Outside

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.

It's that time of year. Soon we'll be seeing witches, ghouls, Michael Jacksons and Farrah Fawcetts lurking all over the neighborhood. A black cat has already found its way into the crawl space under my house. It's not just crossing my path, but living under my path – which explains the cursed condition of my life right now. Plus, Mercury went retrograde and I have Uranus in my sign, opposite Saturn in Virgo. I don't know exactly what that means, but apparently it's not good.
When life feels bedeviling, the only thing to do is have fun with it. So, here are some light-hearted outdoor events to put on your race calendar.

High-elevation camping in a January snowstorm isn't most people's idea of a good time, but Chris Justema didn't get that memo.
A self-confessed ski bum who happens to oversee a successful group of brew pubs and restaurants in Central Oregon, Justema is a fixture at Mt. Bachelor, logging some 75 days on the hill last year by his own estimate. Though he jokingly confesses that it's a sliding number; it goes up or down depending on who is asking. Family or business partners? The number slips downward. Fellow tele-addicts? The number might inch up a bit.

The last couple years have been changing times for Mt. Bachelor with a shift in the management team to kick off last year and then big price changes again this off-season. This year has seen other shifts for our local mountain, so here's a rundown of the changes you'll see on the hill:

Telecommuters Rejoice
There's nothing more jealousy enducing on a powerdy January morning than being stuck at your desk and reading e-mails sent from the chairlift via your telecommuting friend's Blackberry. Now, those mobile workers can spend whole days on the slopes thanks to Bachelor's new partnership with BendBroadband that brings WiFi to its lodges. Crank out a few runs, then in turn crank out a PowerPoint presentation or a spreadsheet or whatever it is you business folks do.