Hood River - The Gorge is my Gym

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Do something nice for the Klee Family or for Dirty Fingers today. It’ll make you feel good. Promise.

If you would like to help Matt Klee’s dear, sweet, hilarious wife, please sign up to help feed her and her family and friends a meal sometime in the next month. You’ll get an email reminder the day before, so you don’t have to remember. Also, if you have been by Dirty Fingers Bike Repair in the last couple of days, you’ve seen grown men in tears. Matt was a brother to those guys. If you would like to show a local bike shop that they have the support of the community (the same way they’ve created a community for many of us), please sign up to take them lunch one day in the next couple of weeks.

Random Morning Thoughts

Dear Universe: please do something nice for me today. Thanks. Love, Temira.

Your favorite beach	Dawn Patrol	9am- 11:30a	11:30a- 3pm	3pm- dusk
Today’s Gorge Wind
Rooster’s Rocks	light	5-10	5-10	5-10
Steven’s Locks	14-17	14-17	17-21	21-24
Hatchery (minus a few for Hood River)	18-22	22-25	25-29	25-29
Doug’s, etc.	22-25	26-30	30-35	30-35
Rufus, etc.	24-28	28-32	30-35	28-32
Roosevelt, etc.	16-19	19-22	22-26	24-28

Gorge Wind

The current overall weather setup is ideal for Gorge wind. We call this the Classic Gorge Day, and really, this is turning into a Classic Gorge Week. High pressure off the coast. Marine clouds. Sun in the desert.

Gradients this morning are a whopping .15 (pdx-dls) and .08 (dls-psc), and it’s already blowing hard near Rowena. Expect the wind to rise to 28-32 from the Hatchery to Rufus by late morning. Pick your beach. It should be good. 30-35 is likely at Doug’s, Rowena, and the Maryhill stretch of the river. Expect less wind at Stevenson and Roosevelt. With the Columbia running at 356kcfs at John Day, there’s going to be a lot of current out there, but it was doable at 378kcfs last week. Be careful, and watch for fishing nets.

Tomorrow starts off with less clouds. That’ll give us 17-21 from Stevenson to Mosier early, picking up to 24-28 from the Hatchery to Doug’s in the afternoon with less wind at Stevenson and a touch less at Maryhill.

Models still insist Thursday will be less windy, possibly even easterly, but I still think the models are off base. Expect westerlies on Thursday, Friday, and quite frankly, until we transition out of this weather setup. June = 3/3 so far.

Gorge Weather

What you see is what you get for the next few days: temps in the mid 50’s early, low to mid 70’s in the afternoon, and strong west wind.

Road and Mountain Biking

Holy moly. It’s dusty in Post. Somebody make it rain. Remember that this weekend is the Enduro race in Post Canyon. You may want to ride elsewhere on Saturday and Sunday. If you want to get out of the wind to do a road ride, consider the upper valley, because this is a decent setup to keep the wind on the river and out of the upper Hood River Valley.

The Clymb: free membership. Cheap gear. Temira approves. Click to join.

River Levels

The White Salmon is at 3.5′. The Hood is at 4.2′, the Klickitat’s at 1900cfs, and the Columbia is at 356kcfs at John Day. The Dalles Dam is reading 340kcfs.

Events – email me if I’ve missed any outdoor-related events

In events, tonight is pickup rugby at the Hood River Marina at 5:30. There’s triathlon practice at Mayer park at 6:15. Coming up tomorrow night, there’s the women’s Post N’ Pinot mountain bike ride at Dirty Fingers at 5:30. There’s sailboat racing at the Hood River Marina. And there’s Karma Yoga, free or by donation, at Flow at 4pm.

This weekend is the Oregon Enduro bike race both days in Post Canyon. There’s a shuttle day fundraiser at Sandy Ridge on Saturday, benefiting the Northwest Trails Alliance. There’s a huge and extra-special bike ride in Portland on Saturday to kick off pedalpalooza. And Sunday in The Dalles it’s the Gorgeous Gals ride benefiting Haven.

If you would like to say goodbye to Matt Klee, his memorial service is at the Gorge Room at the Hood River Inn at 5pm on Saturday. Jen Klee has asked that people make donations to the Hood River Area Trail Stewards in lieu of sending flowers.

Have an awesome day today!

Temira

Please support this forecast by clicking on the photo of the forecaster and making a donation via Paypal!

Your forecaster. Click on her to donate. Thank you!

Do something nice for the Klee Family or for Dirty Fingers today. It’ll make you feel good. Promise.

Random Morning Thoughts

I have so much gratitude for Dirty Fingers bike shop right now. I grew up in a family that didn’t care, and have never had a family to call my own. For the first time in my life, I feel like I have a family, and that’s because of the community that Dirty Fingers created. Matt’s death is devastating, but this time, the grief of losing a good friend isn’t bottomless. I feel the support of the mountain bikers. Thank you, Dirty Fingers, for creating a family that took me in. I can’t tell you how much that means to me. I can just tell you that for the first time in my life, I don’t feel alone.

Your favorite beach	Dawn Patrol	9am- 11:30a	11:30a- 3pm	3pm- dusk
Today’s Gorge Wind
Rooster’s Rocks	light	5-10	5-10	5-10
Steven’s Locks	0-10	15-18	21-24	24-27
Hatchery (minus a few for Hood River)	8-11	15-18	21-24	24-27 briefly
Doug’s, etc.	8-11	13-15	20-23	24-27 briefly
Rufus, etc.	6-10	13-15	20-23	gusty 23-26
Roosevelt, etc.	5-10	13-15	20-23	24-27

Gorge Wind

So far we’re looking at 2/2 for windy days in June. It may not be windy this morning, but it’s going to be windy this afternoon as a weak disturbance (no, not me – I’m a strong disturbance) moves in. Disturbances tend to make for gusty wind, so don’t expect yesterday today. I went windsurfing yesterday, and I left because I was tired. Not because the wind died. Hooray. That’s how I determine if it’s a good day.

Anyway, expect a repeat of yesterday tomorrow. But think of yesterday in a manic state. Or on crack. However you like to think of it.

Today you can expect the wind to slowly rise during the day, hitting 15-18 near Hood River by 11am, and hitting gusty 24-27 by 2pm-ish from Stevenson to Hood River. I suspect the “good” wind will be shortlived around Hood River, but it will fill in all the way between Stevenson and Arlington late in the afternoon or early in the evening. Stevenson will be windiest longest today.

Tomorrow looks (insert f-bomb) windy. Stable air mass. Big marine push. High pressure off the coast. Sun in the desert. You couldn’t ask for a better setup. I declared a WIND EMERGENCY and cleared my schedule. It’s really just a matter of where the clouds end up, and I’m guessing the answer to that question is “just past Hood River”. But we’ll see. 30+ on Tuesday east of the clouds with periods of 30-35 early in the afternoon, with the wind filling in all the way out to Arlington in the afternoon. Every beach should be windy. Woot woot! Don’t forget your smallest gear.

Wednesday starts off with 23-26 and picks up to 28-32. Maybe +, with the clouds a little less dense, meaning Hood River looks like a likely windy place to be. Right now Thursday looks lighter with easterlies possible, but I’d place a bet on that forecast changing.

Gorge Weather

Today will be sunny, with a chance of afternoon thunderstorms, meaning Parkdale will be a pretty place this afternoon, as will White Salmon, where you have a great view of the building clouds over Mt. Hood. Expect temps in the mid 50’s early and upper 70’s in the afternoon with increasing west wind during the day.

Hood River may end up partly cloudy Tuesday morning. Temps will be in the low 50’s early and low 70’s in the afternoon with nuking west wind. Wednesday starts will a little less wind but becomes a “why is it so damn windy here?” kind of day by afternoon, with temps in the upper 40’s early and low 70’s in the afternoon.

Road and Mountain Biking

The White Salmon is at 3.5′. The Hood is at 4.2′, the Klickitat’s at 1860cfs, and the Columbia is at 362kcfs at John Day. The Dalles Dam is reading 351kcfs.

The Clymb: free membership. Cheap gear. Temira approves. Click to join.

River Levels

The White Salmon is at 3.75′. The Hood is at 4.2′, the Klickitat’s at 1830cfs, and the Columbia is at 315kcfs at John Day. The Dalles Dam is reading 320kcfs.

Events – email me if I’ve missed any outdoor-related events

Tonight’s Monday, and that means there’s pickup Ultimate Frisbee at May Street Elementary at 6pm. That’s free and open to everyone, including beginners. Also tonight, happening in Portland, it’s the first night of the PIR mountain biking short track race series. Coming up tomorrow night, there’s pickup rugby at the Hood River Marina at 5:30pm and triathlon practice at Mayer Park in Rowena at 6:15.

Coming up next weekend, it’s national trails day on Saturday. And then it’s all bikes, all the time: there’s a shuttle day benefiting the Sandy Ridge trail system. There’s the Portland Naked Bike Ride. It’s the Oregron Enduro series in Post Canyon both days Next Sunday is the Gorgeous Gals road ride, benefiting Haven of the The Dalles.

Looking ahead a little further, the Backyard ½ Marathon takes place in White Salmon on June 14th. This is a fundraiser for the White Salmon XC team, so you want to do this race.

Have an awesome day today!

Temira