Hello!

Just thought I’d write a quick blurb about taking the bus snowboarding.

After seeing I wasn’t close to filling up the car this weekend, I decided to head up to the mountain solo. The problem I always face with this idea though is the trip up. I don’t really like hanging around in traffic, and I really don’t like driving in icey conditions. After doing some research, I learned about the park and ride option at Mt. Hood Meadows. This is a pretty good deal. At peak season (now), lift tickets are $52 dollars. The bus and lift ticket combo is $55. This makes it around $3 to ride the bus up; a very good deal.

My overal opinion is that it wasn’t that bad at all! The bus was a bit late, and we didn’t roll in until around 9:45AM (apposed to the 9:00AM time specified on their site). But it was a nice Greyhound-like charter bus. Really nice having the buit-in restroom for the 2 hour trip. It was comfortable, but a little cramped. I am 6′5″ though, so that’s usually the case.

My biggest complaint is the poor route choice, especially on the way back. The bus leaves Portland Meadows around 4:00PM - rush hour time in the mountain. It took about 45 minutes extra to wait through traffic. If the bus took highway 35 through hood river instead of 26 back, I’m sure this wouldn’t have been a problem what-so-ever.

There is also an abundance of highschoolers. Kind of interesting being around that age range, as my life now is primarily surrounded by 20-somethings. Many were nice, others were, well, kind of nasty. They weren’t to me or anything — I just overheard some “interesting” conversations. A group of highschool girls talking about how they weren’t going to tell there “friend” about how they were going to ditch her ice-skating Birthday party to go snowboarding. Ouch!

I think there is an eves dropping gene in my family - thanks mom.

Anyways, that’s my take on it. I think i’m going to nod off now, as I’m going to start trying to wakeup at 6:30AM every day. Realized there is just so many things I can do in that little notch before work that I always pass up while sleeping. I did it this morning and it was a terrific experience - maybe I’ll be a true northwesterner (is that what we’re called?) and start jogging that hour before work.

One last tid bit about Portland Meadows before I hit the sack. Check out this great blog post from the general manager -

http://www.skihood.com/cs/blogs/daveriley/archive/2006/01/22/382.aspx

This blog describes the incredible things they have to through in order to restart the “Cascade Express” lift on Mt. Hood after a storm. Included are pictures and videos of guys knocking off multiple feet of ice off lifts, and using the groomers to dig out the doorway.