The Sea Bird ran upriver today with a roaring west tail wind at her stern. A tug pushing double barges westward on the Columbia River met the white-capped waves head on. Whipped by the famous winds that funnel through the Columbia River Gorge, the waves broke in clouds of white spume that flew over the barges. The tugboat's barges were loaded with wood chips and dry goods containers. The wood chips were destined for paper mills. Fine netting covered the chips. In this morning's wind, without the net, the wood chip barge would surely have been empty by the time it reached its destination.
These same winds were noted in the journals by the Corps of Discovery. "The wind continued violently hard all day, and threw our canoes with such force against the shore that one of them split before we could get it out."
These winds are also a claim to fame for the community of Hood River, the wind-surfing capital of the Western world. As we continued our eastward journey, the winds died and left us to continue on an unruffled surface. The switch from wild to calm river was dramatic.
