Salmon River Gorge

On the Back side of Mt Hood is one of Oregon's crown jewels. Though, the takeout is only about an hour from Hood river. Running the shuttle takes all of five hours, assuming you choose all of the correct unmarked forest service roads.

About an hour into our shuttle we made one of many "left or right" decisions. We choose to go right which ended up being wrong. The whole group was motivated and we had been clearing small brush off of the road for the entire trip, so when we saw a few trees had fallen in the road no one hesitated to solve the problem. We tied my truck up to the first tree while the rest of the group worked on building a bridge over the second tree. So, after we had pulled the first tree and driven over the second tree we continued down the road for another 20 minutes only to end up in a dead end. The road just ended. The whole time Ryan kept saying " I rember being here before, but I can't remember if rember this area because this is the way, or because I had made this mistake before."

We finnally found our way to the put in trail for the Salmon River and began gearing up to head into the gorge. We had a great group which included: Ryan Scott, Keel Brightman, Chris Korbulic, Jeff Hazboun, Chris Gabrielli, and EJ Etherington. We hiked two miles to the put along with an AP trail crew and local photographer Lana young (Check out www.lanayoung.com).

The Salmon River Gorge is a phenominal River gorge that is filled with waterfalls from the start until exiting Final Falls. I will not attempt to describe this area, because any attempt i make is sure to be filled with excessive adjetives that will only dillute the true nature of this incrediable gorge.

For full coverage check out:

http://www.crgkayaking.blogspot.com/

Pictures:(Above)Ryan Scott entering the micro gorge below Vanishing Falls. (Below)
Ryan taking a break for an interview before dropping into the gorge. Keel brightman setting down the landing gear on an unknow drop. Keel B. setting up safety deep in the pit, frustration falls. Final falls has three options: Keel steping off the lip. Chris G setting up for a rappel. Chris K. post descent of final falls.