One kiter’s pilgrimage to Hood River and what she learned along the way.

Kallie and her husband Andrew exploring the hood

A few years back, my husband Andrew and I were traveling through Colorado. It was late on the Fourth of July, and we found ourselves driving from campground to campground only to hear, “Sorry, we’re full.” We finally found an RV park after ten P.M. where an awkward teenage host said we could pitch a tent, but with a warning: “Just make sure you put your food away,” he said, “we’ve had trouble with bears lately.” This was hardly reassuring, since our car smelled like beef jerky!

Despite the warning, we were tired. Several hours later, we awoke to what sounded like a drunk person sifting through the dumpster behind our campsite. The noise continued. “Is it a bear?” I finally whispered. I gauged the reaction on Andrew’s face as I got the answer I was hoping NOT to receive—he nodded yes without taking his wide eyes off the tent wall…

Of course, this is exactly the type of situation in which outdoor adventurers hope and hope not to find themselves in. After all, we seek encounters with the natural world - we seek novelty, we seek adventure!

This underlying human drive is what brought us to kiteboarding and would later bring us to Hood River in Oregon.

Why you must visit.

Hood River is to kiteboarding what Nashville is to country music. I’ve been watching videos from this magical place since I got into kiteboarding a couple of years ago. Videos likeWhere the Wind Blows,The Slider Project,The Slingshot Foil Academy, andNoe Font’s Melancholy (In Cursive). Not only does Hood River have world-class kiteboarding, it encompasses the lifestyle I’ve always dreamed of living: year round snowboarding, phenomenal mountain biking, beautiful hiking, and so much more. I thought to myself, “It’s time I visit this sacred place!”

Travel with the right gear.

With so many amazing kite locations, the only way for us to see them all was to travel on the cheap. We packed our kites and camping gear into two duct-taped boxes and drove to Chicago to catch our direct flight to Portland. The trick is to know how to pack your gear properly. If you have been kiting for a while you know golf style bags are the way to go. Simply take your fins off your board, roll two kites up nice and tight on top of the board and keep it under 50 pounds. On a side note, Dakine Compression bags are worth their weight in gold!

Taking a look around the plane, I felt a sense of solidarity and excitement rush over me. All the passengers had a certain look that is hard to pinpoint. The only way I can describe it would be bohemian Pacific Northwest ski-town meets wind junkie.

The wind is almost always blowing somewhere!

Hood River is situated on the Columbia River at the foot of the snow-capped volcano, Mount Hood. An hour drive west gets you to Portland and another hour and a half further gets you to surfing on the Pacific Ocean. As you follow the Columbia from the fertile coast back east up towards the Rockies, the land gets progressively drier and hotter rather quickly. As a result, the warm and dry eastern Oregon desert sucks the cool coastal air through the Columbia River Gorge, resulting in consistent westerly winds from May to September.

During these months a local woman, Temira, gives a daily wind forecast on her website “The Gorge is my Gym.” When it’s not kiting season, she gives updates on mountain bike trail and ski conditions for Mount Hood.  

After a day exploring Portland and the coast, we headed back east to our first campsite Mount Hood. We had hoped to find a free campsite in the national forest, but we were losing light fast, so we broke down and paid for a site. “Are there bears here?” I wondered to myself and was transported back to the 4th of July in Colorado.

Piking up where we left off in colorado 

“Is it a bear?” I asked. Andrew’s eyes couldn’t be any bigger and he quickly nodded his head. The floodlight behind us projected perfectly the silhouette of a bear onto our tent, like the scene with The Beast in The Sandlot. The bear exhaled and the rain fly of our tent rippled beneath his breath. I wondered to myself if this is how I was going to go, my obituary would read something like “death by bear in an RV park somewhere in Colorado.” Andrew unzipped the tent, stuck his head out the door, and started clapping and sputtering, “Hey! HEY! Get out of here!” The bear lifted his head out of the neighbor’s cooler as I ran towards the locked car, then slowly meandered towards the cedar fence behind our site. He nonchalantly hopped up on top of it and slinked off like a cat.

Fortunately there were no bears that night on Mount Hood

We did however discover how big fresh produce is in the area. The next morning, we made some coffee and packed up our tent before it began to sprinkle. We made our way into town where we stumbled upon a Saturday morning farmer’s market I was taken aback by how much fresh food was available. We walked past a stand that consisted entirely of apples and pears and bought an assorted bag of local pickings. The volcanic soil makes Hood River an exceptional place to grow fruit. In fact, it’s one of the largest pear growing districts in the world. You can drive on the “Fruit Loop” to various farms and stands and stock up on fruit, jams, and wines—there are plenty of festivals in the spring and fall.

The local vibe made us feel right at home.

That night we drove over the Hood river bridge. You might recognize this famous green landmark from the background of just about every kiteboard video shot here. The bridge connects White Salmon Washington with Hood Oregon and is a commute many kiteboarders make daily as the White Salmon side is a more affordable place to live.

Hungry from exploring, we decided to stop for dinner at a local brew pub. White Salmon is a tiny town, but there’s plenty happening. A lot of locals live there and commute to Hood River every day. After dinner, we went to a rock concert at a venue back in Hood River. We showed up wearing the unofficial dress code: plaid, trucker hat, and Patagonia. We fit right in.

The next day we woke up to a view from our bedroom overlooking the Columbia River and Mount Adams (Washington’s Mt. Hood), but we didn’t see any kites up, so we strolled downtown in search of good coffee. We tried Stoked Coffee Roasters first; it didn’t disappoint.

We walked around to several kite and windsurfing shops, and I was super impressed with their friendliness and willingness to help us get out on the water. In other wind sport destinations such as Hatteras, I occasionally get the vibe that locals are a little jaded after a busy summer with tourists, but I never got that sense in Hood River. A local organization put together a very practical map of local kite spots and their difficulty rating, which helped alleviate some of my nerves about kiting in a new area.

Check out the gorge windsurfing guide here.

Always bring all your gear.

There is an old superstition in kiteboarding, if you don’t bring you smallest kite it's going to be nuking the entire trip! I didn’t realize this applies to boards too. I don’t mean you need to bring your lightwind board. I mean making assumptions is never a good idea.

I was surprised to learn that there wasn’t much for gear rentals. We had read online that there aren’t kites for rent, but had planned on renting a board. Fortunately, our host’s friend had offered us use of his Slingshot gear. We typically ride Cabrinha, but I was really hoping to demo some Slingshot gear since they are based right out of Hood River and make their boards using sustainably grown lumber, so this worked out great!

Push your comfort zone.

Kiteboarding on a river can be intimidating the first time. Especially if you are used to sandy beaches and wide open launches. Late Sunday afternoon we saw a kite up at the event site late so we drove down to check it out. We pumped up our eleven and Andrew, per tradition, set out to be the wind guinea pig. Since the wind is gusty and the launch site can be highly trafficked, it’s important to keep your kite low and to minimize time spent on landHe body dragged out a ways, dove his kite, and off he went. It turns out my fears were unfounded.

Both Andrew and I kite primarily on Lake Michigan, so we were nervous about kiting on a river. I could see myself dumping my kite in a no-wind black hole, ending up somewhere downstream on the rocky shoreline of Washington, or getting run over by a barge. Fortunately, this did not happen. Kiting on the Columbia is very straightforward. It is clear where you should be kiting and where the shipping lane is. Andrew put this to the test by inverting his kite and washed up perfectly fine on “the Spit”--the large sandbar just downwind of the kiting area at the Event Site

The wind was surprisingly not as gusty as we had prepared for, nor the launch site nearly as crowded as we expected, and the water was still in the 70s. A few kiters were downwind in the Slider Park, and I wondered if some of my favorite pros were among them.

Read more about safety guidelines here

Closing thoughts.

The next day we caught another late afternoon session on our eleven. There wasn’t a soul to be seen in the Slider Park, so we cruised around and pretended like we were pros riding among the features on butter smooth water. I spent the summer learning to ride a cable at Action Wake Park, and I wished I had had my Tona Pop and boots with me so I could have tried hitting the features with my kite. Something to look forward to for next time!

We rode the best of the wind, then headed back wet and happy. The parking lot was scattered with RVs and VW buses, my people. I petted a Bernese Mountain Dog. Hood River left me with one resounding sentiment. This is where you belong.

Kalie Walker  

Growing up in the midwest on an inland lake, wakeboarding was always on the forefront of Kallie's mind. That all changed when she discovered kiteboarding! She is a professional photographer, maker of excellent coffee, and an aspiring ninja.

Jack of all trades, master of some - she's biked 4,000+ miles from Germany to Thailand, enjoys sushi, and is always saving for the next travel adventure. When she's not shooting photos, you're most likely to catch her kiteboarding, cableboarding and helping locals on the beach.

Website:    kalliewalker.com

Instagram: @Kalliewalker 

Travel Tips:

-Avoid weekends if possible (lots of Portlanders coming to kite). The busy season is Memorial Day to Labor Day.

-Pick up a Gorge Windsurfing Guide at a local kite shop.

-Pack your entire quiver. You’d hate to get all the way to Hood River and get skunked because you left your 15 at home!

-Watch the locals- where they set up, how they launch and land. Don’t be afraid to ask for the run down of the spot/things to be aware of.

-There might be a lot of traffic out on the water, so be respectful and brush up on theright of way rules.

-Lock up your gear in your car (even your bag and pump). It gets busy in the summer and it’s good to free up some space on the congested launch area.

-If it’s not windy in Hood River, it might be windy somewhere else. Be ready to put some miles on your car (plenty of kiting within an hour’s drive).

-Hood River is very dog friendly! We met lots of dogs running off leash on The Spit.

If you have a campervan, you can park almost anywhere, including the national forest

-If you’re trying to be frugal, like we were, there is a small grocery store in town. Otherwise there are plenty of restaurant options in Hood River and White Salmon.

-Make sure you take a day or two to visit Portland and the coast!