SMITH ROCK: June 25 (Day 34)

We awoke Thursday morning slightly later than usual to find clouds raining all over our parade. We had planned to go ride again all day but the weather had other ideas. After another awesome breakfast of scrambled eggs, shredded cheese, Season All, and Tapatio Hot Sauce, Nate and I discussed getting our climb on at Smith Rock. It was a short 1 1/2 hour drive from our campsite, so we went for it.


Once again we were followed by cops on the way up. He slammed on the breaks and turned around as he passed us going south and followed us for a few miles. He didn't pull us over but cops seem to love following us. I think it might be the lack of a front license plate that puts up a red flag for out of state cops.


Three Sisters. Volcanic peaks like these dot Oregon's natural skyline all over the state.

Smith Rock, beautiful as always, provided us with some more challenging climbs. We took it easy today, though and stuck to some easy 5.8 and 5.9 climbs.


Alex leading 5 Gallon Buckets, 5.8


Nate showing off his quickdraws, and core


We walked up Asterisk Pass for the first time and were greeted with this view.


Monkey Face. Smith Rock, OR


We got some good climbing in, saw some more nice views and called it a day. Time to get back to boarding tomorrow.

WINDELLS: June 24 (Day 33)

After boarding Tuesday we went with our zany neighbors to Lake Timothy. Trillium was super crowded because it was the first nice day in a week so we had to take a 3o minute drive to somewhere secluded.

Nate really had some time to think.

Then he thought he would try some fishin' with his super short cast. He didn't catch any fish. I think he's 0-4 now.



Wednesday morning we woke up to the second straight day of perfect weather. We knew what we had to do. Board. It was glorious. After run after run of hucking ourselves with reckless abandon, we finally got around to taking a few pictures.


Nate Corked Backside 5


Nate Method


Alex Frontboard


Alex Backside 3



What a sweet day! And it was about to get better. We met up with Steph from back at school. She has a sweet job working for Windells, the second best snowboard camp at Mt Hood. We rode with her for a bit and then she invited us to a super exclusive Windell's Counselor party.


Check out the scene


Nate was into it


So were the Stephs


We found a dude!

That night the Stephs joined us for some campfire and smores. It was new Steph's first time camping so we made sure she did it right. Good times.

MT HOOD: June 23 (Day 32)

The weather finally cleared up today and we were more than ready to take full advantage. We got up early and ate my favorite breakfast of our trip. Scrambled eggs with cheese and Tapatio Hot Sauce. Yum! Time to board, and take some pics.


Nate method.


Adolfo frontside 720. We ran into him and Lawrence, both of whom ride at Big Boulder in the winter. They were killing it.


Nate going big with an epic background. Mt Jefferson in the distance.

As usual, I'm entitled to some SCENEic photos from the day. Enjoy:

MT HOOD: June 22 (Day 31)

Monday morning we awoke to just a few clouds with rays of sunshine peaking through. We drove up to Hood to find fresh snow at the summit.



We rode hard that day, despite less than ideal conditions. The clouds were rolling through for most of the day so we didn't do any filming or picture taking.

With the return of the sun also came the return of our camp neighbors. They were a bunch of interesting characters from Corvallis on a week long "getting back to nature" fest. Nate and I were just lucky enough to bump into them at Trillium.


The scene from our campsite

That night we hung out with our new friends and got to know them pretty well. We found out that Mandie was super good at cutting hair. She could immediately tell that Nate was 1 month deep into a campfest so she offered to help him out.



Nate getting his hair teased


Reactions were mixed.

We hung out by the campfire, chatted, and I took some pictures.



Rachel was super impressed with my camera, so I let her play around with it for a bit. Thanks for the pics Rachel.


Campfire.


Rachel's dude.


Our dude Steve. He's from the camp next door and really weirded everyone out.


Rachel and Mandy got involved in some hipster westcoast photoshoot.


So Nate got involved.


I couldn't help it either.


Nate and I are pretty stoked on OR. Live here one day?


By the end of the night Rachel was kind enough to let me stick my finger in her ear. Weird.

We went to bed, with a few more friends and ready to do some boardin'.

OREGON UPDATE: June 21 (Day 30)

So we are officially one month into our nationwide tour. It's been a fun month so far. Lots of camping, more than enough landscapes and SCENEry, and lots of good stories. We've managed to meet some new people and some old friends. I've been enjoying every minute of it. The worst part will be in July when it is all over.

I've been blowing it with the blog updates the past few days but here's what's been going on:

We've been hanging out at Mt Hood, OR for the past week or so now. The weather has been less than ideal, our living situation in the Airstrip at Trillium Lake has been quite soggy, despite planning our trip around the weather as best we could.

Art and Zach left Sunday but unfortunately the rain stayed. We left Portland after staying with Art's aunt and taking them to the airport. We got our lives back together from the debauchery that preceded us. Nate got some meds for his cough while I changed my oil and got groceries. We made a few other pit stops and ate some food and blogged along the way.

The rain followed us back to the mountains like a bad habit. Every stop we would make along Highway 26, the rain would creep up on us by the time we got back into the car. As we drove we outran the rain, but it would keep coming back. As we pulled into Trillium Lake we ran into our neighbor Jerad, all alone, chopping wood soaked to the core (I forgot to mention earlier that our neighbors were planning on throwing a week-long party at the campsite next to us). Well, due to the rain, all the campers left. Except for Jerad who was asleep. We got him back up on his feet by taking him into Government Camp to dry some clothes with us. We hung around for a bit, shot the shit, and when our stuff dried, left Govy. That night we huddled around his campfire thanks to an awesome 2-fer-1 deal on campfire at the Chevron.

That night it continued to rain, but we knew sun was just around the corner.

MT HOOD, OR

Checking out the scene, Northwest style


After picking up Zach and Art from the airport we booked it to Mt Hood to do some boardin'.




Make sure to put on Sunscreen


It was super cloudy on and off.


Up top you broke through the clouds.


Pretty scene.





We did some board stuff.






Most of us approved of Mt Hood.


At night we camped out. We met a sweet dude named Isaac who lived in a party house at Oregon State. He was very willing to let people borrow his shoes and was a real peaceful guy.



In the end we made a few mistakes but had a blast.