Since there were no CONC hikes last week and Eric is taking a few weeks away, I thought this would be a good opportunity to write to you and give a little update of the club’s activities and directions.
First, I would like to say I hope all of you have had a great summer. We have had hotter and smokier ones here in Bend so this year seemed pretty good. I know we are not out of the woods yet and that heat and fire can still rear their ugly heads but it looks like we are cruising into the Fall season.
With the changing of the season I would like to re-cap some of our activities and successes of this summer and look forward to fall and of course ski season.
Last spring a Day Outings/Hiking committee was formed to help coordinate our summer trekking activities. We had quite a few CONC sponsored adventures planned with many club members enjoying the company of others as well as the time spent in the open air. Groups have visited, among other places, Otter Bench, the Metolius River, Tam McArthur, Black Crater, and on and on. Many thanks to those group leaders who organized hikes and got folks out and back. I hope many of our members were able to join these groups.
On the trails maintenance front, we scouted, marked, moved, signed… trails for much of the spring and early summer. With the heat and the dryness of high summer many of these activities were suspended. Some trails, both shoe and ski, at Edison were re-routed as well as some of them at Dutchman and Swampy. You may find some old familiar trails look a little different the next time you are on them. And to keep the crews from getting into a rut, we pulled a bridge out of the Dutchman area.
The club was awarded a Deschutes Trails Coalition (DTC) grant to the tune of $7,500 for new markers, signs, posts, hardware, etc for new and re-routed trails. However, lets leave this and look forward to the coming seasons.
Volunteers! We always need people to step up and help with projects, organization of the club, trails, and Ad Hoc as well as on-going committees. For example, in October we supply winter warming and safety huts with fire wood in the Edison, Dutchman and Swampy areas. I like to call this project “Woodstock”. We can always use extra hands to carry and stack fire wood. We always need folks to volunteer and train as day outing leaders. Trail work in the fall is a fun and rewarding way to spend time in the woods. If you have any interest in volunteering to help your fellow club members in one of these capacities get in touch through the web site or by responding to me through this e-mail.
Have a great fall hiking season. As soon as it cools down and the smoke dissipates we can get back onto the trails for work and enjoyment of our Central Oregon.
Jerry Sebestyen
