Bend’s Suzi Lewis, 56 years young, knows horses. She has been riding horses since she was 8—all over the U.S.—and has been giving lessons to aspiring Central Oregon trail riders for decades. So when she called Central Oregon "one of the best places to own and ride a horse,” I took her words as gospel. […]
Section Feature
Posted inFood & Drink
High Desert High Cuisine
Are there cowboys in France?
Jen (as in her kitchen and garden) explained that rodeo weekend is perhaps one of the best times to visit her restaurant. Many locals, she says, hide away for the weekend, and French fries are about as close to high-style French country cuisine that the cowboys will get. Which is to say: This weekend, Jen’s […]
Posted inSpecial Issues & Guides
Queen For A Year
Meet 2013 Sisters Rodeo Queen: Whitney Richey
The one thing that sets rodeo queens apart from other pageant queens is they have to ride a horse. At breakneck speed. Around an arena full of people. A bunch of times per night. All summer long. They start with a Queen's Run at the beginning of each rodeo where they are joined by visiting […]
Posted inSpecial Issues & Guides
Cowgirl Up!
A City Girl’s Guide to Country Western Dancing
If getting down to “Single Ladies” doesn’t strike a chord, what’s a girl to do? Country-western dancing, that’s what. When my city slicker girlfriends arrive in Bend, my first stop is often Maverick’s, a lively buckaroo bar and dance hall. I buy them a Jack and Coke and then make them dance with a regular […]
Posted inCulture
Beers on Bikes
Cycle Pub rules! Wait, no, it sucks.
The Cycle Pub rules! Every time the Bend Cycle Pub, a 12-seat bar on wheels, goes screaming by (and I mean screaming to describe the vocality, not the velocity), I am thrown into a state of love-hate. I love it. I hate it. SW Why didn’t I think of that?! A way to get from […]
Posted inOutside
Best Ever
Bend cyclists tell us the region's best rides
Editor's note: We asked a few of our favorite cyclists to share their go-to rides with the rest of Bend. They got back to us with sub-alpine mountain bike loops, destination coffee rides, social-hour downhills, and trails below the radar. It says something about the quality of Central Oregon's diverse riding that no two cyclists […]
Posted inSpecial Issues & Guides
Bike Issue
How to pedal: five ways
It's a common misconception that Bend's bike fascination is a recent one. It’s not. More than 30 years ago, Gary Bonacker, co-owner of Sunnyside Sports, and friends were bombing down Mt. Bachelor on modified cruisers (aka some of the world's first mountain bikes). Phil Meglasson (yes, that Phil) started cutting trail in Central Oregon in […]
Posted inCulture
Mud = Best Film of the Year!
Matthew McConaughey = My New Boyfriend
OMG. OMG. O-M-Gee! Mud is wonderful. Have you been wanting a male companion to Beasts of the Southern Wild? Wait no more! Do you remember the tall tales of Big Fish? Check! Do you fondly remember River Phoenix in Stand By Me? Who doesn’t? Were you enchanted and spooked by the creepy-but-kind Boo Radley in […]
Posted inNews
The Wheel Thing
Bike-share programs find traction in Bend
In 1994, a community activist in Portland had a harebrained idea: Communally shared bicycles. Why not paint a fleet of 400 low-maintenance bicycles yellow—completely yellow, from handlebars to spokes—and leave them out for public use; any one needing a bike, could simply pedal away. Already, a few European cities were successfully employing the all-for-one, one- […]
Posted inMusic
Earnest & Brutal
Not what you expect: Hopeless Jack and the Handsome Devil
Hopeless Jack and the Handsome Devil are the Laurel and Hardy of blues rock. Jack Beisel—Hopeless Jack—is a tattooed guitar player with bruising chops, and Pete Thomas—The Handsome Devil—is the subdued and unassuming baby-faced drummer. And while they may be different in stature, they are both bullheaded rockers, hell-bent on claiming a slice of the […]
