Outside Features

I'm a backcountry babe. Not in the huck-it-off-the-cliff-poster-shot kind of way, though I do have a highly photogenic snowplow tuck perfected. I mean babe, as in newborn. This past weekend, I not only survived my very first backcountry skiing experience, but totally loved it, thanks especially to some awesome ski partners and the guys at Three Sisters Backcountry. What's not to like about a cozy yurt and a wood-fired sauna nestled at the south end of Three Creeks Lake just below the bowls of Tam McArthur Rim?
Three Sisters Backcountry is the dream made real of Gabe Chladek, Shane Fox and Jonas Tarlen. After many long Central Oregon approach slogs, they started talking about how cool it would be if there were a hut system here, like in so many other mountain ranges. “It took ten years of planning,” said Shane when we met him at the Three Creeks Sno-Park on Friday morning, “but we finally got our permits in September and built our yurts.”

We're abandoning our usual format this week for a visual recap of the massively successful Cyclocross National finals. The event was held over four days in Bend and reportedly drew around 6,000 people and set new attendance records for the event, which will return again next year to Central Oregon. Thanks to Outdoors correspondent Pam Stevenson for toughing it out and providing these pics. Good on ya, Pam.

On the surface, cyclocross (cross) racing appears to be nothing more than racing road bikes off-road, a quirky, counter-seasonal form of bike racing. On closer inspection, cross is more than that.

This past weekend was the 30th reunion of the Amity High School Class of 1980. When I received my invitation a while back, I Googled my old boyfriend who was a dark-haired Italian star of the soccer team. Now, he is a rotund, bald banker.
Not ready to face the reality of my years or reminisce about “Stairway to Heaven” and the senior prom, I decided to forego a trip back east to Bethany, Connecticut and hang in Bend. Every year, it feels like a class reunion at the Nordic center on Thanksgiving weekend. I skated around the nicely groomed trails all weekend, catching up with dozens of Bend's outdoor athletes. Ski, chat, ski, chat, ski, chat.

We all know by now that we won't be able to burn off the brandied yams this year by hiking up Mt. Bachelor. In order to reduce “safety concerns” associated with uphill traffic, Mt. Bachelor and the Deschutes National Foresthave designated all areas within the special use permit as closed to uphill traffic except for a designated corridor for access to the cone using Leeway run. No comment, but at least there are other options for counteracting the guilt from that extra slice of Aunt Mabel's pecan pie.
EXPLORE NEW TRAILS IN THE CROOKED RIVER CANYON
If you're not going skiing, you might try a new eastside hike to burn off that sweet corn pudding. The BLM has just completed three new trails in a system beyond Crooked River Ranch near Terrebonne – less than a one-hour drive from Bend.

At the far end of town
Where the Grickle-grass grows
And the wind smells slow-and-sour when it blows
And no birds ever sing, excepting old crows…
Is the street of the Lifted Lorax.

Not quite ready to settle in for a long winter, I got first tracks at Dutchman on November 8 and then headed south. Looking just like a Life Is Good t-shirt, we loaded up the van with mountain bikes, boogie boards and dogs and drove straight through the night, arriving for a glorious sunrise at Malibu.

After a full day of PowerPoint presentations in a dark, windowless conference room in the swanky Nines Hotel in downtown Portland, I desperately needed to move my muscles and see the sky. I dodged out of the wine-and-cheese reception after exchanging a few business cards, and performed a hasty wardrobe change from dress and stockings to tights and running shoes in the back of my van in the Smart Park at 4th and Yamhill.
Aaahhh, my running shoes felt so good as I ran a couple of blocks through the grey drizzle down to the Tom McCall Waterfront City Park. I ran north on the Esplanade along the river, past the homeless people beneath the Burnside Bridge, across the Willamette River on the Steel Bridge and then south down the Eastbank Esplanade to OMSI.

Entering the dead zone
After the teasing snowstorms of October and then a pleasant change of recent weather, a lot of ski and ride-aholics are getting antsy. Dreaming of making fresh tracks, the “I skied/rode the cone last month, dude,” crowd is crying out for some big storms. When and if the snow will come is always a matter of great speculation around Central Oregon. For what they're worth, here are a few predictions as to what we're in for snow and weather-wise this coming winter.