Outside

Ahhhh, a two-hour trail run along the Metolius, a campfire, a mug of hot chocolate, a good book and a great dog.I first came across Pam Houston's colorful stories of adventure and
travel in magazines and more recently I read the book that won her
fame, Cowboys Are My Weakness. Last week, she visited Bend as one of
the guest authors for the Nature of Words and I wrangled my way into
her writing workshop. Pam, a single 46-year-old woman, has a house in
Colorado, teaches at a university, loves dogs and takes inspiration
from the outdoors for her writing. That sentence describes Pam Houston,
but applies equally to me, so you can understand why I sensed a kindred
spirit when I met her.

Hopefully, some of her words of wisdom
rubbed off on me to your benefit as a reader of this column.
Unfortunately, "Adventure Racers are My Weakness" just doesn't seem to
have quite the right literary ring to it to match her standards. I'll
keep working on it.

FIRST TRACKS
First tracks across Dutchman FlatWhat more could you ask for on November 4th - an Obama
victory and a foot of fresh powder on Bachelor! Yippeee! The day after
the elections, my friend Lisa and I scored some of the very first
tracks of the season on Woody's and Easy Back. We skied across Dutchman
Flat into the nordic area through perfect snow and found the groomer
had just made a pass to pack down the base. I'd say it was an
auspicious start to a new season and a new era.

THREE FALL HIKES
Fall colors at Mt. JeffersonFall is hiking season in Central Oregon. Now that
November is here, the window of opportunity for many of our best hikes
is closing quickly, but if you can squeeze in one more hike before the
snow flies, here are some of my favorites.
Get there any which way you can: Jeff Park
There
are four ways to gain admission to the "Park," a gorgeous lake-studded
meadow at the base of Mt. Jefferson. Every autumn, I try to find an
Indian Summer weekend to backpack up there when the huckleberry bushes
paint the fields burgundy. My usual way in is an easy six miles up the
Whitewater Trail, off Highway 22. One time, we took a shuttle and came
back out the Pacific Coast Trail and Woodpecker Ridge Trail, which is
about the same length, but can involve a challenging crossing of the
creek running down from Russell Glacier. You can also enter the park by
taking the South Breitenbush Trail or the PCT from the North. Once
you're there, it's an idyllic place to hang out or, if you're really
gung-ho, you can attempt to climb 10,497-foot Mt. Jefferson. Whichever
way you get there, you won't want to leave.

BEATING SAD
Sunset over Maui: not very SAD.At 2am on Sunday November 2, we "fall back." I call it
the "Saddest Day of the Year." Thank goodness the Energy Policy Act of
2005 extended Daylight Savings Time one extra week, but all too soon it
will be dark when you go to work and dark when you come home, a
depressing situation for a solar-powered person like me. At least we're
not in Portland, where the incessant grayness can make one suicidal. I
lived in Portland through the icestorms of '95 and the mudslides of
'96. We went months on end without seeing the sun and I couldn't seem
to shake the gloominess. Eventually, I diagnosed myself with Seasonal
Affective Disorder (SAD) and bought an expensive, high-intensity,
full-spectrum light for my cubicle. It attracted co-workers to my desk
like moths to a flame, but it didn't really solve the problem, so I
finally told my doctor how unhappy I was. He said, "Well, I can
prescribe some anti-depressants… or you could move to Central Oregon!"
Shortly thereafter, I picked up and moved to Bend… and never looked
back.
As our well-placed promotion in last weekend's Warren
Miller ski flick, Children of Winter, touted, "In Bend, the number of
days of sunshine competes with the number of inches of snow." That's
our saving grace. Mt. Bachelor's average annual snowfall is 370 inches
at the base and Bend claims 300 sunny days per year (which I think is a
marketing stretch), so I think the edge goes to the snow, but it would
be an interesting statistic to track.
Relocating to Central Oregon is one way to defeat SAD. A few other suggestions follow.