Prineville Bike Park Kick up the dirt in Prineville! After a combined three years of planning and construction, Prineville Bike Park officially opened this past Saturday, July 16. The bike park is the first of its kind in Central Oregon and was designed to be versatile for all types of bikes and all skill levels. […]
Source Weekly Bend
When is a Park not a Park?
For the citizens of Bend, Troy Field has become a de-facto park. Soccer teams practice there, local residents exercise their dogs there, and community members gather there for picnics and potlucks. It is a major urban open space in downtown Bend and for children who live nearby, the only place to run and play that […]
Sides Notes 7/20-7/27
We’re Number 16! Bend is accustomed to making all kinds of “Best Place To” lists: best place to retire, drink craft beer, play golf, play outside, or just plain live. But our little drinking town with a mountain problem didn’t even make the top 10 list of the Most Successful Cities in Oregon. Online career-finding […]
Giving Back by Paying it Forward
Ten years ago, Kaci Jo Alderin’s family was able to purchase a home with assistance from Bend Area Habitat for Humanity. Now she is raising money so she can travel to Trinidad & Tobago this fall to help another family achieve the same goal. When Sophie Paez, ReStore executive director and a friend, first suggested […]
The Plight of the Western Pond Turtle
In this helter-skelter age it comes as a shock (to me) when suddenly someone says, “Hey, when was the last time you saw, this—or that—animal?” And that was the case when my herpetologist pal, Jesse Short from Central Oregon Community College, sent me photos of a western pond turtle, all excited about spotting it on […]
Letters 7/20-7/27
Vote This Way As a native Oregonian, I’ve always known that the Bend community was a dynamic, sun-filled recreational community as well as a growing economic environment. On a recent vacation, we explored the Lava Cave, walked the Lava Cast Forest loop, floated the river and played golf at nine different courses. We were blown […]
Giant Country
I don’t remember much detail about Roald Dahl’s 1982 children’s book “The BFG,” but I remember how it made me feel. I know that after I put that book down, the world seemed like a much larger place: a world filled with mysteries I would never understand or even discover. For moments throughout “The BFG” […]
A Balancing Act for Pine Ridge Elementary Students
What most of us have difficulty learning on two wheels, students at Pine Ridge Elementary are mastering on one. Wheel walks, figure 8s, kosh-koshs, and 180 hop spins; these kids have some serious unicycling skills. In 2009, a group of students approached PE Teacher Carisa Thomason, asking to show off their unicycling skills in class. […]
Drink Weed Every Day
With limited quantities of edibles now on sale to the Oregon recreational marijuana fancier, curious dispensary visitors are finding themselves exposed to a wealth of THC-infused candy, chocolate, cookies, and every other snack-y foodstuff under the sun. Even more of a surprise to some: there are now two locally-brewed and bottled cannabis-infused beverages to choose […]
Upgraded by Hope
Bend’s thriving mountain biking community just got a shot of adrenaline. As of June, the internationally established mountain bike components manufacturer, Hope Technology, has opened its U.S. assembly division in our backyard. The company designs, manufactures, and tests nearly every part of a mountain bike and accepts custom orders from avid cross-country riders as well […]

