FOUR-PAGE SPORTS PULLOUT INSIDE
• B SECTION • FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 2021
THE REGION’S HUB FOR
OUTDOOR ADVENTURES
Each week in this section, you will find the area’s
most complete guide of what’s open and closed;
outdoor activities and events; top picks of places to
explore; conditions of hiking and biking trails,
fishing holes, water flows, camping spots, parks
and more — as well as features from outdoor
writers and field experts.
Bedtime reading
for outdoors families
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
Author Lucas Alberg and illustrator Megan Marie Myers, both of Bend, hold “Goodnight Great Outdoors,” a book they created together.
Bend author and artist highlight camping
and nature in new children’s book
F
or many outdoors
enthusiasts in Central
Oregon, camping
with family is one of the most
fulfilling ways to spend time
outside.
For parents, those first few
camping trips with their young
children often produce sacred
memories that last a lifetime.
Bend author Lucas Alberg’s
experiences camping
throughout the High Desert
with his young family helped
provide some inspiration
for his new children’s book,
“Goodnight Great Outdoors,”
which was released nationally
on Tuesday by Adventure
Publications. Megan Marie
Myers, also of Bend, produced
the illustrations in the book.
“It’s such a bonding
experience for any family,
right?” Alberg said of camping
with his kids. “I think that’s one
thing that inspired me to write
it, too, because I’ve had that
bonding experience with my
family, and with my kids. It was
something my wife and I did
before kids, and now to be able
BY MARK MORICAL
The Bulletin
to do that with kids, it’s such a
nice bonding experience.”
The rest of the inspiration
he required came from the
renowned children’s book
“Goodnight Moon,” written
in 1947 by Margaret Wise
Brown. Alberg, 42, whose first
book was “Trail Running Bend
and Central Oregon,” released
regionally in 2016, wanted to put
an outdoors spin on “Goodnight
Moon,” the classic nighttime read
that has helped send generations
of children to peaceful slumbers .
Navigate
the spring
freeze-thaw
cycle like a
Bend pro
BY EMMY ANDREWS
For The Bulletin
We’ve all been there. It’s a
sunny spring day with the tem-
perature pushing 60. You’re
itching to ride your mountain
bike after a long, cold winter.
You head out, picturing sailing
along the fast, flowy trails Bend
is famous for.
An hour later you’re slowly
slogging your
way down a
muddy trail,
knowing
you’ll have
to spend an
hour clean-
TRAILS
ing your bike,
shoes, clothes and yourself
when you get home. You know
you should turn around —
but wait, is that a dry patch up
ahead?
You think: I should’ve gone
skiing, or climbing, or — any-
thing but this!
The spring freeze/thaw
cycle wreaks havoc on our lo-
cal trails. Melting snow and
warmer daytime temperatures
form a smorgasbord of slushy
puddles and inches-thick
mud. Colder nighttime tem-
peratures cause ruts formed
by riders’ tires to set up like
concrete.
The verdict: not fun.
Riding (bikes or horses),
walking or running on muddy
trails also does long-term
damage. As people try to nav-
igate around the water and
mud, the trail widens from
fun singletrack to nearly road
width. The smooth trail tread
that’s so fun to ride becomes
rutted and bumpy. Soil is dis-
placed, causing erosion that
dislodges rocks and other fea-
tures that make mountain bik-
ing exciting and challenging.
Check out Deschutes Land
Trust’s recent blog post on
muddy trails for more infor-
mation on how to preserve our
trails.
How can you avoid muddy
trails? Here are some tips and
ideas.
See Spring / B9
See Book / B10
Bulletin file photo
People walk on a paved trail at Pi-
lot Butte State Park.
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