Mt. Hood snow and Gorge wind forecast | The Gorge is my Gym

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Your weekend weather forecast: Saturday: decreasing showers becoming partly sunny in the afternoon. Snow level rising from 6000’ to 10000’. Light and variable wind in the Gorge. Sunday: rain starting around 8am, heavy through 1pm, and likely continuing for much of the day with .5” accumulation. Snow level at 5500’, with 1-2” at the base of Meadows and 3-5” higher up. The wind starts out light in the Gorge, picking up to 15-18 near Hood River late in the day, possibly even picking up to 18-22.

It’s easier for me to send you a forecast on Friday night, as we’ve got a mountain bike trail work party early Saturday morning. If you like the 450 trail, meet at Dirty Fingers at 8:30 Saturday morning for a ride up to the work party. If you’d like to drive yourself, you can meet at Dirty Fingers or you can meet at Little John at 9:30am. Lunch will be provided by New York City Subs. Yummy. There’s also a work party in Cascade Locks tomorrow at 9:30 to complete 1.5-2 miles of trails that are part of a larger future trail system. Directions from Portland: take Cascade Locks Exit 44. Go through town, left on NW Forest Lane. Turn left on Cramblett Way. Look for the NW Trail Alliance trailer. Lunch will be provided. Bring your tools.

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Also Saturday is the Wind Energy Film Festival at the Discovery Center in The Dalles from noon until 5pm. Come see these award-winning films for free. You’ll probably meet some cool people too.

Sunday is Meadows pass photo day at the Hood River Inn from 9am to 4pm. Considering that it will be raining for much of the day, this might be a nice place to hang out (and entertain Temira, who will likely be feeling quite ADHD).

Coming up next week, there’s the Fashion Show, benefiting the Hood River Christmas Project. If you don’t need help at Christmas, please come to this (very fun) event and help out people with less than you. $20 gets you in the door. Tickets are available at Ruddy Duck, Melika, Plenty, Doug’s, Zella, Ananas, Foils Salon, Parts and Labour, Flow Yoga, Mt Hood Meadows, Enchanted Alpaca, Lucy’s Informal Flowers, That’s Swank, The Trunk Show, 5th Element Salon, Gorge Brides, and CAbi.

Later next week, it’s National Bank Transfer Day, November 5th. If you don’t like the monthly fees your bank is about to start charging you, switch to your local nonprofit credit union and support your community. (end of politics… at least I didn’t mention the upcoming Occupy Hood River meeting)

For those of you interested in seeing some more video from the removal of Condit Dam, here are some links:
Northwestern Lake Draining
Another view of the muck draining
Andy Maser and Steve Stampli’s take
Brent Foster and Columbia Riverkeeper’s take
In Andy’s video, you can see the emergence of the original 10’ tall cofferdam that diverted the flow of the White Salmon so Condit could be built. The cofferdam, useful only for a sense of scale at this point, is also scheduled for removal. No word yet about Pacificorp’s plans/responsibility for the hundreds of logs now stuck in the narrow section of the White Salmon below Condit. Kayakers are crossing their fingers.

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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 link below. For a suggested donation of $10, I’ll add you to the email version of this list ‘til August 2012, putting you in the running for cool prizes donated by the weekly sponsors. If you don’t PayPal, you can send a donation to PO Box 841 in Hood River, 97031.

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Oh wow. Today is like the day after Christmas in a good way. Pacificorp gave us a beautiful present yesterday in the form of a free White Salmon, and that’s a present that will last forever. Over the next year, they’ll be rehabilitating the former Northwestern Lake (maybe we can have a contest to rename that section of river, as well as the sandbar that will likely form at the mouth). The “new” section of river is scheduled to open for recreation in September 2012. If you’d like to paddle or raft now, the White Salmon is still open for business above Northwestern Lake, and the river is currently at 1.9 feet.

Also for you paddlers, Heather Herbeck talked the Hood River Pool into opening for kayaking practice from 7-8pm on Thursday nights. Please be there to support this trial period, because if you don’t show up, you can kiss year-round weeknight pool access goodbye.

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If you didn’t have a chance to see the Condit Dam breach video, you can find plenty of versions on YouTube. Check Columbia Riverkeeper’s website for a more in-depth video that should be posted at some point today. Many thanks to Cloudcap for the drone footage. That’s what I call a good usage for an unmanned drone.

For you wind Johnnies, today looks like east wind at 15-18 this afternoon. Tomorrow looks like east 10-15 early, switching to west 15-18 later, and west 24-28 even later than that with some rain. Saturday doesn’t look so windy, and neither does Sunday.

In other events, Saturday is the “Jimmy T and Me” work party on the 450 trail. Shuttle buses are provided from Dirty Fingers at 9am. On Sunday, it’s Meadows pass photo day from 9am to 4pm or maybe it’s 5pm. I can’t remember.

Now, just to shake things up, the Fashion Show is on an early date this year, early enough that even mountain employees can make this not-so-late-in-the-evening event. November 3rd at the Hood River Inn, doors at 6pm, show at 7pm, tickets $20. The Fashion Show benefits the Hood River County Christmas Project, a community service that gets holiday food and childrens’ gifts to families in need. If you’re not in need, please come to the fashion show, or make a donation by sending a check to PO Box 872 in Hood River. Your donation is tax-deductible.

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