Ahhh, the first day of Spring. The birds are comming back, the highway department is about to start work on clearing the pass, and I’ve seen the first Spring Beauties in bloom. And it snowed overnight, but only a skiff. Spring is coming and with it hopefully more frequent updates on the site. If you are interested in contributing, let us know!
Posted on March 20th, 2008 by methowoutdoors
Filed under: announcements, conditions | No Comments »
It’s snowing in the upper valley! There’s been a few inches of nice champagne powder so far. If you like playing in the fresh snow, today’s the day.
Posted on January 29th, 2008 by methowoutdoors
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Methowoutdoors.com will be undergoing an upgrade today. The site may be down periodically.
Posted on January 23rd, 2008 by Events and Announcements person
Filed under: announcements | 1 Comment »
The Methow Valley is number 1 on the Weather Channel’s “Top 10 Winter Family Getaways”. A short article on their site celebrates our rugged beauty, blue skies, and kilometers upon kilometers of cross-country ski trails. It also makes mention of our “Rocky Mountain Powder”. Whaaa? Yeah, ok, this is the Pacific Northwest, but c’mon, we ARE in eastern Washington. That means our snow is usually dry. Last time I checked, the Rockies didn’t own the patent for dry snow. Ah well, I guess when most folks think of PNW snow they think “Cascade Concrete”. We’ll just let them keep thinking that.
I’m sure some in our community are thrilled about being “discovered” again. But will that change anything? It probably will not. The Methow was discovered a long time ago (see the real estate prices lately?) and it’s still possible if not probable to have the trails all to one’s self especially during week days. Let’s hope it stays that way.
Related:
Posted on January 13th, 2008 by Season LaSalle
Filed under: Winter Activities, family outings, news | No Comments »
Here’s what “total snow accumulation of 3 inches” as predicted from the NWS looks like. No, not all of this is from today, just about 12 inches of it. This storm’s dump meant getting up on the roof to take some of the weight off as well as cancellation of any plans to leave the house for skiing.
Posted on January 4th, 2008 by aana
Filed under: conditions, photo of the day | No Comments »
Today’s family adventure took us to the Big Valley Trail between Winthrop and Mazama. This is another MVSTA-maintained trail that is free, open to dogs, skiers and snowshoers. It features a figure-8 loop; 4k for the short piece, 8k if you do the whole thing. The parking lot was full of vehicles, people and dogs; the trail however was not as crowded. This trail is packed and groomed, so while snowshoes are allowed they really are not necessary. Today we decided to go on foot. We started off to the right, on the portion of the trail that goes through the trees first. The trees afforded a nice break from the scattered snow showers we had been experincing on and off during the morning. Soon the tree canopy gave way to open grey sky. We wandered on for about 45 minutes before turning back. Snow was begining to accumulate on our little guy sitting in the pack as we didn’t attach the hood before leaving. During our walk we met many happy walkers, skiers, dogs, one snowshoer, and a groomer, and no dog poop on the trail. In fact, we even saw people taking advantage of the handy dog poop bags available at the trail. A tip of the hat to those folks!
Posted on January 3rd, 2008 by aana
Filed under: Winter Activities, family outings | No Comments »
It was a very beautiful day in Mazama today, made even better by the fact temperatures broke the 20 degree mark for the first time in days. We settled on a family snowshoe activity to get out and enjoy some fresh air and sunshine. Since the Lunachick trail, maintained by MVSTA, is nearby we decided to go there. The parking lot near the Edelweiss camping area was crowded, perhaps a testament to it’s popularity based on a few factors: 1) it’s multi-use–ski, snowshoe, walk, etc; 2) you can bring your 4-legged family member (i.e. your dog); and probably the biggest factor of all 3) it’s FREE! Although if you are looking for a machine groomed trail, you can forget this one, for snowshoes and skis are doing all the grooming here. After getting our fill of sun and snow, we turned back to the parking lot, following some distance behind a party with 2 canines. On final approach to the lot, I noticed one of the ladies looking back at us. I looked down to spy this mess: 
Ok, I know that’s gross, but that’s my point. It’s gross! I figured that woman must have been looking back to see if we had stepped in her dog’s excrement. Satisfied that we had not (or disgruntled that we hadn’t) she went on her merry way. Now I love dogs as much as the next person, and being a former dog owner I know a thing or two about doggy etiquette. Rule numero uno in my book is to always clean up after your pooch. If you don’t intend to pack it out, please pack it away from the trail! At any rate, we had a great time outdoors and hope to get out there again soon.
Posted on December 30th, 2007 by aana
Filed under: Snowshoeing, family outings | 2 Comments »
Skiers raced under clear blue skies and on fresh snow today during the Mazama Ski Rodeo. The event took place this morning in temperatures hovering in the mid-teens.
The event featured a 10k which is the first in the Nordic Cup Series. The Methow Pursuit on January 19 and 20 and the Rendezvous Mountain Tour on February 9 will complete the series.
Posted on December 29th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: cross country skiing, events | 1 Comment »
