Two of my favorite activities - biking - and skiing - can work well as a combination sport this time of year in the Oregon Cascades.

ODOT plows Highway 242 over Mckenzie pass one lane wide so that spring sunshine on the road clears the other half of the pavement. Yay, solar power.

The single lane is open to cyclists, and is a popular car free ride through magnificent scenery.

Even when the road is only partially plowed, you can ride up from the west or in from the east. When ODOT announces that one lane is fully plowed through, you can make a one way trip with way more down than up by leaving a car on the west side, and riding in from the east.

Hook up a bike trailer with a pair of skis aboard, and you can access snow covered Black and Belknap Craters, the strange black and white landscape of the snow streaked lava fields, and for the ambitious, snow buried Mt Washington for a few -hundred- human powered ski turns.

Similar opportunities are available along the Crater Lake rim road. As plowing progresses -- likely into July this year, more cycling, and more skiing opportunities open up every week. Crater Lake has, the past few years, had a bikes only day on the rim road the day before it is opened to cars for the summer. Check their website for timing.

Bring along sunscreen and mosquito repellent, and you'll be ready to try bisking? or skibing?

It could be the next recreational craze to roll- or slide- across the state.