There are few things in nature that I dislike more than wind. I think everything I’ve ever written on this site about hiking/camping in the wind has been a complaint. Nothing ruins a good game of Frisbee or a walk back up the beach with a surfboard like a gale-force gust. Running or biking into a headwind for any length of time and I quickly trend toward apoplectic.

So strangely enough when an opportunity came up at work to do a side project involving field surveying on a wind farm in Goldendale, WA, I volunteered. Well not exactly volunteered, I guess. I am looking forward to a bump in the upcoming paycheck after putting in 62 hours on the clock this week. I spent all day Monday and Tuesday walking back and forth in steady 30-40 mph winds (atypical bluster even for a wind farm) looking for dead birds or bats. Glamorous, I know. A nice change of pace from the office, even if I was freezing the entire time.

I’m standing in the calmest spot I could find in the picture above and you can still see me poofed out like I’m rocking hammer pants. The towers we surveyed were located above the north canyon wall of the Columbia River Gorge. Gorgeous views when the sky was clear of Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood, and the Columbia River. I’m not sure what was up with the cattle, but we were told to keep an eye on them because they liked to rub up against parked cars. It was so windy I had to strap my helmet to my chin to keep it from blowing away and even with the strap it caught a little air from time to time before snapping back. There were times when I had to lean into the wind like a cartoon character to keep from being blown off my feet.