Seven years ago, Carrie and Scott Douglass ran the Golden Gate Relay together, one of the burgeoning number of approximately 200-mile running races that split up the chore among a dozen or so runners. Since then, they also have run the Bourbon Chase and Reno-Tahoe Odyssey Relay, and these events have become not just a […]
Outside
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Go Here 7/29-8/5
Three Hikes
What’s the difference between walking and hiking? Well, the steepness of the climb (from no elevation gain along the riverfront, to darn near rock climbing summits). Yup, it is a good reminder that just like Mt. Bachelor offers everything from a green circle to black diamond, the terrain around Bend has a grab bag of […]
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What’s Making the Bend Elks So Hot?
With the best record in the league, hometown team wraps up its regular season
As the season moves into its final stretch, with only two weeks remaining before the playoffs, the Bend Elks have already clinched the division title, with nine fewer losses than the second place team, division rivals Corvallis Knights. In fact, the team is so strong this year that they have nearly as many wins as […]
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Go Here 7/22-7/29
The Wheel Thing
This week, the Cascade Cycling Classic—the longest consecutively-held stage race in America—is hosted on five different days here in Central Oregon. A winner of multiple state championships in California and Nevada, seven Master’s National Championships, and two Master’s World Championships, Julie Cutts knows the course well—and two years ago moved to what she calls “the […]
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Water, Water, Everywhere!
For a desert, there sure are a lot of water sports around here!
Last Saturday, Reese Collins, a 19-year old student from COCC, reached the end of his first pass at the annual wakeboarding competition on Lake Billy Chinook. The conditions were ideal—barely any wind stirring up waves; “glass,” in waterskier and wakeboarder-speak. Collins had already landed a “tantrum”—essentially a back roll—and the boat swung back for his […]
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The Newest Water Sport: Flyboarding!
Hoverboards are so two years ago, McFly!
As October 21, 2015 approaches—the exact date Marty McFly programmed into Doc Brown’s time traveling DeLorean in Back To the Future II—there has been a certain buzz about what has and hasn’t come to fruition in the perceived future, and a certain amount of bellyaching that the hoverboard promised in that movie has yet to […]
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Tough and Beautiful
Cascade Cycling Classic is a summer tradition
Sponsorship is the backbone for professional cycling, and the annual Cascade Cycling Classic—the longest consecutively running stage race in the United States—is no exception. But it is a different type of sponsorship than, say, the U.S. Postal Service or Volkswagen ponying up cash; it is something much more grassroots. “The fact that we have local […]
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Trail Magic
Neighbors chip in to create a cycling-support way station
A human-kindness driven phenomenon found on the Appalachian Trail, known as “trail magic,” provides food and assistance for hikers attempting the long traverse from Georgia to Maine. And now, Bend can now boast about its own version of trail magic along the 36-mile Twin Bridges Scenic Bikeway with the installation of the first bike aid […]
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Go Here 7/15-7/22
The Swim of Things
Recreational and competitive swimmers flock to the complex of pools at Juniper Swim|Fitness, the standard for water-based activities in the Bend Park|Recreation system. The facility offers a children’s activity pool, an indoor swimming|kiddie pool, as well as a 50-meter lap pool. But, if your love of swimming tends towards the more natural, chlorine-free type, Central […]
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The Eagle Has Landed
Central Oregon has an unprecedented youngster
As many of you may know, I’ve been working with golden eagles since the 1950s when I discovered their dead bodies rotting near poison bait stations set out for coyotes. I also began banding baby eagles in the early 1960s, along with a wide variety of other raptors when I was approved by the US […]