Rogue River
Posted inOutside

Still Water

A cool summer and fear of wildfires have contributed to a slow rafting season
Rylan Boggs

Rafting companies in the Bend area are seeing fewer trips booked this summer. Many attribute the decrease to cooler weather in the area and concern about possible trip cancellations due to forest fires. Tim Thornton, operations manager at River Drifters, a Maupin-based service offering trips throughout Oregon and Washington, said while business has been steady […]

Posted inOutside

Creating a Crew

A Central Oregon whitewater matriarchy is raising an emerging paddler generation
Avatar photo K.M. Collins

Water pulling us ever closer toward the blind entrance of the Class III Fish Ladder rapid, my R2 shredder partner, Chloa Ulrich, shows not a stitch of fear. Throughout our McKenzie River route, she’s gently ruminating about nutrition, weighing the pros and cons of the histamines in fermented food. No matter the subject, her sing-song […]

Posted inNews

Wild About Rivers

Oregon gets more miles of Wild and Scenic river designations
Avatar photo K.M. Collins

Amid the fever pitch of a long-awaited spring equinox, boaters, kayakers and other water-loving Oregonians are celebrating the recent victories won with the Natural Resources Management Act. Passage of the Act, also known as the public lands bill, means new Wild and Scenic River designations for 621 miles of rivers nationwide—plus, additional default river protections […]

Posted inCulture

The Source Suggests

Tom Beans, Dudley's BookShop Cafe

Pick Your Line The Snake. The Salmon. The Rogue. The Colorado. The Tuolumne. For any whitewater enthusiast, these names are like catnip. For that different breed of folk who make their living running these rivers, they’re the Holy Grail of Western whitewater. Local guide Dick Linford and his former guide partner at ECHO, Bob Volpert, […]

Posted inOutside

High Desert Herstory

What narratives are (under) represented in an outdoor mecca like Bend?
Avatar photo K.M. Collins

En masse, we suit up and slide off the shore just above the Bend Whitewater Park passageway—five women tricked out in combat kayak gear, lining up to run the terraced lava rock drops of the bypass channel. I’ve never ridden rapids surrounded by so many women— and no men, on a kayak, raft, paddle board […]

Posted inOutside

Call Her Big Red

La Pine State Park is a popular spot for recreation—but its giant ponderosa remains the star attraction
Brian Jennings

Located about 150 feet from the Deschutes River in La Pine State Park, it rises higher to the sky than all other big ponderosa trees on the nearby landscape. Many of its branches are bigger than the other, younger ponderosa trees that populate the Deschutes National Forest. It’s known as a Pacific ponderosa (Pinus ponderosa), […]

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