Cheap international calls - Prepaid phone cards

Webcam software

Cheap international calls from USA & Canada


	Home Calling rates News Card info FAQ

Ski Buck Prairie for easy outing, wind protection
Ski Buck Prairie for easy outing, wind protection

By BILL KETTLER
Mail Tribune
Buck Prairie fills the bill for skiers and snowshoers who want an easy outing that’s close to home.
Barely 13 miles from Ashland, this is the place to take your kids if you want to give them a painless introduction to snowshoes or cross country skis. There’s a real toilet (of the no-flush campground kind) barely mile from the parking area along a nearly table-flat route that follows a road.
Buck Prairie is also a good choice on stormy days. A timbered ridge protects many of the trails from the full brunt of storms that frequently blow in from the southwest.
Getting there is easy. Take Dead Indian Memorial Road east from Ashland and climb into the mountains. When you reach the summit, you’re there. Look for the parking area on your right, and make sure you have a Sno-park parking permit unless you want to chance a ticket from the Oregon State Police.
Many of the trails at Buck Prairie follow old logging roads, which means the grades are relatively gentle and the routes are easy to see in a snowy landscape. But there are more than a few roads out there, and it’s easy to get confused when everything is covered with white fluff.
Signs posted last year by the Southern Oregon chapter of the Oregon Nordic Club make the Buck Prairie trails easier for beginners to navigate. The trails have been color-coded and signs where the routes intersect help novices find their way.
The route to the outhouse provides access for the other trails. At the outhouse, the single road splits into three. The middle and right fork are the beginning and end of Natasha’s Web, a 4.5-mile loop. (The left fork is not used as a trail.) The middle fork is mostly flat and a good choice for beginners.
The right fork climbs a long, slow grade to a scenic viewpoint and continues to a road junction that provides other trail options.
If you’re traveling on snowshoes, stay off the skiers’ tracks. The snowshoes put snow in the tracks and make it more difficult for skiers to keep their balance.
And whether you’re on snowshoes or skis, leave your dog(s) at home. Dogs love to walk on ski tracks and ruin them as they go. They also leave calling cards along the way that nobody wants to see on the bottom of their skis or snowshoes.
At the "top" of the loop, skiers have several choices: Turn left (east) and ski straight down the grade to the road that leads back to the outhouse; turn right and follow a trail called Rocky’s Flight for .5 miles around a meadow until it returns to Natasha’s Web; or turn around and follow your tracks back downhill.
Reach reporter Bill Kettlerat 776-4492, or e-mail bkettler(at)mailtribune(dot)com