Central Oregon Mountain Biking in Winter can be open and good, you just need to know when and where to go. Important in knowing when is understanding the freeze thaw cycle. It’s really really important to maintaining our trails. Central Oregon Trail Alliance is our local organization that conducts trail maintenance, implements signage, and works with other agencies to manage and designate our trail systems. In their New Year’s letter they explain why it’s so important to NOT RIDE when it’s muddy. Below is an excerpt of the letter. MORE INFO HERE.

From Central Oregon Trail Alliance (COTA)

Why do we talk about freeze/thaw conditions every year? Because of the moderate winters we have here, the soils in…

With COVID-19 ‘cabin fever,’ sno-parks around state are filling up fast and overflow is spilling out onto highway shoulder areas. People are asking if this is legal, can they get a ticket, and will they be towed. We continue to see cars outside designated sno-parks and ski areas and our friends at KTVZ produced this article for accurate information.

From KTVZ News in Bend.  READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE. 

Some snow-seekers heading to winter recreation areas on state highways are finding designated parking areas filled and are creating safety issues by parking on roadsides. ODOT warned Wednesday of the…

Today we profile one of the many local non-profits that work to make our community better every day. One of the things we really like about this organization is that they bring together groups with different interest to find common ground to restore and make the Deschutes a healthy vibrant river for everyone of Central Oregon. Consider helping in any way you can. MORE INFO HERE.  

Water in the West has always been a contentious issue, with strong advocates for agriculture, development, recreation, and many other uses. There are no real winners when those forces compete, but often there is a loser:…

A wintery weather pattern will be active over the region and bring significant snow to the Central Oregon Cascades today and tonight before another series of storms rolls in for the weekend. The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for the Cascades and snow levels will be low enough to make mountain passess and travel to and from Central Oregon hazardous.

This will make for nice ski and snowboard conditions and resorts will add to their already healthy early season base. BYB weather location pages feature all the resource links and webcams in one place for you to assess weather conditions in real time. Enjoy and be safe.

HOODOO IS OPEN AFTER TEMPORARY CLOSURE:

Power at Hoodoo has been restored as of 11am this morning after a power outage left the lifts unable to operate. At the time of the outage it was not clear how long the resort would be closed due to a break in the line from Central Electric Cooperative. Glad to hear everything is up and running and skiers and snowboarders are happily shushing down the slopes of Hoodoo.

Oregon ended the calendar year with near-normal levels of snowpack. Here’s what that can tell us and, perhaps more importantly, what it can’t.

From OPB By Bradley W. Parks

People seeking any shred of normalcy as 2020 ends can find one in Oregon’s snowpack.

Oregon is heading into the new year with close to normal levels of snowpack statewide, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“That’s a good sign,” said Scott Oviatt, the snow survey supervisory hydrologist with NRCS in Portland. “We have room for improvement, obviously.”

Snowpack is one indicator of how much water will be available in Oregon come spring. Oregon will start 2021 with nearly 70% of the state experiencing severe drought or…

Waking up this morning it looks as if Santa has delivered a White Christmas to our mountains. Our weather locations/pages have a comprehensive list of resources and webcams all easily viewable for you to assess the weather in more detail for a specific adventure. The image here shows this mornings webcams from ODOT and Mt. Bachelor and an image from Snowforecast.com, one of the many resource links available for the specific forecast for Mt. Bachelor. Looks like at least 5 inches of snow overnight and more coming during the day today.

Bookmark our weather locations, grab your coffee and get a real time look at the weather while it’s happening. Enjoy the fresh snow!

This is gonna be HUGE! The Natural Selection Tour for 2021 is taking Snowboarding to the next level. The selection of athletes has been done for a 3 stop tour including Bend’s own Ben Ferguson. Below is the last week’s announcement from Red Bull.

From Red Bull by Tom Monterosso READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE. 

This is a feature of local non-profit the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council that has been protecting and restoring the Upper Deschutes watershed for 25 years. What you may not know is they have youth education programs that are helping young people become stewards of the river. Consider donating time or money to this great organization.

Learn More of what they do HERE.

This is the last episode in a 6 part series from One Tree Planted.  Relevant to Oregon and all of the western U.S., as well as, California, this is a look into the many challenges facing the forest, population, and environment, and the solutions being employed to help avoid and recover from catastrophic wildfires.

Episode 06: Where Do We Go From Here? This episode focuses on the future of California, and the future of the fires that have been getting worse over the past few decades. We interview a range of experts who are involved in planning and managing a safer and more fire-resistant California. Foresters are looking at sustainable management, legislators are addressing environmental needs through policy-making, and climate…