by The CGWA had a meeting in Portland on 7/12/94 to update us on some of the
things going on in the Gorge. Here are some highlights.
Site Access Update
Viento:
The CGWA had a meeting with the PUC, Railroad and the State Parks. They
came to the agreement that the Viento situation will not go away. The PUC
and the Railroad agreed to allow access on a trial basis for the weekend of
July 4. The rules were that each person had to sign in before crossing the
tracks. They will allow the site to open up again on a perminent basis when
the $140,000 for a new crossing has been committed. So far they are a little
short and the CGWA may get asked to raise 5% which would come to seven or
eight thousand dollars.
Within the last day or two a PUC person was in the park and found to boys
playing on the tracks. This was bad news for all windsurfers because they
closed Viento down again. The PUC would like to see someone man the gate
at all times to make sure this type of thing does not happen. The CGWA
and the State Parks are working on another solution but for now Viento is
closed. Please respect the signs and do not tear down the fence.
I have heard some people say they do not care about Viento. There were
200 people who signed cards during the 5 days it was open. If those 200
people could not have sailed there, they might have come to the spot you
chose. Add 40 more people per day to your site and it probably would make
a difference.
The Hatchery:
The weekend of July 4 was bad news at The Hatchery. It seems that people
did not follow the no parking signs. The Hatchery personal got real upset
and called the CGWA about the problem. It seems that people do not
understand that this site is not a State Park. The land is owned by the
Fish Hatchery and they just let us use the property. If we do not obey
the rules we will loose the site. The CGWA agreeded to pay for some more
signs which discuss the rules and they will be put up this week. Once again
the CGWA was there at the right time to save our site.
Rowena:
The State Parks has spent $1000 to put more round river rock on the beach.
This was started by the CGWA paying for the first few loads. The State
Parks admitted that they had been shamed into this project because the
people liked it so well.
Now for a few things not related to site access:
The Gorge Women had a meeting on Thursday evening and 70 attended. This was
held at Windance and was setup as a potluck. They plan to do this every
week at a different location. If you plan to be in the Gorge on a Thursday
you can get their schedule at one of the shops. The membership person for
CGWA said that 70 people was more than the CGWA could get to show up at
their biggest races.
It seems that some of the sailors in the Gorge have been using a hand signal
to indicate that a barge is comming. The signal is to twirl one hand above
your head. This can be done while sailing and can be seen at a longer distance
than you can shout into the wind. The leaders of the CGWA felt that this
was a good idea. With a little publicity this might catch on and become
a standard signal between sailors.
Now for the pitch. If you sail the Gorge and do not belong to the CGWA you
should. It is only $15 per year and they are going lots towards keeping
our sites open. You can sign up in any shop or contact Peg Lalor by email
The system crashed 4 times while putting this post together so if there are
are problems, it might be that I am a little upset with computers at the moment.