BIG CONTEST--We still need your help

If you haven't heard about the BIG CONTEST, it's not too late to enter and help Pilot Butte in a big way. All you need to do is thank some businesses for helping Pilot Butte and then enter the contest online or through the mail. You must enter by the end of the day Saturday, May 31st.

Some of these businesses you'd probably be going to anyway or you might be in the area doing something else. Many are near the Butte, but some are downtown, in the Old Mill, and elsewhere. Support for the Butte is literally all over town!

CLICK HERE to learn more! It's called the BIG CONTEST for a reason--it has big prizes (and lots of them) and it helps Pilot Butte in a BIG way. Your chances of winning something are outstanding.

The Bend Hiking Group getting involved in SMB 2014

This year we're able to advertise SMB and one of the first places we went was The Bend Hiking Group which is one one of the local Meetup groups.  They have over 1,000 members and have amazing hikes scheduled all the time. So far over a dozen of their members have RSVPed for SMB. It's great to have their support and their organizers have been a pleasure to work with.  To learn more about them, follow this link:

http://www.meetup.com/Bendhiking-group/

These guys are first class all the way. I've been a member for a while and so are many others who hike the Butte. If I remember right, it costs just a few bucks to join. When you get a sense of what they do, it's easily one of the best deals you'll ever find.

Get The Latest Info A New (and fun) Way

It started as kind of a joke, a Facebook page for "The Butte Lady" (the name people often call Carol when they can't remember her name). Last summer we were in a Fred Meyer in Fairbanks, Alaska, and someone yelled, "Look, it's the Butte Lady.  So we put up the Facebook page not exactly knowing what might happen.

Its quickly become a good way of communicating with people interested in SMB and PBSS. Plus Carol's having a lot of fun with it.

HERE'S THE DEAL: You don't have to have a Facebook account, or even know what Facebook is, to enjoy it. It's quickly becoming sort of an online newsletter. Check it out when you get a chance. Here's the link:

https://www.facebook.com/TheButteLady

Fundraising For SMB 2014 Going Great

There's still a great deal of support out there for SMB. Starbucks (Eastside and Downtown) recently became our Mega-Sponsor for the second year. This year they're pledging even more--$350. Remember, the Mega-Sponsor is all or nothing. We'll have to hit a certain number of miles total to raise this money from Starbucks. Please RSVP as soon as you can and spread the word. We plan to have close to 1,000 participants this year.

As mentioned previously, Bend Pet Express became our first Diamond Level Sponsor at $350. They're involved in a lot of other ways to be announced soon. This is also a pledged donation, meaning we have to hit an even higher total number of miles to earn all of it. But this one isn't all or nothing. If we come up short, we raise a percentage of the amount pledged.

All of this will be much easier to understand at SMB 2014. Part of the fun of SMB is everyone working together to raise as much money as we can for Pilot Butte. Last year we just barely earned the entire amount. This year the stakes will be higher (more money available) and it will be that much more fun. Other big sponsors are in the works, so stay tuned ...

Btw, Carol was back on the Butte yesterday after an extended absence. She had a great time and plans to be up there as much as she can while still spearheading our fundraising efforts. Look for her and other board members who will have brochures and RSVP cards for SMB 2014. They'll all be wearing large green "SMB 2014 Information" buttons.

New Website, RSVP now for SMB 2014

Great news. Our new website is up and running. To be sure, it's not perfect or even completed. But it's so much better than what we had and all of the important stuff is working. We tested it for the past week with our members. You can RSVP for SMB 2014, become a PBSS Member, volunteer at SMB, and learn a lot about PBSS that you may not have known. Here's the link:

http://pilotbuttesummitseekers.org

There are even some surprises. For example, Carol now has a Facebook page. There's a link to it on the bottom of the Home page. I keep teasing her because she only has 12 likes. At least that many people like ME and I'm not all that likable! At least not in comparison to her. But that's probably going to change after she learns how to use Facebook on Monday. Btw, for all you Facebookers, she has a Facebook contest running and you're odds of winning are pretty darn good. Be sure to sign up.

More announcements soon. SMB season has already kicked into high gear!

SMB 2014 is Saturday, May 10th

This year's SMB is Saturday, May 10th

We've had the date reserved for months and now it's official. Please mark your calendar if you plan to attend. We don't have a way for everyone to RSVP yet, but that will be in place soon. Our new website is done and being tested as I write this. We want to make sure everything is working right before the website launches in about a week.

Expect everything at this year's SMB to be a lot easier, starting with the RSVP process. We learned a lot in 2013 and you'll definitely notice all the positive changes. You'll also notice that there are even more participants, businesses vendors present to support them (i.e., not to sell stuff), and a ton more fun. It's going to be a blast. It's also still free mostly because of the financial support of our members. So far we've raised over $1,000 through memberships, roughly half what it costs to hold the event this year. If you like SMB, please consider becoming a member. There will be an easy way to do that on our new website.

Finally getting there

It seems we've been talking forever about the "members only" blog. It's not for lack of trying that it didn't happen. Maybe there's a way, but for us it was impossible to create one that was user friendly. We gave up recently and then switched gears. What we have now is, we think, much better than a members only blog. It took only a couple of hours to get it working and we should be able to launch it soon.

So we started cleaning up this blog by transferring posts that seemed to belong on the members only site. If you're looking for an old post, and it's gone, that's why. Eventually, even more old posts will be transferred elsewhere leaving this blog primarily about SMB and other PBSS events. New posts here will be about PBSS events from here on out. We're getting there folks...

Carol and Bill to focus more on PBSS

We have exciting news. Carol and I will soon have a lot more time to give to Pilot Butte Summit Seekers (PBSS). PBSS is growing faster than we could have ever hoped or imagined and we're shifting our focus in that direction. This will be our last month hosting at Pilot Butte. Starting in April, the 180+ hours per month that went into hosting will go instead to the nonprofit. We believe this is better use of our time because we can do a lot more for the Butte at PBSS than we could ever do hosting. So we'll host at the Butte this month and then move to a nearby RV park in April.

Here's the really good news. We'll both be hiking the Butte more, not less. With PBSS having our year round attention, we'll be hiking months that we never hiked before. Many have already noticed this happening (we hiked the Butte a lot this winter) and that's only going to increase. We're just switching jobs as opposed to leaving--choosing what we think is best for the Butte.

As many know, we were in bad health when we started hosting (Click Here to learn more). Hiking is the main thing that improved our health. Hiking with so many wonderful people also played a big role. This past year is the best we've felt in over 15 years. So the hiking must continue, but it's great to be able to do things that have a broader impact on our community. Switching from hosting to PBSS is like getting a new job with better benefits. We hope others see it the same way.

So expect to see us on the Butte a lot when we stop hosting. In fact, you'll notice the difference right away. March is a huge fundraising month for SMB.  Keeping up with hosting duties, and fundraising on the side, is going to be a challenge and the amount we can hike will suffer. Then all of that changes in April when we'll be hiking a lot more.

No longer hosting at Pilot Butte will be quite a loss. After 10 years doing it, it's hard to imagine not doing it. But we're REALLY looking forward to April when we won't be stretched so thin and can hike the Butte more. See 'ya on the Butte ...

First Sponsor for SMB 2014

We're not even fully ready and we have our first ever Diamond Level sponsor for SMB.  Bend Pet Express contacted us and said they wanted to be a sponsor again this year. It makes sense because they were so enthusiastic and helpful last year. We showed them the sponsor categories and they chose the top one--the new Diamond Level at $350. If that weren't enough, they'll be helping in other important ways as well. More about that later. We officially start fundraising next month. Our prediction that 2014 is going to be an exceptional year seems to be on target. One of the things making that possible is all of the people who have become members. We're launching our new website soon and it will be easier than ever to RSVP for SMB, become a member, and more. Stay tuned ...

Trail Condition Updates Going Again

John, the person who was giving us most of the trail condition reports, got sick recently and couldn't hike. We hear he's getting back on his feet and should be hiking again soon. Jim, and his dog Lola (the world famous poop carrying dog of Pilot Butte), stepped up to the plate a couple days ago and is providing trail reports daily. So, pretty soon, we should be getting reports twice daily.

If you're familiar with twitter, just search on #pbtrails for the reports. If not, you can get them on our

IceTrekkers Diamond Grips available at discount price

With conditions on the Butte hazardous today, I want to remind everyone that Cascadia Vehicle Tents (CVT) is providing a deep discount on the Diamond Grip traction devices we had available at our workshop.  PBSS members get them for $28.95 instead of $41.95 and that's almost certainly the best

Memberships Have Raised Over $1,000

I can still remember someone telling me with great conviction that membership would not work as a fundraiser.  I'm so glad we didn't listen.  We just recently passed $1,000 raised through membership fees.  We figure about 20 percent of that goes to the cost of the membership component (newsletters, postage, buttons, etc.).  That means we have about $800 right now to pay for SMB 2014--roughly half