Springtime popped in Oregon last weekend and with it, the double down reemerged. The double down, by the way, is participating in two different outdoor activities in one day. Having just landed a job at Nau, following a brief stint of post-grad-school job searching, I have rejoined the ranks of weekend warriors. Given my new employment-driven time constraints, I have developed a renewed sense of urgency regarding weekend free time.

Faced with beautiful weather and endless Gorge activities, I set my weekend goal on back-to-back double downs. Happily, I encountered an entire town with the same idea. Saturday, I dusted off my bike (literally) for a shuttle run ride and capped the day with this season’s first kiteboarding session. To my surprise 50 other people were kiting out in the 49-degree water and many of them had been snowboarding that morning. That night, at a bar opening, I heard numerous permutations of double downs, road bike/run, mountain bike/windsurf, and on and on…. I knew it was official: The double down was back in bloom.

Sunday morning, staring down the rest of the weekend, I felt extra motivated and bagged the elusive “triple downâ€? of snowboarding/mountain bike ride/soccer game”not to be outdone by my wife who got her own triple down of trail run/road ride/soccer game. Despite being outscored and generally showed up by my wife in our soccer game, I felt great about the weekend. Thanks to fantastic weather and willing friends I packed in five fun activities. And, following three cups of tea and a couple Advil, I managed to make my way back to work Monday morning.