Odell Lake

Frequent readers/viewers of this blog have probably noticed several key geographic features visible from the summit of Eagle Peak. One, Odell Lake, is kind of unavoidable. There's not that many lakes that are six miles long and a mile and a half wide in Oregon.

The fog rolls in on Odell Lake, January 31, 2010.

According to the Internet's most reliable of sources, Wikipedia (any students that might stumble upon this blog take note: Wikipedia is not an acceptable source for planning research, or any academic research for that matter. It is acceptable for trivia, however.), it was named for William Holman Odell by B. J. Pengra in July 1865 while they were making a preliminary survey for the Oregon Central Military Road, which would later become Oregon Route 58. The lake fills a basin carved by a glacier, and the resulting terminal moraine confines the water along the lake's southeast shore.

Well, isn't that interesting. Other notable facts... Odell lake is noted for Kokanee fishing and has the state record Mackinaw Trout (Lake Trout). Here's some additional facts, courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.Location Klamath County, Oregon

• Coordinates 43°34′22N 121°5954 /43.57278°N 121.99833°W / 43.57278; -121.99833
• Lake type natural lake without dam
• Primary inflows Trapper Creek
• Primary outflows Odell Creek
• Catchment area 37 sq mi (96 km2)
• Basin countries United States
• Max. length 6 mi (9.7 km)
• Max. width 1.5 mi (2.4 km)
• Surface area 3,582 acres (1,450 ha)
• Average depth 132 ft (40 m)
• Max. depth 282 ft (86 m)
• Water volume 473,900 acre•ft (0.5845 km3)
• Residence time 8 years
• Shore length 13.3 mi (21.4 km)

A couple of years ago we rented a pontoon boat up at Odell Lake Resort in June and tooled around the lake. It was a kick.

In case you didn't know, the resort is easily reached... unless there's four feet of snow (not a problem this winter).

Willamette Pass Ski Area from Odell Lake.

Sometimes you just gotta kick back, fish, and drink beer. This was sometimes. Sometimes is also preferable when the ice has melted, the sun is shining, and the fish are biting. We got 3 out of 4 on this day.

Captain Dylan pilots the pirate barge.

Diamond Peak from Odell Lake, June 2008. Lots of snow still from the epic 2007-08 winter.

Back to the present.

Dylan prepares for a sunny day of riding on the last Sunday in January 2010.

Q: How many pictures do we need at this spot?

A: Well, at least one more.

Diane looking good on Upper Rosary with Odell Lake in the background.

Well, that's it for today's geography lesson. Coming soon: Diamond Peak, Waldo Lake, and South Sister. Until then, ride on!

1.23.10

One, two, three, get ready, now ski!

Just another sunny day at the mountain. Dylan and Diane went up yesterday and enjoyed the fluff. It's been snowing intermittently all week and conditions are slowly improving. Nothing to complain about on a sunny Saturday.

Smiles abound.

Dylan at the base.

Diane on Lower Rosary.

Dylan was hitting all of the features today.

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V. Clearing the trees with the greatest of ease...

The trees are still a bit sketchy, but that didn't stop us. It's amazing what 6" of fresh fluff can do.

Overall, a good day. The sun turned to partly cloudy by afternoon, which will help preserve the snow. There's still hope for this season yet!

Hope

There's still hope for this season. The snow keeps dribbling down, and the conditions aren't that bad. It's just tough to measure up to the previous two epic seasons.

Funny story of the day.

Some kid takes off his board above the lift queue on the EPA. He accidentally drops it and it follows the gravity line straight into a girl that's sitting in line unstrapping her board. I saw it all from the lift; Dylan's buddy watched it all happen--and neglected to say anything to the poor girl. Kind of like not being able to turn your head from a horrible accident. The girl was a lot kinder to the kid than I would have been. I'd have been up in his grill shouting at him if it happened to me.

Dylan hops off the EPA with his crew.

Darth Marty says ""I find your lack of faith disturbing." I will make it snow!

Dylan leaps down Escalator.

Log Jam.

Looking up at the gator farm. Not much snow in there (<6"), but lots of gators.

Alligators is a ski slang term that refers to obstacles (primarily logs and branches, but also rocks) lurking just below the snow that clamp their jaws on unsuspecting riders. See post c. Dec 28th.

The snow level hovered right at 5000' all day. That meant that it snowed most of the day. Hooray!

We're making progress on the snowpack. It's coming an inch or two at a time, but we'll take whatever is on offer. The forecast this week calls for more storms and lower freezing levels. It sure is raining hard right now in town (6 pm, Sunday, Jan 17th).

Tomorrow is an official state holiday, but I probably won't go up unless it snows a bunch. We'll see.

Perseverance

Perseverance is commitment, hard work, patience, endurance. ... Perseverance is being able to bear difficulties calmly and without complaint. ... Perseverance is trying again and again.

Perseverance is also the name of a run at The Pass. It's also what we're up to this season. Despite the major setbacks of El Nino, we shall persevere. Or, at least we did today.

We got up and left the house around 11:30, with low expectations. We agreed that everyone would be happy if we didn't get rained on. We didn't. That is, get rained on.

Actually, it was surprisingly ok. How's that for an endorsement?

It was also the biggest crowd we've seen at The Pass this season. Big crowds at The Pass are relative. I've never waited in line more than five minutes, and that was probably of some incident cause by a novice. No Colorado crowds here. We like it that way. We also don't mind big crowds--they keep the resort solvent--which is ok by us.

Like they say, a day skiing is better than a day at the office...

And a day at The Pass is better than a day in Cleveland.

A kind person took a photo of my love and me.

Diane's got it going on.

Dylan shreds the log jam on Timburr.

Watch out for that tree!!!

Dylan improvises on the natural features that present themselves due to the lack of snow.

Rockin!!!

Kayla suggested we sacrifice Dylan to the snow gods (see the previous post). We didn't do that, but we'll burn some p-tex and hope for the best tomorrow. With any luck, it will snow, and we'll have a funday Sunday.

El Niño

We went up Sunday for the first time this year, since it has pretty much rained non-stop since the 1st. Dylan has been lobbying hard, but I just can't get excited about skiing in the rain. Moreover, I'm getting fussier about conditions as I get older. I guess my love of snow is becoming conditional...

Here's the problem: El Niño. The Natioanal Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) provides the following definition for El Niño:

El Niño is a disruption of the ocean-atmosphere system in the Tropical Pacific having important consequences for weather and climate around the globe. El Niño is characterized by unusually warm temperatures in the equatorial Pacific.

NOAA further describes these "important consequences" as increased rainfall across the southern tier of the US and in Peru, which has caused destructive flooding, and drought in the West Pacific, sometimes associated with devastating brush fires in Australia. Readers who want a more detailed description can visit NOAA's El Niño website.

Important consequences indeed. Like no snow in the Cascades. We're up to 87" on the season; in 2008, we had 152" by Christmas Eve. Things are a little grim right now.

January 10, 2010

February 8, 2008.

January 10, 2010. Success from the Eagle Peak Accelerator.


We're making the best of it. The good news is we've achieved break-even on the season passes. The bad news is, well, conditions are bad.

It's been a bit foggy up at The Pass.

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Dylan and Marty.

Dylan gives a two thumbs up. Hey, we're riding, aren't we?

Marty wags his tongue at the snow gods.

The WARP racers are taking over the mountain. I poach the course whey they're out to lunch.

Method Man strikes again.

Here's the long-range forecast from almanac.com.

JANUARY 2010: temperature 44° (2° above avg.); precipitation 7" (1" above avg.); Jan 1-4: Rain, then sunny, cool; Jan 5-12: Misty, seasonable; Jan 13-15: Rain, mild; Jan 16-19: Heavy rain, seasonable; Jan 20-23: Rain and t-storms, windy, mild; Jan 24-26: Sunny, cold; Jan 27-31: Rainy intervals, mild.

FEBRUARY 2010: temperature 46° (2° above avg.); precipitation 2" (3" below avg.); Feb 1-8: Periods of rain and drizzle, seasonable; Feb 9-12: Partly sunny, mild; Feb 13-15: Showers, cool; Feb 16-18: Sprinkles, mild; Feb 19-21: Heavy rain, seasonable; Feb 22-28: Sunny, warm.

Not promising. I generally don't trust forecasts, particularly ones that go beyond what you can see on a satellite image.

Some have postulated that I jinxed the season by making bold comments back in November. I knew this was an El Niño year before that, so I had tempered my expectations on the issue of snow. Plus, I'm not superstitious.

That said, I think it's time for a sacrifice to the snow gods.