I don’t know why we plan skate trips around Montana for mid October, maybe it is because it’s the shoulder season or maybe it’s just because we prefer to skate in the snow. Either way, this year, our planned trip to head East and hit Great Falls, the new Helena Park, Butte, then Missoula had to be postponed. Mark Heyka was calling for temps hovering around zero for most of the state so we quickly switched gears and decided on a trip to Eastern Washington and Oregon. We had lofty plans to skate Spokane, Walla Walla, Pendelton, Irrigon, Richland and Yakima on a four day super trip with a crew of eight.

Day 1:

We all arrive at Brendan Rohan’s before daybreak and head out. Temps were probably hovering around 10 degrees. We are treated to a gorgeous sunrise along Flathead Lake and then the slog to Spokane. At Spokane we skate the Hillyard Park. It was Saturday morning, not too busy but cold, and had it’s fair share of kids buzzing around on razor scooters. It was a short detour before heading out for Walla Walla. We took the scenic (aka long) way down to Walla Walla but it was a pretty cool drive through some hilly and vacant country.

We arrived late afternoon in Walla Walla to a park that was one large bowl that had a spine/island in the middle and it was all finished in pool coping formed from Granite, half the guys we were with, had skated it before and said it didn’t grind well. Upon inspection it looks like they gave the granite a little more of a bullnose and we all found it pretty buttery smooth. After skating for a bit it was getting dark and cold a van full of 12 dudes from Shrunken Heads/Jivaro rolled up and pretty much slayed it in the dark. It’s a hard park to skate with 20 people so we stayed a little while longer and headed out to checkout the Walla Walla nightlife. As far as we could tell it wasn’t really our scene but we gave it a go.

Day 2:

Walla Walla set a new record low that night of 25 degrees so we got going slow that morning skated the bowl all morning and hung around for a bit. Ate a rad taco place but somehow ordered tacos de chicharrones (I had forgotten what that was).  I was starving so I had just polished mine off, while J. Boyes was inspecting his and finally asked what the f- it was. Pig fat and skin, some tabasco, and sour cream wrapped in a tortilla. Some would consider it a delicacy.

We headed out of Walla Walla only to miss a turn and drive straight through wine country. An unnammed, but self-proclaimed wine aficionado in the group was stoked as we turned around in the parking lot of some well know vintner. And he bolted inside to hob-nob and pick up a fine chardonnay.

South from Walla Walla to Milton Freewater and spent waaaay too much time there. What were they thinking with those concrete pillars?

We kept on moving south to Pendleton. Pendleton was rad. Big bowl to a wide mini area, with a spine to a street-ish section, with pyramid, lots of bank walls with some stamped concrete to feel like brick. Then a step up with a stair set and handrail next to it. In addtion there were some little ledges and some rocks built in to the concrete that were fun to skate. It was pretty late by the time we rolled up to the park. Jivaro guys were killing it there (in the cold and dark again). The park was fully lit though so we stayed and skated it for a while. We found a semi-sketchy hotel where the rooms looked like the cops had broken down the door a couple times and headed out to see what the town of Pendleton, OR had to offer had to offer on a Sunday night.

Day 3:

Being a father of two, I have no choice but to get up at 7:30 AM even if I am up until 3:00 AM. It is instinct now. The same went for the other guys with kids back home. As the rest of the group slept, we headed out in the morning to see what Pendleton was all about. Rodeo. Pretty much sums it up. It had some cool old buildings and some tunnels under the town. By chance we stumbled upon the woolen mills and went in an checked out some blankets and other fine wool goods. As soon as everyone got rolling we headed out to get some more time at the Pendleton park, skated it for the rest of the morning the headed West to Irrigon.

It was getting late in the day after spending the afternoon in Irrigon and the following day was a travel day so unfortunately we decided to bail on Yakima. and head back to Spokane, We did a quick detour in Richland at that point everyone was pretty banged up or tired and the place was good but packed with kids. We packed up in the car headed north and had some late night sushi in Spokane to finish off the trip.