days 15 - 19 – hood river, oregon

Hood River or “The Gorge” as it is affectionately known by windsurfers, was our first real stop where we get to relax and spend multiple nights in one place. It’s nice to get back to regular day stuff like getting groceries, doing laundry, and poking around a few nice shops each day instead of trying to cram it all into one or two days. We’ll spend a total of six nights here in the Gorge before heading to Washington to see Dave Matthews.

The Gorge is an outdoors person’s dream. It’s got hiking, mountain biking, snowboarding and of course windsurfing on the Columbia River Gorge, where it’s consistently windy almost every day of the summer. The town of Hood River is also a really funky spot with shops galore, microbrews, tons of local wineries and 300 or so days a year of sunshine. AND did we mention that there is no sales tax whatsoever in Oregon!?

Chris has been windsurfing a few times here and we went on a bike ride at the local mountain biking hotspot, which is said to be amongst the best. From what we saw, it was really fun – a hard packed dirt/clay track through the woods with lots of jumps and stunts thrown in. Chris had the misfortune of bending his front wheel on one of the jumps and that was the end of the mountain biking in Hood River. We also had the opportunity to do a hike up one on the local mountains, which provided stunning views of Mount Hood (and also apparently Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens if we hadn’t quit before getting to the top) and the Hood River Valley.

Where's Chris? A stunning view of Mount Hood on our hike

Another spectacular view (of Mt Hood silly :)

Oooh! Looky looky at all the pretty kites!

Chris doing a body drag

Hello from The Gorge!

Oregon wine - mmm mmm good!

The infamous jump where Chris busted his bike

days 13, 14 & 15 – coastal drive: san francisco to hood river, oregon (1115 km)

We left San Fran and entered Marin county, thus starting the famous #1 Hwy up the west coast. We had been forewarned that despite the beauty of the scenery, we likely would decide to veer off Hwy 1 in favour of the interstate. We couldn’t understand why someone would suggest driving on a freeway over the Pacific Coast Highway, but when we started the drive, we began to understand why someone would make this decision. This is a rollercoaster ride of a road, complete with cliffs and 15 mile/hr turns. To say that it is VERY turny would be a gross understatement.

That being said, we stayed on Hwy 1 for an entire day and the spectacular views were well worth the motion sickness.

Chris was stoked to windsurf for the first time this trip and his first time ever in California (cold water!!!) in a little town called Bodega Bay. Nothing spectacular, but a chance to get his sea legs wet.

Camping in California was great – perfect temperature and no bugs. And it was great being on the coast again. While Nova Scotia is a far cry from California, it was nice to experience something familiar.

The next day brought us through the Redwood Forest and the Avenue of Giants – home to the majestic Redwood trees. Very very cool to see. We camped in the Redwood State Park for a night before venturing into Oregon.

Where's Aimée?

The Oregon coast was arguably more spectacular than the California coast with steeper cliffs, bluer water and forests right to the water’s edge; the colours were incredible. Plus, there was hardly a sole around – it’s quite deserted along the whole coast until Portland.




Chris got to windsurf at a place called Pistol River, a famous wavesailing beach and had what he described as “although terrifying, the funnest day of windsurfing ever”. In windsurfing terms it was 4.7, down-the-line, and logo high but don’t feel bad if you don’t know what that means. We met a cool couple from Portland there and camped with them (and 200 other windsurfers) that night.

Chris before venturing out at Pistol River

Chris tearin' it up at Pistol River

An Oregon winery (which we plan to take advantage of while here)

days 10, 11, & 12 – san francisco

San Francisco was all that we thought it would be. Such an eclectic mix of people, shops, restaurants, sites….we did our best to take it all in the few days we were there.

Our room and the view from our room. How lucky were we?!

Chinatown

We ate A LOT of sushi. This place was pretty novel – the sushi floats on a plate in a boat and you just take the pieces you want to eat.

Beautiful homes in the posh end of San Fran - Lombard Street

Chris demonstrating the steepness of the streets

Lombard Street – the crooked street. Where’s Aimée?

Holding on to the trolley for dear life

Cityscape

Us and the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance

days 8 & 9 - moab, utah to san francisco, california (1600 km!!)

When we developed the itinerary for the trip, we were under the impression that the drive from Moab to San Francisco was doable in a day. According to Google maps, the trip should take about 14 hours. However, after talking to a lot of people in Moab, we were left with the impression that the trip would take more like 18 to 20 hours…so, plans changed.

We left Moab on August 18, not the 19^th as we had originally planned. We left immediately after Chris rode the Slickrock rail and planned to drive as far into Nevada as we could in the one day. The highlight of this drive was seeing the Great Salt Lake and Bonneville Salt Flats.

After 8 hours of driving, we stopped for the night in a place called Elko. Not very monumental, but it was just after we crossed into Nevada that we entered the Pacific Time Zone. And that’s when we felt very far from home.

Up early at 4:30am the next day, we left Elko, only to experience a 2-hour delay 20-minutes into our drive due to a desert fire.

The drive ended up being quite scenic, taking us through Reno and Lake Tahoe. The two hour, 5000 foot, narrow, twisty decent into Sacramento was quite nerve racking for Chris. Aimee somehow slept through lots of it. After some slooowwww traffic jams in San Francisco, we finally made it to the Hotel and what a room it was. Overlooking Union Square from the 11^th floor of the Westin St Francis is pretty posh for us but after the last week of driving, we deserved it. We were in bed by 9:30.

Utah was more beautiful than we had anticipated


Utah

The Great Salt Lake

Ankle deep for miles at the Bonneville Salt Flats

Photography buffs would love it here


The traffic jam leaving Elko, NV

Signs of the desert fire in the distance

Notice the firetruck making its way to the fire

The mountains in Nevada were spectacular

The worst gas station...ever

Reno...ugh!


Entering Californ-I-AY!

The San Francisco Bay Bridge

birthday shout- out!

we'd like to send out a BIG happy birthday shout-out to our nephew, Declan, who turned 5 yesterday. happy birthday, buddy! love you & miss you!

days 7& 8 - moab, utah

Moab was as amazing as we had expected. we decided to camp since the desert supposedly cools off down to the 20’s at night. plus, you are provided with shade for your tent. Shouldn’t be that bad, right? Wrong. The temperature did cool off, but just not until 3am…

Moab is known as a mountain biking mecca and when Chris found out that Moab was a short 4-hour detour from our original route, we decided to revamp the plans to include it. Moab is a quaint little western town with a creative mix of locals and thrill seekers. Lots of great little shops and even a brewery. The town is dedicated to outdoor adventure sports like mountain biking, rock climbing, white water rafting on the Colorado river, jeep tours, hiking etc.

Our first day saw us completing a bike ride called Klondike Bluffs, which is known as a perfect introduction to Moab mountain biking as it has all of the elements: sand, spectacular views, and of course, Moab’s famous slick rock (sandstone that has been washed smooth by wind and rain which creates a skateboard park type biking experience). We were advised to start any ride very early (i.e., 7am) given the afternoon heat of over 37 degrees. Given some equipment technicalities, we started this ride at 9am, at which point it was already 27 degrees.

By the time we had finished the ride at noon, it was much too hot to be out in the desert. Chris was fighting a mean cold (which, unfortunately, I caught at the tail end of Moab) and wasn’t feeling his best after the ride. But it was well worth it, right Chris!? That night, we gave up on the idea of camping, wimped out, and got a tiny cabin with AC.

Chris was feeling a little bit better on day 2, enough so to complete Moab’s famous Slickrock trail (experts only, so I didn’t tag along). Based on yesterday’s experience, he started at 7am. This trail is 100% on smooth rock with jumps and half-pipes strewn throughout. It also runs along cliff edges overlooking the desert, the town or the Colorado river so the views were pretty incredible.

Chris on Slickrock trail doing a wheelie over Colorado River, 1000 ft drop

Jeep and Hummer tours on Slickrock trail

Feeling superhuman on Klondike Bluffs

I AM the man

The view looking into Arches National Park

The traveling pharmacy

At least someone in Utah has a sense of humour (double click on the image to get a better read of the bottle labels...)

Desert animal of some sort, a rabbit? a hare?

Dinosaur tracks along the biking trail. Moab is rich in dinosaur tracks and fossils.

Aimee hand over dinosaur hand

Aimee biking up the white slickrock...this was tough in the heat!

Chris wasn't ready for the heat and elevation (Moab is at about 4500 ft above sea level)
Can't....breathe....

The campsite we abandoned for the AC cabin

Kevin, a Moab local whom Chris biked with on the Slickrock trail, drops into the half-pipe. Kevin's been riding the Slickrock trail since the '70's and brought Chris to some less traveled terrain. Notice the jeans, water bottles in back pocket, and you may even see a cigarette in one hand if you look closely.