The Gorge is my Gym

The chilly west wind with clouds in the western Gorge continues for one more day today before summer kicks in. We’ll see 16-18 this morning east of Hood River, picking up to 23-26 east of The Dalles in the afternoon. With these low clouds overhead, the wind in the western Gorge will be in the upper teens.

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Tomorrow looks sunny and calm, so it’s going to be a terrible day for wind sports and a great day for road biking, tanning or wakeboarding. If you’re thinking about dusting off the boat and wondering if the water’s cold, be advised that the Columbia is now 61 degrees.

The wind starts off light on Saturday, but as a system approaches the coast in the afternoon, the wind will go from nothing to upper teens to low twenties pretty quickly. Watch for the strongest wind at Stevenson in the low twenties with upper teens from Hood River to Rowena.

Tonight, as always on Thursday, it’s the Post and Pint mountain bike ride, leaving Dirty Fingers at 5:30 and returning for pints from Mitchell’s keg after a couple hours in Post. Also tonight, starting at 6pm in the Big Winds parking lot, it’s the Big Winds Big Loop party, with film highlights of this past week’s sailing, along with the awards ceremony for the Big Winds Big loop contest. Yes, there is beer at this party too, but it’s not free (although Mitchell’s isn’t either, technically, because you have to ride your bike for a couple of hours to earn it)

Moving on to tomorrow, it’s First Friday in Hood River, it’s the first day of the Rainbow Gathering at Skookum Meadows (that explains all the hitchhikers you’ve been seeing on SR-14), it’s the reopening party for the Hood River library (although the library doesn’t actually reopen until July 5th), and finally, at 5:30, there’s a tandems-only bike ride leaving 10 Speed Coffee in Hood River.

And strangely, although this is the biggest holiday weekend of the summer, I have nothing on my calendar other than the 4th of July. Help me out here, kids! What am I missing?

Have an awesome day today!

Temira

p.s. If you find this report useful, entertaining, or just want to recognize all the hard work that goes into it, please take the time to make a donation by clicking on the sad-looking link below. For a suggested donation of $10, I’ll add you to the email version of this list ‘til June 2012, putting you in the running for cool prizes donated by the weekly sponsors.

If you’ve been wondering why the wind has been light for the last several days, I can help you out with an explanation. First, we had Windfest over the weekend, and that’s a sure wind killer. We also had the Big Winds Big Loop contest going on starting the 22nd (running through today), and a contest is also a sure wind killer. So, today’s your last chance to get a video of yourself looping and post it on Big Winds’ FB page. I posted a video of the Mega Solstice instead.

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On a different topic, if you’ve been wondering why it’s still Junuary, you can relax, because summer arrives on Friday. In the meantime, we’ll see clouds (and a beautiful sunrise) in the western Gorge today. The wind will be 15-18 early through the Gorge, picking up to 23-26 briefly east of hood River, and then shifting out to Arlington and building to 26-29 as a front pushes across the Cascades.

Coming up tomorrow, we’ll see marine air in Portland in the morning, giving the desert a jump on heating. That should give us west wind in the 17-21 range early, picking up to 21-24 in the afternoon. The wind will be strongest near Hood River and lighter east of The Dalles.

High pressure builds over the Cascades on Friday, for very light wind in the morning and 10-15 in the afternoon. Saturday looks light and hot, with a high near 80, but the westerlies should return on Sunday.

Tonight is the girls-only mountain bike ride leaving Dirty Fingers Bike Repair at 5:30pm, and seriously, all women mountain bikers are welcome for this totally not competitive ride. If you want competition, show up tomorrow night for the uber-manly Post and Pint, also leaving the shop at 5:30. Tonight is also the Kayak Shed’s shop paddle, leaving me in a bit of a quandary… ride tonight at a reasonable pace with the girls and miss out on paddling, or be humiliated by the uber-fast crowd tomorrow night on the boys’ ride?

Coming up on Friday, it’s July 1st, and sure, that means it’s First Friday in Hood River. But far more interesting is the fact that it’s the first day of the Rainbow Gathering at Skookum Meadows north of Carson. The Rainbow Gathering is an 8-day hippie festival attracting up to 30,000 people, so make plans to go check it out. Come on… 30,000 people in a no-money week-long forest gathering has to be cool… welcome home…

Have an awesome day today!

Temira

p.s. If you find this report useful, entertaining, or just want to recognize all the hard work that goes into it, please take the time to make a donation by clicking on the sad-looking link below. For a suggested donation of $10, I’ll add you to the email version of this list ‘til June 2012, putting you in the running for cool prizes donated by the weekly sponsors.