The Gorge is my Gym

Good morning!

First off, Larry Spellman of the Hood River Weather website has asked me to ask you to vote in his poll on the upcoming library district vote. The poll is a little ways down the page, to the right of the rainfall statistics. If you haven’t visited Larry’s website, you’re missing out. It’s here:

http://webpages.charter.net/hoodriverweather/weather.htm

If you’re headed up to Mt. Hood today, you’re headed for a gorgeous day on the slopes. It was right around freezing last night, so the snow should be starting to corn up today for some fun spring skiing in the sunshine. Honestly, I’d wait until tomorrow if you want to ski, because it’s probably still a bit sticky today after the new snow yesterday. If you want it, get it early, because it’s going to be warm and sunny up there today, and it’s going to turn to slop!

On the river, your best chance for wind is this morning before high pressure fills in. The early gradient was at .12, so we’ll se 20-24 early at Stevenson and in the Corridor, fading to 16-19 by midday and 10ish this evening for the sailboat races. High pressure fills across the northwest tomorrow and Friday for very light wind both days.

The nice thing about the high pressure system is that we’re going to see our first taste of summer starting tomorrow, which means you’re actually going to have to water your garden for the first time this year! Temperatures climb into the upper seventies on Thursday, right around 80 on Friday and should climb into the low eighties on the weekend.

That bodes well for biking both on the road and on the trails. Post Canyon was near-perfect yesterday, which means that Syncline’s good, Hospital’s good, Nestor’s good, and Surveyor’s from Shell Rock down will be good as well. Upper surveyor’s, especially the section along the 44 road, is still buried in 2 to 3 feet of snow, so wait a bit before trying to ride that trail or you’ll end up like Jackie and Jim: wet, muddy, cold and unhappy (they’re not like that most of the time… just after hike-a-bike through snowbanks).

If you’re a boater, the Hood’s at 4 ft, the White Salmon’s at 3.6ft, the Wind River’s at 595cfs, and the Little White’s at 610cfs. I wanna be a boater to. This is the summer to learn!

That’s it for today. Have a frickin’ awesome day today. Yay sunshine!

Good morning everyone!

Your ski report today is that Timberline’s open with 3” of new snow. There should be good fresh tracks this morning, but warm temps later today will make the snow thick and gooey and gloppy and bumpy and wet and just not so great later, so get it early.

The best call today is windsurfing or kiting if you’re into those wind-johnny sports. The morning gradient was huge (okay, really big, anyway): .17 from Portland to The Dalles, and the clouds were breaking up in Hood River. That’ll give us 28-32 at Mosier, Doug’s, and Lyle this morning, with a 50/50 chance of the wind filling in to the wall. Give the Corridor until 9:34am or so to steady out, and it will fill in too for a big day at the hatchery, which is wear I’m headed. If you’re joining me, one lane is open on SR 14 today, according to the WSDOT website (how do you say “WSDOT”?).

Westerlies in the 17-20 range early tomorrow morning fade to very light west winds as high pressure builds across the Cascades, brining sunshine to the east and west and the Cascades and everywhere in between. Thursday looks light as well.

With no rain in the forecast, this is a week to mountain bike. Post Canyon is currently the Superbowl of tackiness – that report comes from Dirty Fingers bike Repair, Hood River’s hub of bike repair productivity. Actually, there are a few muddy spots to avoid, but Clint and Maddie reported great conditions last night!

On the rivers, the Hood’s at 4 ft, the White Salmon’s at 3.6ft, the Wind River’s at 607cfs, and the Little White’s at 616cfs.

If you would like to be fed a free buffet dinner and learn about home energy savings, or if you’d like to learn about home energy savings and be fed this evening, come to the NW Natural and Energy Trust Workshop at the HR Library tonight (another reason to vote for the library district). You’ll need to preregister: Email Tonya Brumley, tlb@nwnatural.com or call 541-296-2229 ext 8610, 1-800-422-4012 ext 8610 or register online at energytrust.org under events and education. Thanks to Ron Martin, the free food maestro, for that information. I am sure the food will be good, but the home energy savings will allow you to purchase your own food in the future!

Have a great day today. I’ll see you at the Hatch!

Temira