Ralph and I headed through, encouraged by a great forecast. We were disappointed when cloud cover increased after passing Hood River - the day had over-developed horizontally and the only blue sky was directly above the river. On launch, we were the first to arrive and it seemed too windy and too cloudy; we got ready slowly. Maybe another day when a great forecast under-delivered?
Mike from Hood River arrived and launched, he got a couple of hundred over thanks to a thermal at the hang-launch before top-landing. I saw this, waited for a decent cycle, took it, got 75ft over in weak lift and headed for the hang-launch. I was in a decent if weak thermal almost immediately and just stayed with it. Mark joined me for a while but left at around 2,000ft. I rode it to 3,700 ft before heading West.
Near highway 97 I was low and looking up at some threatening windmills and bumbled into some weak lift. It took me a long time to sort it out, but I slowly worked up to around 5,000 ft. At this point I had a choice; stay in the Gorge, where the terrain seemed more promising, but the cooling effect of the river could inhibit the thermals. Or head towards Centerville over the flats. Either way, the clouds were breaking and blue sky and cummies were replacing stratus clouds.
I knew I needed to protect my ankle and stay near easy LZs and roads, so I headed to Centerville - an easy decision really. Sinky glides, decent thermals, maximum altitude just under 5,500ft, light winds aloft - pretty pleasant flying conditions. At one point I got fairly low before working up again. A few miles W of Centerville the terrain was becoming less friendly for XC flying; more trees, canyons and fences as the terrain descended to the Lyle / Klickitat highway. I decided to head SW over the biggest hill (Stacker Butte, I think) towards the gorge but didn't quite reach it before running out of altitude.
I lay down in the grass at the side of the road, listening to the birds singing while waiting for Ralph to retrieve me. He arrived and was really happy with his day's flying - he had got above the windmills on the ridge to the NE. So we headed back to Portland, both very happy with our day's flying.
Looked like you picked the right place! Great pictures as well, especially the one looking back at launch; even tho I don't like the look of windmills it is a good picture and the green of the hills is pretty neat. Good to hear you got so far.
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