By Bob Spiwak
The warm sunny days, coupled with the highway opening a few weeks ago, produced an unfamiliar amount of traffic on the highway after the winter layover. Notable were the numbers of motorcycles going by — 25 in one group. We’ve probably said this before: The noise of bikes coming from the west proclaims itself somewhere around Kelly’s restaurant over a mile away, reverberating off the bare wall of Grizzly Mountain.
Lots of cars at the store, and lots in town, which bodes well for the local economies, at least while the weekend weather holds up. Winthrop was full as we went through on two weekend occasions. This suggests added care while driving, and being on the lookout for pedestrians crossing while engaged in their own conversations, physical and electronic, and oblivious to passing cars, even at 25 miles per hour. Added to this, and more dangerous, are the parallel parkers on the gas station side of the main drag, whose drivers open their doors while exiting, sometimes into the lane of traffic.
The ducks are back in West Boesel.
And as a local note, the speed limit in the Mazama Store area on Lost River Road is 25 miles per hour. There have been some drivers who bomb through this congested section, and in some cases barely slow for the corner stop sign. Please slow down: There are children, dogs, bikes and people who can appear on the road, and likewise, vehicles that are backing out of the store’s perpendicular parking slots.
Adding to the rites of spring on the roadways were several fire calls over the past week. All were errant brush and grass fires that got out of control whether tended or a “sleeper” whereby an ash or spark from an abandoned fire comes to life. With any open fire, wet your burn pile’s perimeter, and before leaving it, soak it, stir up the goopy ashes and soak it again. It’s assumed there will be a shovel or two in the immediate vicinity. Thus endeth my sermon.
The World Famous Mazama Pancake Breakfast will be on May 23 at the community club and plans are already underway for the food fair as well as ancillary stuff. It is too early right now to go into details but for locals and out-of-towners, you might want to make a mark on your calendar for the coming month. The word, as yet unconfirmed as to details, is that the event will reprise the accompanying flea market, always a hit with a variety of stuff to be sold. We will keep you informed on this page as the time gets closer. Actually, the next endeavor will be a request for volunteers for a work party to spiff up the community club, especially the grounds: lawn mowers do not fare well among a zillion pine cones and other natural debris. Hopefully we’ll have more info on this facet next week.
We were having a conversation at the morning SLIME gathering last week on the topics of the controversial Flagg Mountain hut, along with the status of the proposed search and drilling for copper not far away in the Goat Wall vicinity. This prompted ever-witty Rick LeDuc to propose a bumper sticker, playing on the Woody Guthrie tune to read, “This land is Mine land, this land is Ore land . . .” At which point he was booed into silence.
The weekly Harts Pass report: The snow-water measure is still 98 percent of normal and the snow level has receded to 70 inches.
