Outside Features

If you think you have to travel outside the city limits to recreate, well, think again, sucka! Look around! We live in Bend for a reason! Aside from dog parks and breweries, we are also lucky to have impressively close and convenient opportunities for outdoor entertainment. Sure, we’ve got Smith Rock, the Upper Deschutes and hundreds of miles of top-notch singletrack accessible from just outside town, but you needn’t even go that far to find shred-able terrain.
Not convinced? To get your kicks locally, you need to get creative and think outside the box, in order to have fun within the box—the imaginary line around Bend known as the urban growth boundary.

Here Comes the Sun, do do loo do
The end of May brings with it the unofficial close of winter season on the Cascade Lakes Highway. Even though snow still covers much of the trails and Mount Bachelor, as the days get longer and warmer, Bendites can’t help but think ahead towards warm-weather fun.
I’ve always enjoyed the symbolic nature of the Nordic/bike transition of the Pole Pedal Paddle. It helps my own transition from skiing to biking. The winter reveling under the watchful eyes of the Three Sisters kept me sane through the season of low light. But, now it’s time to keep the tires pressurized and chain greased. With another great season in the snow, it’s important to recognize the organizations that work to make Central Oregon a world-class winter destination.

If you were looking for a free hotdog and beer last week, you could have done far worse than swing by the Great Outdoors parking lot off Century Drive, where professional skier Chris Davenport had splayed his 44-foot-long RV across six parking spots and fired up the grill. Inside the jet-black beast—a Ford emblazoned with Audi stickers—Bend’s mustachioed mountain guide David Marchi and Jonas Tarlen, who runs Three Sisters Backcountry, Inc., sat on couches and talked about big days in the mountains.
“It’s supposed to be really nice out there tomorrow,” Davenport offered, having consulted a customized weather sheet a Boulder-based snow guru has been sending him daily. “His reports are amazingly accurate.”

Bend's Ryan Trebon is not only one of the fastest cyclocross racers in the world, he's a darn nice guy. The 6-foot-5-inch 31-year-old finished last year ranked 15th on the world 'cross standings and his tireless work ethic, large smile, and ability to generate otherworldly power on the bike has earned him the respect of both his fellow racers and his fans. But in his final years with longtime sponsor, Kona, Trebon says racing and training had become stale. And he will be the first to admit that his flagging enthusiasm showed in both his attitude and his results. His regular frustration on the race course earned him the nickname, Tre-Boo-Hoo. Needing a change, the lanky bike racer and his longtime mechanic, Dusty Labarr, struck out on their own seeking new sponsorship and improved results.

For the Belden family – Chip, Julie and their three children – outdoor adventure outings are an integral part of family life. Over the past several years some of their outings have started with a canoe ride across the Crooked River to the Deschutes Land Trust property adjacent to The Ranch at The Canyons and Smith Rock State Park. Safely across, the family hikes up into the pinnacles area to, as Chip Belden puts it, “explore, see cool geological formations and keep an eye out for rare plant species.”
While combing the area this spring, Julie Belden stumbled onto something unusual – an aged, yellow film canister. After discovering it and gathering the family around, Chip, a photographer, shook the canister to see if there was any film in it.

On June 12, 1853, three members of a mining expedition searching for the legendary “Lost Cabin” gold mine stumbled upon a “deep blue lake” in southern Oregon. Roughly 50 years later President Theodore Roosevelt created Crater Lake National Park on May 22, 1902. And, last Thursday, I turned 40. I couldn't think of a better way to beat back the middle-aged blues than tackling Oregon's crown jewel of a national park.
Ski hopes and dreams
There are many numbers that illustrate the magnificence of Crater Lake. It's 594 meters deep with 4.6 trillion gallons of water. But, the only number in my head was the 31 miles around the lake.

Once again locals reigned supreme at the 200-person Horse Butte 10-Miler, an early season trail race staged on Bend’s eastside on April 7.
Bend’s fastest cowboy, Max King, who toed the line sporting a thin white pearl-snap western shirt and cut off jean shorts, blazed to the finish line in record time this year, winning the 10-mile race in 54 minutes, 7 seconds. Katie Caba, also of Bend and wearing a more traditional running kit, was the fastest woman of the day, clocking in at 1 hour, 5 minutes, 28 seconds.

They go from town. Pedaling down the shoulder, they ride side-by-side because traffic is minimal and the cars that do pass have bikes on top. The woman is local, but the two men are from out of town. She takes a left toward the trailhead and they follow, passing a parking lot half filled with dirty Subarus and Toyota pickups. A 1984 VW Westfalia the color of burnt toast sits off in one corner with the sliding door open, giving the riders a quick glimpse of goose-bumped skin as someone shimmies out of their shorts.

So, here we are, end of March and Bend's seasonal identity crisis continues. Just as Bendites start looking ahead toward longer days and greener pastures, Mother Nature laughingly gives us what we asked, no prayed for months ago.