Still, Hangin' in the Hood

(Mt. Adams with a crazy cloud formation at its' peak.)

Over this past week I have tried to make the best of the time I have while being unemployed.  I have been working every day to find a new career, or at least a solid job.  Last Tuesday I went on two interviews.  Both went well, one with a second interview on Wednesday and the other is a job at a kayak shop.  The second interview on Wednesday went rough, as I found out the job was a bit of a "pyramid" type deal and not something I wanted any part of.

The rest of the week has basically been full of paddling.  I ran a VERY silty East Fork of the Hood River with Joe, Rachel, Sam, & Kate on Thursday.  The run was very manky and the water was extremely hard to read with the insane amount of silt in the water.  I ran the Truss section of the White Salmon, for the third time, on Friday with Sam and Kate.  I had solid lines and again stayed out of the cave at Big Brother.  Saturday I paddled the Lower Wind River with Joe and Sam.  I had solid lines on the harder section, with multiple laps, but completely ran the rapid called "flume" on my head.  I will be back to clean that manky little rapid!  On Sunday a big crew of 11 boaters headed up to run the Upper Upper Cispus again.  I had some really good lines and fired up the big one, "Behemoth", this time around.  I styled the rapid, even avoiding the huge ledge hole after the main drop, 1 of 2 paddlers from the group of 11 to pull that off.  I did somehow loose my helmet from the impact off the main drop.  Luckily it resurfaced in the eddy next to me and everything seems fine with it.  Sadly the wind has not cooperated and has been dead or way to strong for my gear.  Once I get a job my first purchase is going to be a smaller kite so that I can enjoy the strong winds in the gorge.

I did finally get talked into joining Facebook for all of you that do that kind of thing.  I have to admit that it is good catching up with so many people that I had lost touch with.

For all of you who have also been following Julie's story here is the latest:  She is still enjoying her work both as the Windsurfing manager at KSK as well as her custom painting job at Kamanu Composites.  She has been spending most of her free time training for distance season on her outrigger canoe team.  They have done two races, the last one being from Kailua to Waikiki all the way around the south end of Oahu!!!  Julie has been on Facebook for a long time and if your interested I'm sure you can find out more about her on there, through her.

Wish me luck on the career search, as it seems I need it.  Please be sure to keep in touch.  I miss being around a lot of good friends and family that are now all over the country, or at least not in the part of the country that I'm currently in:)

(This was a cool side hike off the Cispus.)

(Joe running the good line at Island rapid on the Cispus.  I ran this on the right, out of frame, and got surfed pretty good in the hole Joe is boofing over.  That will teach me for not scouting a rapid with 90 cfs less water than the last time I ran it.)

(The is Dan Rubado, an old kayaking friend of mine, running Behemoth.  This shot doesn't do the drop justice as it is something like 40 feet from top to bottom.)

(This is a little map of the windsports area in Hood River.)

(This is a shot looking back towards the "Events Site" in Hood River from the sand bar.)

(This shot is from the Kiteboard parking area looking out onto the sandbar.  This shot was taken about 1/2 hr. after the shot above.  Notice the crazy clouds!)