Adventures of David and Paul: October 2026

Every year we go to at least one Atlanta United away game, and this year we decided to make the trip out to Oregon to watch Atlanta United vs the Portland Timbers in the oldest MLS stadium. Since we love the pacific northwest, we added on a few days to do some hiking in the region.

We arrived late on a Wednesday night, and immediately drove north into Washington to our hotel in Vancouver. Thursday morning we were up early with the three hour time change, so we started with some coffee/matcha at Daily Paper, and then a short sunrise walk around a nice park right behind our hotel. We then hit the road and drove east, paralleling the Columbia River. Our first stop was a small roadside trail to Cape Horn falls and viewpoint. The waterfall was at low flow and not very impressive, but the view across the river gorge was nice.

Next we stopped at Beacon Rock - an 858 foot tall basalt plug that juts out of the surroundings along the river. It is now a Washington State Park, with a path to the top that involves a series of bridges and switchbacks. It's not too difficult, and there are nice views at the top. We also chatted with a group of women who were state government employees, and nerded out a bit about the current landscape of transportation and health in America.

Our next couple of stops were non-hiking stops, starting with the Washington shore visitor's center of Bonneville Dam. We browsed the exhibits, watched the migrating fish from the underwater fish ladder viewing area, and observed the giant hydroelectric workings of the interior of the dam. Our next stop was down the road at the Columbia Gorge museum, a small but well-done museum with a few exhibits on the history of the area. They had a large rope-driven steam engine that they turned on for us, and a weird rosary exhibit that is apparently the largest collection on earth. There were two tour buses there and a bunch of mostly retirees; it was a National Geographic guided tour.

Gotta start the day with local caffeine!

Early morning in the park behind our hotel.

Mario and Luigi were here at the park!

Slug on the short trail to the waterfall.

The viewpoint did indeed have views.

David standing in Washington, with Oregon across the river.

Ready to climb to the top of the rock.

There are a number of wooden and metal switchbacks and bridges.

Paul midway up Beacon Rock.

View of the hydroelectric machinery.

This takes "would you love me if I were a worm" to the next level.

Some fish doing fish things.

We passed by the Bridge of the Gods - but before crossing, lets go to a museum!

The Columbia Gorge Museum.

Ropes on the steam engine, with the National Geographic tour in the background

So far our trip had been all on the Washington side, but we crossed the Bridge of the Gods over to Oregon and drove to the cute city of Hood River. We had a great lunch (and an excellent bourbon barrel stout) at Pfriem Family Brewers, and walked for a bit at the riverfront park. We then drove to the Pine Street Bakery to grab a pastry to go before they closed, and parked downtown to walk around. We started with Mike's ice cream, and checked out a few little shops including a cute book store and a tabletop gaming store. Our final stop in town was a short drive to Panorama Point, which features great views of Mt. Hood to the south.

We then crossed the Hood River bridge back in to Washington, stopping at a grocery store in White Salmon to get some supplies since there's not much in the tiny town of Trout Lake where our hotel was. It was only about a 30 minute drive up to Trout Lake, but it feels quite isolated since it's the only town in the area, surrounded by farms, a national wildlife refuge, and forested areas. Our motel, the Trout Lake Valley Inn, was super cute and our room was spacious and spotless. There really aren't many options in the area, but we were very happy with this lodging.

By now it was late afternoon, and we drove about 20 minutes east to get in another hike. We did the Willard Springs Trail, a 3 mile loop in the Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge. It was a nice relaxing little trail with lots of birds, passing through an open area before heading into the forest. There was a nice viewpoint of Mt. Adams, and we saw a snake, some turkeys, and a mule deer. It was also not busy at all, we only saw four other people (and one friendly corgi) on the whole trail. Unfortunately, the spring itself wasn't really visible, nor were the "lakes" shown on some maps. I guess it is the dry season, and this part of Washington is also in a mild drought. We then decided to squeeze in one last short hike for the day, driving back past town to the Trout Creek Meadow Trail. We went up the trail just a short distance since it was dusk, but had really nice views of Mt. Adams over the creek, and heard elk bugling in the distance. Back at the hotel we showered and had some leftovers and grocery store food to wrap up the long day.

Fancy lunch and beer.

A great piece of salmon.

Ice Cream!

Amazing Mt. Adams views right from the streets of Hood River.

Mt. Hood seen from Panorama Point.

Starting our hike in the Conboy Lake NWR.

A friendly lil snake!

David setting off into the wilderness.

Mt. Adams views from the hike.

Suspicious deer.

Viewing platform across the "marsh" midway on the hike.

From the drive we passed farms with amazing Mt. Hood views. Stratovolcanoes everywhere you look!

Mt. Adams across Trout Creek, seen from the meadow trail.

Friday morning the time change came in very handy, as we woke up before 6am. We had breakfast at the motel, then hit the road early, driving a bit over an hour to the north side of Mt. Adams for our major hike of the trip. Driving into the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, the last few miles to the trailhead was a rough dirt road. There were a lot of potholes but we made it in our rental Toyota Corolla. We parked at the Divide Camp Trailhead. The hike started by immediately passing into the Mt. Adams National Wilderness. There are a few intersecting trails in the area, and part of our hike was a segment of the Pacific Crest Trail. We ended up doing an 11.3 mile out and back hike with about 1,800 feet of elevation gain, turning around at Killen Creek. It was an excellent hike, starting in the forest and steadily climbing up toward Mt. Adams, with a couple of sections of meadow, some rocky areas, and a stream crossing with precarious logs. The upper part of the hike had amazing views of Mt. Adams (with the summit just a few miles away), and Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens in the distance (both about 50 miles away). The weather was amazing - it started chilly in the forest, but ended up sunny and beautiful.

Our motel.

It was 46 degrees to start the hike. A bit chilly, especially coming off a record warm summer in Atlanta that hadn't even seen a day below 70 before we left for the northwest, but it warmed up quickly.

Setting off in the cool PNW forest.

Heading into the wilderness, a 75 square mile area.

Some of the first views of Mt. Adams as we emerge from the forest.

Crossing a meadow.

Cheeeese!

There were still some wildflowers along the way.

Mt. Adams loomed above us.

Crossing the stream - this was not hard for David.

Mt. St. Helens was visible on parts of the hike.

Thumbs up for no eruptions today!

Mt. Rainier on the left, and Mt. Adams on the right.

Crossing the Pacific Crest Trail.

Paul on the trail.

We decided our turn around point would be this little waterfall on Killen Creek.

Great weather for a selfie.

David being an adventurer.

One last view of Mt. Adams before descending into the forest.

Next we made a quick stop at nearby Takhlakh Lake for views, then drove back to Trout Lake. We filled up the car, went to the general store for a huckleberry milkshake, and then had a very late lunch (or early dinner?) at Mt Adams Pizza. We did a short walk to get up to 30,000 steps for the day, then relaxed at the hotel until we went to bed.

Views across Lake Takhlakh. Mt. Adams was starting to generate its own clouds.

There was a relaxing area with a hammock next to the stream by our motel.

Mt Adams Pizza - there were like three restaurants in town, and this one was a winner - super cute outdoor area.

Post-hike pizza is a tradition!

This school's soccer field has one of the best views. It was next door to our hotel.

Saturday was the day of the Atlanta - Portland soccer game back in Portland. We got up early, made a quick stop by Post Office Coffee - a cute old building that was also a music venue, bar and restaurant depending on the day of the week or time of the day. We took the drinks back to the hotel and ate breakfast before getting ready to head out.

We took the scenic route back to Portland, which basically means we were on crappy dirt roads for a long time in the middle of nowhere before joining up with a state road and eventually the interstate in Washington north of Portland. We got to see some interesting sites along the way, so there's something to be said for the "road less traveled."

Our first stop on the road back to Portland was a site called "Natural Bridges." This part of the country, for obvious volcanic reasons, has lots of lava tubes. We walked through some on our last trip to Oregon near Bend. This trip, we didn't bring the right equipment (headlamps for example) to wander through lava tubes, so we stopped to see the mostly collapsed lava tubes at natural bridges. Here you can walk across some sections that haven't collapsed like bridges across a small gorge. Pretty cool and very close to the parking area.

Further up the road we stopped at the McClellan Viewpoint to see Mt St Helens from closer - followed by a short hike at the Curly Creek Waterfall - which was, again, mostly dry this time of year but was still a pretty and short walk along a water-carved gorge.

Finally, we stopped at a small park (Eagle Cliff Park) near where the Lewis River enters a series of man-made reservoirs. We hiked around for a few minutes on the rocks and saw some large birds flying near the cliffs.

Some deer near Post Office Coffee.

Post Office Coffee was a vibe.

Natural Bridge.

David standing on top of one of the lava tube "bridges."

Most of this lava tube is collapsed, but the bridges serve sorta like caves with some hosting bats.

Viewpoint towards Mt Adams.

So like, is it called the Handshake Agreement or was it literally a handshake agreement? We saw like 20 of these signs - it wasn't huckleberry season anymore, unfortunately, or we would have picked some from the other side of the road.

Closer to Mt St Helens - this isn't the side that blew up!

Curly Creek Falls trail.

Pool of water on the trail.

So maybe skip this waterfall in late September. Not much to see here.

Eagle Cliff Park - just a little picnic spot along the Lewis River before the resevoris begin.

One of the reservoirs of the Lewis River on the way back to Portland. There were a lot of people boating and Mt St Helens in the background.

Coming back into Portland there was some traffic, so the final few miles took a while. We eventually got to the hotel, checked in, and had a late lunch/early dinner at Dolly Olive. The restaurant was serving brunch and the food was Italian'ish. We had a really yummy sweet potato and sausage mash, a watermelon and basil salad and some loukoumades (Greek donuts - which were just ok here).

After lunch we wandered around downtown and did some shopping. We popped by Powell's books and a couple tourist and clothing stores. We spent a few minutes at the Skeleton Key Odditorium - which reminded us of a similar oddities museum we visited with Janice in Savannah a few years ago. Finally, we popped by a yummy local matcha shop (Matcha Mako) before heading back to the hotel to chill a few minutes before walking over to the soccer match.

The game itself was fun. We sat near the Atlanta supporter section and the energy was good, despite Atlanta having a terrible season. Atlanta even surprised everyone by pulling out a win! The stadium itself is interesting, it's the oldest in MLS. The main section of the stadium even has the original wooden benches. They've since added on over the years, but it gives the stadium a lot of charm.

View from our hotel.

Lots of fun street art.

This picture Paul took was good enough the restaurant reposted it after David put it on Instagram!

David's childhood terror unlocked. Killer Clowns from Outer Space was a twisted movie.

Paul...don't look behind you now...but you have a friend.

Lots of cute stuff in Portland.

Super lively downtown area.

Matcha specializing shops are a must-stop for David.

Providence Park in Portland

Go Atlanta!

Nice historic stadium with a good vibe!

Sunday it was a foggy morning. We had an early breakfast at Daily Feast, then drove to the airport. Another short, but successful trip to the PNW. We really love this part of the country and could honestly see ourselves moving here. The summer weather is amazing, the natural environment here is top notch, and the people are fun and creative. Maybe someday we'll take the plunge, but until then it's just a few hours flight away!