New TOYS!

Creek Boats!


So I know mi hermana (sister), Christina, already wrote on this, but I thought I would write something on it too as it was a special moment for us:)

Brandon Backman and Kim Russell gearing up
Photo by: Christina Russell

Christina and I have never had creek boats before. We never really even paddled one, (unless you count the super low water rock scraping “demo” on class II we did a about three years ago.) That is not to say the demo wasn’t wickedly fun and hilarious though.. hehe. I remember we couldn’t get over the fact that the boats were super long, we were super small (we could lay down in them almost), and whenever we went through wave trains, the waves would hit the underside of the bow and splash our faces. That was entertainment right there! Ha, it was funny. We couldn’t get over it. Anywhoo…. Over the summer, after subbing out way too much, the time came when we thought it would be smart to invest in new toys. CREEK BOATS!!!! YAY! After lots of demo-ing, Christina and I each ordered a Liquidlogic Huck. WOHOO!

The night before another trip to Hood River, we were anxiously awaiting a phone call regarding los creek boats. It didn’t come, so we called the freight company in Portland instead :) They said the boats were there at the shipping yard and were being shipped to Redmond, Oregon (15 miles North of us) the next morning to be delivered to Alder Creek Kayak and Canoe!!!!! They said that we could pick them up ourselves in Portland at the yard or in Redmond in the morning. We were so excited at this point, we got to thinking we should drive to Portland, pick them up, and head to Hood River instead of waiting till tomorrow. We were pretty stoked to be getting CREEK BOATS :) WHOA! Only we decided to stay home, get a good night sleep and get the boat in the mornin’.… YEA!!!!!

We left our house around 6:30 am and booked it up to the freight place and on the way saw this…..


It may look like a normal road sign, but its not. While waiting for the light to turn green and jamming to our sicky awesome music, we noticed they are both the same word, one is just spelt backwards, “ODEM MEDO.” Ha. At the moment it was very amusing:) !


Photo by: Kim Russell

Anywhoo… we arrived at the Freight Place and picked up our Hucks. As the boat wrappings flew wildly into the air, workers asked us questions, “What are those? Oh, they’re kayaks, What do you do with them?” Pretty cool. I think they were mesmerized how we were so excited over KAYAKS. HOW COULD WE NOT BE!? They are shiny and bright, and one is green and one is blue and they do cool things! Some place should make little barbie/GI JOE kayaks for kids… Just a thought. We’ll save that for another time.. :)

Christina unwrapping her Huck she has recently dubbed, “Lilu”
Photo by: Kim Russell


My boat is really Green! :)
Photo by: Christina Russell

After noticing how little our truck looked compared to the 18-wheelers we were surrounded by, we decided it was time to head out and get on the road to Hood River!

Photo by: Kim Russell

Our friend Brandon Backman from Hood River was at work as River Ranger that morning, but was going to meet us around 11:00 am when we got there for some scrumptious lunch at the taco stand and some boatin’. Couldn’t keep him waiting!

We are DORKS

Photo by: Kim Russell

After being on the road for about an hour and a half, we noticed a sign that said Highway 35 closed. We drove past it, not really thinking about, while at the same time wondering what that meant.

We had driven to Hood River so many times over the summer, we kind of forgot/were not overly concerned of the name of our highway. After about thirty more minutes, we came across another Closed sign and we checked the map. HA HA HA. Highway 35 is the highway we take. OOPs. Good side trip though huh? We took a funky cut-off East to Maupin, Oregon and made our way up 97 to the Dalles. It’s was a sweet drive. We also noticed that despite normal highway signage where the DOT marks corners way slower than they really need to be taken (at least in Oregon it seems this way), that on this road, “35 mph Corners” really meant 35 mph corners.
On this trip, we did a little bit of Trussing too J. Check out my next blog for details! YAY!!!!!

When gas is now $3.50 a gallon……

-Kim Russell-

A. K. A. Kiddo