The Gorge is my Gym

Good morning!

The sponsor of the report this week is Cascade Acupuncture. If you have a nagging sports injury, or a freshy that’s keeping you from playing hard, consider trying acupuncture. It’s a safe, ancient healing art that’s helped millions of people recover from pesky injuries. Cascade Acupuncture has two locations: The Dalles and Hood River. Give them a call at 387-heal to schedule. They’ve donated a generous package of an initial visit plus two followups, that a couple of lucky email report subscribers will win over the next couple of weeks. To get on that email list, click on the “donate” button below for a suggested donation of $10. Now, on to the forecast!

If you’re a windsurfer or kiter, today’s going to be another good day on the water. The 5am gradient from Portland to The Dalles was at .07 and there was another .05 out east. With the clouds past Hood River, strongest wind today will be at Maryhill, Arlington and Threemile. We’ll see a steady build into the 25-29 range out east today, with best wind mid-afternoon. If you’re looking for lighter wind, stay under the clouds for 15-18. It should be perfect for the Hood River Yacht club sailboat races this evening!

The pesky wind continues tomorrow, with 17-20 east of Hood River in the morning, building to 23-26 by afternoon. Friday looks a bit lighter.

If you’re headed to Pistol River for the contest that starts tomorrow, it looks like you’ll have 20 to 25 knots and 4 to 7 foot swell for the duration of the event. If you’re staying here, you’re going to have a lot of space on the river the next few days!

Coming up this weekend is the Bridge of the Gods kiteboarding festival in Stevenson. It’s looking like we’ll have westerlies of some sort for the event, so it should be pretty cool to come and watch! Also this weekend, on Saturday, is the free White Salmon ½ marathon. It’s an event-that-does-not-exist, so if you’re interested in participating, contact me and I’ll give you the details!

So, the last couple of days I took my first whitewater kayaking lessons at Wet Planet with Andy and Susan, and it was awesome, so I actually feel like I have the right to say these levels now: Boaters, the Hood’s at 4.3 feet and the Klickitat’s at 2420 cfs.

If you need some boating pals, check out the Kayak Shed’s shop paddle. Meet at the shop at 4:30 this afternoon. And seriously, if you do want to try boating, Wet Planet has a great 2-day beginner kayaking course that will have you paddling Class I/II rivers, eddying out, wet exiting, and generally having a lot of fun splashing about in the water. I can’t wait for the next lesson!!!

Have an awesome day today!

Temira

Good morning!

Hopefully all you windsurfers and kiters spent some time on the water yesterday. If not, don’t be sad, because the wind isn’t stopping any time soon. The 5am gradient was at .10, from Portland to The Dalles, the 5am sunrise was beautiful, and the marine cloud line is west of Hood River this morning. Strongest, steadiest wind will be at the Hatch, Sandbar and Mosier this morning, and at Doug’s and Rowena this afternoon. 21-24 is the call this morning, with 23-26 the call this afternoon.

Tomorrow starts off with a chance of showers in the central Gorge as a low pressure system heads for the desert. Chase the low pressure eastward for strong wind from Doug’s to Arlington tomorrow. I think 26-30 by mid-afternoon is a safe call. Note, that’s the safe call… It might be 29-33.

Thursday looks like a repeat of Wednesday, and at this point, it’s starting to look windy all the way through the weekend! Yippee! (My brain is excited. My body is protesting. So is my lack of sleep.)

If you love sailing at the Hatchery, remember that a lot of the Hatch sailors will be at the contest this week, so it’s going to be uncrowded sailing. Also, both lanes of Highway 14 are open at White Salmon all week. There are some closures at Dog Mountain, so check the WSDOT website for more information.

If you’re headed down to Pistol River for the contest, it’s looking like there will be plenty of wind on the south coast starting Thursday. It’s not looking like a super-nuker for the event, but 25-35 knots is the current forecast.

In other news, someone told me yesterday that the mud has dried up on Lewis River and Falls Creek, so head to those rides for some great deep-forest mountain biking out of the wind. I also have reports that Knebal and 8-mile are in awesome shape. Ape Canyon is still not open, and with snow levels dropping to 4000 feet today and tomorrow, it’s not going to melt out any time soon. C’mon Mother Nature!

If you’re looking for after work fun tonight, there’s the Tuesday Night Triathlon at the Event site at 6pm. I’m not sure if that’s considered fun, but it’s a good group of people and the beer drinking afterwards is sure to be fun (if you like beer)… That’s a 500 yard swim, 8 mile bike and 2 mile run. Also tonight is the Big Winds’ ladies’ standup paddle club, with free demos and lessons, but that’s weather permitting, and I’m guessing it’s unlikely given the wind forecast.

And out on the rivers, the White Salmon’s at 3.75 feet and the Klickitat’s at 2610 cfs. I’m off to the Klickitat today to paddle around. Wish me luck. =)

If you’d like to receive this forecast as an email, click on the donate button at the bottom of the page for a suggested donation of $10. If you’re on that email list, you’ll have a chance to wind lots of cool prizes (it’s free acupuncture this week and next, and that’s a rad prize for a beat-up Gorge athlete!)

That’s it for today. Whatever you do today, have an awesome day!

Temira