Mt. Hood Adventures: Round 2

Posted by Ana Van Pelt on August 20, 2011 3 Comments

On July 16th we were set to embark once again on an epic journey to Mt. Hood. The crew on deck: Bryce, our photographer; Mike, our videographer; Ana, our Creative Director; Greg, our Sales & Marketing guru; Dustin, our owner; and Todd, Tony, Casey, Ryan and Jay - the talent.

To properly prepare for the quest, we sent our ship to the mechanic for some tune love. We were to set sail at 7 AM on Saturday morning from Salt Lake, but alas, the ship was not fit for the open seas. After numerous strong words with the mechanic and 9 hours impatiently waiting for him to finish, we were a go. Seven hours behind schedule..

Many laughs, 13 hours and only one bus break-down later, we arrived (at 4 AM) and were greeted by the last 3 members of our crew.

The Crew (L to R, top to bottom): Bryce, Mike, Ana, Greg, Dustin, Casey, Ryan, Todd, Tony, Jay

DAY 1

Since we arrived at 4 AM we decided to change the plans for the day. We slept in for a while, watched the Women's World Cup Final and then decided it would be a good day to scope features in the woods.

We went with no intention of hitting any actual features, but fate had other plans. We ended up finding two awesome features and throwing down for at least 3 hours. By the end of our session we had gotten over a dozen usable shots and had a mellow, awesome time.

That night we took a dip in the pool, ate some tacos and enjoyed some tasty brews from Epic Brewing. All-in-all a very good day.

DAY 2

Today we had planned on hitting jumps up at Timberline. But with the less-than-fortunate weather, we weren't feeling too optimistic about getting any shots. We decided to try anyway. And with a positive attitude, awesome filming and talented riders, we got some of our favorite shots of the trip so far. Even though we all sat in the rain for a while, everyone had a blast.

At about 2:30 we decided to call it and head back to the condo to fire up the grill. Our North West rep, Nick, and Hunter from Tactics joined us for some drinks, beer brats fresh off the grill and some pool action. Great ending to an unexpectedly awesome day.

DAY 3

Tuesday ended up being a much needed day of relaxation. After spending a while trying to find a campsite that we're pretty confident does not exist, we decided to go to the secret spot, where two members of our crew had been before. We said farewell to Dustin and Greg, and headed out. The spot was perfect and ended up being super sick.

With it being a rainy, un-motivating day, we declared it a lifestyle shot day. We had been saving most of the beers from our sponsor, Epic Brewing, so we could get some shots of us enjoying them by the campfire. And boy did we ever. After enjoying some hobo dinners and Epic brews people slowly started to wander off into their tents to catch some Zz's. 

Oh, and we learned that Todd and Ana are impossible to wake up once they are asleep, so if you need to get the keys to the bus from one of them after they pass out - good luck. You may as well start shooting off fireworks inside their tent cause it's not happening.

DAY 4

Today was a little rough. With all the fun of the previous evening we got a late start to the day. And to top it off the mountain was completely covered in a cloud, making our photographers' life a living hell. A couple hours and some pipe runs later we called it. The night was what we were really looking forward to anyway.

Night shoot. This mission took every one of us working together to make it happen. Though we were tired and unmotivated we pushed ourselves to do one last shoot in the forest at night. And were so glad we did. The shoot was TOTALLY worth it and gave everyone a really good sense of satisfaction to end the trip on.

Thanks to ALL you guys for your help that night.

DAY 5

We planned on leaving for SLC once again at 7 AM. This did not happen. After getting breakfast from the Egg River Cafe, we got on the road at around 2:15. Oops..

We had quite an eventful drive home. We got pulled over for speeding (apparently the bus can go 82 mph??), stopped at an abandoned cement mill in the middle of nowhere to dick around for a while and add to the graffiti landscape, and had a really good laugh about Mike's mom calling him, extremely confused, because his girlfriend called what she thought was Mike's phone, only to have a woman answer (Mike's mom), and proceeded to call her more than a few unmentionable names.

We arrived in Salt Lake once again at 4 AM. I guess we were going for consistency here.

Though we all caught Beiber fever for a while and had our brains invaded by Rebecca Black, thanks to such a great crew this was one of the most fun trips we've taken so far. Thanks to every member of the gang for putting in a ton of hard work, getting shots and having an all-around awesome time. Wouldn't have been the same without any of you.

PHOTOS: Bryce Packham