The Gorge is my Gym

This week’s forecast is brought to you by Flow Yoga on 3rd Street in downtown Hood River. With all this rain, workout choices are getting limited, but not at Flow. You can choose from 25 fitness/training classes and 32 yoga/meditation classes. Starting November 6th, Flow is offering a 6-week snowsports series that targets your skiing and riding muscles (aka, your powder thighs). It’s going to be a solid workout, lots of fun, but most importantly, it’ll bring you into ski season ready for hours of faceshots (and way less time lying around sore the next day). As an added bonus, the instructor, Jessica is rad. If you’ve never been a Flow member, you can try out a month for just $49. One of you will win a free month membership at the end of this week!

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Good morning!

It’s another windy day in the Gorge. A .16 east gradient to start the day will drive winds in the low 40’s at Rooster and mid to upper twenties at Stevenson. The earlier you go, the better, as an approaching front will turn gradients onshore (or at least less offshore) by late afternoon.

Your next best chance for wind is Sunday, after a wet cold front passes Saturday night. Keep an eye on Maryhill and Arlington Sunday morning.

If you’re interested in doing some skiing, there’s still plenty of snow on the hill, although it’s a bit beat up due to continual above-freezing temperatures. In an interesting weather twist, it’s currently 41 degrees in Hood River and 50 degrees at the base of Meadows.

The chances of an early ski season on Mt. Hood are looking better and better. Of course, I am not speaking as a resort employee here, but the 10-day models (which tend to be incredibly incorrect) are showing lots of precipitation and low snow levels starting Saturday afternoon. Keep your fingers crossed, and we may just get to ride some lifts long before Thanksgiving. It all comes down to you wishing hard…

In “what’s coming up” land, tomorrow is your chance to see a telemark ski movie. They’re really boring. People hike uphill a really long ways in a snowstorm, eat some sort of hippie vegetarian or vegan snack at the top, comb the snow out of their beards, and ski down for about 2 minutes. Okay, okay, I’m kidding. The movie is Freeheel Life II. Freeheel Life I was great, so you should show up and watch Josh Madsen’s new film. Dog River Coffee. Friday night.

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 button at the bottom of the page. For a suggested donation of $10, I’ll add you to the email version of this list ‘til May 2011, putting you in the running for cool prizes donated by the weekly sponsors.

This week’s forecast is brought to you by Flow Yoga on 3rd Street in downtown Hood River. With all this rain, workout choices are getting limited, but not at Flow. You can choose from 25 fitness/training classes and 32 yoga/meditation classes. Starting November 6th, Flow is offering a 6-week snowsports series that targets your skiing and riding muscles (aka, your powder thighs). It’s going to be a solid workout, lots of fun, but most importantly, it’ll bring you into ski season ready for hours of faceshots (and way less time lying around sore the next day). As an added bonus, the instructor, Jessica is rad. If you’ve never been a Flow member, you can try out a month for just $49. One of you will win a free month membership at the end of this week!

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Good morning!

It’s Election Day, and as usual, I’m not going to tell you how to cast your vote. I am going to ask you to vote. If you’re not voting (unless you’ve lost your right to vote or don’t qualify for citizenship), you don’t have a right to complain or rejoice about what your government does during the next two years.

If you’re in Oregon, it’s too late to mail in your ballot. You can drop it off at your nearest ballot collection location (in Hood River, that’s at 6th and State). In Washington, you can still drop your ballot in the mail.

I am sure there are several election result parties tonight. The only one I am certain of is at the Volcanic Bottle Shop on the Heights in Hood River. That “party” runs from 5 to 9pm and will be attended by HR Library supporters.

In less serious news, the Nelscott Reef contest is on for today, with variable winds forecast to be blowing on a 20-23 foot swell at 18 seconds. It’s going to be huge. Unfortunately, they aren’t webcasting the event, but you can catch the action via updates on the Nelscott Facebook page (boring).

The forecast still looks good for big easterlies tomorrow in the Gorge. Light west gradients this morning start building in the other direction this afternoon. I think we’ll see enough wind for kiting at Stevenson/Rooster by midday today. Tomorrow brings 30+ at Stevenson and 40ish at Rooster. The forecast has mellowed for Thursday, so if you’d like to windsurf or kite, plan on tomorrow.

At this point, the forecast looks dry through Thursday, with rain returning on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so you’ll have some good opportunities this week for mountain biking or ski touring.

Finally, I just looked at the river levels, and the gauge is reporting the Hood at 5.2 feet after 1.4” of rain fell on Meadows yesterday. The White Salmon was at 2ft yesterday, but it’s likely higher now, and the Klickitat’s at 891 cfs.

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 button at the bottom of the page. For a suggested donation of $10, I’ll add you to the email version of this list ‘til May 2011, putting you in the running for cool prizes donated by the weekly sponsors.