It's a secret, so don't tell anyone.

The Gorge. I'm in White Salmon Washington, 1 hour from Portland, 45 min from skiing Mt Hood, 30 min from x-country skiing at Mt. Adams. World class kayaking, windsurfing, mtbiking....

The Columbia is large enough for water sports and generally warm. April to October you're warm to hot and generally dry. Nov to May you have varying degrees of cloudiness and rain. Much less rain than Seattle or Portland tho. If you want dryer you just head east by 15 min to half hour and you get a much larger percentage of dry and sunny days.

Here's some climate data:

http://www.wunderground.com/NORMS/Di...=none&IATA=DLS

You can come visit for a weekend sometime if you like. I'm only about 5 hours away.