After what felt like an incredibly long car ride and three Red Bulls, we had finally made it to our destination: Government Camp, Ore., the small village that sits at the base of the grand Mt. Hood.
    The weather had started as a drizzle as we drove from Missoula through Idaho and Washington, and turned into a full-on storm as we made our way across the great flats of eastern Oregon and into the Columbia River Gorge. We were excited about the precipitation, because rain at this elevation must mean that it was snowing up higher on the mountain. We hoped that tomorrow we would be blessed with fresh snow, and lots of it.
    After checking into our hotel room, we unloaded our gear into the room. There were six of us in two cars full of snowboards, skis, cameras, and bags, and only one hotel room that was about the size of my college dorm room. It was cramped, with just our gear in there. Even after a long nine-hour drive, we had to go find some fun, so we drove for another hour into Portland to go hang with the snowboard team manager, Christopher Laws.
    Our night of downtown Portland was pretty uneventful; we found there is not a lot of nightlife when it is pouring rain on a Monday night.
    The next morning brought overcast skies and a day to hike and warm up. As we slowly made our way up the highway towards the Timberline Lodge we noticed awesome terrain off either side of the road.
    Two spots stood out in my mind for a great spot to film and for the boys to huck as we made our way to the lodge. At the lodge all we found was a horrible fog that left a terrible flat light and no clue as to where to hike to and build a kicker.

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	The first spot we checked didn’t have any runway so we kept heading down the road and came across the second spot. It was perfect. A long hill that dropped down then flattened out before it intersected the road. Then the other side had a nice open and steep side that would be ideal for a spot to land. We unloaded all of our gear and cameras and started building. Cars came and went on the road that linked Timberline Lodge to the rest of the world, and we got plenty of weird looks and confused glances, as well as shouts of encouragement and friendly hellos.
With six people working hard and the help of some more Red Bull, the jump quickly came to shape. It stood 3 feet above the snow bank and was about 4 feet wide. The tranny went back a good 15 feet.The wet snow was perfect for packing and the jump was soon smoothed out and ready to send someone into orbit. It was a beauty, definitely one of the best jumps I have ever helped build. As I stood back to marvel at it the rain came back. Nothing as substantial as the day before but still enough. We quickly scampered to cover our camera gear and attempt to stay dry.

It was the beginning of the sad end to the beautiful piece of art that we had hoped would launch us into a state of absolute happiness. While we slowly began to collect our gear and move it back to the car, Matt Clinch mysteriously disappeared. As we finished putting our gear away and watched the DOT guy roll away, Matt reappeared. Twenty feet higher on the runway then Chris had been and strapped in. With no chance to pull out our cameras, Matt had dropped in and was bombing. In no time flat, he was down the runway and into the tranny of the jump.

Not feeling fulfilled, we set out in search of something that would occupy our restless souls. In search of another spot, we ran across a few workers preparing the pipe dragon for the neighboring ski area, Ski Bowl. We stated our purposes and talked some talk and were then told that we were welcome to go use their terrain park for our filming enjoyment if we were willing to move a rail for them.    Half an hour later, we were convincing the snowcat driver that the there was plenty of snow for him to rebuild the ramp into the longest rail at the park. We had just spent 20 minutes chopping and shoveling the wet snow, only to build a small two-foot lump.    In no time flat, we had a beautiful ramp thanks to the cat, and just as we finished, the rain came back. Instantly all the camera gear was fogged.

   The lens dripped water as Matt and Chris kept sticking better and better tricks. It was an impressive display that the cameras captured poorly. The session ended as first Chris slammed hard, then Matt closely afterward. We were all tired and sore but stoked on what tomorrow might bring.

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