Pinkbike.com takes to the road-Day 2:Hood River, Oregon

Apr 10, 2007

Rolling into Hood River we really had no idea of what to expect, but the results have been great. The locals have been nice enough to go riding with us out of towners and the dirt here is pretty good too. Got to see some of the jumps that Kirt Vories hit in NWD7 and get in a lot of verticle during the day. Over all it was a good Easter, even if no chocolate was consumed. Day 1 in Hood River has easily set the bar high for any other riding we do on this trip.

After a great night's sleep (gotta find out the model of these beds here at Best Western) it was time to ride these bikes we brought with us. First on the list of things to do was grab breakfast though, so off to down town for eats.

Hood River is a very appealing little town that has cool little eateries all along main street. We chose the Hood River Bagel Company and as luck would have it, we would run into Jason from I.M.B.A. who was grabbing a bite and looking to do some riding too. Jason just needed to give his bike some quick love over at Discover Bicycles and we'd hit the trails. Initially Radek and I had decided that today was to be an XC day, but Jason quickly convinced us with "so do you guys want to shuttle, cause I can recover if your vehicle can fit all three bikes?" Oh heck, twist our rubber shuttle whore necks!


Instead of heading across the toll bridge to White Salmon and the Syncline riding area, we hit the road for Post Canyon. Leaving Jason's IMBA Subaru at the base, we loaded up the mini van-yeah shuttles in a mini van. Unlike Vedder Mountain back home, we could actually reach the summit in the Windstar.



Wow is the view from the trail head ever nice! It was all down hill from here! For the next hour, we rode amazing dirt that gripped and let us rip it up. The built wood stunts are very well constructed and seemed to meet Radek and Jason's approval.



The skinnies up on Post Canyon are well put together and the big guy insisted on trying them all a few times. Needless to say he nailed most of them, but they also nailed him back-but the damage was done to his two wheeler.

The First Ride on Post cost break down:

New Rear Derailieur-$65
New Chain-$30
New Rear Shifter-$35
Rear Derailleur cable and housing-$10
Ability to go back up and do a second ride-PRICELESS!

Between a late lunch and the bike repairs, it started to rain and that turned the trails greasy, compared to the morning ride. Oh well what's a little moisture? Once the employees at Discover Bicycles were off work, it was time for that second ride of the day. Riding with locals on their trails that they spend as much time working on as riding, really makes the ride that much better. A cold brew after the ride was a nice touch and it was time to call it a day. We may have only done 2 runs through out the day, but being the "rounded" riders that we are, we were tired as can be. We will be back for more runs up there!

Thanks to everyone that made the first day in Hood River so much fun. Tomorrow's forecast is for rain, so it'll be either wet rides or drive time-we'll have to wait and see.