The Corral Springs Oregon Trail site offers explorers a quarter-mile stretch of the original trail east of Echo.

When the sun breaks through the clouds, temperatures begin to rise and Daylight Savings Time gifts us extra hours of evening light, it’s only human to get that itch under your feet. It compels you to throw open the doors and windows that have been battened down all winter long, to feel the breeze, to look out to the horizon and head on towards it.

Luckily Eastern Oregon offers plenty of opportunities to scratch that travel itch, be it on foot, on bike or in a vehicle. There are enough adventures to last a lifetime, but in today’s paper we included enough to fill 2018. Our Discover Eastern Oregon magazine is inside.

There are lots of goodies in there, fun stories and photography. One of the region’s major draws this year will be the 175th anniversary of the Oregon Trail. We list places you can trace the trail through our neighborhod, from Corral Springs outside Echo to Blue Mountain Crossing outside La Grande. Perhaps our area’s best kept section of the trail is Flagstaff Hill outside Baker City, where seven miles of distinct ruts are clear and the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center is nearby. If you haven’t been to the area and interpretive center since your school days, perhaps a 175th anniversary is a good reason to return.

This year will also be special because Cycle Oregon returns to our wide open vistas and rolling byways. From Sept. 8-15 (yes, that’s right in the heart of Round-Up Week), thousands of two-wheelers will navigate our country roads and plop down in our small towns. Stops include Baker City, Halfway, Wallowa Lake, Elgin, Pendleton and La Grande. For more info, read the magazine piece, and check out the elevation map to see it can be done.

And if you’re more into the engine doing the work for you, there are plenty of events for motorcycles. Harleys arrive in droves to Pendleton each July for Bike Week, while changes are coming to the annual Nitro in the Blues festival. And if you want that engine to be of the animal variety, we’ve got rodeos aplenty to please your inner cowboy.

But Eastern Oregon remains a wild, wide-open place for all sorts of outdoor adventures.

Hopefully the magazine gives you some ideas for hitting the hills.

On Umatilla National Forest land, hike the 19-mile length of the South Fork Walla Walls Trail, or climb to the top of Nine Mile Ridge (it’s only 6.8 miles!). We also document the joys of waterfowl hunting — few places in the West offer the wide variety of species and hunting environments that Eastern Oregon does.

You’ll find golf courses and sno-parks galore, so no matter what time of year you arrive, there will be plenty to do. Or get out onto our beautiful rivers, with rafting or kayaking trips down the Umatilla, Grande Ronde or John Day rivers.

But we’re not just about roughing it outdoors here on the dry side. When visitors come, feel free to point them to our range of museums and historic sites, from the Round-Up Hall of Fame to Tamastslikt Cultural Institute.

And then wash it all down with our incredible breweries, wineries and distilleries.

It’s fun to live in and document a place like ours. It behooves us to explore it, conserve it and celebrate it. So let’s make a plan to discover Eastern Oregon this year, and help others discover it, too.