2015 Hood River-Day 6

Day 6 showed great promise. We had white caps on the Columbia at Hood. We made a group vote to head to Klickitat. After a late start, we arrived at the Klickitat-Appleton Road overlook. Unlike the Columbia Gorge, there was virtually no wind. Only Andrew and DJ flew. They had to rely on thermals boiling out of the valley. Because of the conditions we decided to check out a new flying site on the Deschutes river. We had difficulty finding the actual Deschutes site, called Gordon Ridge. We found what we thought was the site, overlooking the Deschutes. Unfortunately the wind was coming from behind us and made it un-flyable. At this point the soaring gods were not smiling on us. Another group decision was made. The troupe headed West, back toward the The Dalles. A road that rose out of the boat landing on the West side of the Deschutes looked promising. We followed it until an accessible spot was found, directly over the Wishram railroad bridge. With the light air, flying was tough and mainly thermal based. DJ and Ben tried their hand at it, only DJ stayed up for any length of time. Another group decision and we decided to follow the dirt road along the ridge back to The Dalles. We made a beeline to The Dalles slope and actually found lift. The lift gradually increased and was looking great when we called “uncle” and headed for The Clock Ales house in The Dalles for dinner and a beer.
We capped the day with a stop at Mike’s Ice Cream in Hood and then made plans with Winch Doc to head for SDR on Friday morning.
Mike W