MT HOOD OREGON SHOPPING

Gearing Up for Vacation?

Check Out Mt Hood’s Mountain Sports

Next time you’re vacationing on Mt Hood and want to talk about local outdoor fun, look up Tom and Sonya Butler at Mountain Sports.  They know the Villages of Mt. Hood like their own back yard – because they live right in the heart of it all!

Tom loves sports, but says he just tries to keep up with the ones he knows.  Easy stuff, nothing specific – some Oregon windsurfing, Mt Hood mountain biking, snowboarding, mountaineering, and hiking, with a little Oregon fishing and canoeing in there too.  You think, “This is exactly the guy I’d want running my local sporting goods store.”  Luckily for the Villages of Mt. Hood, that’s what he does.  For the past three years Tom and his wife Sonya have been owners of Mountain Sports in Welches’ Hoodland Plaza Shopping Center.

How did they come to call the Villages home? 

They really like the mix of folks they run across on any given day.  “I see people from all economic realms pass through Welches, get hooked on the area and stick around,” Tom says. 

Both are longtime locals.  Sonya came up to the mountain 10 years ago to join family.  Tom moved to the area in the late seventies to help his brother out in his car-painting business, and began working at Breeze Ski Rentals, the shop that would one day become Mountain Sports.  When he got into windsurfing, he traded body work for a board and moved to Hood River.  He owned a windsurfing shop there for a while, but before too long returned to the mountain and Breeze.  He was the shop’s manager for its last 7 to 8 years.  When Breeze’s managing company, Intrawest Corp., decided to leave the area and close the shop, Tom and Sonya decided to step in and take over.  To Tom, it was a natural decision.  After all, “I liked doing what I was doing,” he says.  “It’s been fun.  And I’ve got a great partner in Sonya.”  They also have two young sons who are learning all about outdoor sports.

Mt Hood Canoe & Bike Rental,
Camping, Hiking & Biking Supplies,
Maps & More!

As the Butlers expand their selection to cover a wider variety of year-round sports, meeting new gear needs is interesting too, such as those for the local climbing community that appreciates picking up equipment close to home.  Every season brings new opportunities and people to meet.  Then, when they’re not at Mountain Sports, there’s the fun of getting to do all those activities themselves.

Last but not least, they think the Villages area is a beautiful place to live.  That’s most everything a young family could ask for, and they’ve found it here on the mountain.

Mountain Sports
Gear, camping/hiking supplies, maps, apparel,
footwear, swim gear, bike tires, parts, bike
and Oregon canoe rentals.
Hoodland Plaza: 68200 E Hwy 26
Welches, Oregon 97067
503-622-3120

 

Written by Andree Larson

May / June2009

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