Iguana's Recap

Had a fabulous trip to Hood River! Unfortunately didn't have a chance to ring Dee when I was there. Sorry babe!

Flew up at the crack of dawn on Friday. Had a little nap in baggage claim while waiting for another hasher to fly in who I was riding with to Hood River. She finally arrived and we were on our way. Took the scenic route and saw some gorgeous waterfalls. Turns out we were actually staying in Bingen, WA at an old school that had been turned into a hostel. After getting settled I took a nice little nap. We had a pub crawl that night where we terrorized Hood River. Good times!

Saturday morning we all hung out. Around noon was butt painting (an Iguanas tradition). Basically everyone gets assigned two letters and they get sharpied onto your ass and then we take photos spelling out various things. Hmmm...maybe that's one of those things you have to be there for. Anyway, that afternoon we did trail. The trail started in the town of Dee by the old mill. The first half sucked. It wasn't marked well and just wasn't a good trail. The second half kicked ass! We ended up practically repelling down a steep hill to the river. We then had to hook into a rope and swim across the river. Can you say cold? Yes you can. But fun! Then we did tons of bouldering and going back into the river, up and down, etc.

You know how you discover your balance as a kid by falling? Well, since I've put on all the weight I don't really know where my balance is anymore. And, as an adult, you know it hurts to fall so that doesn't really work. I loved the second half of the trail because it was nice for me to realize that "muscle memory" really does exist. I could just go my own pace and ended up taking lots of steps I didn't think I could so it was awesome! Good stuff.

Anyway, we finally hiked up out of the river and were rewarded with three amazing views as we continued on trail. The first was where two rivers came together and formed one. The second was an amazing waterfall. The third was looking up the gorge with a snow-covered Mt. Hood in the background. Absolutely stunning!

That night did dinner and headed back to the hotel around 11. Felt really ill and thought I was going to hurl. Finally did when I got back to the hostel. Note this was not from drinking as I'd had like one beer after the trail and the rest was diet coke. Went to bed at midnight, woke up at 2 and threw up, woke up at 4 and threw up, woke up at 6 and choked it down. Panty Free woke me up at 8 as we were to go white water rafting at 9am. I told her I didn't think I could go. She was a hero and ran out and got me some gatorade. That did the trick! Turns out I had just horribly dehydrated myself on trail and that's why I was throwing up. Oops!

The gatorade saved my life and I managed to go rafting on the White Salmon river. It was amazing! I love rafting! River was really moving and the Class 4s were pretty sweet. At the end I hopped out of the raft and floated alongside until the takeout point. Did I mention this river is glacier-fed? Brrrr! Talk about letting you know that you are alive! Stunning day!

Back to the hostel, packed and off to the airport. Arrived in Oakland at 9pm. Got home around 10:30 while on the phone since TB called. Unpacked and repacked while on the phone. Finally hung up and got to bed at midnight. Up at 3:45 to make a 6am flight out of SFO to LAX for work. Was absolutely useless on Monday! Not much better yesterday. Finally starting to feel human today. Can't wait to fly home tomorrow night and sleep in my own bed, before heading off to Tahoe Friday afternoon!

Well, there you have it. Hope everyone had a great weekend! I'll write more about my week, but I'm a bit cranky right now so don't want to be too negative. :-)