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