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Thursday, April 10, 2003
Short Trips: Fun's in the air and down to earth
By JEFF LARSEN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER PHOTOGRAPHER
HOOD RIVER, Ore. -- Joe Lafferty, bartender at the Full Sail Brewery tasting room, called the brewery's home the "adrenaline capital of the Northwest." After several days in this town, I think I agree with him -- at least partly.
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The adrenaline reference certainly is fair because of the town's windsurfing reputation. But Hood River -- one of the jewels of the extraordinary Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area -- also is a town with a strong character and history. That makes it not only a fun town to visit but a prime destination for a lot of folks with a variety of tastes who might not be interested in windsurfing or kiteboarding.
Hood River is only 75 cents away from Washington state, via a noisy and very narrow steel toll bridge across the Columbia River at White Salmon. Some kiteboarders and windsurfers like to call the small town their center of the universe. Year-round, high winds routinely sweep through the gorge from the west and churn up the river to world-class levels for both sports. Areas on the river with the best winds have been named over the years -- such as Cheap Beach, Event Site, Sand Bar and Rooster Rock.
It's tough to say exactly when windsurfing and Hood River became synonymous. From what I can tell, sometime in the mid- to late '70s is when the sport seemed to take off and Hood River began to build its reputation as the windsurfing capital of the world. It's now an international destination for the sport.
The town 60 miles east of Portland, named after nearby 11,240-foot Mount Hood, was first platted in 1881. But the first white settlers arrived around 1854 and by 1880 some 17 families had set up households in what's now Hood River. Agriculture, timber, hydroelectric production and recreation are listed as the town's principal industries. In the 1990s the word obviously slipped out about how livable a town it is, and the population ballooned almost 21 percent to a current population of 20,411 friendly folks.
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 | Jeff Larsen / P-I | |
| It's not a sixth sense that alerts kiteboarders when the wind will be strong enough to sail but rather pagerlike wind gauges they carry. | ||
By 1922 the Columbia River Highway from Portland to The Dalles was completed, which made the entire county much more accessible. Despite the conduit to civilization, the region was still pretty wild and woolly. The old highway has since been bypassed by Interstate 84, a main four-lane artery from Portland to points east.
Over recent years, parts of the scenic historic highway have been restored by the state. One of the most scenic sections for motorists and recreation is the stretch from Hood River east to The Dalles. (We'll cover this stretch of highway in next week's Short Trips.)
State Route 35, which intersects with I-84 at Hood River, is the main route to Mount Hood. It slices south through the center of the lush Hood River Valley, which is the perfect environment to grow apples, cherries, peaches and pears.
The orchards are laid out in neat patterns over the rolling topography of the valley and when the trees are in full blossom and Mount Hood is visible, it's supposed to be a gorgeous site. Either I was early or the blossoms were a little late because of the recent cold snap, but as it turned out, I was just ahead of the pink and pearl color explosion of the full blossom. And Mount Hood was covered in clouds all three days I was there.
To celebrate the valley's wealth of fruit from the more than 15,000 acres of orchards, the Chamber of Commerce each year hosts the popular Blossom Festival, now in its 49th year and scheduled on the weekend of April 19-20. The festival includes a number of events, including a craft show at the Hood River Valley fairgrounds and an antique show and sale, plus a music festival and quilt show. More than 20,000 people visit the valley and Hood River during the festival.
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| Jeff Larsen / P-I | |
| A view of Hood River, Ore., one of the jewels of the extraordinary Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. | ||
Stop in at the visitors center to pick up the popular guide to what the Chamber of Commerce calls "The Fruit Loop." It's a well-organized map and brochure to the 35 miles of roads that meander through the valley fruit country and describes the variety of farm stands and small wineries along the way that are open to the public.
The charm of Hood River is infectious, from the Mount Hood Railroad historical excursion and dinner trains, to the mosaic of boutique shops and restaurants in its downtown corridor, to the stately 1913 vintage Hood River Hotel flanked by at least a half-dozen windsurfing gear and apparel shops.
Hood River Hotel desk clerk Sonia Porter warned me about a little jolt when the antique elevator, complete with a brass sliding gate, arrived at the third floor. She wasn't kidding.
The large corner suite I visited, complete with creaky but original wooden floors, affords a commanding view of the Columbia River and Hood River environs. The suite's kitchen and bathroom have been upgraded, but the suite's size and patina gave me the comfortable sensation as if I had walked into the house of someone's grandma. The hotel's smaller rooms are tastefully maintained and decorated but definitely fall into the cozy-size category.
The elegance of the hotel is generated by the luscious polished woods throughout, as well as in the lobby restaurant, Pasquale's Ristorante. Weather permitting, grab a table by the sidewalk out front and try a bowl of smoked salmon chowder from new chef and recent Maui transplant Mark Whitehead. It's the best $6 you will ever spend.
Brakeman Chuck Thompson waved the "all clear" to locomotive engineer Jim Guthrie and the 10 a.m. Mount Hood Railroad historic train lurched forward from its downtown station to start its 44-mile round-trip excursion through the orchards and fields of the Hood River Valley. Passengers can relax in vintage 1910-1920 Pullman coaches, eat in a fully restored antique concession car complete with tables, or hang out in the caboose for a look at where they've been.
Through June the dinner train runs only on Saturdays with a brunch train on Sunday. July-October it offers a dinner train every other Friday as well. There's only the one excursion train Wednesday through Friday through May. A morning excursion run also will be available on Tuesdays July through August.
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| Jeff Larsen / P-I | |
| Clouds linger over the Columbia River Gorge after a short storm passed through, creating a striking shot looking west from Hood River, Ore. | ||
This time of year especially, the weather can be a little tricky at Hood River. Generally speaking, the farther east of Portland you are in the Columbia River Gorge, the better the weather. Hood River is right on the weather cusp and serious rain squalls with serious winds can come up in minutes. But again, on a rainy day in Portland it might only be showery in Hood River. And when heavy snows hit Mount Hood, like last week, an alert kiteboarder or windsurfer can sail for an hour or two in the afternoon and be snowboarding the next hour because the mountain is so close.
One phenomenon I noticed while I was there -- and which puzzled me at first -- was how windsurfers and kiteboarders managed to show up on the river at the same time as the wind. I learned that they carry pagerlike wind gauges and are alerted when the winds are predicted to be strong enough to sail.
For a utilitarian room in Hood River at a very reasonable price, it's hard to beat the Best Western Hood River Inn, which is almost adjacent to the bridge. Like most Best Westerns, it's close to the freeway, but unlike a lot of Best Westerns, most of its rooms have views you might expect from a more upscale resort. It's not easy to walk to town from the inn because of the twists and turns of the convoluted freeway on- and off-ramp arrangement that is practically part of the parking lot.
The downtown area proper is pretty compact, so it's easy to park (parking meters, ugh!) and it's enjoyable just to spend an afternoon and walk through town visiting the various boutiques, shops and restaurants.
I met free-lance landscape photographer Richard Hallman setting up a display of his work on the walls of the Hood River Wine and Internet Bar last Friday, and he told me about an event called First Friday, which was happening from 5 to 8 that night. The monthly event, when many of the shops downtown stay open late to display the works of a variety of local artists, is relatively new, but Hallman said it has really caught on.
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The town was packed when I arrived about 6 p.m. I could barely find a place to park, but as it turned out, the event was a lot of fun and an interesting way to meet local artists as well as other visitors and townspeople. More importantly, I was able to learn more about Hood River in those three hours than I could have otherwise in three days.
After the event, Hallman told me one of the restaurants of choice for dinner probably would be Brian's Pour House, a nifty little bistro on Oak Street at the west end of town. He was right. It was crowded, but the excellent Caesar salad with prawns and a pint of Full Sail Rip Curl was a fine way to wrap up my visit to Hood River. I think my adrenaline finally quit pumping on the following Tuesday.
If you go
P-I photographer Jeff Larsen can be reached at 206-448-8150. For personal e-mail contact: jefflarsen@seattlepi.com. For general releases: shorttrips@seattlepi.com.
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