By Bob Spiwak
Well, we got a big surprise this morning. Leave it to the government. For years we have used a simple form supplied by the Harts Pass snow station (“snotel”), which on one page gave all the statistics and measurements for the snow and water activity up there at 6,500 feet — information that affects our weather down here in the valley. It has all been changed: Now it is a multi-paged NOAA extravaganza with single pages for what appear to be all the snow stations in the Pacific Northwest. It includes colored graphs, which require scrolling down the page, making it harder to determine what these lines and numbers represent. We will muddle through, we hope, and keep the numbers correct.
If it seems like there is something different in the neighborhood of the Mazama Community Club, it is a new coat of red paint adorning the edifice. Not a color departure of any significance, but the old schoolhouse certainly looks sprightly. The timing is right for the World Famous Mazama Pancake Breakfast coming up on May 23.
It is early for info about the event, but any news in this quiet community deserves mention. Mazama can hardly be considered a “happening place,” and for that I’d venture the majority of its inhabitants are happy.
Looking to the future and honoring the past, on May 17 there will be a 50th anniversary celebration at Bear Creek Golf Course. It is an open house party, according to a release from new course owners Debbie and Terry Evans. A new facility called The Eagle’s Nest at the clubhouse is where the party will be centered, offering free food and raffles and a chance to have a look at features and activities at the course that are new, all in some way related to golf or variations of the game. We’ll go into more detail about the venerable course next week or the one following.
For you dedicated weather watchers, the news from Harts Pass is more and more indicative of a dry summer as the snow/water equivalent up on top continues to decrease. The snow depth is at 66 inches, a drop of 4 inches from last week, even with the several snowfalls that came during the past week. The water equivalent is at 90 percent, certain to diminish as the days get warmer.
The camping area at Edelweiss is taking on its annual appearance of a motor home dealership as over the past two weeks more and more people have been parking for the season. Last week they were greeted by a great smudge of smoke coming from a prescribed burn above Edelweiss. The wind must have been blowing straight down. Many remember when these necessary burns were called “controlled” burns. Now they are prescribed.
I wonder why.
