed to squeeze a bit of work writing in as we waited for the ferry from Saltery Bay to Earl’s Cove.

What a beautiful ferry journey. It was only 50 minutes, but the views were stunning. Big, steep mountains dropping straight into the water all around us. Other than a few cabins tucked into the trees here and there, it was completely empty, or at least looked empty. A few of the hillsides were scarred by logging trails or fire roads, or had patches of missing trees – but otherwise there was no sign of humanity at all. I can imagine the coastline further up towards Alaska is incredible; like this but genuinely remote. Definitely want to sail up there some time.

Tonight we’re in yet another provincial park campground. We’re in Porpoise Bay at the southern end of the Sechelt inlet. In our bellies is a gourmet dinner of locally smoked salmon, spinach and quinoa. The van is sealed up so none of the hordes of mosquito-beasts outside can get in, and we’ve got the guidebooks out, planning what we want to do in Vancouver over the next few days.

Stump Island

June 24, 2014 Chris TannerLeave a comment

I’m really starting to get into breakfast of scrambled eggs with salami. Quick, easy, and tasty. Eggs last for ages without a fridge, and the pack of salami we bought (I think in California) is still going strong.

Weather looked good for a kayak trip, so today we headed across to the mainland on the ferry to Powell River, picked up some bear spray and a coffee, then found our way up a gravel track to the start of the Powell Canoe Route. It’s normally a 5 to 7 day multi-lake adventure with portages between each lake and awesome mountain views, but as our first time out kayak camping we figured a short paddle down the first lake (Lois Lake), and one night out would do fine.

Saw our first bear of this trip! Driving up the gravel track just off the highway a big black bear was hanging out on the track. He ran right off into the bushes, no hanging around for pictures.

We packed a tent, sleeping bags and some food, put the kayaks in the water and headed off into the wilderness in the baking sun. After an hour we washed up on a deserted beach on a small island in the middle of the lake, and decided to call this camp for the night.

What a stunning place. The lake is surrounded by steep sided, forested mountains, with their tops hidden in the clouds. Down here we’re in the warm sun, with only the sounds of the wilderness and the waves slapping on the sand. The lake is actually a dam, which means that it’s a flooded valley with thousands of dead tree trunks poking up through the water around the shores. The lake level rises and falls depending on how much hydro power they need, which creates these crazy looking tree stumps that are still standing, all the sand and soil having been washed away from underneath them.

We explored the island, I had a swim, Rose did some drawing, we cooked some dinner, had a camp fire – all nice and slow, nobody else around at all. As the sun set, wolves were howling in the distance. Optimistically we’d only put the inner tent up, as the sun was shining late into the evening, it was calm and warm … didn’t smell like rain was coming. It would have been nice to sleep under the stars. Just as I was drifting off to sleep the rain started so I had to rush the fly sheet on – at least we’d brought it!

Ten days

June 23, 2014 Chris TannerLeave a comment

Ten days and 1,900 miles lie behind us, mainly wiggling back and forth over the mountains of the Cascade Range. Vehicle and crew are doing well. The van’s getting about 15 miles per gallon – same as it always has so the kayaks on the roof don’t seem to make a difference to economy. We’re starting to settle into a nice routine, though we’ve been driving a bit more than we’d like. Every night we’ve had a different spot – in a campsite most evenings, one night in a motel and a couple of nights in the wilderness last week. The idea was to spend a fair bit of time in BC, and now that we’re here we should be doing less driving. Though today it’s raining, so we’re back on the road across to the east of Vancouver Island, heading up to a campsite near Little River where we’ll catch a ferry across to Powell River on the mainland tomorrow.

The van has a leak somewhere in the roof which finds its way along inside the gutter and drips down onto the foot of the bed. But not every time it rains. I’d hoped we’d fixed this leak months ago when we first discovered it but no such luck. I’ve been round every joint above the gutter with filler and thick paint. At the moment I’m just hoping we’re not going to get much rain. And it’s not more than a drip, anyway.

We’d originally planned to spend tonight in the wilderness at the north end of Kennedy Lake, kayaking in and finding a remote beach for the tent, but this morning we woke up to a chilly grey mist and the forecast didn’t look too good so we bailed on that and drove up to Tofino instead, just a few kilometres north of last night’s campground. While our laundry was washing we grabbed a coffee, caught up on some emails and checked out the BC ferry times for our route down to Vancouver.

Tofino is very much a surf town, with all the surf dudes and chicks that come with it. Tofino is to BC as Newquay is to England, I suspect, but less tacky. If I was a surfer and had a board with me, I’d stick around for a while and get out in the water, but I’m not, it’s a bit wet for anything else, and we have miles to get under our belt. It was almost windy enough to get out kitesurfing last night. That would have been sweet. Mount Washington Bike Park is around here – with a chairlift to haul my bike and I to the top of some fast, flowing trails – but I don’t fancy riding in the rain and mud so we’re passing on that too.

Late in the afternoon we got to Miracle Bay campground – another cookie-cutter provincial park setup with rows of well-kept sites in the trees, each with a picnic bench and fire pit. In the rain, we rustled up a meal inside the van. As we finished up, the rain stopped so we had a wander down to the beach as a couple of cruise ships, er, cruised by. Made me think of the contrast between us and them. Camping in the back of a pikey van in the trees, or dressing up for a 5-course dinner along with live music on the top deck of a cruise ship. I don’t mind a bit of luxury now and then but I don’t think a cruise is on the agenda. Would hate to have everything so structured and organised. Nothing spontaneous.

Vancouver Island

June 22, 2014 Chris Tanner1 Comment

Across Vancouver Island to the west coast today. We stopped in a small town called Chemainus, the town of “world famous murals”. Not famous enough for me to have heard of it before, but we stopped in anyway, had a coffee, made some plans, had a wander around and then hit the road again.

Crossing the island took about two hours along a twisty two lane road; more mountains, more trees, more lakes. All beautiful, as usual! Driving through towns is hardest – with hundreds of bill boards lining the side of the road there’s so much to read, so much to distract from actually driving.

We ended up at Green Point campground in the Pacific Rim National Park; a quiet spot a few hundred yards back from the beach, set a little higher than the sea in old-growth forest. Lots of old man’s beard hanging from the trees, quite a bit of birdsong and a ray of hot afternoon sun beating down through a gap in the forest. Time to head to the beach.

It’s great to be back by the sea. Both of us feel relaxed and comfortable. Happy wandering along Comber’s beach, exploring rock pools, finding shells and stones and soaking up the warmth and emptiness. Wandering along in the surf made me think about the winter coming up, where the plan is to head down to the warm waters of Mexico. For the past week I’ve been immersed in mountains, thinking about biking and climbing and how much fun it would be to spend the summer in a mountain town, staying long enough to get to know people and tuck a load of adventure under my belt. One day. This is a good exploratory trip.

Back in camp, Rose got down to some drawing and I tucked my nose back into the book I’m reading; Monsoon by Wilbur Smith. Tales of high-seas adventure from the 17th century (thanks for the load of books Shane, I’m going to have to work hard to get through them all)

Tonight was our first camp fire! We toasted a few marshmallows and just sat, enjoying being here.

Canada

June 21, 2014 Chris TannerLeave a comment

True to its name, the Sunrise Motel was in the full sun this morning – the longest day of the year. Unlike our hostel in Iceland which had thin see-through curtains in a land that has near-24 hour sunshine, this place had thick light blocking curtains. But we were still up fairly early, with a good 70-odd miles to drive north to Point Angeles where we picked up the ferry for Victoria.

We’re now on the ferry, with a huge mountain off to starboard which I think is Mt Rainier, over on the Washington mainland. Canada is a few miles ahead. I hope they let us in!

Yup, we’re in. No troubles at the border, just a look at our passports and a few questions. I don’t think the guy even had a computer in his kiosk. Not like the US immigration!

We spent the afternoon exploring Victoria, including a wander around “Miniature World” which was an impressive set of model towns, villages and scenes from all over the world at various stages in history. Coming out of Miniature World we made a bee line for Bug Zoo which Rose had spotted earlier. Can’t miss an opportunity to get up close and personal with bugs…

The main town felt pretty empty, but I have a feeling that’s what a lot of Canada is going to be like. It was a hot sunny afternoon so the docks were busy; lots of tourists and locals hanging out in various sunny bars overlooking the attractive waterfront. We paid our first visit to MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op) – I’m sure there will be more – to grab a headtorch for Rose and some gas for our mini cooker which we’ll take when we camp away from the van.

Late in the day we headed north, stopping at Goldstream park campground which unfortunately was full. Being so close to Victoria on a Saturday night that wasn’t surprising really. So we carried on up the Trans Canada Highway and eventually stopped at an RV park in Duncan. Nothing special, but a place to park for the night which was all we really needed.

Mount St. Helens

June 20, 2014 Chris TannerLeave a comment

Had an awesome ride up Mount St Helens today. Rode up through fir trees by the side of a huge boulder and gravel-strewn valley for a while, then cut up onto a ridge on quiet singletrack. After an hour or so, we came out above the tree line at the top of the trail. Rose hung out here while I carried on up onto the Plains of Abraham; desolate volcanic flat lands covered in rocks of all types and sizes. Black lava, grey pumice and everything in between. Then back down through the woods to the van for a late morning coffee. Great to be mountain biking on a mountain, on remote trails. We saw one other couple with bikes, and another couple walking. Otherwise, it was an empty mountain.

We wanted to carry on around Mt St Helens up onto Windy Ridge where there’s a viewpoint over the 1980 eruption zone, but the road was closed. On the twisty, mountainous Washington roads we’ve seen a lot of rock falls – I guess they are still clearing up the road after a harsh winter. Even the roads that are open can be a bit dicey at points; lots of subsidence and sharp dips. Gotta drive carefully.

So, quick change of plans; now with an extra couple of hours on our hands we decided to keep heading north. Mount Rainier National Park was tempting, but to be honest we’ve kinda had enough of mountains and fir trees for the time being. Time to head back to the sea. We skipped past the Olympic National Park as well; the Pacific coast here is supposed to be incredible – I read in a local tourist brochure that “nowhere else can you experience majestic old growth forest running right down into the Pacific Ocean” … but that’s exactly what we’ve seen quite a lot of so far in California. And we want to spend some good time in BC, on Vancouver Island and in the Rockies, so it’s now time to head to Canada.

After a mediocre (but typically American-sized; huge) noodle meal at a roadside restaurant and a quick and dirty Wal-Mart stop to buy mosquito net for the van we found a motel in the small town of Hoodsport. Time to wash off the dirt from the ride this morning. Right on the edge of the small gravel beach, the Sunrise Motel has a wonderful view over the water, with its own dock that squeaks with every wave that comes through. We’re a long way from the open ocean here at the southern end of the Puget Sound. Seattle is to our east, across a number of estuaries, islands and waterways. We had no reason to stop in there, and generally want to avoid the big cities.

Portland, and into Washington

June 19, 2014 Chris TannerLeave a comment

We left the campground pretty late this morning, and continued on west to Portland. Low on fuel, again. Why don’t I learn? We left Hood River last night with a quarter tank. It would have been so easy to full up then. “Yeah, we’ll manage. We’ll get there on what we’ve got left.” My optimism is going to bite us in the ass one day. When the van was in the garage I learnt that it’s actually a 5.7 litre V8, not a 4.3 V6 as I thought. 5.7 litres! That’s crazy. It sure doesn’t feel very powerful for an engine that big. We only get 15 miles per gallon, which means 300 miles from a tank at most. We crept into a local store that sold fuel, well over the 300 mile mark. Oops. But we made it.

In Portland we had a couple of hours in a super-hip café, me getting some writing done for work and Rose doing some drawing. It’s clearly the hub for the local bike courier scene. Outside on the pavement a bunch of dudes in their trendy cut-off trousers and extravagant facial hair were swigging tea from thermos flasks and getting calls for jobs on their radios.

We thought we’d go for a healthy lunch today – a couple of doughnuts from Voodoo Doughnuts. This place must be a national legend, the queue outside was maybe 50 people long! They were pretty tasty. We also had a quick peek around the National Centre for Crafts; pottery and clothing mainly.

Then onwards into Washington! First stop; Mount St Helens National Monument. I’d read that there was a good bike ride up the southern face of the mountain so we headed that way. I hadn’t written down any details, and going by the seat of our pants we ended up at Ape Cave (I actually needed Ape Canyon, which we got to later). Ape Cave turned out to be an amazing lava tube; 3rd longest in the USA. We explored half a mile or so down the tube with my bike light. Walking on a river of solid lava through a sewer-sized tunnel, you could easily visualise this being hot and molten.

Back on the surface, we carried on a little way to Lava Canyon; again an unplanned side-trip. Always the best way; drive around a corner and see something unexpected. That’s what road tripping is about! Reminds me of a saying; “Tourists see what they go to see. Travellers see what they see”.

I’m starting to experiment with more non-perishable food, in preparation for longer trips on the boat. Tonight’s gourmet dinner was a curry with canned chicken. Worked just fine! In fact it was amazing. But food always is when you’re hungry, and our two-doughnut lunch wasn’t really setting us up for success. We have a fridge in the van – it runs off 12 volts – but as we can really only run it while we’re driving, it only gets a few hours of cooling each day. The cooler device isn’t very powerful, so it’s more of a “storage box that doesn’t get too hot” than a fridge. So far so good, nothing has gone off. It’s going to be a different story in Utah in August though … might get a solar panel that we can later transfer to the boat. That at least will mean we can run it all day.

We’re still parked just by Lava Canyon, where we’ll stay tonight. The van is all sealed up to make sure that no mozzies get in. I don’t think we’re in a mosquito hotspot here but Rose would not be best pleased if she woke up covered in bites…

The car park is in thick trees, and the moon is not yet up. There are a few stars shining in the small patches of sky between the tall firs, but most are hiding behind clouds. It’s very, very dark. It’s warm. Even though there’s a lot of snow on the slopes not far above us, we can’t be very high here. I don’t know what the altitude is though. The van is all smoky because we’ve been burning a mosquito coil inside. I can hear loads of crickets. In the distance is the rushing of the creek. Earlier we heard frogs and what sounded like jays in the forest. It’s really peaceful. No thundering trains tonight! I wonder what creatures are going to walk past before the sun comes up…

Hood River

June 18, 2014July 6, 2018 Chris Tanner2 Comments

Kite surfing day! It was still blowing a hoolie. My smallest kite is a 9m and I knew that still had a puncture in one of the struts, so first stop was Airtime Kites, perhaps the world’s leading kite repair centre, conveniently based right here in Hood River. They fixed me up with a new strut, so off we went down to the launch site. So many hyper-cool dudes and girls all in one place, just like every other kiting spot in the world I’ve been to. It can be pretty intimidating, especially in a fairly hardcore spot like this, where the wind is cranking, the river current is running and the launch is on a cross-wind sandbar which you have to wade across to. At least all the riders head way upwind once they’ve launched. Even though there must have been over fifty kites on the river, it wasn’t a crowded launch zone.

Pumping up on the grass by the river, it didn’t take me long to find out that one of the other struts also had a delaminated valve. Ugh. Back to the repair shop. Repaired the valve and bought plenty more repair kits – it’s only a matter of time before every valve on my ancient kites has the same problem. Hopefully not when I’m out kiting…

Hood River town is full of dudes driving beat-up trucks with some kind of extreme sports accessory on the roof or on the back; windsurf, kite or bike gear. It’s got a relaxed feel about it, with a bunch of nice cafes, and everything (in the centre at least) within walking distance. I could definitely see myself spending some time here.

Back at the launch zone it was still blowing well over 30 knots; really too much for my 9m kite, but there’s no way I was going to pass up the opportunity to have a session at a spot I’ve been reading about ever since I started kiting. I launched the kite, and yes it was a struggle to hold it down but I was on the water! The experience from the middle of the river was amazing. The white snow-covered peak of Mount Hood rose above the southern edge of the gorge, and the view both up and down river was dramatic – cliffs and forest right up to the water.

At one point I got caught by a strong gust, was hoisted into the air, and lost my board on re-entry. The current runs upwind, and I’d heard horror stories of people losing boards for ever, so I went into body-dragging overdrive, swimming hard upwind to get it back. Back on the board I decided it was really too windy for a 9, so headed in. Great to get a session though.

We drove down the I-84 a short way towards Portland and stopped in another State Park campground, again with a train track running along just behind the van!

The van’s been a bit cramped and cluttered so I spent some time making a couple of extra storage areas for the things we use frequently; a shelf on the dash for books and a shelf in the back for cooking stuff.