The Gorge is my Gym

Good morning!

This week’s report is brought to you by … me. That’s right. It’s brought to you by Temira. Want to get a free wind forecast? You’re in the right place. Need your house cleaned? Well, Temira can do that for you too. Four years experience forecasting wind. Five years cleaning houses. Yep. You think Temira’s good at telling you where to play? She has even more experience cleaning toilets (except her own). Wind. Toilets. Temira. Have an awesome day (and hopefully you’re laughing now, because even though all of the above is true, the point was to make you laugh)…

Look, I know the weather has taken a turn for the worse, but don’t let the seasonal blues kick in with the grey skies. Get outta bed, turn on the light box, and get ready for some excellent mountain biking, fishing, standup paddling and whitewater kayaking.

If you’re looking to windsurf or kite the next couple of days, cross your fingers for a slight chance of west winds late tomorrow as a front pushes through… and that about does it for the wind forecast.

However, if you want to mountain bike, I’m issuing a tack and mud alert for all the trails, but especially Post Canyon. As of 6pm yesterday, the trails were perfect, so give them a little time to dry out this morning and then hit them midday for perfect dirt. We’re going to see a lot more rain tonight, so we’ll probably end up with super-muddy, please-don’t-ride sort of conditions tomorrow.

If you’re a cyclocross racer, the Hood River Doublecross and swap meet happens today at the Fairgrounds,

Boaters, as of 3am, the Hood River had already come up to 3.2 feet, not enough to run it, but enough to get people excited. The Klickitat was up to 760 cfs, and the Tieton is down to 1670 cfs. The White Salmon, the steady-as-she-goes river, is still around 1.7 feet.

If you are looking for something to do tonight, the SBC 10th Anniversary party and AWSI party take over the Horse and Hound Pub in Hood River.

Have a great day today! Naw, have an awesome day. Mine started out awesome. Yours should too!

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.

Good morning!

This week’s report is brought to you by Classic Wings Aero Services in Hood River. At Classic Wings, you can go for a flight over the Columbia, around Mt. Hood, or anywhere your heart desires. And if your heart desires to learn how to fly, Classic Wings can help you out with that too. If you’ve never taken a scenic flight in the Gorge, you should. Darla took me up one day, and I was amazed. You can see your ski hill from above, your bike trails from above, and you can take awesome photos of the entire Gorge Gym from above. I know it sounds really touristy, but it’s a great experience and I totally recommend it!

If you’re looking for nice weather today while you play, head out this morning or early afternoon. A cold front moves in late in the afternoon, dragging more clouds and showers into the Gorge. As the cold front moves in, we should see some very gusty and short-lived west winds in the 12-17 range moving quickly from Stevenson out to Arlington, possibly before dark, and possibly not.

If it does get windy near Hood River, remember that the Event Site is closed until Sunday for the AWSI trade show.

We’ll probably wake up to rain tomorrow morning, with a break in the showers midday before another rainy system moves into the Northwest. It doesn’t look like we’ll see any wind on Saturday, so it’s going to be a good day for standup paddling or road biking between the weather systems.

As of yesterday afternoon, it was still pretty dusty in Post Canyon and on the other trails, but if we get enough rain Friday night, it’s going to be excellent mountain biking for the rest of the weekend. And if we don’t get enough Friday night, we’ll get enough rain on Saturday to knock down the dust.

If you like Cyclocross, don’t forget about the Hood River Doublecross race at the Hood River High School on Saturday and the Fairgrounds on Sunday. There’s also a cyclocross swap meet on Sunday, if you need more gear.

Boaters, the White Salmon is right around 1.7 feet and the Tieton is fluctuating between 1850 and 1900 cfs. That’s as good as it’s been so far, so if you can head there, go for it! If you can’t, the Kayak Shed’s shop paddle is Saturday Although there’s rain in the forecast for the next few days, it does look like the heaviest rain will be confined to the coast range, with measurements in inches there and quarter inches in the Gorge. So, start sending your brains waves into the storm to get us more water so we can start running some more rivers!

Have a great day today!

Temira