The photographs give you some idea of why Northern Pygmy Owls (NOPO) are common and never miss anything throughout their range; that is, they are always looking at you! Another reason is pygmy owls can kill anything the size of a pigeon, and eat it — right then and there. When a pygmy owl shows […]
Outside
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Look! On the Golf Course. It’s a Surfboard? It’s a Golf Cart?
Local entrepreneur is helping make golfing cool
It sounds like a riddle perhaps overheard at the X-Games: What does international surf star Laird Hamilton have in common with golf? At first consideration, these two sports seem as far apart as Waikiki and Whispering Pines; one celebrating the endless summer of youth and a certain awe for the thundering wildness, while the other […]
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High Times at Smith
It’s been a busy climbing season, filled with notable ascents
Like Crimea’s Wikipedia page, Smith Rock State Park has seen plenty of action this season. During fall, it was the French who once again laid siege to the park (the French established a number of Smith’s hardest routes, including, in 1986, America’s first 5.14a, To Bolt or Not to Be). Gerome Pouvreau completed a number […]
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Like a Fine Wine
Over 35 and ridiculously fit, Bend’s athletes explain why age doesn’t matter
In late February, Bend’s Sarah Max, a 39-year-old working mother of twins, braved single digit temperatures, massive crowds and 50 kilometers of Nordic ski trails to finish 10th among all the women at the American Birkebeiner, the country’s largest Nordic ski race. For context, more than 10,000 others competed in this storied event, which for […]
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Beer Games
How to play with your beer
Bend loves beer. Bend also loves the outdoors. Adding the two together is a sum greater than its parts. Hash Runs: A simple, community-building, beer-drinking, fitness-oriented event, Hash Runs have been picking up momentum for years. A pack of runners follow clues/directions left on the ground, usually in flour. Runners follow the markings, often misleading, […]
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Cool Callister
Bend snowboarder reflects on his Olympic debut
Most of the $50 billion Russian President Vladimir Putin poured into the recent Olympic preparations was not noticed by 18-year-old Bend snowboarder Kent Callister, who was in Sochi representing Australia. The halfpipe—Callister’s home for the three weeks he spent at the subtropical Russian resort—was bad. The food was worse. And his sparse Mountain Village accommodations […]
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Wildlands Warrior
Conservationist Tim Lillebo was the voice of eastern Oregon
Spread an eastern Oregon map over the hood of a decades-old pickup truck and point to any spot at random. Tim Lillebo could not only tell you five intimate details about the chosen location, he could recall everything that happened during his last visit there—the bull elk he spotted over the ridge, the Indian paintbrush […]
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Sleeping away winter
The recent big snows that have hit us, also have brought quite a few phone calls from people asking about wildlife in winter. For those mule deer “pets” hanging around Sisters and Bend, it is tough going when the snow gets deep. They’ve lost all the benefits of kitchen and flower-garden left-overs buried deep under […]
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Vertical Integration
Ski mountaineering is crossing the pond and taking hold in Bend
So many of life’s best things originated in Europe: espresso, beer, Nutella. Add ski mountaineering to the list. Long popular in Europe, both casually and competitively, ski mountaineering has been slowly gaining traction in the U.S. The winter cousin to mountain biking—you go up, you go down—is an efficient way to cover snowy terrain. Using […]
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Who Do You Think You’re Messing With?
After early season drought, Hoodoo is back in the game
So far, this winter has proven to be a schizophrenic personality of weather patterns. In early December, Central Oregonians were treated to snow and temperatures plunging into negative double-digits. It was so cold that a few of the competitors in the seasonal finale cyclocross races at the Old Mill suffered frostbite. Less than a month […]