Breakeven

March 11, 2012
Breakeven day.

We've now put enough cumulative days on the family pass to breakeven on the $1,200 investment. March 11. Last year we broke even on New Year's Day. By the end of the season we had 82 total days and our effective daily pass cost was $12.82. I don't think we're going to get anywhere near that this year. Heck, I'm just happy to break even.

With the season not starting until January 7, Diane's broken ribs, and highly variable weather, it's been a long, strange winter. In the past week it's gone from nearly 60 degrees at the mountain, to snowing, and back again. Twice.

The good news was it snowed last night. The bad news was, it was not enough to cover the deadly ice chunks left over from yesterday's heat wave in the mid-40s. Particularly on the front side where the iced-over moguls were cool blue on top. The better news was that the backside did not suffer the worst of the heat. In fact it was pretty ok back there. Ok, better than ok.

Snow levels are rising to more typical levels for this time of year.

Dylan conquers the Whale's Tail.

Conditions on Cherokee Ridge were about as good as it was anywhere today. Dylan suggested that we do a little exploring by hiking up the ridge a ways. Since Cherokee is only about a 500' vertical drop, I was game.

Dylan snowboards the Pacific Crest trail...which primarily targets Nordic skiers.

Cherokee Ridge is not only an awesome tree ski run, but the crossroads of several notable hiking/ski trails. The Pacific Crest trail takes off just above where we typically ski moving past Rosary Lakes just east of the ski area and skirting north along the flanks of Maiden peak. The Skyline trail also links in here--it's a mountain bike trail that you can ride from the top of Eagle Peak down the backside and along the access roads back to the parking lot. Then there's the Gold Lake loop, access to Charnelton Lake and ultimately Waldo Lake off in the distance. All in all a pretty extensive trail network through the high Cascades.

I came up to The Pass last August to meet with the Board of Ski Oregon to discuss conducting an economic impact analysis for the association like the ones we did back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. One of those studies back then ended up being my master's project for my degree in Urban and Regional Planning. More on that later after we finish up the next study, but for now, back to the present story.

Looking at Diamond Peak and Odell Lake from the top of Eagle Peak, August 18, 2011. Note the extensive snowfields left on Diamond from the awesome 2011 season.

After a nice lunch at the top of Eagle Peak I pitched the project and then left. It was a beautiful August day and I had savvily thrown my mountain bike in the back of the van. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, but knew there is an extensive trail network between The Pass and Waldo Lake. So, I drove a few miles down the road and turned up the Waldo Lake access road. I drove through the south campground (Shadow Cove) where the annual Oregon Trappers Association convention was going on. No better place to have than in the woods where you can do a little trappin'.

And never forget that furbearers are Oregon's abundant renewable resource.

Anyway, I was a little put-off by the notion that I my stick my foot in a jaw trap over by Waldo, so I went a little ways back down the road and stopped at the trailhead for The Twins. That looked interesting, so I put on my padded riding shorts and my riding shoes with my pedal clips and headed up the trail. I got a couple miles in without seeing anyone and then a biker passed me going back down the trail and made a vague warning about snow.

I was thinking, snow? Naw, can't be. It's August 18th and 80 degrees out. At any rate I got another mile and a half in and there it was. Snow. Huge banks of it stored in drifts from the previous winter. Unfortunately, I left the camera in the car, so I don't have any photographic evidence.

Eventually, I came to a fork in the trail and had to decide which way to go. That was quickly decided for me as the fork that went to the east ran into snow drifts much further than I was willing to try to ride across. I want back and took the fork to the north which quickly became too steep to ride. I figured I was close to the destination, so I stowed my bike behind a log (not that there was anyone around for miles) and proceeded on foot. About a quarter mile later, the woods opened up to a steep climb up a cinder cone. At the top I found out what The Twins were about. Basically, The Twins are a large cinder cone with the top blown off which created two summits. The view was spectacular--360 degrees since it is the highest point in that region.

On the way up and back I kept seeing flags marking the route of the "Where's Waldo" 100k ultramarathon. I've run a few marathons, but never had the desire to run 60 miles. Twenty-six was enough thank you. Much less up and down mountains. The link above shows the map--which meanders all over creation.

Back to the present and into the woods.

We made extensive use of the GoPro today.

Dylan rides the backcountry off of Cherokee Ridge.

Dylan had the wild idea of going off trail and hiking up to the top of the ridge. It looked good enough that I tagged along. It was tough going--every time I stepped outside of one of Dylan's tracks I postholed up to my hip. I was a little cold going into this excursion, but sweating by the end.

Payday!

Here's the view from on top of Dylan's head...

We saw the elk again on the way home. Today they were about five miles downstream from Oakridge feeding in a grassy meadow on the far side of the river. Out of more than 100 trips up to The Pass, I've seen elk three times.

The first time was several years ago when I saw a single cow standing in the middle of Salt Creek a mile or so from the railroad bridge. That was an amazing sight. The second time was last weekend when we saw five cows walking down the Salmon Creek path in the town of Oakridge. I've never seen elk so close to a human settlement.

They don't show themselves often, but it's neat when they do.