The Gorge is my Gym

Just so you know, you can no longer mail in your gas tax ballot. You’ll have to drop it off at 6th and State or it won’t be received in time. Please vote yes and spare our very nice, mountain biking, windsurfing mayor, who really is doing his best for you, a lot of heartache.

Today is the Dirty Fingers, Jimmy T and Me trail work party. Put on some pants, a long-sleeve shirt, and grab your biking gear for a 9am meet-up at Dirty Fingers. We’ll be working on trails along the 44 Road, and cycle-friendly New York City Subs is providing lunch. If it’s too late, you still might be able to catch the gang on the 44 road. Give Dirty Fingers a call for details.

On the wind front, a light start gives way to west winds later today. This is another one of those tough-to-predict scenarios with southerly upper flow messing with the Gorge’s juju. Even so, I think we’ll see plenty of wind to get on the water this afternoon. By 2 or so, we should have 17-21 in the corridor. From there, winds build into the 24-28 range from Hood River out to Arlington. There is a very slight chance that we’ll see even stronger, maybe even much stronger winds just before sunset, but it’s pretty unlikely.

The westerlies hold on Monday as cool air sits in Portland and a thermal trough hangs out in the desert. I’m thinking 22-25 is a reasonable call for much of the day tomorrow. Tuesday looks like a repeat of Monday, with some form of useable west winds on the books.

Don’t forget that today is the fly-in at the WAAM museum in Hood River. That’s not exactly sports-related, but if you ride your bike up there and take your kids with you, it could be.

Have a great day today!

You have just three days left to vote yes for the gas tax. Why? Because driving on unplowed roads sucks. Why else? Because riding your bike on unswept streets sucks. You still aren’t convinced? Look, it’s $30 a year or so. We’re replacing timber money. If you’d rather we get that money the old way, maybe we can just reopen logging on all those beautiful trails you like to ride (the City and County can’t do that, but that’s where the money used to come from… just making a point here). So, clearcuts or $.03/gallon gas tax? Snow-covered roads or unplowed streets? Road riding through gravel, or road riding on nice, clean streets? I thought so. Vote yes.

End of rant. Beginning of forecast.

East winds continue today under sunny skies. There’s not as much gradient as yesterday morning – we were only at .08 at 6am – but it’s still enough for some light easterlies, 15-19 or so, if we’re lucky, today. You can count on the east winds holding until noon, but prepare for them to die rapidly.

Cool air starts pushing into Portland sometime this afternoon, dropping gradients. By midnight or so, gradients should be flat, I’m not suggesting you should go waterskiing at midnight or anything… I’m just saying we’ll see west gradients by early tomorrow morning.

If you’re not keen on easterlies, and you are keen on surfing, head to the coast for 8 feet at 13 seconds – that’s a west swell – with less than 15 knots of wind.

With overnight desert temps in the 50’s tonight, I don’t think we’ll see dawn patrol tomorrow. However, with the thermal trough over the desert and weak high pressure building at the coast, west gradients are going to be substantial tomorrow. I think we’ll see 24-27 in the corridor by tomorrow afternoon, with a slight chance of 30+ if everything works out perfectly.

It’s looking like the westerlies will stick around Monday, giving you a chance for crowd-free water time.

In other news, today is the CGKA end-of-summer party on the Sandbar in Hood River. There’s music and BBQ and, hey, bring a potluck item to share! It’s also the Fluidride Scotty Graham Memorial Super D, today and tomorrow, from Timberline to Skibowl. There’s a bunch of other stuff going on this weekend, but you’ll have to go to https://thegorgeismygym.com to check it out.

Have a great day today!