This little summary of a week at the Gorge Paddling Festival is meant to give those unfortunate souls enduring actual winter something to draw them on into next summer while we paddle away down here in Florida.
In brief, put a Columbia River Gorge paddling vacation on your short list of destinations. You can downwind until your arms fall off, hike miles every day without ever taking the same trail, or even get after some white water if plastic boats and rocks are part of your game. The best part for any downwind minded paddler is the shuttle that runs for most of the day during the week of the Gorge Paddling Festival. It takes all the logistical worry out of the equation for the paddler and lets you just enjoy the paddle all the more. It also frees up your non-paddling travel companions to do something besides follow you up and down the river in the car. It isn’t crazy expensive to fly to Portland or to rent a car out there for a week and some of the vacation rental by owner options around Hood River/White Salmon/Stevenson are pretty cool. You can get views, solitude, views and solitude, you can camp on the cheap; it is hard to think of a bad option. We stayed in a cabin just inside Gifford Pinchot National Forest up the hill in Washington on the banks of the Little White Salmon River. It is the quietest place I’ve been since I spent a summer living in a cabin in the middle of Shenandoah National Park. We were greeted every morning with nothing but the sound of the river ambling by. It was a great vacation that included some top paddling. I recommend booking ASAP. We booked in late April and got an awesome place but pickings were getting slim by then.
The trip out to the Gorge Paddling Festival was our vacation for the year. Previous paddling trips for me have been just that, paddling trips. This time Chelsea was coming along and the gorge area promised great weather and lots of extra-paddling activities. We spent a week in the area. Each day gets a little write up. If you just want to read about the race that was on Thursday. Paddling happened on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Saturday’s leisure paddle was the best of the week I’d say. I’ve not got any paddling photos because I do not have a water camera. Most of the photos will highlight the other things we did. Maybe you can use those to convince a non-paddling travelling partner to come to the gorge.
Monday: Paddling and getting acquainted with Hood River.
We slept in and headed to Hood River around lunch time. The views were astounding for our first trip down the hill and the cool crisp weather was a welcome relief from the Florida humidity. The whitecaps on the river were visible from 1000 feet above when the river first came into view.
Photo 1: Heading down the hill, sun overhead and coastal fog to the west means it’s blowing in the gorge.
The wind was blowing already. We grabbed lunch and then headed to the staging area for the shuttles to check in and decide which shuttle to take. I found the super-light Stellar SES Ultra that Greg Tobin had previously used in San Francisco waiting for me on the grass in Hood River. I was just sizing things up when Carter came running up telling me to hurry, that the shuttle was going to leave any minute; “Just go get changed and I’ll put your boat on the trailer”. So I changed and he put the boat on the trailer and I went for my first paddle on the gorge. I’m not sure what the hurry was given that plenty more shuttles ran that day. It was just Carter’s exuberance I suppose. Such exuberance is justified in the gorge. People were logging a lot of downwind miles by doing multiple paddles per day. Some Seattle paddlers on the shuttle gave me tips about the Viento to Hood River section during the shuttle ride. They said to work the Oregon side for the first half of the run from Viento to Hood River and then ease over to the Washington side for the second half for the best runs. Of course you have to remember that you are paddling upstream so the biggest runs are often stacked in the strongest opposing current and the fastest line is usually somewhere between the biggest runs in the current and the boring flatness over to the side. And so it was. I drifted back and forth across the river hunting the best pace for least effort and found pretty good speed when I was in the intermediate runs just on the side of the current. Went over into “swell city” and got great rides but found that I was just a tick slower on those biggest waves than on the smaller waves just off the channel.
Photo 2: Pretty happy coming off the water after the first paddle.
Some of the folks got right back on the shuttle for another run. I was satisfied with my recon and Chelsea and I went to an art gallery before joining a bunch of paddlers at Full Sail Brewery for dinner.
Tuesday: Full Day. Tourist stuff. Paddling. And more tourist stuff.
Photo 3: Horses say “This pose again?”
Photo 4: Dry Creek Falls is one of MANY creeks tumbling into the gorge.
Photo 5: Thanks for the lift.
On Tuesday we rode horses up to Dry Creek Falls and along the Pacific Crest Trail for a spell in the morning. The horses were hired from Double Mountain Ranch in Hood River and the lady the runs that outfit flats out loves what she does and put us on great horses. We had lunch after our ride at Thunder Mountain Brewery at Bridge of the Gods and then I went to paddle.
After lunch in Bridge of the Gods we drove the 25 minutes or so back to Hood River and I hopped on the shuttle with upper-Midwest paddlers Zach Handler and Mike Brumbaugh as well as Greg Barton, Kenny Howell, and a few other folks whose names now escape me these couple of months later. Everybody was excited as was typical for the entire week. I decided that I’d probably shadow Greg on account of his having paddled the Gorge before and that he is always a couple of minutes ahead of me at the end of any race, even the times when I have a lead on him early. Maybe I’d learn a better route or get some idea what he was up to. The runs were great early on and I just paddled side by side with Greg, watching what he did and trying to learn what I could from that. Then towards the end he went way over onto the flats on the Oregon side. Theoretically this shortens the course a little. I went over too but found the runs completely gone and the water shallow to the point of being suck water so I started creeping back toward the middle of the river until I started getting some help from the runners again. It turns out that Greg had never paddled on that side either. He’d only ever paddle the Wildside relay ant that is along the Washington shore and he just wanted to see what it was like toward the finish on the Oregon side. That inside line cut the distance paddled by cutting across the flat instead of following the curve of the channel but you really paid the price. We came to the conclusion that you’d have to really have something left in the tank in order to lay down enough power to make that shallow water – no runners shortcut worthwhile. It certainly was not a fun route when you could look across the river and see other boats surfing away. I didn’t go over there on race day. I don’t think anyone did.
Chelsea was entertained wandering around Hood River while I paddled. Then we headed up to a glass blowing studio that ended up being closed. We weren’t ready to give up on the day and ended up wandering around the grounds of one of many of the areas wineries/orchards; The Gorge White house. Weather was like Florida winter weather, low humidity with temperatures in the 70s. It was absolutely perfect. We returned to crash at the cabin after a long perfect day.
Photo 6: Flower Garden at the Gorge White House with Mt. Hood in the background.
Photo 7: Empty cider glasses at Gorge White House
Wednesday: No paddling. Went for a hike.
We hiked Hamilton Mountain near Bridge of the Gods. The hike features waterfalls at the bottom and then view after view after view as you ascend the steeper part of the upper slopes. You keep stopping to take in the view because it might be the best but then there is a better view or a view in a different direction just around the corner. The pre-race dinner was this afternoon and at that dinner Mike Brumbaugh told us that he had also hiked Hamilton Mountain that day; but he had hiked it early and then gone for two paddles before the dinner. Apparently he was trying to bag as much vertical and water time as possible in one week. I think he was averaging something like 5000 feet a day on the trails as well as paddling every day. He had hiked up Mt. Defiance the day before. Wow.
Photo 8: From the top of Hamilton Mountain looking across Table Mountain toward Mt. Adams
Thursday: Race Day
Photo 9: On the way to the start. This is about the mid-point of the course.
I wish I had a picture from the start area. The Home Valley stretch of the river is to me the most beautiful. Mount Defiance looms tall on the Oregon side across from the start and provides a hell of a back drop.
The start was crammed into a tiny cove that was sheltered from the wind in order to be able to hold boats in place for a fair start. Then the course went a few hundred meters across the wind to a buoy that marked the downwind/upriver turn. After that buoy the whole river was yours to play, just avoid bigger traffic and the odd salmon net. I decided to start at the back and just pass as many people as I could once the craziness broke up. I didn’t want to risk damage and figured a balls to the wall start wouldn’t do me any good anyway. There would be no pack tactics the way the wind was blowing so getting a wash ride on a fast draft group was out. It was going to be a surf fest. I figure the worst distance I’d spot my competition in the distance from shore to the buoy would be a few boat lengths.
That strategy was terrible. Many of the back paddlers kept getting blown downwind on the short leg out to the buoy so the first couple hundred meters wash nothing but trying not to t-bone boats. Once I got to the buoy I was probably 100-200 meters off where I wanted to be. At least I hadn’t gone of the start with the front guys and blown myself up like I’ve done before. I had a really nice surf after I rounded the buoy and turned downwind. The runners were great from Home Valley to Viento, the entire 1st half of the race. It was the kind of short period stuff I usually ride along the coast here in Florida. I surfed from the back up until I was trading runs with DJ Jacobson from Bellingham as well Don Keisling and Greg from Seattle. I figured that was a great place to be and I was having a blast. I always ended up in a dual with Don and DJ at US champs to I was about where I should have been in spite of a frustrating start. I was actually ecstatic to have caught those guys from behind on runners. The typical race has me with an advantage going upwind, sidewind, or in the flat but losing ground on the runners. I’m not the grinder I once was because I just don’t put in the volume that I did in the past. All of my paddling anymore is on ski in the lagoon or the ocean so my wave riding efficiency seems to be improving even if I don’t quite have the fitness.
Around Viento I caught a couple of good runners and got a couple of waves ahead of Don and one wave ahead of Greg. I stayed river center at that point and lost track of Don. Greg and DJ were pretty far to my right on the Oregon side. In retrospect I should have gone over to their line. Everybody that knew better told me to run the Oregon side from Viento to The Hatchery but I had been going so well in the middle that inertia just kind of kept me there. The runs in mid river got kind of funky and Greg and DJ got away while Don reappeared way to my right and rapidly passing me. Sam Mayhew also passed me at that point. I adjusted my line accordingly. By the time I got on Don’s line I was about 10 boat lengths behind him. From there the line that I had found on Tuesday seemed like the best option so I didn’t panic and just set about resting as much as I could so I could put in a solid push in the final 2-3km. The runs were middling at best along my line but my pace was okay. However, by just cruising along and taking whatever wave the river offered up I was able to pass Don and Sam again. In the meantime a couple of masters-paddlers, Rich Long and Rob Pelkey, appeared on my left. Those guys had decided to surf it home and took the line through swell city where the current was the strongest. Apparently that wasn’t a bad option because they were gaining on me until we fell into line with one another on the final kilometer to the finish. I had managed my energy well and had plenty of kick to take me into the finish. Talking to them after the race I found that they had great runs pretty much the entire way whereas I had great runs for the 1st half of the race and then kind of slogged it home.
After the race Chelsea and I went on another hike to see another water fall where we found some geodes.
Photo 10: Don and Reid paddling up the White Salmon River to shore after the finish.
Friday: More Hiking.
The Wildside Relay was Friday. Don had asked me to paddle but I passed on the offer since Chelsea and I had a hike planned. Don ended up paddling with Gabe Newton who is a better partner than me anyway.
On the advice of Carter’s dad we hiked up to Tamanawas Falls at the foot of Mt. Hood.
Photo 11: Standing behind Tamanawas Falls
Photo 12:Chelsea at the top of the rock scramble to get behind the falls.
That was good advice.
Saturday: Best paddle.
We had a red eye out of Portland at 12:20AM Sunday so Saturday was a leisurely goof off day. I got in my last paddle and we did some more hiking on the way to the airport in the evening.
Photo 13: Getting ready for one last paddle
Photo 14: Happy paddler after a really fun paddle. Super light boat is trying to fly away in the wind.
This paddle was my favorite. It was a bit of a dreary day, spitting rain out on the coast but locals told me that while that weather tends to kill the wind below Viento, it actually pushes the tighter pressure gradient closer to Hood River so the Viento – Hood River run would deliver. I was happy to see Jasper, Greg, and Austin hop on the shuttle. I figured they’d be on a leisure paddle after two racing days and I could hang with them and maybe learn something by watching better paddlers. The runs were blah at Viento but there was some texture to work. Austin took off and left everybody but Jasper was just cruising so I hung with him. I paddled beside Jasper for a long time and just tried to watch how he worked the little waves. Then a couple of better runs appeared and he surfed across in front of me. Why not play follow the leader for a spell and really see what runs he chases and how he links runs when paddling easy? Why not see how to find those gaps and avoid paddling uphill? I sat one wave behind him for a couple of km which was a great lesson and tremendous fun since at the point the runs were becoming paddles-down runs. He turned back to join Greg and the others and I just continued on having the best paddle of the week. I stayed to the Washington side through The Hatchery and Swell City and the runs were awesome with far more time with the paddle down riding than actually having to put in any effort. The runs weren’t nearly as big as I had heard they’d been for the Wildside Relay the day before but it was as good a downwind paddle as I’d ever had. I even got a close view of a flying sturgeon that leapt from the crest of a wave in front of me while I was riding down in a trough.
Summary of the trip: The gorge is a good place to go paddle paddle paddle paddle or to go on a vacation that includes some great paddling. If anyone is wondering why I did not paddle everyday as much as time would allow, there are two reasons. This was a vacation that I wanted to enjoy with Chelsea. Secondly, I wanted to go into the race relaxed and rested. Other than my too relaxed approach to the start line I think my approach to the week worked well on race day. I was fresh and felt physically great. When I’m stressed and forcing it I do poorly on the runners. Paddling relaxed I felt like I had good success on the runners aside from the stretch where I was on a sub-optimal line. I read the water better, miss less waves, and don’t try to force runs that aren’t fruitful when my mind is in the right place, the fun place, while paddling downwind.
Photo 15:Weisendanger Falls on the way to the airport.
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