The Gorge is my Gym

The Clymb: free membership.
Access to super cheap gear including Trew, Zeal, Sierra Designs, and many more.

This week’s forecast is brought to you by Pacific Standard Time, bringing darkness to you every evening until the second Sunday in March. Now that it’s dark after work, it’s time to get up early (like me) and get your workout in early (like I say I will but usually don’t). You have limited choices in the Gorge Gym this time of year. Unless you own a $600 bike light system, you’re going to be spending some serious time on the stairs, running the lighted streets, or making up silly workouts at the high school track. If you’re bored of training alone and desperate for an entertaining workout, call me. I am too! (I’m Temira, and I approved this message)

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Good morning!

At the request of a friend of mine, I am reminding all of you that Meadows has extended the season pass purchase deadline to Wednesday due to “issues”. That’s their word, not mine, but it gave me a chuckle. We all have issues, but apparently businesses can have them too now. I think that must be a side effect of the Citizens United decision. Anyway, my point is that you have until Wednesday to pick up a Meadows pass (no group of four required). Mt. Hood Meadows… where snow substitutes for daylight during PST.

(best Mt. Hood Meadows/Skibowl/T-Line/Cooper Spur slogan emailed to me before the pass purchase deadline gets a tray of brownies)

In other non-commercial news, it’s wet out there. If you’d like to find some drier precipitation, think about heading to the mountains tomorrow for sunshine and fresh tracks. 3” of cold snow fell yesterday, and we’ll see another 8-12” by tomorrow morning. If you are headed up, be prepared for poor coverage in sun-exposed areas. This is not going to be a repeat of the incredible hiking conditions we saw with the first storm this season, but there will be fresh tracks.

The wind report is unexciting. Gusty easterlies this morning accompany the arrival of an upper level low, but the wind won’t last long. There’s no other wind in the Gorge for the next couple of days.

If you’d like to go boating, the White Salmon is at a fun 2.5ft. The Hood is a little low at 3.6ft, but is predicted to come up to 4.4 feet tomorrow after tonight’s rain. The Klickitat is back into the fun-to-run range at 916 cfs. Don’t forget that Wednesday night is Kayak Polo at the Hood River pool. $8, 8-930pm, followed by drinks and dinner somewhere.

Finally, coming up this weekend there are a couple of work parties in Post Canyon. CGORA is working on the #160 trail, and mountain bikers are working at Family Man and GP. Both parties start at 9am. If you ride the trails, you beat up the trails, so please consider giving back with a few hours of work on Saturday.

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 November 2011, putting you in the running for cool prizes donated by the weekly sponsors.

The Clymb: free membership.
Access to super cheap gear including Trew, Zeal, Sierra Designs, and many more.

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!

This is it, everyone. This is your last day to enjoy evening light, such as it is with the low-level inversion and low-quality air this morning. Tonight we turn the clocks back.

There isn’t really much to talk about today, but I’d feel bad not posting something

So, your next chance for windsurfing or kiting is tomorrow in the desert, starting around midday. I think 20-25 is a reasonable, conservative call, but there’s a slight chance of gusty, cold upper twenties for short periods of time.

If you’re looking for new snow in the mountains, you’re going to have to wait until Sunday night. Most of tomorrow’s precipitation will fall as rain below 6-7,000ft. However, starting Sunday night and continuing into Tuesday, we’ll see a total of 18-24” above 4000 feet, with snow levels dropping to near 3000 feet on Tuesday.

The long-range forecast is all over the place. Check out Fox 12’s Mark Nelsen’s weather blog here. What that means is that I can’t tell you when the mountain will open. All I can do is cross my fingers. I suggest you join me.

In paddling world, the White Salmon is right around 2 feet right now. It, and the Hood, should come up quite a bit by tomorrow. I’m not sure we’ll see the Hood come over 4 feet, but you never know…

The mountain biking is pretty good right now. Stay off the lowest sections of Post Canyon, and you’re good to go!

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 November 2011, putting you in the running for cool prizes donated by the weekly sponsors.