Hood River!!

Woke up w/ Ariel's 6" kitten happily snoozing between me and Lily.  That little kitten has some rotten butt (see last post)!!  Looking at the weather again I realized that Hood River was actually going to be rain-free today and I excitedly talked Lily into going.  A couple of bowls of granola and some crappy coffee later we were heading down Hwy 84 towards Hood.  We stopped at Multnomah Falls and took a couple pics/ got pastries.  Beautiful waterfall fo sho!!  After arriving in Hood we immediately went to Post Canyon Drive w/ the hopes of hooking up w/ somebody to trade shuttle runs.  We lucked out.  I parked and saw a guy poke his head out of his car.  I went right over to Paul and introduced myself.  A couple minutes later we were driving the WAY overstuffed Previa up the mountain.  We did the usual lap (for me)- 2 chair 2 to Chorus X to FMX to Egg Hunt (the jump is now decommissioned....boohoo) to 8 track (totally different ending since they clear cut the heck out of that slope.....boohoo) to Frankenstein (why did I take Lily and Paul down this?!!).  Sweet new turtle shell opening stepdown, but the rest of the trail is pretty jacked right now (had to get off my bike 2-3 times).  Lily and Paul had a helluva time scrambling down the hillside w/ their bikes.  For some reason I remembered that trail being more tech (probably b/c I onsighted it last time).  With a little love that trail will be riding superb.  Between laps Paul took me to the Farm Stand- a newly opened health food store that his best friend opened in October.  We met Rob the owner and played w/ a volcano.  We then shot back to Hood to retrieve the Previa.  Paul and Lily were done, but I hit another lap.  How could I resist another lap being ON TOP?!!  I'll admit though....I bonked pretty bad at the bottom (trying to race pace it for too long without any food all afternoon).  Still a great day.  We then met those guys at Full Sail Brewery and ended up meeting another local trailbuilder, Mark.  He was super cool and gave us all kinds of ideas of the possibilities around the area.  I definitely want to get back there and ride w/ this guy!!  After Mark bailed we hung out w/ Paul and Rob and they started buying us beers.  One thing led to another and we closed the place down, then started partying at the Previa (bubbler x 3).  We luckily only had to drive right back up the gravel mountain road and find a flat spot to camp.  We pitched the tent just in time and listened to the sound of heavy rain most of the night.  We were pretty soggy the next AM, and even got snowed on briefly while packing up the van.  After stopping back by the Fruit Stand for a volcano-to-go we headed to Seattle and Lily's G-ma's house.  On to the next adventure!!