Labor Day Camping

We had a fabulous Labor Day weekend camping with Matt, Asayo, Yoko and their dog, Luna. We all woke up bright and early Saturday morning and started to 2.5+ hour drive down to the Hood River, OR area to our campsite. The whole Columbia River area is absolutely beautiful. The campground itself was great, only about a year old. It was incredible how clean the bathrooms and showers were! Admittedly, I've never gone camping anywhere that had bathrooms and showers so it was a pleasant surprise to have such amenities!

Here's Matt after we set up our campsite:

After setting up, we went straight into town, got some quick lunch at McDonald's and then over to Wet Planet Whitewater Rafting for an awesome afternoon of rafting the White Salmon River.

All suited up!

The whole trip was amazing as the weather was great, the water super clear and fresh and the rapids exciting. Mid-way through the trip, we had to hike around the river due to a drop that was too dangerous for any of us to go through...and at the end of the hike, we had 2 choices to get back to our rafts: either keep walking around or jump off the cliff into the 45-degree water! It's a bit crazy thinking back--but we all took the jump and it was awesome.

Photo courtesy of Wet Planet

At the very end, we went down Husum Falls, a 10-foot Class III drop which is incredibly exhilirating.

What a thrill! After rafting, we headed back to the campsite and enjoyed a relaxing dinner and smores by the campfire.

The next day, we woke up bright and early to get some windsurfing lessons. Unfortunately, there wasn't much wind so we had to pass some time in town---we got some coffee, walked around, checked out a local swap meet that windsurfers and kitesurfers sold all their equipment.

After 2 hours, we got a call that the wind had picked up and that we could head over to start our lessons! The first hour or so of our lesson consisted of land simulation on a board with wheels at the bottom so that we could get a good sense of the wind and how to move the sail around:

Still practicing our stance--but it kinda looks like tai chi!

We then got suited up and headed over to the "Hook", an area of the Columbia River that's pretty protected with less wind and a good place for beginners to practice. We spent the next couple hours here and it was so much fun!












All the really good windsurfers and kitesurfers out on the Columbia River---they were totally sailing and going really fast:



Another long exhausting day---we got some food in town and headed back to camp again where Matt and I cooked up some grilled corn and skewers for dinner and we again ended the night with smores. The next morning, we packed up camp to start heading back north.

The group of us at the campsite



We decided to swing by Mount St. Helens on the way back up since Asayo, Yoko and Matt S. had never been before. For our first stop, we went to the Ape Caves, a former lava tube and walked around inside for a bit. We then drove over to the Windy Ridge Viewpoint to get the views of the mountain and Spirit Lake.



Still smokin'!


Luna looking out at Spirit Lake

It was incredible to see how so many trees were still totally ruined, like toothpicks that fell over

We played 20 Questions all the way back to Seattle over our walkie talkies between the cars--a bit dorky but it definitely helped pass time! Fun trip, good company. Yay.