Squeezing in Oregon and Colorado

We left the Redwoods mid-afternoon and made it to Eugene, Oregon where we spent the night on a random street. As we were scoping out a place, we pulled into a gas station to regroup and a cop followed us and turned on his flashers... apparently Kyle didn't use his blinker for long enough and that was a "sign of impairment." Other than hassling us in the first place by pulling us over, he let it go and didn't mess with us. So far that's been our only run-in with the cops and I hope it stays that way.

Multnomah Falls

We got up early and made it to Hood River, Oregon. Right before Hood River, we passed Multnomah Falls (a 611 footer). It's right off I-84 and super easy to walk to, definitely worth stopping. The white arch bridge, which divides the first fall from the second smaller fall is a beautiful frame for this incredibly green view. It was lunch time when we got to Hood River so we got sammies at this coffee shop called Doppio Coffee + Lounge. The sandwiches were super fresh and had sprouts and other delicious, healthy toppings. Even though we were downtown and there were tons of cute stores to browse through, we left to go to Rotary Skatepark. Now this is DEFINITELY the coolest skatepark we've been too. I forgot to take a picture, but I've got a good skate-through video I plan on using in my road trip recap video.  There are a ton of features that incorporate natural things like a gap over a small creek. There's a super deep bowl, as well as a smaller bowl that I really was doing a good job pumping in. There's a pretty big street section. There are no posted rules at this skatepark, which is cool. There are permanent bathrooms, a water fountain, a playground area, and a bike path the leads to the skatepark. There is even a disc golf course across the street. We stayed all afternoon and it never was very busy. I'm pretty sure some guy did break his ankle while we were there. We cooked some dinner right on the back of our tailgate near on the street by the park (Wasco Street, I believe it was called). Last time Kyle was here, he said they slept on this street and it was straight. We met some other guys who were on a trip and had a camper top on their truck. We sat around a grill in the skatepark once it got dark and no one ever bothered us. Hardly any cars even passed. We had the grill up by the deep bowl and I don't even think you could see it from the road. Our plan was to skate again in the morning, but it was raining. We were due for an oil change so we ended up getting it at Oil Can Henry's again, the same place we got one in Arizona.

A narrow, rocky section on the Eagle Creek Trail.

Once we got all that taken care of, we went an hike a portion of the Eagle Creek Trail. We walked to Punchbowl Falls (35 ft.), which was about a 4 mile roundtrip hike that twisted narrowly along a rocky cliff edge. There were beautiful views of the river in the gorge below and you could see on the opposite bank where the water levels had once been and carved grooves into the mountainside. Before you get to Punchbowl Falls, you will pass a small spur trail about 1.5 miles in which leads to an overlook of Metlako Falls (100 ft.). Although there were no jumping signs, we jumped from a cliff next to Lower Punchbowl Falls (15 ft.). There are three points to jump off, the smallest one has a rope swing and the tallest one you have to jump off a boulder. The highest jump was covered in moss, making it too slippery to jump. We donned our wetsuits and plunged into the icy water below. This area was so lush. Everything was green and moist. Kyle said there was way more water rushing over the falls than last time. It's weird how California is in a drought and Oregon seems to have plenty of water. Everything is impossibly green! Punchbowl Falls gets its name because the rushing water has carved a bowl-like shape into the earth. Geologist now used the term "punchbowl" to describe other waterfalls that have a similar shape. However, Lower Punchbowl Falls is not a punchbowl type waterfall they just couldn't think of anything original to name it I guess. Since we were distracted with cliff jumping, we didn't walk up to the Punchbowl Falls overlook, but I definitely recommend checking that out. It gives a better view of the punchbowl shape. The Eagle Creek Trail goes way farther than what we did and there are more waterfalls along the trail. Oregon was one of my favorite stops, it was so beautiful! I recommend especially coming to Hood River, there are so many things to do around here from hikes to kite surfing to skating to disc golfing!

Metlako Falls

Lower Punchbowl Falls, we jumped off to the right. 

This picture is so surreal I can't even believe my eyes!! This is a view of Punchbowl Falls.

Party Polaroid at The Oasis.

When we got back to the start of the trail, we set out for Durango, Colorado to visit Spencer. We weren't planning on crushing the whole drive, but we ended up just getting those long 16 hours out of the way. What a freakin' drive... I must give Kyle mad props for this whole trip: he has driven literally 99% of it. We left around 3:00pm, around 1:00am I started to get to uncomfortable. I had been in and out of sleep for the last couple hours so I actually slept in the back of the truck for a bit while Kyle kept driving. I was kind of skeptical at first but caved because I needed to lay flat so bad. At around 7 in the morning, I took over because Kyle needed a rest. I lucked out and got the prettiest part of the drive. I passed THREE national parks on this drive: Arches, Canyonlands, and Mesa Verde. It was so hard to drive through Utah without stopping. :( Our original plan was to stop in Utah, but we just plumb ran out of time. Guess we gotta plan another road trip... It was such a relief when we finally arrived at Spencer's. He has the cutest little house in Durango that is known as "the Oasis," because young people have always lived there and partied and it has an awesome yard with a fire pit and like 27 trees. We unwound for a bit and then went to the skatepark at Schneider Park. This is a beautiful park area that has so much to offer other than just skating: fishing, a river tail, river access for kayaks, restrooms, a picnic area, and a playground. The skatepark is kind of small. It has a big bowl and a smaller one that I think was designed suuuuper weird. I didn't like it and the other bowl was too big for me. There's a street section as well. I messed around for a bit, but that small bowl was super wonky so I mainly watched the boys. Spencer had his crew out there and all the guys were pumping each other up. That's the best skate session I've watched on this trip so far. One of Spencer's friend, Luke, is starting a company/brand called Undiscovered Species. He screen prints shirts and does a ton of filming. He got a lot of cool stuff on film at the park and is hopefully making a video soon with the footage, so check out his Youtube Channel!! It was mid-afternoon when we decided to go back and start drankin'. We had a really fun party that night and we grilled out and just had a feast! In the morning, we tried to find this waterfall that Spencer's roommate told us about but we came out empty-handed.

Stacking Stones on the Colorado Trail.

Instead, we just hiked a bit of the Colorado Trail, which actually begins right here in Durango and ends 500 miles later in Denver. The section we did hugged a river bank, where there were many stones stacks. We walked to a large exposed granite wall and climbed up as high as we could. It was so steep at one point Spencer and I slipped out and slid down on our butts!! We went out to dinner at the Himalayan Kitchen, which was downtown and close enough to walk to from Spencer's. This place was awesome and the owner was super helpful and answered all our questions about the foods we hadn't heard of. We asked about this spice and she actually brought out a little dish of it and explained it's health benefits. It was a dank meal.

Meeting puppies in liquor stores in Colorado!

The only fish of the day, Kyle's brown trout.

Family fishin'.

Although I felt like there was so much more to explore around Durango, we had to get to Gunnison to visit my brother, Dylan, who moved out almost a year ago now. We took a route that was a little bit out of our way so we could stop by Telluride. It was just a town we wanted to check out as a potential spot to live in the fall. We passed by a town called Rico, which has free natural hot springs. The hot springs were super easy to find except it was like 2 in the afternoon and the only person out there was a naked old dude, so we weren't really feeling it. Definitely a place to go at night... Telluride was a cool little town that had chair lifts right downtown! It was hard to tell what it would be like during the on-season because it was pretty dead at this time of the year. We didn't stay too long and should have explored more, but we had places to be. My brother loooooves to fly fish and he came to the right spot. On Saturday, Dylan took us to the Saguache Creek (pronounced "swatch") to learn to cast. We donned all our gear, which included waders, a wading belt, felt-bottom boots, our rods, and tons of bugs (that's what they called their lures). We looked professional. The Saguache Creek was a good place to learn because there wasn't too much stuff to get hung up on. By the end of the day, we had gotten comfortable with the basic cast. Kyle even caught a small brown trout, only about 6 inches maybe but it was the only thing anybody caught all day. The next day, we went to a spot on the Taylor River and learned how to roll cast. Dylan caught a 2 pound rainbow trout right off the bat. He knows where they are waiting. My brother never eats the fish and knows how to remove the hook without injuring the fish. He always wets his hands before he holds the fish and uses a rubber net to avoid stripping it's scales. He tries to keep the fish in the water as much as possible so it doesn't get stressed out. He gets his prize picture quick and then releases the fish. That's trout conservation 101 for ya. Dylan's roommate, who is an equally skilled fly fisherman, came with us. He is a guide at a local fly shop called Gunnison River Fly Shop, so it was an awesome experience to go out with them both. We bought all our bugs from the Gunnison River Fly Shop and they let me borrow some felt-bottomed boots for free because they know Dylan so well. They're really nice and knowledgable about what bugs are hatching and what the fish are biting. Both days were long days spent on the river, trying to catch some fish. By the end our stay, I say we feel pretty comfortable casting and could probably do it on our own. We still need to learn how to set up the rod and reel and do all the knots though, but it's exciting to learn something new!

Dylan's big catch.

We're cutting across... all the way back east. Skipping the mid-west, cruising on I-70 till we get to Pennsylvania and then we've got a couple stops before we head south!