Outdoor Digest.

Byline: The Register-Guard

SLED DOGS TO RACE: World class dog racing comes to Central Oregon next week with the inaugural Atta Boy 300, a seven-day stage race that is one of only thee qualifiers for the sport's most famous event, the Iditarod. Competitors will run their dogs over trails near the communities of Government Camp, Bend, Sisters, Prineville, La Pine and Sunriver, and finish on Mount Bachelor. The Atta Boy 300 is one of six World Cup sled dog races sanctioned by the International Federation of Sled Dog Sports. The ceremonial start to the race is Sunday on Mount Hood, but the actual racing begins Monday. The schedule is as follows: Jan. 7, 45 miles, start/finish at Mount Bachelor; Jan. 8, 40 miles, start/finish in Sisters; Jan. 9, 45 miles, start Sisters, finish Mount Bachelor; Jan. 10, 55 miles, start/finish in Prineville; Jan. 11, 40 miles, start/finish in La Pine; Jan. 12, 40 miles, start in Sunriver, finish at Mount Bachelor; Jan. 13, 30 miles, start/finish at Mount Bachelor. Each stage begins at 9:30 a.m.

LICENSING SYSTEM SHUT DOWN: Oregon's computerized hunting and fishing licensing system was shut down by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife for the second time this week Wednesday afternoon because each transaction was taking more than five minutes. The Point-of-Sale licensing system began experiencing slowdowns late Dec. 28. The system was taken offline Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. while technicians worked to repair the problem. The system worked as expected Monday evening and all day Tuesday - processing up to 65 licensing documents per minute - then bogged down again Wednesday. Meanwhile, anglers and hunters eager to purchase new licenses and tags that were required beginning Jan. 1 were being issued handwritten documents at a handful of ODFW offices around the state. Most sporting goods stores are equipped only with the computers and cannot issue handwritten hunting and fishing licenses. The good news: Prices for all 2002 annual licenses and tags remain the same as last year.

OREGON BICYCLE RIDE SCHEDULED: The 2002 Oregon Bicycle Ride, a fully supported seven-day camping tour, will be held Aug. 11-17. This year's itinerary features a loop ride beginning and ending in Bend, with stops in Prineville, Sisters, Blue River and Oakridge, and a campsite at Sheep Bridge in the Deschutes National Forest. The same group is also offering its second seven-day camping tour of Idaho, July 14-20. That ride starts and ends in Lewiston, Idaho. For details or registration information on either ride, see: oregonbicycleride.org or call [phone].

BOTTOMFISH RULES CHANGE: Another year, another set of fishing rules in effect for ocean anglers. The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission has adopted revised seasons and possession limits for bottomfishing in Oregon waters. Bottomfishing continues to be open year-round with a 10-rockfish daily limit. However, this year only one of the 10 may be a canary rockfish and one a yelloweye rockfish. Also, no retention of yelloweye will be allowed when halibut are on board during the all-depth halibut fishery. The sport fishery will close outside of the 20-fathom line in 2002 if the yelloweye harvest guideline is reached. One other housekeeping change allows halibut anglers to possess two halibut on land instead of one, but the daily catch limit remains one and the annual catch limit remains six.

BIRDERS FLOCK TO SEE GROSBEAK: Bird lovers in southern Oregon have been beating the bushes with their binoculars hoping to catch a glimpse of a rare rose-breasted grosbeak, which has been seen hanging around a Medford bird feeder since Saturday. The species is a neotropic bird, which winters in Central America, raises its young in North America and normally is found east of the Rocky Mountains. "This little guy shouldn't be in the West," Medford Mail Tribune birding columnist Dick Cronberg said of the immature male. "Second of all, he shouldn't be here in the winter, so it's a double whammy."