events - The Gorge is my Gym

Good morning,

It’s time for the summer sponsorships and the weekly (kinda weekly) giveaways on the email forecast. Your sponsor this week: Why choose Dirty Fingers Bike Repair and bar? Let’s start off with the convenient location on 13th and State with lots of FREE parking. That’s right: no meters. Talented bike mechanics. Great brands: Kona, Transition, Ellsworth, Moots, Cervelo.Bikes, schmikes. Dirty Fingers has beer. Yes, it’s the only combo beer-and-bike bar in the world(?), with the cheapest pints in Hood River. Dirty Fingers.Years and years in the Gorge. Grand opening party Saturday night with food, music, beer and a watt bike competition. We’re giving away a free Full Monte bike tune. Support the report with a paypal donation of $10 or more, then follow the directions in the report if you’d like a chance to win!

Spring is coming back for a couple of days with showers and cooler temperatures. Along with the spring weather, we’ll have a return to west wind this afternoon. 5-10 this morning builds to 15-18 in the Central Gorge this afternoon with gusty 23-26 east of The Dalles. Tomorrow starts off with west wind at 10-15 early, picking up to 23-26 east of The Dalles in the afternoon. The wind looks a bit stronger on Wednesday, as high pressure starts to rebuild over the Pacific.

I’ve had a few people ask what time it’s going to rain. Well, there’s a chance all day, but the wettest will likely be from 2pm to midnight, with showers continuing through tomorrow and then again through Wednesday morning, when the weather becomes less wet. After midnight tonight, the snow level and freezing level drop to 4000′ or so, holding at that level or a bit less, at times thousands of feet less, through Wednesday. Break out the puffy coat, because it’s going to be a hot fashion item the next couple of nights.

If you’re out doing any boating of any sort through Friday, remember it’s National Safe Boating Week, and today is thunderstorm awareness day. There are no thunderstorms in the forecast, which isn’t stopping a whole s**tton of thunderstorms from crossing the Coast Range right now. You wouldn’t want to be boating there at this time. Tomorrow comes a reminder to not drink and boat. Of course, none of you would do that. Speaking of boating, the White Salmon’s at 4.6ft, the Klickitat’s at 3300 cfs and the Columbia’s 408,000cfs.

In events this week The Hood River Triathlon Club meets tomorrow at the east end of the Event Site at 6pm for a mini triathlon workout. Then on Wednesday, there’s the Kayak Shed’s whitewater shop paddle, the Dirty Fingers Post and Pinot women’s bike ride, and sailboat races out of the Hood River Marina.

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 link below. For a suggested donation of $10, I’ll add you to the email version of this list for a year, putting you in the running for cool prizes donated by the weekly sponsors during the summer season (and the winter if I get off my bum and get some!). If you don’t PayPal, you can send a donation to PO Box 841 in Hood River, 97031.

Good morning,

It’s time for the summer sponsorships and the weekly (kinda weekly) giveaways on the email forecast. Your sponsor this week: Why choose Dirty Fingers Bike Repair and bar? Let’s start off with the convenient location on 13th and State with lots of FREE parking. That’s right: no meters. Talented bike mechanics. Great brands: Kona, Transition, Ellsworth, Moots, Cervelo.Bikes, schmikes. Dirty Fingers has beer. Yes, it’s the only combo beer-and-bike bar in the world(?). Pints are $4, or $3 if you’re at Happy Hour from 5pm-6pm. Dirty Fingers.Years and years in the Gorge. Now officially open. We’re giving away a free Full Monte bike tune. Support the report with a paypal donation of $10 or more, then follow the directions in the report if you’d like a chance to win!

I know you guys all know about the annular solar eclipse this evening, right before sunset. That’s the most interesting thing in the forecast, but, sadly, cloud cover is going to interfere with you having the opportunity to fry your retina by starting at the obscured solar disk this evening. Maybe if you head way east? In the wind forecast, not much today. Tomorrow we’ll see west wind at 10-15 with rain and then on Tuesday, we’ll have westerlies at 21-23. It looks like the gusty, rainy weather is going to continue for the first half of the week, at least.

Just a heads up for you skiers and travelers: the snow level’s going to drop to 4500′ or so on Monday night through Tuesday, so the passes and ski resorts will see new snow.

In events today, the big one is the multi-sport swap meet happening at Windance this morning from 8am to noon or so. Not only is it a good place to pick up some good deals on gear, it’s also a great place for socializing and seeing all those people you haven’t seen in a long time. While you’re there, make sure you join your CGWA or CGKA, working to protect your beaches and your access to windy places.

On a side note, this is NOAA’s national safe boating week, and today is life jacket awareness day. I totally missed yesterday, which was hypothermia. So, don’t forget to dress warmly and wear a flotation device, and then tomorrow, we’ll celebrate Thunderstorm Safety! Sadly, we won’t have any thunderstorms to use for demonstration. I think the official line is something like, “Don’t fly a kite with metal lines in a lightning storm.”

Finally, one last thing: tomorrow is Victoria Day, the informal beginning to the Canadian summer and the birthday of Queen Victoria, a real queen, not a drag queen. Canadians aren’t quite that progressive, although they do have a drinking age of 19 and semi-legal marijuana, along with great skiing and a propensity to say “eh”. The last two are just facts, not political leanings.

Anyway, before I get myself in trouble, I’m going to stop.

Have an awesome day today!

Temira