still more gorge trip

Just having resuming sailboarding for about 8 days had made huge difference in my physical shape, muscle tone and most importantly stamina. I went back into the gorge thinking of a 2-day trip but it turned into a 4-day stay. I learnt my lesson from the previous trip to bring more supplies than my anticipated duration of stay. I took very few pictures for the blog this time.

7/27/12 friday at roosevelt, wa

tatyana parked next to her distant american cousin; very few sailors here that day as sailing condition was very good in the western columbia gorge and it is also a workday for most folks

it turned out to be a mellow sailing day - i used my 3.9 sq m all day

7/28/12 saturday morning i left early for hood river, or area in anticipation of stronger wind there and i was wise. i started driving at dawn after a cup of joe (coffee)

on highway 14 approaching maryhill, wa - mount hood at a distant

I arrived at a sailing spot near White Salmon, WA, which for years served as my base camp. It is the most frequent windy spot even if most spots is not so good. The day would unfold to be a very eventful one. Still sore and tire from hours of sailing the previous day I made a full breakfast while the wind build rather slowly.  Gradually the regular sailors arrived and took up about 1/4 of parking capacity.

tragedy in the morning
I was just passing time surfing the web with my iPAD. Suddenly the sound of Harley motorcycle followed with a deep thump and I immediately knew something very bad just happened. I locked my vehicle and walk towards the 2-lane highway pavement to see what happened.

A motorcyclist was laying behind a pickup truck full of sailboarding gears. Immediately many sailboarders including myself sprung into action. Some were calling 911 emergency dispatch, and some are finding the most competent first aid person. Together with 2 other fellow boardsailers I helped to signal the approaching traffic to stop least a secondary accident occur.

In no time our friend with most emergency medical aid experience and a passing nurse are administrating emergency life resuscitating first aid. It did not look good from the start as the motorcyclist was hemorrhaging a lot of blood and she (as we later learnt of the gender) had no vital signs from the start. As I learnt later they managed to dam the huge hole in her body where the blood was gushing out. Together with a few other boardsailors we took charge of and coordinated to direct traffic coming from both directions safely around the accident scene now with only one lane for passing traffics for both directions.

Eventually police, fire fighters, and ambulance arrive in sequence and we orderly transferred the duties to the authorities. Perhaps due to the fatal injury sustained from the high speed crash the motorist was pronounced dead. Everyone's spirit was significantly dampened by the tragedy that day. There were eye witnesses who saw the accident as it occur and they kindly gave written and verbal testimonies to the police.

It was a clear sunny morning and the visibility was extremely clear. It appears that the two motorcyclists was riding side by side at highway speed and may be distracted by either the scenery or engage in conversation. They appeared not to realize until very late the pickup truck has stopped and signalling to turn left into the sailing areas parking while waiting for the opposite traffic to pass. The driver also gave hand signal in addition to the turn signal lights. Evidently the male motorcyclist must have been riding on the inside and manage to go around the stopped vehicle the last minute. For the women she must realized it too late and were not able to maneuver clear of the stopped vehicle. There was about a 40 feet of very narrow and straight tire skid mark evidently left by the skinny front tire of  the chopper. Judging from the straight and even appearance of the skid mark, I surmise that the Harley must have ABS and it didn't let the front tire to be completely locked up by likely a panic ditch all braking. Alas the undersized tire could not delivery sufficient traction to overcome the massive Harley's kinetic energy and the ABS did all it was design to do - maximum threshold braking at the edge of adhesion afforded by the skinny front tire.

I googled a typical 60-0 mph stopping distance and it is in the neighborhood of 160 ft. A modified Harley as a chopper with longer front forks and narrow front tire would be significantly worst.

A few seconds lapse of attention caused a lifelong sorrow...

sailing in the afternoon
The wind picked up in the afternoon and I used my 3.9 sq. m sail. It was a good workout for me to continue to rebuild my stamina.

beautiful cascades of mountains with progressively lighter hues

juvenile fish transport barge closeup

In a week I saw this juvenile fish transport 3 days. It must be the time of the year when it transport the juvenile salmon (and may be steelhead too) down the river's dams. If you look closely there a a few interesting things about the barge:

• On the side there is a banner that reads "Juvenile Fish Transportation". 
• Along the length of the barge there are ports where significant amount of water pouring out. These must be the outlet of circulation of the river water to keep the baby fish as happy campers on the journey.
• On the tug boat below the pilot's watch tower there is a very nice Airstream aluminum camper with a rooftop AC. The tug boat is named Umatilla - a name for a river, city, and an Indian Reservation Pacific Northwest.

zoomed in view of the tug boat

7/30/12 more sailing
Thursday was a good day. It blew quite hard in the early part of the morning. Still sore from the day before I had a slow start. I sailed a good part of the afternoon again with my 3.9 sq m. By the end of the day my supply including fresh water is running low.

on this trip I got to test out the fruit of fabricating a shallower surface for the flip-up drinks table - i like it very much

I returned home to a beautiful cool Oregon evening. To my delight I caught a gleam of the hummingbird drinking from the feeder that I put up just before the trip. I was afraid the feeder would take some time to attract the little critters as it often does. It was beginning of dusk. I went and grab the camera. These picture were taken at 6 feet with flash.

it is a juvenile anna's hummingbird judging from the slender physique and skittish feeding behavior

For the next two days I regularly check the feeder. It is now frequent by the hummingbirds. Very often the same one would return to feed as frequently as every few minutes. Between short feedings it would perch on a thin tree lime above the feeder.