After Tillamook, we headed to Portland… we had heard great things about the city and wanted to check it out… What we didn’t think about was that Portland is a city… Have you ever tried to park a truck and tow behind camper in Boston? Probably not because it’s impossible… well, same goes for Portland. After about 20 minutes of driving around, we found a spot (two spots) next to a construction site, and the guy watching the road work gave me the heads up on the parking and I paid for the two spots for two hours… I think it cost $8 which wasn’t bad… We started to walk around, and realized that we had done no research into Portland so we were kind of flying blind. We headed to Deshutes Brewery and grab a beer and an appetizer. Portland has a really cool block full of food trucks, so we didn’t want to fill up here. It was ok, but I think Tara and I both actually felt a little out of place… after not having been in a city for so long… there was a lot going on. We hit the food truck block, Tara got some tacos and I got a burrito… they were great, and we were out of there. Unfortunately the people we wanted to see were either busy until the weekend, or just couldn’t make it work, and we didn’t have the time to spend a couple days there… so we moved on. And it has never really been our plan to spend a lot of time in the cities we pass through, but the longer we’ve been on the road, the less appealing the traffic, crowds, and big buildings become. Portland seems like a cool city, but for another time. So again, quick change of plans, and we were out of Portland and looking for a spot to camp. Some folks at Deschutes had raved about Trillium Lake at the base of Mount Hood, so that’s the direction we headed.
It actually worked out because that gave us some time to check out Mt. Hood, old home of the Masi clan… Remember that? Remember when Masi lived in Rhodedendron, OR? No? Ok never mind then. Anyways, we drove out to Mt. Hood and stayed at Trillium Lake campground, which was pretty incredible. I mean, driving in and parking the camper it seemed pretty much like every other campground… but once we took a short walk to the lake… it was pretty clear that this was a pretty great place to get to spend some time, unfortunately the campground was booked for the whole weekend and we’d have to leave the next day… Or would we? (The suspense is killing you isn’t it?)
The next morning we woke up, got the camper squared away and headed down to the end of the lake… at the dam. What a carnival of activities this turned into. Tara and I started the morning with a little fishing. Granted, we didn’t even get a bite, but I didn’t see anyone else pulling any fish in either so I didn’t feel that bad.
After fishing, Tara got one of her items checked off the list for this trip, and we went stand up paddle boarding. This was technically my first time ever standing up on a SUP (for those reading along, SUP, is what the kids are calling Stand Up Paddle boards), after a brief go of it on some boards in Jost Van Dyke. Tara was by far the better… SUP-er… she had no problems, while I was basically staying as rigid as I could and was terrified that I was going to fall in… I didn’t. Tara coached me through it, and by the end of the hour (we rented them for an hour which was plenty of time for me), I thought I was the greatest SUP-er ever…
Then a quick hike to let Murphy stretch his legs and we were off again… or so we thought… Having parked at the dam early in the morning, now everyone else had arrived and parked around us. I was able to get the truck and camper out, but we couldn’t turn around… which meant going straight.. sure, fine, no big deal, only straight meant roughly 5 miles on a dirt road… which in Oregon is basically just driving through the woods. There were giant potholes every… well, everywhere… the camper took a beating… but we got through it. On a recommendation from Masi, we made the drive up Mt. Hood (with the camper) to Timberline Lodge, which according to Masi (which is probably 13% true) it’s the lodge that was used for the exterior shots of the hotel in the original “The Shining” movie. The views were incredible and it was definitely worth the drive.
Leaving there, we drove to Hood River. A nice town on the Columbia River. After the morning activities, Tara is convinced we should buy a SUP. So now we’re looking to buy one… but we didn’t… not yet anyways. We ended up grabbing a bite to eat at Double Mountain Brewery and walking around the town for a while. Then, like the wind, we’re off again, this time to drive “the gorge”. The gorge was a nice drive along the Columbia River with cliffs and and trees and waterfalls and all kinds of nature views to the left… (the right was the river) Then, in true, what’s next fashion, we stayed at a Walmart that night… and planned the next stops. Bend & Crater Lake.
withoutwhatifs 
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