Today we did both the White Salmon and the Hood River. There was a morning session with rafts that featured heroic runs of Husum Falls at 4 ft. Tomorrow Adam will be working his first commercial trip on the White Salmon for Wet Planet.

After work we did playboat run down the Hood River into town. This is quickly becoming a favorite for it’s easy shuttle (obviously), it’s play-a-bility, and the occasional glimpse of Mount Hood from the river. After doing both runs today, we decided the Hood River was more fun in a kayak.

Mountain biking in Post Canyon is a full-on experience. You start by driving up Post Canyon Road and parking where the dirt road begins. The trail is fairly obvious and zig zags across the creek and parallels a dirt road. In this first section of trial you’ll cross some cool wood bridge and notice the occasional insane bridge.

As you get higher and explore, you’ll see more and more bridges and jumps. Some jumps are downright insane and you wouldn’t even think of them without the latest full suspension bike. This place takes mountain biking to a new level.

One of the best winter events in Hood River is the weekly kayak polo at the aquatic center. It’s a good chance to meet people, get in your boat, and be competitive. The night usually ends with an drinks at Trillium. Click here to read more information. Thanks Amy.

We paddled the White Salmon today at 4.5 ft on the gauge below Husum Falls and 6.5 ft on the internet gauge. At put-in we were told about a new river wide tree in the first mile of the run.

There was a pretty nasty river wide tree below Sawtooth Rapid and above Grasshopper Rapid. At the flow we did it at you could carefully paddle over the log on the far right side, but it would be sketchy at lower flows. I won’t go back to do that run unless the water is higher or the log is removed.

So Thanksgiving week wasn’t the most exciting here in the Hood River, but we did do a bit of partying which is the focus of Livin’ in the Hood Two. There is also a word from our sponsor, Amy’s Fleece, Inc. as well as a response to Lonely Girl by LazyDork.

It looks like the road to Mt Hood Meadows will open Saturday morning which is good news all around. To celebrate, there is a party at River City Saloon in Hood River on Thursday, December 7th at 8 PM that benefits the PNW Amateur Snowboard Series/Tour. The cover is $5 or $3 if you have a Meadows pass.

The Pilgrims beat the Indians 49-42 in a championship football match yesterday. The pilgrims dominated the first half, heading into the beer break with a 35-14 lead. The second half was dominated by the Indians, until the last few minutes when the Pilgrmis pulled out the win.

The play of the game was a 30 yard diving catch on fourth down which tied the game 42-42 with just seconds left. This was quickly followed by an interception and touchdown for the Pilgrims to win the game in sudden death overtime.

Today we ran the Dee to Tucker section of the Hood River with a couple of rafts and our new friend Amy in a safety kayak. We put in on the East Fork of the Hood River and ran that for a mile or so down the confluence with the West Fork, which was beautiful.

The East Fork was pretty narrow and continuous which made it fun. Once we hit the West Fork, the action eased up for a while and Geoff was claiming that he could (and was going to) duckie this run. His attitude changed a bit after some of the more exciting rapids near the end. We took out at Tucker Bridge where the gauge read five feet which Amy said was a medium-high flow.

This afternoon Zach and I went for a bike ride. We drove over to the Washington side and attempted a trail near the sincline. I was riding Hata’s bike which is out of tune and way to small for me. Getting ready in the parking lot I felt very under geared. Zach and everyone else there had their cool fancy mountain bikes, helmets and crash gear. Then there I was with a beater bike with a duct tape seat and my beanie, I forgot my river helmet.

We proceeded down the road and past the first trail. I didn’t notice it but Zach said, “I think that’s the trail.” We turned around and started up. I got about 100ft in the lowest gear I could get the bike into, and that was slipping. I jumped off and started to push. I pushed that damn bike most of the time. I would get on for the flats or occasional down hoping I could control my speed with brakes that hardly worked. My front brake worked much better than my rear, which is “suck” for going downhill. After pushing for the better part of about forty-five minutes I let Zach continue without me. He asked one of the other riders we saw out there if there were other trails and found out that we were going up one of the steepest downhills. I love being the new guy in town. I made it back down at a conservative speed and felt like I got my butt kicked. I’m looking forward to trying this again on a different bike on one the easier trails.

So we thought we’d try podcasting and put together a quick video about our first week in the Hood.

Check out Livin’ in the Hood One.