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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 23, 2020)
Wednesday, December 23, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Fatten up for winter ELEMENTARY: One week of CDL is planned after January 4 By Bill Bartlett Correspondent I put my bike away last week and brought out the snowshoes. It wasn9t snow or temperature that shelved the bike. I simply don9t have the right bike. Hopefully all Sisters bikers are heeding the recent posting of signs by the Sisters Trail Alliance to stay off the trails when muddy. No further expla- nation required. Bikes and horses, even pedestrians, can do a fair amount of harm to the trail bed. As I was tromping along a few days ago around Melvin Butte, after an overnight drop of nearly four inches of new snow down to 4,000 feet, I encountered Rick Nordquist and his buddies merrily dashing though the snow on 4 you guessed it 4 fat bikes. My goofball sidekick, Robbie, a snow-obsessed Golden was in their way so they had to dismount. It gave us a little time to chat and for me to get the appeal of snow biking. A <fat= bike and a fat-tire bike are not necessarily the same thing. A true fat bike will come standard with tires at least 3.5 inches wide, up to five inches. Some standard mountain bikes, especially if produced in the last year or two often can accommo- date a <fat= tire, one that is 2.8 inches to as much as 3.5 inches. Like all bikes, frame size and wheel size are not the same thing either. <Fat= bikes have tradition- ally been on 26-inch wheels, but it9s now possible to get 27.5 inches; even 29 inches. The bigger wheel does give the tire more contact, there- fore traction and more roll. Basic physics here. My take- away after talking with Rick is that you don9t try this at home. Get on down to Blazin Saddles or Eurosports and get properly fitted. Especially if you9re dreaming of riding the snow or beach. After a proper fitting, Continued from page 3 PHOTO BY BILL BARTLETT Fat tires can get riders out into winter terrain. the key to it all is tire pres- sure and clothing. Normally a 26-by-4-inch tire would be inflated to 20-25 psi for pave- ment, 12-15 for dirt trails, and only 8-10 for snow. Rick and his gang were actually running at 3-4 psi, in pursuit of better traction. The day I saw them, they had already inflated or deflated four times as the terrain changed from packed Forest Service roads to open meadow to running on snow-covered horse trails. They are careful on trails to not get under the snow and into the muddy dirt. Fat bikes are heavy, start- ing with a beefier frame and just the sheer weight of the bigger wheel and tire. Five- inch-wide tires will run bet- ter in the snow but are more stamina-sapping. It9s like ski- ing, or in my case snowshoe- ing today. Uphill builds heat and you start to wonder just how many layers you really needed. Downhill, on a bike, at 15 mph in a 10-mph wind and suddenly you9re wonder- ing where the other fleece is. Another reason to see a pro are gear options. Rick assures me that the most experienced riders will fall often in the snow. At least it9s a soft landing for the most part. A dropper seat post will facilitate the frequent times you9ll have to dismount. And for sure, do not use clipless pedals. Flat pedals are a safer bet for snow. As they take off hooting and hollering, I9m thinking: how much is this going to cost me? Both shops in town can get you into a fat bike for around $1,700. You can also spend three times as much but you don9t need to fork out nearly that much to ride pretty much anywhere at any time. Did I mention beach? Won9t that sound sweet come February? January 11 4 provided that nothing else significantly changes in the interim regard- ing coronavirus infection rates. Under the in-person hybrid model, students have been attending class on site at Sisters Elementary School Monday-Thursday and take part in distance learning on Fridays. Sisters Elementary School remains the only public school in Deschutes County conducting in-person learning under the hybrid model. The extension of the <Safe Harbor= clause also included the opportunity for Sisters middle and high schools to be able to continue Limited In Person Instruction (LIPI) beginning January 11, which allows a measured number of students to be on site under particular guidelines during the school day. Scholl is very pleased Sisters Elementary will have the opportunity to continue in-person instruction and acknowledged that elemen- tary students returning to CDL for the first week of January is challenging, but has good reasoning behind it. In his letter to parents, Scholl said, <I understand that comprehensive dis- tance learning is no one9s first choice in an educational model. The Oregon Health Authority and Deschutes County Public Health have predicted and seen increased case counts after every holi- day throughout the pandemic. 21 Our return to CDL for the week is to help protect our school community and to allow us to get back to and stay in our hybrid model.= He added, <We are very excited about this extension and our ability to continue to serve our youngest learners in-person on January 11.= Scholl also explained in the letter why the district is continuing to proceed with caution. <While students appear to be less affected by COVID,= he wrote, <our schools are an ecosystem consisting of a wide range of hard-working people from our commu- nity. Although we know that schools are not 8spreaders,9 the continued high case count creates concern. The safety of the entire ecosystem must be considered in any plans mov- ing forward.= Scholl pointed out that in neighboring Crook County, schools returned to CDL before the holiday break, not because students were becom- ing infected, but because spread in the Prineville com- munity required staff to be quarantined, leaving schools unable to conduct in-person instruction. As in all of his communi- cations with the community, Scholl encouraged everyone in Sisters Country to continue being diligent about minimiz- ing the spread of the virus. He said, <I continue to ask that our community fol- low COVID-safety protocol: wear a mask, socially dis- tance, and wash your hands. Although the COVID case count dropped slightly in Deschutes County, we still need a significant reduction to get all students back into our hybrid model.= With gratitude & joy, we wish you Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year! From Shelley Marsh & Tiana Van Landuyt 220 S. Pine St., Ste. 102 | 541-548-9180 935 E. 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