A dry spell

It’s no secret: Winter in this part of the Northwest is about rain. No, it’s not a non-stop downpour, but there are more days that feature some sort of precipitation than not. But there are dry days, even sunny days interspersed in there. During the middle of winter, it’s rare to get more than two consecutive sunny days.

But now? We are in the middle of a pretty rare dry and sunny spell. A ridge of high pressure is dominating the entire West Coast, which is nice for us up here (but is basically fueling the wildfires in SoCal, sorry about that.) It’s been dry since Monday December 4, and is supposed to stay dry until at least Friday December 15th, the next time the word “rain” is even uttered in the forecast. Almost two weeks of dry! We haven’t had a ten day dry spell like this since 2009.

It’s been fairly mild, mid 40’s to 50’s F (7-10 C), but a stiff east wind makes it feel colder. I’ve been trying to get out as much as possible, but work plus limited daylight and other obligations mean it’s not easy. The most I managed is a quick ride to Mount Tabor after work on Wednesday. I got up there as the sun was setting.

I do have a three day weekend starting Sunday (now), but Bike Craft is this coming weekend, and I am nowhere near ready. It’s semi tempting to go camping, but a) Bike Craft b) long, cold nights  c) I just went “camping” last weekend  and d) I will be out of town for both Christmas and New Years, so no shortage of “going somewhere”. Still, the instinct of “camp when you can” is there.

I’ll at the very least get a good long ride in. I’m tempted to head east to the Columbia Gorge. After a few months of it being essentially closed off due to the Eagle Creek Fire, parts of the old Highway are open again, including Crown Point. It would be nice to see this area again, but that stiff east wind (even stiffer out there) is daunting. Still, I’ll do something…

And this dry spell may stick around long enough that we’ll appreciate the return of the rain!