If all goes according to plan, the Bend Park & Recreation District will have a giant holiday present for Central Oregonians to open. Recreation Director Matt Mercer says the long-planned “Pavilion in Bend” anticipates an opening between December 19 and 24. As The Pavilion’s website explains: “With the opening of The Pavilion this winter, ice […]
Outside
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Go Here 12/2-12/9
The High Desert Museum is offering a unique and interesting Native American look at the sage grouse in the program “Sage Grouse Legends and Dance of the Wasco and Northern Paiute.” The event will be led by Wilson Wewa, a cultural expert from the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. Wewa’s ancestry stems from the Northern […]
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Go Here 11/25-12/2
Locals who help preserve the Badlands Wilderness, 15 miles east of Bend near Highway 20, call it “The Old One.” The juniper trees found in this 30,000-acre wilderness are some of the oldest in the world. Some may have taken root during biblical times. Some 80,000 years ago, lava from Newberry Crater to the south […]
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Life Skills
Planting seedlings for the future
In this grand old, helter-skelter world of ours there are times when young people with special needs sometimes fall through the cracks. Thankfully, there are educators who are aware of this and set about to make sure it doesn’t happen on their watch.Tyler Winterholler, a Life Skills teacher at Mountain View HS in Bend is […]
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A Ride Through Time
New bikeway proposed in the Painted Hills
Oregon’s richest prehistoric landscape could soon have a new addition. Currently in its “recommended” phase, the Painted Hills Scenic Bikeway would become the state’s 15th official scenic bike route if approved by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. Similar to the concept of designating scenic roadways, signs would be installed along the 120-mile proposed […]
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Before It All Falls Down
Local group offers avalanche awareness and education
On January 15, 1998, Brian Sali, of Yakima, Washington, was with two friends snowmobiling on a high, treeless snowdrift on Paulina Peak in Newberry Crater. On a failed turn, he dismounted his machine to turn it when a football field-sized avalanche swept him about a hundred yards and buried him under five feet of snow. […]
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Rock Prodigy
Cameron Thomson braces for round two of the Boulder Bash
Cameron Thomson doesn’t have a letterman’s jacket, although she’s one of the most accomplished athletes at North Medford High School. What symbols Thomson does have to show for her athleticism, however, are some of the strongest, most callous-covered fingers of any 15-year-old in Southern Oregon. Thomson is one of the country’s best rising stars in […]
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Behind the Snowscenes
Central Oregon Snowbusters keep snowmobile trails smooth
Cresting the top of a well-groomed trail in 1971 to a breath-taking view of a snow bound expanse in Northern Idaho, I had no idea how popular the sport of snowmobiling would become. According to the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association, snowmobilers generate more than $34 billion dollars of economic activity in North America annually. Here […]
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Go Here 11/4-11/11
If the shoulder season has you feeling a little restless, why not feed your head until the snows come? The High Desert Museum is sponsoring a number of great talks this month, many of which, in true Bend fashion, also feature delicious beverages. Northwest Climate Mysteries: Past, Present, and Future What do glaciers, grasslands, and […]
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Go Here 10/28-11/4
The last days of October in Central Oregon feel magical in a way that is different from the rest of the year. Maybe it’s the little bit of bite in the air coupled with late autumn golden-hued light of the sky, or maybe it’s something else entirely. Many cultures recognize this time of year as […]