Most well known for climbing, Smith Rock State Park also has miles of singletrack for mountain bikers to enjoy in spring before the summer crowds arrive.
This Pacific Northwest rock climbing mecca isn’t just a place to bag peaks. It’s also a lesser traveled mountain biking destination that welcomes pedalers with miles of singletrack. Ambitious adventurers can easily turn a day at Smith Rock State Park into a classic multi-sport day.
We started our ride at Skull Hollow Campground, riding along the singletrack switchbacks of Gray Butte, the tallest peak in the greater Smith Rock area. This pronounced butte hosts myriad epic climbs as well as grand scenery. We circumnavigated the entire feature. After reaching the base of the summit, we dismounted and scrambled up the final steep section of scree. Our ride culminated with a descent that provided plenty of burly thrills and fast shoots.
There are plenty of riding options at one of Oregon’s most photographed state parks. Take the classic Summit Loop, or link up with the Cole Trail that circumnavigates Gray Butte.
After Party: Wild Ride Brewing
This family-friendly taproom in the heart of downtown has been a welcome addition to the Redmond scene. With the beautiful mountain peaks huddled in the distance, a 3 Sisters American Red Ale seemed the logical choice. I added a Yakisoba bowl from Shred Town, just one of the many food trucks Wild Ride has on site.
Three weeks in the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River among a company of adventurous Central Oregon women.
“You don’t see many trips go out with more girls than boys.” That’s the on-the-spot assessment offered by Ranger Peggy upon surveying our female-centric crew that has arrived at Lee’s Ferry, the iconic starting point for Grand Canyon adventures.
Our rag tag crew of river rats, organic farmers and adventurers has a three-to-one ratio of girls to guys. We aren’t out to make a statement, but we are the exception. Forget what you might see in the latest Patagonia catalog, the gender participation gap is a persistent failure of the outdoor industry, especially when it comes to leadership and guiding. America’s greatest river is no exception. But it’s also changing.
Rising slowly and steadily like a spring flood measured not in days but decades, the number of women voyaging through the Grand Canyon has steadily increased since Major Wesley Powell made his pioneering voyage down the then unchartered river in 1869.
Central Oregon’s Sarahlee Lawrence is one of the women who has helped smash the river guide stereotype. She’s also the chief organizer and fearless leader of our ramshackle voyage, cobbled together on a cancelled permit (an alternative to entering the long-odds lottery that determines who gets to launch a boat for the three-week, 225-mile journey through the Grand Canyon). Without a lot of lead time, we departed in the low, cold light of November.
I’ve known Lawrence for years as a friend and colleague, which was enough to merit an invitation on her trip. I jumped at the chance to join the journey in part because of Lawrence, whose reputation as a top-notch boater was earned on rivers across multiple continents over a multi-decade guiding career. Lately, she’s largely traded her oars for the tools of organic farming that she employs at Rainshadow Organics, her family farm near Terrebonne. But even when Lawrence’s feet are firmly on the ground, her mind is never far from the river. Especially this river.
A Woman’s Place
Photo by K.M. Collins
Once the sole province of men, the Grand Canyon has been inching toward integration for more than half a century, when the last serious dam building initiatives were thwarted by conservationists. It was then the river as we now know it was enshrined as a permanent national resource and a premier destination for boaters and rafters.
In some ways the Colorado River has been out in front of the rest of the country when it comes to women’s equality. The infamous and beloved Georgie White was the first documented woman to row a boat through the Grand Canyon’s gauntlet of massive rapids. That was way back in 1952, before most American’s owned a television. By 1955 White had pioneered a new motorboat design for navigating the Canyon, which she did as commercial outfit owner until her death in 1992. By that time, she had become a Grand Canyon icon, enshrined in the lore of the river.
Photo by K.M. Collins
My own passion for whitewater was ignited by a love for river ecology and a desire to fit in at my day job at a local paddling shop. A relative late bloomer, I jumped into my river obsession just a few years ago. I was a devout practitioner and in return, rivers emerged as my greatest gurus, especially the ones flowing through Oregon.
The Metolius River had taught me to kayak in brutally cold water that felt like liquid ice. The John Day River enticed me to embark on a seventy-mile solo trip on a paddleboard. The Rogue, Owyhee and Grand Ronde rivers taught me how to tough out winter as a raft passenger on a multiday trip. And as a rookie, I learned plenty from our own desert river, the Deschutes, which like the Colorado has been tamed by dams, yet manages to retain a piece of its wild soul.
The Mighty Colorado
Like other river devotees, I knew the ultimate goal lay beyond my home waters deep in a canyon that has captured America’s imagination like no other place in the world. For devout paddlers it isn’t a line item on the Bucket List. It is the Bucket.
Still nothing can quite prepare you for the immensity and the sheer grandeur of the Grand Canyon. And yet the Colorado River’s true wonders were in the mud cracks and dry washes. It was the scent of the mesquite and tamarisk; it was the swaying of the cottonwood, sedge and willow. The magic was in the freshly caught trout that Bridget shared around the campfire.
Inside the canyon, the familiar great blue heron, belted kingfisher, chukar and canyon wren offered us warm song on the coldest days. Here enveloped in the pink granite walls of the Inner George, the notion of time shrinks in the presence of place. Inside sentinels’ schist, conglomerate and limestone shepherd our route as precious day slips and fades into night, where we curl under a blanket of stars.
It’s a simple life, but it’s not an easy one. Running the Grand Canyon is an accomplishment, but it’s also a journey. After three weeks and countless rapids our voyage through time concluded with a few quiet oar strokes. I wondered what young women would follow in our wake. Will they still be an exception? Will they have to earn their spot on the river, or will they be welcomed as equals? Only time will tell.
Be sure to visit this diverse trail system for mountain biking at Horse Ridge and Horse Butte in the spring before the summer dust descends.
On the east side of Bend, a mixture of rocky volcanic lava sediment and delicate sagebrush lines frame intermediate singletrack on both the Horse Butte and Horse Ridge trail systems, which share a name but not a trailhead. (Horse Butte sits on the east side of Bend, north of China Hat Road. Horse Ridge is located near the Badlands Wilderness Area south of Highway 20.) These spring riding havens have much in common and offered a midwinter reprieve for a few hearty cyclists emerging from hibernation.
Horse Butte offers various beginning trails and intermediate loop options consisting of ten to thirty miles of high desert panoramas. While we were investigating the trails, we also took some time to explore the expansive lava cave systems by headlamp just to change things up a bit.
From there it was on to Horse Ridge where we steered our bikes over slightly more technical lava rock terrain on our way to Crazy Horse loop. We linked up with the Parkway trail and took a fast and winding descent through the Horse Ridge Research Natural Area where the trail began to open, and the rolling desert hills welcomed us with stunning wildland vistas.
In 2017, Jenny Green, René Mitchell and Kaari Vaughn opened At Liberty Arts Collaborative in downtown Bend in the 102-year-old historic Liberty Theater.
Jenny Green, René Mitchell and Kaari Vaughn. Photo by Marisa Chappell Hossick
The At Liberty Arts Collaborative was created through pooled resources and the expertise of three working moms for the betterment of their community. You might call it a 21st century DIY art patronage.
In 2017, Jenny Green, René Mitchell and Kaari Vaughn opened At Liberty Arts Collaborative in downtown Bend in the 102-year-old historic Liberty Theater. Their mission is to showcase contemporary art and also make a home for creative nonprofit organizations and a community gathering place. They call themselves the Ladies of Liberty, and each brings impressive credentials to the task. It’s their first project together, but it’s just the latest in a long list of contributions that each have made to bolster Central Oregon’s growing creative economy.
Mitchell was a Bend Design Conference founder and sits on the boards of Caldera, Art in Public Places and ScaleHouse. Green was appointed by Gov. Kate Brown to the Oregon Arts Commission, is a board member of World Muse and a member of Bend Cultural Tourism Fund. Vaughn is a longtime volunteer and former board member of BendFilm and the former manager of the Liberty Theater.
The business LLC they formed to run the renovated space was born of friendship, a passion for art and mutual admiration for one another. It followed years of talk about the possibility of opening an art gallery.
“There was a lot of art in Central Oregon, but we were all wishing there was more,” Green recalled. “We had the same dream, but we’re three mothers who are very involved in the community. The thought of doing it individually wasn’t possible. The only way to do it was to come together.”
Mitchell had collaborated closely with Vaughn on Bend Design and BendFilm events that were held at the Liberty. She also envisioned a space for ScaleHouse and other organizations that sought a physical presence in downtown Bend.
The partners have four revenue streams to support the mission: venue rental, sales from artwork, collaboration from nonprofit groups that sublease space and a small gift shop.
“I feel like it’s a more modern concept to have a space that is flexible in terms of its mission,” Green said. “We are a serious contemporary art venue as well as a collaborative working space and an events venue. We aim to be a gathering space where people can come together to enjoy themselves and their community, to experience and see new ideas, and to work together to continue to lift the arts in Bend.”
The partners curate six art exhibitions a year with each show running for about two months. At Liberty is open to the public, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday.
Liliana Cabrera is Central Oregon’s advocate for women’s access to reproductive healthcare.
photo by marisa chappell hossick
Liliana Cabrera began working for Planned Parenthood more than ten years ago and brought a wealth of knowledge and experience with her when she took the position of Community Education and Outreach Coordinator for Planned Parenthood of Central Oregon. In the four years Cabrera has lived here, she has become an integral voice and advocate for access to women’s reproductive healthcare in our community.
As a Latina and openly gay woman, Cabrera is a natural conversation starter in a community sorely lacking diversity. She brings her unique perspective to everything she does, including serving as board chair of Let’s Talk Diversity Coalition in Madras, president of Latino Community Association and as a board member at-large of OUT Central Oregon.
Arriving in Bend
I moved from Salinas, California to Central Oregon in 2015 to work at Planned Parenthood. My partner’s family lives in Portland, and I was looking for work in Oregon. The main [Planned Parenthood] office is in Portland, but the job was in Bend. I had never heard of Bend. When I came for my interview, I looked around at what the town looked like and it looked very similar to what Salinas looked like when I was growing up. So I enjoy the small rural aspect of it, but I didn’t realize the cultural difference and lack of diversity.
Getting Started
My work in the past has looked very different than it does now. I was in classrooms talking to kids. We had a teen pregnancy program and so that was a space where I was working with pregnant and parenting teen moms. I held conversations with middle school girls and went into the juvenile halls. There are no [teen support] programs here. There haven’t been any programs. My approach has been going out listening, learning what people want to know. Really seeing what people are saying we need to have and then responding to that within my capacity.
Roadblocks and Resistance
I see through my own lens the issues here, and I hear what other people tell me. I am also very aware of who is telling what story. I am hearing things like, “Well, there are other people already doing that work, so we don’t need Planned Parenthood in the schools.” So, okay. They are getting some education, but there is limited access to resources for high school students. We have to be invited in, so we don’t always hear about what is going on unless someone says something about it and reports it.
On Access to Information
If parents say they want to talk to their kids about sex, but they’re not doing it, how can I help them to be more confident to have that conversation? They need to hear us. I think all young people should have access to the information [about sex and sexuality] and hear it from different voices, in particular the people that look like them. If there are students of color in those classrooms, I want to be in front of them talking very openly about this topic. A healthy community is one where people can access the things they need, and it is not a struggle. A healthy community is where people have the information and it’s not being withheld because of someone else’s own personal beliefs. Everybody should have what they need when they need it.
On Being Yourself
Being a queer woman of color who wants to see this world, this community, flourish and grow in a healthy way and having some part of it is me seeking my community. All of these different places where I work is because they are all part of who I am. We are all human beings and we are all in the struggle together, and we are all facing different [challenges]. At the end of the day, we have to live in the community together. We have to look at each other as people who are all going through different things.
Amy Tykeson has a long legacy in Central Oregon, where she was the former CEO of BendBroadband. In 2018, she was named Bend’s “Person of the Year.”
photo by marisa chappell hossick
Amy Tykeson is the former CEO of BendBroadband, where she guided the company into a new era of digital technology and community partnerships. Tykeson is currently the managing trustee of the Tykeson Family Foundation, supporting education and healthcare in Oregon. She has served on numerous boards for nonprofits, startups and higher education initiatives in Central Oregon. Among other recognitions, Tykeson was inducted into the Cable Hall of Fame in 2013 and was awarded “Person of the Year” by the Bend Chamber of Commerce in 2018.
Your career spanned many facets of the telecommunications industry. Can you identify one thread that kept you inspired?
I like solving complex problems, and I get a lot of energy from being around smart people. When I started in the 1980s, the industry was exploding, and we had a ball making it happen. At HBO, I couldn’t imagine another environment as fun or interesting. But working in operations at Bend Cable was fascinating. Working with innovative people who transform problems into positive change—that inspires me. Like many of my peers, I got involved in the Women In Cable organization, which allowed me to experience leadership and expand my skills. Similar groups can be found in most industries, with valuable opportunities for young professionals to flex their business muscles.
Learning to flex business muscles is great advice. What other suggestions would you offer young women launching their careers?
Most importantly, gain as many experiences as possible. Flex your muscles through volunteering, and build your portfolio of skills both within your organization and in the community. Second, develop the habit of thinking ahead. Plan how to navigate the waters before you present new ideas, and prepare answers to objections you might encounter. A pre-mortem, in effect! Then do a post-mortem to develop a game plan for your next goal. Finally, support other women. For example, in meetings when one person’s ideas are ignored or restated by another, be sure to give credit where it’s due. Also, feedback is critical. Ask for it, and ask permission to give it. That’s not always easy.
Do you feel that young women have a different toolbox of skills today?
I see more independence and self-reliance today, maybe because they’ve seen more role models. There’s a greater ability to speak up and share one’s opinion. Young men, too, now grow up seeing women as vital to the economy and the community.
Your father left a legacy of philanthropy, and you’ve continued that tradition. How does supporting community fit into your definition of a good life?
My dad always said it’s incumbent upon us to be good stewards, and I subscribe to that. Every one of us can give back with talents, time or financial resources. It’s part of being a whole person to reach beyond our own little bubble, nurture good works that help people thrive and improve the environment for future generations. I feel fortunate to work on projects that strengthen our community. In particular, I appreciate organizations that bring together different voices—many nature conservation groups follow that model. I also admire the Bend Science Station’s approach to getting more science in front of kids and teachers. And I’m very excited about developments at OPB as we approach the 100th anniversary!
What else are you thinking about now?
I’m still asking myself how to best use my time and gifts. Our young people need adaptability and resiliency, in order to flourish in the future. How do we instill the tools to cope through tough waters? I don’t have the answers, but I want to sharpen the saw and augment the impact I can have on our many needs. On a personal side, I’m thinking about establishing new family traditions. I relished the shared experiences my parents created these past decades. As our family’s elders pass on, it’s now our privilege and our priority to build on the delight that comes from spending time with those who matter most.
Sylvana Yelda is a data scientist for Kollective in Bend, volunteers with ChickTech and gets to run the telescope at Worthy’s Hopservatory.
In 1979, Sylvana Yelda’s parents moved from Iraq to Michigan. Sylvana, their fourth child, arrived a year later, the first of their family born in the United States. Her father had only graduated high school; her mother had left school at an early age to care for family.
From an early age, Yelda showed a strong aptitude for school—especially for science. A high school astronomy course set her off and running on what would be an epic academic journey. “I loved astronomy,” she said, her eyes lighting up. “It was so fun and challenging.”
After astronomy, Yelda fell in love with psychology and the study of the brain and perception, and earned a BA in psychology from the University of Michigan. She began a master’s degree program in that field before returning to astronomy, earning a MS in astrophysics and a PhD in astrophysics from UCLA. “I went to college for fourteen years,” Yelda said, quickly adding, “but I loved it.”
She considered a career in academia, but professorial positions are highly competitive—and besides, she explained, collegiate teaching means delegating data research to graduate students. “I like doing it myself. I like digging in the data,” she explained.
Digging in the data is what she does every day in her current position as a senior data scientist at Kollective, a technology company located on Bend’s westside. Data scientists must possess a variety of skills, she explained, from hard science to storytelling.
“You must understand statistics, computer programming and machine learning,” Yelda said. “You must be able to visualize the data, get it into a form that will answer your questions, and then interpret it and relay it to your audience.”
Yelda said she loves her job, but still, she misses teaching, and finds ways to incorporate public outreach into her life. “I volunteer with ChickTech, a national organization with a mission to get girls interested in STEM,” she said.
Last fall, she led female high school students through a two-day workshop on how to code and program a machine learning model, using the data set from the sinking of the Titanic.
“They predicted with eighty percent accuracy who was more likely to die based on their location on the ship, gender and class,” she said. “It’s a little bit dark, but they really got into it.”
Working as a data scientist also means Sylvana has taken a sidestep from astronomy, but a serendipitous event occurred not long after her move to Bend three years ago—Worthy Brewing opened its Hopservatory.
“I run the telescope there on a volunteer basis,” said Yelda. “That means I still get to look at the stars.”
The vibe at Bos Taurus—classic steakhouse, updated and seared with Bend style—means quality without stuffiness, and a beefy dose of fun. Go decadent with the foie gras terrine and move on to the wagyu.
Hudson Valley Foie gras terrine. Photo by ALex Jordan
Chef George Morris’ take on a foie gras terrine is a perfect example. He sous vide cooks Hudson Valley foie gras, vacuum sealing it in a pouch, immersing it in precisely heated water. The duck delicacy never touches a heated metal pan, flames, steam, water or smoke, thereby achieving optimum flavor and texture. Combined with cream, gelatin, salt and a bit of sugar, it’s set in a French terrine mold overnight.
The sublimely smooth, rich result is dusted with crumbled pistachios and watercress powder. The counterpoint is Oregon Coast cranberries three ways: a cranberry gastrique, sous vide cranberry and cranberry maple pudding. It’s framed by watercress petals, and grilled sourdough is the crunchy vehicle for it all. Morris sets the dish beneath a glass dome filled with maplewood smoke—the foie gras smokes en route from the kitchen to you.
“When you get it to the table, you can’t actually see the dish,” said Morris. Lifting the dome, a veil of smoke wafts away, revealing it. The aroma is the first part of the experience, building anticipation of the first savory, sweet, crunchy bite.
Morris pairs it with the Tonic 2 Old Fashioned, with Bulleit Rye, Tonic 2 (Tahitian vanilla, chamomile, maple syrup) and Angostura orange bitters. The orange complements the dish’s cranberry. The rye and foie gras share flavor profiles. Both have as an ingredient Noble barrel aged maple syrup.
“The high-octane alcohol and whiskey background cuts through the richness of the foie gras, cleaning up and lightening the palate, and the foie gras’ richness mellows out and softens the drink,” he said.
Another big experience on a small plate is the Japanese Miyazaki A5 wagyu beef raised in the Japan’s Miyazaki prefecture. It’s renowned worldwide for its fat marbling, tenderness and flavor. Morris seasons it with hickory-smoked sea salt and black, white, pink and green peppercorns, searing it on a 550°F cast iron flattop custom stove to medium-rare. It’s sliced kimono-silk thin, so delicate that it is plated and served with elegantly shaped seven-and-a-half-inch culinary tweezers. “It literally melts in your mouth,” said Morris.
A big cabernet with bold fruit and strong tannins stands up to the luxurious fat of the beef, and General Manager David Oliver recommends the 2015 Paul Hobbs CrossBarn from Napa Valley.
Bend’s star triathlete Heather Jackson on bouncing back from disappointment and cranking up the speed.
photo by wattie ink
After finishing third, fourth and fifth among pro women between 2015 and 2017 at the Ironman World Championships, Heather Jackson was considered a favorite this past fall to do what no American woman has done at the Kona race in more than twenty years—win.
The Bend pro would finish a disappointing fourteenth, the result she said of overtraining and insufficient rest in the lead-up to the October championship.
Frustrated, she returned home to Bend to re-group.
“I didn’t want to end 2018 like that,” recalled the 34-year-old Jackson. “I needed to redeem myself.”
So five weeks later, Jackson lined up at Ironman Arizona. She went on to win with a blistering time of eight hours, thirty-nine minutes, setting a new best Ironman time for American women, and shattering her own personal record by more than twenty minutes.
With the victory, Jackson punched her ticket to the 2019 Kona championship, and, now in her tenth season, is more determined than ever to leave her mark there.
The Road to Bend
A standout youth hockey player from New England, Jackson was star and captain of the Princeton women’s hockey team when she was invited to try out for, but narrowly missed, landing a spot on the 2006 Olympic squad. After graduation, she moved to Southern California and took up cycling, where her strong skating legs were an asset. Swimming, however, proved more difficult.
“I was a rock in the pool,” she said.
Despite this, less than two years after entering her first event, Jackson quit her teaching job to take up triathlon full-time. She and her husband Sean “Wattie” Watkins moved to Bend three years later.
On paper, Bend may not seem like ideal training ground for pro triathletes, given that winters here aren’t ideal for cycling and running. But Jackson disagrees, citing an ideal altitude for training, extensive running trails and a devoted community of Masters swimmers.
Although Bend’s triathlon scene may be relatively small, three of the country’s top pros, Jackson, Linsey Corbin and Jesse Thomas, all live and train here.
‘Crazy Hilly Hard’
photo by wattie ink
A doppelganger of the rockstar Pink—complete with the cropped platinum hair, extensive body ink, and tight, compact frame—Jackson is drawn to the sport’s toughest courses.
She’s amassed five Ironman wins, including Coeur d’Alene and Lake Placid, where she holds the course record among women, and will be gunning for her fifth Wildflower victory this spring, a race known for its gut-checking hilly terrain.
“Crazy hilly hard” is the phrase Jackson uses to describe her favorite events, those that allow her compact powerful frame and gritty determination to shine.
Focusing Inward
An extreme competitor all her life, Jackson said her attitude has matured over the past decade. Early in her career, she’d be in tears if she missed a training goal, and felt fiercely competitive toward her fellow racers.
“I’d line up and think ‘I’m going to beat all these girls,’” she recalled. “It’s weird how it shifts. I still want to beat everyone, but not in an aggressive, angry competitor sort of way.”
Over the years, Jackson’s learned to bring her focus inward and give herself some grace if a training session or race doesn’t go exactly as planned.
“If I’m in the middle of a session, and I’m not close to the splits, I’ll just jog home,” she explained. “I don’t bash my head against the wall anymore. In time you learn what makes you able to go the hardest. And it might not be on the day your coach put it on your training schedule.
“I used to think I had to do more than everyone else,” she continued. “But it’s not like that anymore. It’s more about how I can get the best out of myself.”
Looking Ahead
photo by wattie ink
Along with the Ironman World Championships in October, look for Jackson to try to four-peat at Ironman Chattanooga in May and attempt her fifth win at Wildflower—both of which are half-ironman distances.
By racing only shorter distances and shifting her training schedule up in this year, Jackson hopes to enter Kona fresh and ready to compete for a spot on the podium.
A public snub turns into marketing gold for Lora DiCarlo, a sex-tech startup in Bend.
Lora Haddock
Lora Haddock, founder of Bend-based robotic sex toy startup Lora DiCarlo, has an uncanny knack for making what seem like taboo topics—orgasms, anatomy, sex devices—a comfortable part of regular conversation. That skill came in especially handy earlier this year, when Haddock’s startup went viral.
Lora DiCarlo got the world’s attention in January when the company revealed they’d received a prestigious robotics innovation award from the Consumer Electronics Show, only to have it taken away a month later after the conference organizers deemed the product obscene. At issue: The startup’s handsfree, vagina-focused device for blended orgasms.
Haddock penned an open letter that took off on social media and prompted national news coverage, saying that rescinding the award illustrated a gender double standard for the long-standing tech event. Everyone from the New York Times to TechCrunch to Glamour Magazine picked up the story.
While losing the award was disappointing to Haddock and her team, she notes that the viral moment provided a silver lining—an outpouring of support for her product and company from around the world.
“That was gratifying,” she said. “It’s not just about the product, but about a shift in society and promoting change toward sex positivity for women and non-gender conforming people.”
An Engineering Problem
Dr. Ada-Rhodes Short working on Osé in CAD.
Haddock was 28 when she had what she calls the holy grail of orgasms—a blended orgasm. “It kind of landed me on the ground, and I was like, ‘How can I do that again?’ ” The question stuck with her, and she eventually left her job in healthcare with the intention of creating a device that could replicate the perfect orgasm.
“There’s no product on the market that speaks to female physiology and vaginal physiology,” Haddock said.
Coming from a long line of engineers, she began by getting better anatomical data—asking people to measure different aspects of their vaginas—so she could develop a device that could fit a multitude of bodies.
Then in 2017, Haddock reached out to John Parmigiani, head of Oregon State University’s Prototype Development Laboratory. Haddock arrived for the meeting with not just a host of market measurements, but also a list of fifty-two functional engineering requirements.
“It was a very well-posed mechanical engineering problem,” Parmigiani told the Bend Bulletin.
The Business of Pleasure
Recognition and rebuff at CES
Haddock created a team of student and professional engineers at the OSU Corvallis campus, and they built the first device, called Osé, within a year. The feedback from young women engineering students who worked with the company stuck with Haddock.
“They said that they’d never had female role models before and now they have many,” she said. “That’s the kind of company I want to build.”
And she’s well en route. The startup’s staff is mostly women, and includes a doctoral student in mechanical engineering and another engineer with a Ph.D in AI and robotics. Their flagship product, Osé, is already subject to several robotics-related patent applications.
With $1.1 million in funding, Lora DiCarlo is readying to manufacture and have the device for sale by year’s end. In the meantime, Haddock will continue to speak out about the taboo around female sexuality.
“This is about human needs, being sex positive, and having an honest conversation about our bodies and something that is part of our everyday lives.”
An interview with Tammy Baney, who is deeply involved in Central Oregon’s community through public service, including serving as a Deschutes County Commissioner for over a decade and currently as the director of the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council.
photo by marisa chappell hossick
Tammy Baney was raised in rural Bend in a tightly knit family of do-ers, known for lending a hand to friends and neighbors. With an instinct for leaning in and a heart for community involvement/support, she ran and was elected as a Deschutes County Commissioner in 2006, at age 34. She served as commissioner from 2007-2018, with a focus on transportation, housing and health. Baney currently serves as director of the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, where she heads cooperative projects in Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson counties. She continues as chairperson of the Oregon Transportation Commission and as board chair for the Central Oregon Health Council.
As a young woman starting a career in the ’90s, what were some of the challenges you faced?
I began at a local golf course and started moving into management, learning as I moved forward. Sexual harassment was rampant in those days. After one incident I was offered a payout, which meant leaving my job, keeping my salary and health insurance, but not fighting the harassment. At that time, I made a practical choice. It gave me the financial ability to move forward and get my realtor’s license. Today, we have more choices and we know more about our responsibility to address harassment. Yet I still relate to women who have not felt safe speaking up, and I know how fear makes us pick our battles carefully.
As you moved into public service as a county commissioner, did your voice differ from those of your colleagues?
I was a single mom, managing childcare and homework help, while working with male colleagues of my father’s generation. My voice was definitely different. Not better or more powerful, but often more inclusive. I believe how we do things matters as much as what we do. My colleagues joked about “the niceties” of recognizing and listening to others, but they also acknowledged the importance of being approachable.
At first, I’d often be called out mid-discussion with questions intended to check my understanding of issues and policies. In a backhanded way, it made me a better commissioner because I learned to clearly support my positions, especially on controversial votes. I had to gain the confidence to say, “I’ll get back to you on that,” knowing I could find the answers. I still experience occasional “mansplaining,” but gone are the days when I question myself about whether I communicated my thoughts clearly. I find humor to be the best tool to deal with that.
Over the course of your career, how have you seen gender equality evolve—for both women and men?
My daughter doesn’t see the barriers that I saw. We’ve made great strides, but we still have women who fear being seen—[women] who believe they are not enough. At the same time, I don’t believe the generation of men before me wants to minimize women. Inclusiveness is not yet in their wheelhouse, but it can be learned. We have the opportunity to redefine boundaries and roles and expand what each person can bring to society.
What advice would you give to young women interested in public service?
When I first ran for office, I did not know my value. I questioned most aspects of my life, but I wanted to serve. No one said, “Tammy, you should run for office!” I didn’t wait to be invited. If you feel in your heart that you want to serve in this capacity, do it. First, check your core—is it just one issue you want to work on? Public service is about many issues, and about the people.
What are you most looking forward to in your new role at the COIC?
As a council of governments, we have a unique ability to tackle regional issues such as affordable home ownership. Our communities have crossover, yet projects compete for funds. I want to convene our collective voices to identify the gaps, communicate our needs to the state, and elevate the region as a whole.
Foley Waters Trail is a moderate hike that is great for families in the spring who want to find great sightings of wildlife.
Photo by Alex Jordan
If you’re looking for a true high desert experience, take the short drive to Crooked River Ranch, a sprawling rural residential community perched on an elevated peninsula between the Deschutes and Crooked rivers. There’s plenty to see here, but you have to know where to look. For those willing to search, no less than half a dozen spectacular hikes await.
A hike less traveled is the Foley Waters Trailhead, one of several hikes that leads trekkers deep into the belly of a river gorge carved out of rock that tells the dramatic geologic history of our region. Located just south of the ever-popular Steelhead Falls Trailhead, this popular fly fishing destination also makes a fantastic scenic tour.
If you stick to the Foley Waters Trailhead, you will travel about one-and-a-half miles. But if you are looking to explore further, there are miles and miles of additional pathways leading to rocky crevices and breathtaking views.
Although these hikes are familiar for even the novice hiker amongst us, I encourage you to revisit them annually, if not seasonally. Try see if you can see new things with fresh eyes. Consider this hike through the eyes of a naturalist. Read the landscape, study the wildlife and look for change. And always, enjoy your time in nature.
Spring Wildlife Scavenger Hunt
During your river canyon exploration, see if you can find these four common sights:
Horsetail: Named for its obvious likeness to a certain mammal’s tail, this plant can be found in riparian areas among the river shoreline.
Bald Eagle: The trick to this commonly found raptor is in the fact that it doesn’t get it’s full-white plumed head until maturity of near five years of age.
Golden Stonefly: The spring stonefly hatch is a legendary event on the lower Deschutes River when these oversized insects take clumsily to the air, setting off a trout feeding frenzy.
Big Sagebrush: Widespread in the high desert region, and highly fragrant in spring bloom.
The six-mile hike from on the upper Deschutes River has a wealth of wildlife on display in early spring.
If you’re used to driving into Benham Falls from Century Drive or the Lava Lands Visitor Center, try walking into it from the south at Sunriver.
This out-and-back hike of about six miles is surprisingly variable. It starts out on the forest road in Sunriver and ends at the dramatic chute falls on the upper Deschutes River. The route is well traveled and clearly marked with virtually no chance of getting lost in the wilderness.
But with the variation of wildlife to be found, matched with breadth of changing landscape, this low-level hike ends up making the perfect trip for even the experienced trekker. It’s also one of the first areas outside Bend to really show signs of the emerging spring. With the wealth of habitat in the surrounding forest and adjacent river, nature is on full display.
Spring Wildlife Scavenger Hunt
If you head out at the right time, you can make a sort of game out of the trek, a scavenger hunt of sorts. See if you and your fellow hikers can find the following:
Redwinged Blackbirds: These birds will spend most of their time on cattails and tall grass in riparian zones along the river. They have a distinct whistle that is a sure sign of spring in Central Oregon.
Belding’s Ground Squirrel: Often mistaken for “prairie dogs,” these small brown rodents can be found poking their heads out from small burrows in the ground.
Oregon Grape: Part of the holly family and Oregon’s official state flower, the Oregon grape has spiny, waxy leaves and bright-yellow flowers. This plant makes a great indicator for spring, as it tends to bloom earlier than most plants in Central Oregon.
Greenleaf Manzanita: Identified by their red-brown and twisted branches, these fire-dependent shrubs are often found near areas of recent burns.
Renaissance man David Sowards-Emmerd is a physicist, blacksmith and a recovering reality TV competitor.
On a cold winter day in his barn, David Sowards-Emmerd pulls on leather gloves and grabs iron tongs to extract orange-hot metal from his backyard blacksmithing forge. A pair of yellow labs pay scant attention to this bit of daily alchemy that goes on around here as ordinary hunks of metal become extraordinary objects of beauty and usefulness.
That transformation of steel into Damascus knives worthy of a king and an Instagram post in 2017 earned Sowards-Emmerd a spot on the History Channel’s “Forged in Fire” series. He traveled to Stamford, Connecticut, to appear twice on the show, the first time competing as one of four bladesmiths tasked with making a slasher blade suitable for a horror movie. Each contestant selected a hunk of steel from a smoking cauldron and had three hours in which to complete the project.
Sowards-Emmerd turned his steel into a campfire chopper blade but when he put the it in a vice and cranked down, the blade unexpectedly broke into three pieces. The failed stress test essentially eliminated him from the winner’s circle. He returned to the show a second time but came up short in the show’s “Project Runway”-style round of judging.
“Forging on the show was a great experience,” he said. “I work well under pressure, and I think it showed that I love what I do and was able to stay relaxed in that chaotic environment.” He adds that on his second appearance that aired in February, he was able to show that his Damascus would hold up to J. Neilson, a renowned knife maker and one of the show’s most demanding judges, “beating the hell out of it.”
He notes that the other contestants were like family. “We’re all just focused on making the best blade we can and helping each other out along the way. I still keep in touch with folks from both episodes. The [show] tends to throw a wrench in it, and that’s where the drama comes from.”
Sowards-Emmerd is happy to explain the ins and outs of this ancient art that dates to the Iron Age. He rattles off terms such as forging temperatures (thousands of degrees), quenching (rapid cooling), thermal cycling (heating and cooling), buffing (shining and sharpening), grinding, punching (hole creation) and many other factors to produce knives, bottle openers and other objects from steel. His blacksmithing barn on ten acres east of Bend is replete with hammers, tongs, anvils, propane and coke-fueled forges, a hydraulic metal press, scrap metals and propane tanks.
The tools may be straight out of the Middle Ages, but Sowards-Emmerd brings a 21st century approach to the trade. He earned a PhD in physics from Stanford University and thought he’d live the life of an academic. He taught astronomy at City College of San Francisco starting in 2005 but after two years, accepted a position at Phillips Medical Systems North America in the Bay Area.
“I worked in CT and nuclear medicine, and instead of studying signals from distant galaxies, I designed medical devices that help diagnose and treat cancer and heart disease,” he said. When the company closed its California office in 2012, Sowards-Emmerd worked remotely for several years rather than move to Cleveland. But working remotely took him away from his lab and the hands on aspect of his work. He began forging in 2012, which he said, “kept me sane after sitting in front of a computer all day.”
He and his wife, Rebecca, moved to Bend in 2016 where they bought a farm that provided space to expand his forging business. He continued to work remotely until 2018 when the company completed its final round of layoffs. Untethered from the corporate world, Sowards-Emmerd could turn his love of blacksmithing into a full-time job.
“David has an enormous capacity to learn and absorb things,” wife Rebecca said. “He puts a lot of time into experimenting with different patterns and exploring the artistic parts of Damascus. You can see the quality when you can pick up an item and hold it in person.”
Sowards-Emmerds coaxes unique and beautiful patterns from his steel through techniques, such as stacking and layering, twisting, hammering and etching. He sells his blades and bottle openers online on Etsy and in knife-related forums, by word of mouth or on his website, drunkenmarmotforge.com. Buyers include campers, hikers and bushcrafters, and they pay between from $50 to $1,500 for bottle openers and knives.
“People are afraid to use high-end knives, but my goal is to convince folks that well-made Damascus tools will hold up to many lifetimes of regular use,” he said. “[Bladesmithing] isn’t my retirement job, it’s my forever job. It’s fun and challenging and it gives you the satisfaction of making something.”
The historic home of Lilly Dairy owners Lillian and Nels Anderson is at the intersection of future developments in Bend.
photo courtesy deschutes historical museum
There is a constant din at the office of Instant Landscaping on Nels Anderson Road. Cars and trucks buzz by on the Bend Parkway just a hundred yards from the building. In the background, the Cascade Village Mall fills the view.
The area has been referred to as Bend’s “Golden Triangle” for its development potential at the intersection of the area’s two major highways, 20 and 97. Standing in the way of progress is the remains of what was once the largest dairy farm in Bend, Lilly Dairy, a 350-acre operation run by Lillian and Nels Anderson during Bend’s first boom in the early 20th century.
Their home still stands, as a historic landmark, but it’s an endangered one, according to owner Tim Larocco who operates his landscaping business out of the property. Larocco personally renovated the property after he acquired it in 1999. He said, however, that the home has been slated for demolition by the Oregon Department of Transportation as part of a highway realignment project. The agency has offered $30,000 to help with relocation, a fraction of what Larocco says is the actual cost. While the home’s future is still unclear, its history is deeply entwined with the story of Bend.
The Lilly Dairy era was a time when shopping local wasn’t just a slogan. And the Lilly Dairy farm was one of many small dairy farms in Central Oregon supplying milk and butter to Bend’s growing population.
Like many immigrants of that era, Anderson traveled a long and winding road to Bend. Anderson was born in 1879 in the community of Sall in the Danish Jutland region. The area is known for dairying and progressive farmers who instituted the dairy cooperative.
Processing cheese at the old bend dairy. photo courtesy deschutes historical museum
At 25 years old, Anderson joined the many thousands of Scandinavians who emigrated to the United States. He stepped off the boat at Ellis Island in 1904. His first job also entailed working around animals, but not in the way he expected.
“Nels shoveled manure in the streets of New York,” said Carol Willard, who knew the Andersons in the 1950s, long after they sold the farm in Bend.
Eventually Anderson moved to Bend in the early 1910s and married Kansas-born Lillian Daniels on August 25, 1914. During the following years, the entrepreneurial couple created a 350-acre dairy operation at the north end of Bend. Lilly Dairy was one of ten dairies that produced milk and butter for the local market, which relied on regional producers to provide products with short shelf lives.
“It was hard work,” said Sharon Rosengarth. Her parents, Jim and Virginia Matson, sharecropped the Dean Hollinshead farm during the same time Lilly Dairy was operating. “You didn’t go anywhere,” said Rosengarth. “You had to milk the cows in the morning and in the evening.”
In many ways the Lilly Farm more closely resembled it’s 19th century predecessors than its 21st century successors. Without electricity, the cows had to be milked by hand. Employees were served a communal meal at the Anderson’s home during their lunch break, said Larocco.
In 1929, the Andersons built a new home. An English Tudor-styled building, the home was as much theirs as the employees who worked at the farm. Rosengarth remembers the Lilly Dairy and the large barns on the property.
the andersons celebrating the holidays at home in bend.
“With that much acreage, the Anderson’s could easily have accommodated 100 to 150 heads of cows,” he said.
The Andersons looked out for more than just their extended family of workers. They were the go-to couple if a young person was homeless.
“The Andersons lost a baby during the 1930s,” said Willard. The couple never reproduced the pregnancy. But the home was not without love. They would make a family.
“One day there was a knock on the door. A young gal had heard about the couple and was wondering if she could stay with them. They adopted the gal and raised her,” said Larocco, who has spent time researching the Anderson’s lives while renovating and restoring the Anderson’s historic residence.
He credits Michael Houser, former Deschutes County Historic Preservation Planner, for inspiring him to take on the renovation of the Anderson House. “We weren’t sure the house could be saved, but after hearing about the rich history, it was a no-brainer,” Larocco said.
The yearlong project saw Larocco and his crew stripping everything to the studs inside and renovating the outside stucco.
“The one thing solid about the house was the timber, which came from the local Brooks-Scanlon mill.”
In Central Oregon, KOR Community Land Trust found a new way to offer affordable housing to working families.
Two decades in Oregon as a service industry worker and a contractor taught Amy Warren that the housing market in Central Oregon is nothing if not volatile. But after watching another run-up in housing prices over the past decade, she knew one thing was guaranteed: many potential buyers will continue to be priced out of home ownership.
It’s the reason why Warren, after finishing a degree in Energy Systems Engineering at OSU-Cascades, decided to get back into the construction business as a different kind of developer. Warren and longtime friend Jason Offutt formed KOR Community Land Trust in 2015, with the goal of building low-energy homes using a model that emphasized shared resources, beginning with the land under the homes.
Warren said she and Offutt, who owns Shelter Studio, a local residential design firm, developed the idea after she studied net-zero homes in a class at OSU-Cascades. Warren said she was struck by the idea that we could meet our growing needs as a society by reducing our ecological footprint as individuals.
“That really spoke to me. That as opposed to learning how to make more, we should learn how to consume less,” Warren said.
She and Offutt discussed the idea over a pint. He also liked the net-zero concept, but was adamant that any project they undertook would have to place a premium on affordability. But with land prices rising quickly in Bend, the pair faced an immediate hurdle: how to avoid passing on that cost to buyers.
Amy Warren on KOR’s first piece of land
A little research turned up models in Portland and Orcas Island in Puget Sound that had tackled the same problem in those communities with a community land trust. While many are familiar with the land trust concept when it comes to conservation, land trusts are a relatively new idea in housing. The underlying principle is similar, with the big caveat that one model usually prevents all forms of development while the other facilitates it.
Like a traditional land trust, where the property is held in perpetuity by a nonprofit board, the job of a community land trust is to find and acquire land. The trust works with a developer or other partners to build housing that is sold below market rate. Unlike other affordable housing models, the buyer acquires only the home. The land remains with the trust, essentially creating a permanent subsidy.
After three years spent developing its mission and securing its nonprofit status, KOR secured its first major funding in 2018 by partnering with Redmond-based Housing Works on a grant request from the city of Bend. The city awarded KOR enough money to close a deal on its first piece of land, a roughly half-acre parcel on 27th Street and Hurita Place on Bend’s east side.
While anyone is welcome to apply, KOR is positioning itself to serve working people who might not qualify for other forms of affordable housing by taking applicants who make up to 125 percent of area median income. That’s a niche where other housing providers aren’t able to operate consistently, said Lynne McConnell, Bend’s affordable housing manager.
“We know home ownership is still a part of the American dream and support the type of approach that Amy and Jason have taken,” McConnell said. “It’s a great opportunity for middle class folks to have a chance to buy a house in Bend at lower price than they would get at a market rate.”
KOR plans to break ground on its development—dubbed Corazon, Spanish for heart—this spring. The development will include five homes, developed on a 1,100-square foot floor plan with shared community and open space.
Local writer and OSU-Cascades faculty member Beth Alvarado talks about family, anxiety and more in her latest collection of essays, Anxious Attachments.
Beth Alvarado comes from a family of storytellers, so it’s no surprise that she found writing as her creative outlet and ultimately her career. In 2013, after her husband died, she started spending summers in Bend and moved here in 2016 to be closer to her daughter and grandchildren. She is core faculty at OSU-Cascades Low Residency MFA Program, where she teaches prose, both fiction and creative nonfiction. Her third book, Anxious Attachments, is a book of essays that will be published in March from Autumn House Press.
Tell us about your new book.
This is my third book; these essays span events that took place over forty years of my life. Many of them are about personal struggles—quitting heroin, caring for preemies, tending to the dying—but none are purely personal. Instead, each takes up issues that have affected my family and cause me a lot of anxiety, especially when I think of my children and grandchildren. Although the theme of anxiety runs through the book, I have also woven my story with my husband, Fernando, through it. Even though he died, he is still the glue that holds everything together for me. I think being married to him gave me a way of seeing our individual lives as being part of a larger web of lives—how everyone is connected and how we are, therefore, responsible to one another.
What topics do you cover in your essays?
One essay is about Fernando’s cancer in the context of the water pollution in Tucson that contributed to his death and to the deaths of approximately 20,000 other people, primarily Mexican and Native Americans; one is about caring for my infant grandchildren in Bend last summer, while surrounded by wildfires; another essay explores the ramifications of school shootings and video games in my life as a teacher and in the lives of my older grandchildren who attend public schools; another is about a journey I took to Mexico to see the place where my father-in-law was orphaned during the Mexican Revolution.
When did you first realize you were a writer?
I was a kid who went to the library every weekend and checked out a stack of books. I always wanted to write. My mother wanted to encourage me, so she refurbished an old Underwood typewriter and gave it to me along with a copy of Writers’ Digest Magazine. I had always wanted to draw but had no talent for it, but I could describe things in words. Later, in high school, I loved black and white photography, but it was too costly to pursue. When I got married, I started writing again. It was as if I needed some kind of creative outlet, and I always had paper and pens. In some ways, because I got married and had children so young, I think writing became this place in my life that was just for me, where I could be myself and remember who I was as an individual.
How did you carve out time for your writing while you were a busy mom with young children?
It wasn’t easy. I think the hardest thing is having any solitude for thinking. Like William Stafford said once, writing is like fishing. You have to cast the line out every morning and see what happens, but with young children, of course, you don’t have that luxury. Back when my kids were little, I had to stay up really late at night to write or study. And if you’re writing, teaching, and caring for others—each of those activities requires focus and attention. They are not things you can put on automatic pilot. And so you need to tell yourself to give over specific time to your writing, even if it’s only two mornings a week, and then you need to protect that time.
What do you recommend to people who are interested in writing themselves?
Initially, I wanted to be a poet, and the advice that I was given was, “If you want to write good poetry, read contemporary fiction.” So I did. I read everything in this anthology my husband had from his English class at the community college. Katherine Anne Porter and James Baldwin were two of the writers I liked and so I went to the library and got all of their other books. By the time I did go back to school as an undergraduate, I had already educated myself—but I had given myself an alternative education because when I was in school in the ’80s, you could go for whole semesters without reading one woman writer or one writer of color and those were the writers who spoke to me and whose work affirmed my own attempts at writing, my own subject matter. That’s kind of a long way of saying: be a reader if you want to be a writer. I have heard so many writers say that their best teachers were books.
Why was finding a creative community in Bend vital to you?
I told myself I would never be one of those people who retire and then follow their children. I never wanted my daughter’s life to become my life, and she didn’t want me to do that either. But living near her, and closer to my son and his family in Boise, is every bit as important as my writing life in Tucson. It goes back to that central conflict, the pull between family and the writing, and it’s partly why I made the move gradually and why I wanted to be involved in OSU – Cascades. I had to meet other writers. I had to find my creative home. Now that I’ve been here for a few years and met other writers and now that my most recent writing is set here in the Oregon high desert, I am starting to feel as if I’ve found a new home.
Kerani Mitchell is on a mission to create an inclusive Central Oregon for all.
photo by marisa chappell hossick
If you got to know Kerani Mitchell through her recent Bend City Council bid, you might know she’s a woman of color, a renter and a telecommuter. But if you’re involved in local social justice work, you know her conversation-starting candidacy is just the tip of the iceberg.
Adopted from India as an infant, 33-year-old Mitchell has lived in Central Oregon since middle school. And though she spent her youth in Sisters listening to country music and caring for farm animals, she is often perceived as an outsider because of her first name and skin color. It’s a perception she has battled all her life, but it’s also a challenge that has prompted her to take an active role creating conversations that dispels harmful myths and prejudices in our midst.
“This is my home. This is where I grew up. This is where my family still lives. If there’s any place in the world I can claim as home and have some part in social change, it’s here,” she explained. “And if I want to stay and live here, it’s imperative that my community and I move forward on issues of equity, inclusion, education and social transformation.”
I’ve had insight into Mitchell’s often behind- the-scenes work over the past year and a half as Mitchell and I have gone from acquaintances to business partners. But Mitchell isn’t looking for recognition (case in point: she was reluctant to be interviewed). For her, community involvement is both a spiritual responsibility and a survival tactic.
Mitchell grew up Catholic and is inspired by the Jesuits’ “Ignatian spirituality,” which author Ronald Mordas describes as “a humanism that defends human rights, prizes learning from other cultures, seeks common ground between science and religion,” and social justice.
Mitchell developed strong community connections in her youth, volunteering with her dad’s Kiwanis club, serving as a camp counselor, and facilitating art groups for grieving kids. While these connections were protective, as one of the few persons of color in Sisters, she still experienced inequities her peers didn’t face. And it got worse after 9/11.
“It was a very lonely experience to walk around with fear of racial profiling or just silly comments. People calling me the ‘n-word,’ or refusing to shake my hand,” Mitchell recalls.
When she returned home from Seattle University, Mitchell says these interactions and attitudes persisted. Strangers would ask “Where are you from?” and get angry when she said, “Sisters.” Or say things like, “Aren’t you glad you’re here? You could have ended up like Slumdog Millionaire.”
So Mitchell channeled those experiences into the Oregon Humanities conversation project “Where Are You From?” The project has taken her across the state to facilitate conversations about identity and belonging and given her an opportunity to reclaim her narrative.
Mitchell said she has always had a strong sense of empathy and a passion for solving problems. Raised to be independent, she’s never been shy about taking action.
We founded Allyship in Action together in 2018, bringing together local equity facilitators to support one another and the community. But she says it’s also an opportunity to demonstrate the power of diverse folks coming together as allies to one another.
“I’ve had crisis and pain in my life, and I viscerally remember what it is like to feel alone,” Mitchell explained. “If I can do something that someone else might not be able to do, I feel it’s my responsibility in that moment to honor my community by speaking up.”
Contemporary artist Kelly Thiel’s feminine mystique takes center stage in a new colalboration with Athleta featuring female athletes.
photo by alex jordan
In her studio space on Bend’s west side, artist Kelly Thiel puts on headphones, cranks up her music and begins layering paint on canvas. Because she’s always short on time, she paints fast and intuitively. The resulting canvases are colorful, contemporary and express the mystery and mood of her subjects, often women.
“I’m obsessed with people’s personal stories and experience,” she said. “I want to know what they have to say and convey that through my art.”
Thiel begins her paintings by “journaling,” which involves writing words on canvas with translucent Copic ink. It’s a way for her to organize her thoughts. Sometimes she covers the words entirely as she builds layers of acrylic ink onto the canvas. Other times, she allows the words to peek through. “Words infuse energy onto the piece,” she said.
J.M. Brodrick, an internationally recognized Bend painter, said that her friend and colleague is “fearless and doesn’t hold back. She’ll attack any subject and dive in. She may struggle when she’s first learning a new technique, but then she triumphs.”
In a collaboration with Athleta, the sportswear company for women and girls, Thiel will create a series of paintings from photos her husband, Charlie, took of model-athletes striking various athletic poses. “I want to show the grace and elegance and strength of these women,” she said. The seven to ten females featured in the series will complement Athleta’s color line for 2019 and will hang in the store’s retail space in the Old Mill District during June. Charlie will also exhibit his photos. A portion of any painting that Thiel sells will go to Saving Grace, a nonprofit that supports individuals experiencing violence and sexual assault.
An interior designer by education, Thiel began her art career as a sculptor 1999 when she and her mother enrolled in a pottery course in Charleston, South Carolina, where Thiel was living at the time. She spent eight years making mugs, plates and cups from clay. When her mother died in 2008, Thiel shifted her attention to figurative work in clay and also began painting. Sculpture and painting inform one another, she said.
Today she splits her time equally between the two mediums. A common theme in her early work was birds, which her mother loved. She incorporated them into both mediums, often as human-bird hybrids. Horns, rabbit ears and even a small flock of birds adorn the heads of women. “It was art therapy, and started out as a way for me to ‘fly away.’ As I healed, I moved away from birds,” she said.
In 2014, Thiel and her family moved to Central Oregon, and in 2015, she joined with two other women to open The Wilds— Coworking for Creatives. It functions as studio space for her and other artists and office space for people working in creative fields. On evenings and weekends, it’s gathering spot and a place for art classes. It’s also where she can exhibit her work; a series of abstract paintings currently hangs along one wall, perhaps signaling a new direction in her art.
photo by alex jordan
Brodrick likes her friend’s abstract work and notes that she is likely to continue to pursue both figurative and abstract impulses. “I admire Kelly’s boldness in colors, and it’s one of the things that stands her apart from other artists. She’s got a lot of potential and pushes the edges. What she’s doing now is not what she’ll be doing ten years from now.”
The 46-year-old artist exhibits paintings and sculptures across the country, and sculpture internationally at the Kunsthuis Gallery in Yorkshire, northern England. Her work has been on the cover of Handmade Business Magazine and in the 500 Figures in Clay, Volume 2, published in 2014 by in Lark Books, a publisher that showcases the best in the craft world. The public can sometimes see Thiel’s artwork around town in such places as the Oxford Hotel, Franklin Crossing, Substance Coffee and Stellar Realty Northwest. She also does commissioned work, with prices for a painting or sculpture ranging between $1,000 and $3,000.
Windflower Farm, an artisan farm on the edge of the high desert, swims against the current.
Spring at Windflower Farm in Alfalfa may appear much as it has for the past fourteen years, with a couple of thoroughbreds loping on twenty acres shared with hens, goats, honeybees, and planted with flowers. Here, at the edge of the Badlands about fifteen miles east of Bend, Gigi Meyer is considering her next move.
Since 2005, Meyer has poured her commitment to biodiversity into her land, creating a small-scale sustainable farm that has supplied stellar produce and eggs to some of the area’s best chefs and discerning consumers. It has also been a working classroom for area college students and aspiring farmers.
The animals provide fertilizer composted on-site, crops are rotated, and flowers are planted to attract insects that support a vibrant ecosystem before the blooms are sold to restaurants and boutique markets. The farm isn’t certified organic, but Meyer uses no pesticides, even those approved for certified organic farms. Meyer found that by continually caring for the soil, strategic seed selection and time-sensitive planting, she didn’t need any chemicals.
Gigi Meyer and Rosie the goat
“It’s my own baroque artist thing—I bring it all in and distill it into a system that works,” said Meyer. “That’s my M.O., a microcosm of the natural process.” Meyer grew up on a ranch in Eastern Oregon, studied art at the New York Studio School in Manhattan, lived in Italy and trained racehorses in Southern California before returning to her home state.
Now, the farm is symbolic of concerns about Oregon’s agricultural future. The average age of Oregon farmers is 60, up from 55 in 2002. As farmers retire, more than 10 million acres—64 percent of Oregon’s agricultural land—will be sold. The potential change in use could massively affect Oregon’s economy, environment and food sources, which calls for thoughtful succession planning.
At age 60, after decades of intensely physical work and riding crazy, young thoroughbreds, Meyer is looking for a young farmer to take the reins. She wants to stay on the farm, but return to her earlier artistic pursuits, writing and painting. “I’ve built something that’s productive to society, the community, and the landscape. There are farmers like me all across the country, and I’m proud of what I’ve created.”
Others are, too. Owen Murphy, assistant professor of Health and Human Performance at Central Oregon Community College, said, “Windflower is such a valuable learning experience for my students because of how diverse it is—vegetables, flowers, herbs, milk and meat. It’s a wonderful example of smallscale, polyculture-based agriculture.”
Last year, Murphy brought his Sustainable Food Production Systems class there. “It was the dead of winter, but we helped weed, mulch and prep the beds for spring,” he said. “Then we gathered around for dinner with ingredients sourced from the farm. It was cold and dark outside, but full of warmth and conversation inside. Gigi helped the students understand some of the hard work and joy associated with small-scale farming.”
Bend couple’s infill home adds a modern twist to an established westside neighborhood.
By the time Andy and Jenny Boyd had sold a successful business, traveled the world and returned home to Boulder, they were ready for a change. “Bend felt like a better place [than Boulder] to raise our kid,” Andy recalled. “We get outside here more often, and exploring the area is way easier, plus we love being within striking distance of West Coast cities and the ocean.”
During a visit to Bend in the “snowpocalypse” winter of 2017, they found an empty lot (buried under a mound of snow) that met their requirements. It was a block off Galveston Avenue, steps away from the food trucks at The Lot and easy strolling distance from the Deschutes River and Drake Park. They’d lived in San Francisco “where we shared a car, walked everywhere and got hooked on a pedestrian lifestyle,” Jenny said. Also, Westside Village Magnet School was nearby and their son, Emmett, could walk to school until the eighth grade. “That was huge for us and helped us pick the neighborhood,” she added.
The couple hired Brandon Olin of Olin Architecture to design a contemporary home. A top priority for the Boyds was to maximize natural and direct sunlight. To achieve this, Olin placed the house toward the north side of the property, thereby opening up the south side by putting windows, doors and outdoor space there. Natural light floods the great room through an open ceiling and a span of skylights in the two-story home. “Brandon just crushed it,” Andy said. He recalled a moment last December shortly after moving into the house. “I came downstairs in the morning and the room was lit up. I didn’t have to turn on any lights.”
Besides a lot of light, Andy and Jenny sought clean, unfussy lines. The floor and kitchen counter tops are concrete, the walls industrial white, there’s a steel guardrail at the stairs and no trim around windows or doors. In short, everything about the home from finishes to furniture speaks minimalism.
The Boyds hired interior designer Kate Darden to help them realize their minimalist aesthetic and select furnishings. “Jenny and Andy steered away from soft finishes, such as carpeting, wall coverings or drapery,” she said. “Instead, they opted for pops of bold color, nothing moody or dramatic.”
Exposed wood ceiling beams in the living room, hardwood floors upstairs and splashes of colored tile and area rugs soften and complement the hard surfaces. Darden selected Moroccan and handmade tile in primary colors for several places, including a showpiece gas fireplace in the living room. The artichoke-patterned yellow tile is “beautifully fired and feels really warm,” she said. Olin added that the fireplace with its yellow tile “is cool because it is substantial enough that you see it from the front of the house.”
For consistency, Darden stuck with primary colored tile throughout the home. She chose hexagon blue tile with stars for 9-year-old Emmett’s upstairs bathroom and a green tile in random shapes in the downstairs powder room. For the couple’s master bath, she went with white tiles etched in black lines on the back wall to match the square cabinetry and retro Schoolhouse pendant lights. Cabinetry throughout the house is by Harvest Moon Woodworks and features exposed plywood-edges with cutouts for pulls, rather than hardware.
The 2,300-square-foot home has one great room that flows from living room to dining room and kitchen. Behind the kitchen is a narrow hallway with a cozy TV and reading room that can be closed off by a sliding barn door, and a mud room at the back. Olin added a second side-yard-facing garage door at the back which gives the homeowners another opportunity to blend indoor and outdoor living. “We located three bedrooms upstairs for privacy and to take advantage of elevated views of the neighborhood with an additional covered outdoor patio off the master bedroom,” Olin said.
An interesting feature of the home is its view of the Texaco station on Galveston, especially from the master bedroom. “Jenny and Andy embraced the fact that their neighborhood is about as urban as it gets in Bend, and they enjoy having The Lot and Galveston literally right out their door,” Olin said. “I think their background of having lived throughout the U.S. and in urban environments…contributed to the feeling of being comfortable right in the city.”
Land Effects installed the landscaping, which includes large concrete blocks with gravel and turf strips between them, small trees and giant rocks. The front yard is bordered by a low, concrete wall, with seats arrayed around a firepit, a place where the couple hopes to entertain friends and neighbors who stop by.
The exterior continues the interior’s sleek, contemporary lines. The siding is vertical board and batten painted white, broken up by horizontal cedar boards and a black front door with opaque glass panels. “The house turned out taller and stands out more than we expected, but we love it,” Andy said. “This was a fun project. It turned out to be a super home.”
Epic Aircraft’s new plane has the Bend company posed for a second chapter.
Photo by Jean Marie Urlacher
Every Thursday afternoon, Epic Aircraft employees gather in a showroom hangar for some food and drink. In late January, the crew was also asked to do something a little different during the event: sign their name to an airplane cowling, its hood, and typically one of the last pieces of a plane put in place.
The signatures were at the request of the aircraft’s owner as Epic neared completion of its fifty-fourth and final experimental kit. That plane will mark the end of an era for Epic, which has been designing and manufacturing carbon fiber, high-performance turboprop “kit” planes since 2004.
Today, a new $3.25 million plane currently being assembled at Epic’s Bend headquarters is poised to help the company truly take off. After seven years of design, manufacturing and rigorous testing, the Epic E1000 is set to become the company’s first FAA-certified, fully factory-built aircraft, fulfilling a goal the company had from the beginning.
“It also signals the arrival of a truly game-changing aircraft,” said Epic CEO Doug King. “One that is going to disrupt the aviation industry, setting a new standard for innovation, performance and price. Now that is very exciting.”
Epic’s first five factory-built E1000 aircraft are in production, in various stages of fabrication, bonding and final assembly. They are expected to be delivered to customers later this year.
“We have a large order book of more than eighty airplanes, we just need to start delivering planes, and we intend to do that this summer,” King said. “This is a big year for us.”
From Kit to Complete
Photo by Jill Rosell
The coveted FAA certification is “a done deal,” said Gale Evans, Epic’s marketing manager. “The only question is exactly when it will be a done deal.”
The experimental kit plane process Epic gained national recognition for involved the company designing and manufacturing the aircraft, but the FAA required customers to build 51 percent of the plane. The process often took several years to complete with customers spending weeks at a time at Epic putting together the planes under close supervision.
The new FAA certificate, expected this summer, allows Epic to design and build the plane from start to finish and ramp up production considerably. Since 2004, just fifty-two planes were sold and built. Epic now expects to build more than fifty planes a year and already has orders from customers in the U.S., Australia, Europe and Russia.
“We’re expanding our market from 10 percent [of the general aviation market] to all of it,” King said. “And instead of requiring a deep personal commitment to the kit-plane process, now all a potential customer has to determine is whether it’s capable enough for them and whether they can afford it.”
King said his customers are folks who run small to mid-sized businesses—construction contractors, developers, doctors or entertainers. They are people who have money and who need to move around quickly. Because of its smaller size, the E1000 is able to land and take off from some of the hundreds of smaller airports situated around the country, an intriguing benefit for many potential customers.
Epic touts the E1000 as cheaper and faster than its competitors. The six-seater can fly from San Francisco to the Mississippi River on a single tank of gas, cruising at 375 miles per hour fully loaded.
“It expands their ability to get around at near airliner speeds at relatively low costs,” King said.
Pia Bergqvist, executive editor at Flying Magazine, has been monitoring Epic and the certification process for years. She flew in one of the test E1000s a few years ago and said, “The performance truly is spectacular” and seconds Epic’s claims that the new plane is much more capable than its rivals.
“Airplanes not only have to perform really well, but they have to be sexy for people to want to buy them,” she said. “It’s a cool looking plane and it has terrific performance. I think it’s going to be a winner once it’s out.”
New Plane, New Culture
Photo by Jill Rosell
It’s definitely been a long trip for Epic and King. Just ten years ago, King was an Epic customer and in the middle of building his own kit plane when the company went bankrupt, mothballing his project for a while.
A year later, he formed an investment group of kit-plane owners who bought and rescued the company. In 2012 King sold to a private Russian investor, solidifying the company’s financial future and ensuring funding would be in place for FAA certication. King stayed on board as the CEO.
“That was an interesting time and the decision I had to make was, do I walk away from it or do I go all in,” King said. “A lot of people thought I was nuts investing in an airplane company in 2010 [in the midst of the recession]…but the airplane is really a star. I had a chance to do it and it turned one dream into a different dream.”
Epic has reason to be optimistic about the future market for its new plane. There were close to 400 turboprop deliveries through the third quarter of 2018—up nearly six percent from 2017 according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. Officials there are bullish about the $12.7 billion industry’s future performance, in part, due to new products set to be introduced.
“The industry is very excited,” Evans said. “The FAA has been supportive of us too. Aviation needs more innovation and we’re offering the market something new, something that will redefine expectations in the industry.”
The projected increase in production means they’ll also need to increase the current workforce at Epic, which already hovers around 250 people. King said Epic could hire as many as 100 new employees in the coming year, to do everything from fabrication to final inspection.
Photo by Jill Rosell
“We’re always hiring here,” King said. “And it’s a good job that someone with or even without a degree can begin a good career in Bend. That’s the biggest reason for our outreach in the area. We’re not trying to find customers here, but we are trying to find employees.”
Epic discontinued its kit plane program in 2013, preparing for the FAA certification. When the final experimental plane is ready, they’ll bring it to the showroom hangar— complete with a giant bow. Evans said they will probably involve the entire Epic staff and give the plane a special send-off, effectively turning the page for the company.
“It’s closing one chapter,” Evans said, “and starting a very exciting next chapter that everyone has their eyes focused on.”
For Darla Naugher, the decision to have hip replacement surgery became clear while on a beach vacation in Mexico. Instead of running on the beach with her sisters, as she usually would, she simply could not keep up with them. In fact, she could hardly walk at all, because of the pain in her hip.
Like many Central Oregonians, Naugher has a passion for fitness and outdoor recreation; exercise and running were part of her routine and part of her identity, as well. At age 50, she had no intention of slowing down, until she learned more about what was happening to her hip joint.
“I’d been dealing with some foot problems, especially with the joint in my toe, and I assumed that my uneven gait was making my hip hurt,” Naugher explained. She found help from a chiropractor and physical therapist, but eventually she was sent to Dr. James Hall, an orthopedic surgeon at The Center in Bend. Her x-rays clearly showed how the cartilage in her hip socket had degraded, leaving the ball of the femur bone-on-bone in the socket.
Naugher understood that a total hip replacement was the best treatment to relieve her pain, but she wasn’t ready yet. “Dr. Hall said I’d know when it was the right time for surgery,” she said. “But I thought I was way too young—hip replacements were for old people!” said Naugher. Missing out on the fun on her beach vacation was the turning point. She worried that life would soon start passing her by, and she decided to learn more about joint replacement.
About Hip Replacement Surgery
When wear-and-tear arthritis breaks down the smooth cartilage that cushions bone movement within a joint, often the only treatment is a total joint replacement. The surgeon removes the damaged parts of the hip joint, and replaces them with implants made of metal and ceramic or a durable plastic. These implants fit into the bone and recreate the ball and socket of a healthy joint.
New advancements have changed the way this surgery is done, with less disruption to surrounding muscles and tissues.
“Our techniques are so much better now. The incisions are minimal, and the new components have better longevity,” explained Dr. Hall.
Traditionally, hip replacements were only done in a hospital setting, where patients stayed for one or more nights. With the recent advancements, hip replacements can now be done at outpatient surgery clinics. Patients leave the surgery center within hours after the procedure, and begin their recovery in the comfort of their own home.
Choosing Outpatient Care
Dr. Hall found Naugher to be a good candidate for outpatient surgery. “It’s important that patients are in good health overall, and are very motivated to work with the physical therapists,” said Hall. Outpatient surgery candidates also need a key person to stay with them for several days, who communicates with the surgery center staff and supports the patient’s recovery. Naugher fit all of those conditions.
Not every patient finds outpatient surgery to be the appropriate choice. For patients over age 65, Medicare restrictions only cover traditional hospital settings for joint replacement. Some health conditions, including chronic pain problems and sleep apnea, make in-patient surgery a better option. But fit, active patients like Naugher often prefer to avoid hospital settings.
Cascade Surgicenter was the first surgery center in Central Oregon to offer outpatient joint replacement in October of 2015. The surgical group based their protocols on well-established best practices from outpatient centers around the country, and built a support team of nurses, nurse practitioners, and physical therapists with expertise in joint replacement recovery. The trend towards outpatient surgery is growing, according to Dr. Hall, especially among Bend’s population of outdoor enthusiasts.
Naugher felt confident about choosing outpatient surgery for her hip replacement after talking through her concerns with nursing staff at Cascade Surgicenter. “They answered all my questions so thoroughly. I can’t say enough about how good they are,” she said.
Recovery At Home
For the first few days after surgery, Naugher needed help from her sisters. The discomfort was manageable and the need for pain medication was short-lived. The greatest challenge for an active person, like Naugher, may be to follow the doctor’s orders to take it easy.
“The healing happened quickly. I had to promise to do no exercise the first six weeks, and that was the hardest part,” said Naugher. “I felt good, but I just had to stay out of the gym and let it heal.” After a few days of using a walker for balance, she began walking without support. Two weeks later, she returned to work. Once she was cleared to begin physical therapy, Naugher made it a mission to get back to her previous level of fitness.
One year later, Naugher is on the move again, and barely notices any limitations. “It’s a new lease on life, really. I can do anything—I can hike, go to spin class and yoga. I can wear cute shoes again too!” she laughed.
Because her other hip also shows signs of cartilage damage, Naugher has chosen to replace running with hiking, to minimize the impact on that joint. Fortunately, the hiking opportunities in Central Oregon are plentiful, and she heads out to the trails regularly with her dog at her side.
Smith Rock is a favorite destination, and climbing up to take in the views are all the sweeter these days, with no pain to hold her back.
Her advice to anyone considering hip joint replacement surgery? “Once you learn that your pain won’t get better without surgery, don’t wait. Don’t give up all that time, and miss out on a good quality of life while you wait for your hip to get better.”
The Center Orthopedic and Neurosurgical Care offers free seminars on outpatient total joint replacement at OSU-Cascades Tykeson Hall. To learn more or to register for a seminar, contact The Center at 541-322-2211
Spider City Brewing is not only Bend’s newest brewery, but it is also the only brewery in the region run entirely by women.
Melanie Betti
Bend’s newest brewery, Spider City Brewing, opened late last year on Bend’s east side and gained attention not only for its unusual name (a reference to the residential garage that housed Spider City’s pre-launch homebrewing system) but also because it is Bend’s only brewery owned entirely by women.
Twin sisters Melanie and Michele Betti and Tammy Treat spent the last several years planning the brewery and developing recipes, homebrewing in the garage while homing in on their brewery and taproom concept. Longtime friends, the brewery idea was a pipedream long before it was a plan.
“We met each other at California State University, Chico. We all have a passion for beer and dreamed of one day opening our own brewery. Perhaps it was all that Sierra Nevada we drank at Chico,” joked Betti.
What’s it like going from homebrew-sized batches to fifteen-barrel batches?
We invested in a SABCO BrewMagic Pilot brewhouse and four glycol-chilled stainless-steel fermenters in order to be able to brew on a system that would mirror to some extent our fifteen-barrel brew house. This system has allowed us to brew at a professional level and work on our recipe development.
How has being a sommelier (and owner of The Wine Shop) helped you with beer and brewing?
As a sommelier I know what is in balance and what is out of balance in wine and beer. I have traveled all over the world for wine, and in every country that I visit I always make sure I check out the beer scene. I have always loved beer just as much as I love wine. It is that passion that drove me to open a brewery and to make good, quality, clean beer.
You’ve already got quite a variety of beers on tap. Are there any styles that you look forward to brewing?
We will always keep things fresh at Spider City Brewing. Michele, Tammy and I use our travels to inspire us. We are going to be coming up with some very cool hopped recipes that I think the public will enjoy and some kettle sours that will be super drinkable.
When you were homebrewing and developing recipes, were there any notable successes that made it to the commercial level?
Yes. We have a few recipes that are some of our most popular in which rye and rye flakes are used in the malt bill. The key to a good malt bill is keeping it simple, but then trying to see if there is a malt that can add complexity to the overall profile of the beer. I’m talking two to three percent to the overall recipe.
Were there any notable failures? What did you learn from those?
Of course, yes! Our fruit beers gave us some of the most trouble. Using fresh fruit is always the preferable method. It may cost a bit more and take a little longer, but the results are worth it. And like I said before, the key to a good recipe is keeping the malt bill simple. And the hop additions minimal too. There are several tricks you can use to get the most out of a hop. If you get too complex, then everything gets muddled.
I know the brewery has just launched, but are there any plans to package the beer in cans or bottles?
Yes. We plan on canning our beer in sixteen-ounce cans. While the public is waiting on those you can always stop by the southeast side brewery and pick up a Crowler or two to go. Those are always fun!
An interview with Bend’s Sierra Klapproth, a member of the all-female flat-track roller derby team, the Lava City Roller Dolls.
Founded in 2006, the Lava City Roller Dolls is Bend’s all-female flat-track roller derby team. We talked with Bend’s Sierra Klapproth, who’s been skating with the club since she was 10. Now 19, Klapproth, the team’s point-scoring jammer, shares what drew her to roller derby and how she skates like a Star Wars character.
How did 10-year-old Sierra come to join roller derby?
In fourth grade I read a book called Derby Girl (the YA novel behind the film Whip It!). I fell in love with the idea of it. I talked to my parents and said, ‘I want to do this, I need this.’ They took me to the roller skating rink, and there happened to be a flier about a junior roller derby camp. I signed up for the camp and loved it. I’ve been doing it ever since.
How was roller derby different than other sports you had participated in?
I always wanted to play football, but girls don’t play football. There wasn’t really an aggressive sport option for girls. Once I got into derby, this aggressive sport with girls of all shapes and sizes and backgrounds, it made me feel so strong, even as a young kid. I felt a real sense of belonging for the tomboyish kid that I was.
What’s the story behind your skater name Darth Maully?
I picked my name the night before I went to my first derby camp, because I was worried that my real name wasn’t tough enough. My brother had one of his Star War collectibles on the railing of the stairs. It was a Darth Maul doll. He is really mysterious and on the dark side. I always liked that he was super agile and strong. Now, it reflects the way I skate. I like to be sneaky, agile and play mental mind games. It’s a perfect match.
Do you feel or act differently when you’re in the rink versus your “normal” life?
Absolutely. As a junior, I definitely was more outspoken and more aggressive [on skates]. In my day-to-day life, I was a shy, nerdy kid. For the older women, derby is their loud, crazy outlet because they sit behind a desk during the day.
Why is roller derby important to you and the other women on your team?
For me personally, it keeps me strong, mentally and physically, which is something that I’ve always really valued. It’s also taught me to be more comfortable with myself. That it doesn’t matter what I look like, or what I am into. It puts such a strength into people. I see grown women who are shy and really quiet, and all of the sudden they are strong and fast and really outspoken. They just come out of their shell.
What are you future derby dreams?
I’ve always had the goal to skate in Portland for the Rose City Roller Dolls. They’re the number one team in the world. In the last several years as derby has grown, there are World Cups with Team USA, which I would love to be a part of.
This spring, make a trip to Ashland, a cultural and outdoors hub in the heart of Southern Oregon.
Lithia Park. Photo by Sean Bagshaw
My daughters run through the sycamore grove in Lithia Park, our first stop during our three-day Ashland getaway. The grove is one of my favorite places in Ashland, Southern Oregon’s cultural hub. Home to the world-famous Oregon Shakespeare Festival, we visit Ashland each year to see live theater and music, eat amazing meals, take a backstage tour, do a little shopping and wander in urban nature.
Ashland in the summer means packed streets, hot weather and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival at full tilt. But OSF actually fires up in March, and this year, we decided to make Southern Oregon our spring break trip. The scene is quieter, temperatures are high 60s instead of high 80s, and while we won’t be hitting the hotel pool, it’s still at least ten degrees warmer than back home in Bend. It feels great to get out of town, soak up some culture, and of course, walk in Lithia Park—ninety-three acres of landscaped paradise on Ashland Creek, featuring a Japanese garden, two duck ponds, a formal rose garden and a children’s playground.
After the park, we wander along the creek downtown and explore the Lithia Artisans Market, a little outdoor shopping experience featuring art, clothing and trinkets. Then it’s dinner at Standing Stone Brewery, which uses as many local products as possible, even in their beer (try the I Heart Oregon Ale, which is 100 percent Oregon-sourced).
Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Photo by T Charles Erickson
It’s busy before play time, and after our meal we walk with others up the hill to the Angus Bowmer Theatre to see a contemporary drama. While the festival was founded eighty years ago as a Shakespeare-only troupe, today OSF presents plays of all eras and genres. This early in the season, the outdoor theater isn’t open yet, and the nightly free entertainment known as the Green Show hasn’t begun either, but the tradeoff is that we got great seats, second row, and the girls are riveted throughout the romantic, Elizabethan, sometimes-bawdy story of Shakespeare in Love.
On the agenda the next morning is the backstage tour, led by an OSF company member and a great way to learn more about festival history, the amazing effort that goes into productions and get a glimpse behind the curtain, from the dressing rooms to the set to stories of when things went wrong on stage (unscripted vomiting, anyone?).
A long weekend in Ashland is these experiences on repeat: another play, another meal, some shopping, another walk in the park. Our three days in Ashland pass quickly, and we return home with a lingering taste of the culture and flavor of Southern Oregon.
Restaurants
Larks
Larks, in the Ashland Springs Hotel, serves fresh fine dining focusing on local products and produce. The light and lovely space is the perfect place for a nice meal accompanied by great cocktails and an extensive Oregon-based wine list. Brother’s Restaurant serves delicious breakfast and lunch and is a great option for brunch before a matinee. The food here is plentiful and extremely tasty, and best accompanied by one of their incredible bloody marys.
Lodging
Ashland Springs Hotel
Ashland Springs Hotel is the crown jewel. This luxurious landmark hotel first opened in 1925 and underwent a restoration and reopening in 2000. Rooms are modest in size but beautiful and comfortable. The lobby is a little natural history museum, with bird taxidermy, eggs and seashells on display. Bard’s Inn is another great lodging option, located within easy walking distance of theaters. With many rooms including suites, and a swimming pool, this is a great destination for families. Jacksonville Inn, built in 1861 during the gold rush, is a good choice for extremely charming lodging and dining in nearby Jacksonville.
Nearby Attractions
Crater Lake National Park
Crater Lake is between Bend and Ashland. The road from the south doesn’t open until summer season, but a stop is well worth the effort in season. Applegate Valley offers wine tasting and scenery galore in this valley with over a dozen wineries. Jacksonville began as a gold rush town in the 1850s and is home to the Britt Festival, a summer-long lineup of concerts in a very pretty and unique outdoor venue in the hills just to the west of downtown. The Rogue River is one of America’s original Wild and Scenic Rivers, and a terri c destination for whitewater rafting, fishing and hiking.
An evening at Ariana is like being at a convivial party at the home of friends—ones who serve eclectic, seasonal dishes inspired by their Italian and Colombian roots, that is.
Sicilian-style calamari. Photo by Alex Jordan
Start with an appetizer that Ariana Restaurant co-owners and chefs Ariana and Andres Fernandez discovered in New York City in 2014, when they were invited to cook a dinner at the prestigious James Beard House.
During the trip at The Spotted Pig restaurant, they ordered gnudi, a ricotta ravioli of sorts, but one that’s practically “nude,” with a fine, delicate layer veiling the cheese rather than encasing it in a pasta shell. The husband-and-wife team adapted the recipe, creating a gluten-free version using rice and tapioca flour.
“We did that purposefully, because many of our clients are gluten-free,” said Ariana.
They strain luscious, whole-milk ricotta overnight, form it into small, meatball-size balls, roll it in the non-wheat flour mixture, and allow a thin exterior layer to form overnight. They cook them like ravioli and serve them with brown butter and fried sage. Pair it with a glass of 2017 Bethel Heights pinot gris, from Eola-Amity Hills in the Willamette Valley. Not your typical pinot gris, it’s made in an Alsatian style.
“In other words, the wine is bone-dry,” said sommelier Brett Larson. “Most Oregon pinot gris maintain a noticeable amount of residual sugar.”
With notes of green apple, pear, and wet stone, this light-to-medium bodied wine’s racy acidity balances the richness of the dish.
Next, try the Sicilian-style calamari, a menu mainstay in honor of Ariana’s family heritage. Andres created the salty-sweet recipe, simmering the tender squid with tomato, chiles, capers, currants, and serving it with fregola, tiny, toasted balls of semolina pasta. Savor it with a 2016 Bodega Bernabeleva garnacha, Camino de Navaherreros, from a vineyard on the eastern edge of mountains west of Madrid.
The cool nights at higher elevation prompt good acidity, and notes of raspberry and rhubarb plays against the tomato sauce. Light-to-medium bodied, with very little tannin structure, it allows the salty-sweet flavor of the calamari to reveal itself.
Because sometimes you’re just a little beer’d out, here are the best places to find good wine and good times in Bend and beyond. For all its attention to beer, Central Oregon also has many fantastic places to enjoy a great glass of wine—some of which are even made locally. Whether you’re in the mood for a pinot or a port, or just craving a good chardonnay, one of our local wineries or wine bars will have something to fill your glass.
Elixir Wine Group
Where: 11 NW Lava Rd., Bend
Open: Monday to Friday 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
The newest wine tasting room opened on NW Lava Road in Bend earlier this year. Elixir Wine Group, which has been importing and producing wine for more than two decades. Browse the collection at the new location and try a flight of rotating wines.
The Good Drop Wine Shoppe
Where: 141 NW Minnesota Ave., Bend
Open: Monday to Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday noon to 8 p.m. and Sunday noon to 4 p.m.
For one of the best selection of domestic and international bottles, look no further than The Good Drop Wine Shoppe in downtown Bend. The shoebox-sized shop is filled with a fantastic selection of bottles that you are meticulously sourced. Owner Sarah has spent time building relationships with winemakers around the world and introducing wonderful bottles to her loyal customers. Stop in to try some wine, and discover something new.
Faith, Hope and Charity Vineyards
Where: 70450 NW Lower Valley Dr., Terrebonne
Open: Daily noon to 5 p.m.
Price: $10 tasting
Named for Central Oregon’s Three Sisters peaks, Faith, Hope and Charity Vineyards is an estate vineyard and tasting room on 312 acres in Terrebonne. Take a tour, sip on a flight of wines, and learn about the process of growing wine grapes in the arid and unpredictable climate of Central Oregon. Along with a variety of wines, there is also a menu of small bites as well as pizza to snack on while you relax and enjoy the views from the vineyard. If you’re looking for a little more action, there is live music at the tasting room and vineyard every Saturday night from 6 to 9 p.m. Grab a friend, and make this Terrebonne gem a destination wine date. (Shown in photo above.)
Maragas Winery
Where: 15523 US-97, Culver
Open: Hours change depending on the season, so check their website for the most up to date information
Price: $15 tasting
Set off Highway 97 in between Culver and Terrebonne with stunning views of Smith Rock, Maragas Winery has been open and producing old world style, barrel aged wine for more than a decade. After some starts and stops growing its own wine grapes, the winery has come into its own and produces European varietals as well as French American hybrids. Stop in for a tour and a taste of its current releases. The wine world is taking notice of Maragas’ accomplishments—the winery received silver medals for four of its bottles in the 2018 San Francisco Chronicle wine competition. And keep an eye out for its annual grape stomping event during crush in September, one of the best times of year to visit the winery.
Naked Winery
Where: 330 SW Powerhouse Dr. #10, Bend
Open: Monday to Saturday 12 p.m.-8 p.m. and Sunday 12 p.m.-6 p.m.
Price: $15 for a full tasting, $2 a splash
Find a fun atmosphere as well as glasses of great wine at Naked Winery in the Old Mill District. The wine shop and tasting room is family friendly and also has a small selection of snacks for wine-tasters. With wine made from grapes that are sourced from Oregon, Washington and California, you’ll find a variety of flavor profiles in its wines.
Portello Winecafe
Where: 2754 NW Crossing Dr., Bend
Open: Sunday to Tuesday 4-9 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m.
If you’re looking for more than just a tasting of wine, your best bet in Bend is Portello Winecafe in NorthWest Crossing. The upscale, intimate setting is perfect for a date or getting together with friends. Let the experts guide you in finding a glass to complement your meal from the menu that features light and flavorful European-inspired fare. (The happy hour menu has some of the best deals in town as well.) Flights of wine are available every Saturday and Sunday night.
Va Piano Vineyards
Where: 425 SW Powerhouse Dr. #301, Bend
Open: Monday to Saturday noon to 8:00 p.m. and Sunday noon to 6:00 p.m.
Price: $15 wine tasting
Sip on wine while enjoying a front-row view of the Deschutes River. Va Piano Vineyards is a new addition the Old Mill District that hails wine from Washington state. The family vineyard and winery in Walla Walla primarily uses estate-grown grapes in its small-lot batches. You can also pair your wine tasting flight with cheese plates ($18) that can be enjoyed inside the modern tasting room or outside on the patio.
The Wine Shop and Tasting Bar
Where: 55 NW Minnesota Ave.
Open: Tuesday to Thursday 1-9 p.m., Friday and Saturday 1-11 p.m., Sunday noon to 7 p.m.
Find a selection to suit the whims of just about any wine and or beer lover at The Wine Shop and Tasting Bar in downtown Bend. Open late into the evening throughout the week and weekend, the cozy space is a great place to discover a new bottle or brew from regional makers and beyond. There’s also a menu of food, so you can stick around for a snack or a meal while you taste. A recent addition is a series of taps featuring ales from owner Melanie Betti’s side project, Spider City Brewing.
No longer do you have to sacrifice healthy, real food for speed and convenience. At Life & Time, you can have it both ways. We are excited to see this healthy new alternative to conventional fast food, that’s why we’ve partnered with our friends to bring you the opportunity to win a gift card to their brand new restaurant. One winner will randomly be chosen.
“Our food is real and packed with nutrients to fuel all of life’s adventures. We are honored to lead the Real Food Revolution, and change the face of fast food forever.”
The contest begins on February 1 at 12:01 a.m. and ends on February 17 at 11:59 p.m. For the complete list of rules, visit our contest policy page.
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Welcome to the inaugural Bend Magazine Readers’ choice Awards. In the fall, our readers weighed in on the best in dining, drinks, entertainment and more in Central Oregon. And the winners are…
If participation is any measure of your interest, it was off the charts. In total almost 25,000 votes were cast across all categories. The process took several months for us to complete, beginning with a round of preliminary nominations back in October. Those initial votes determined our finalists, though we kept all categories open for write-in nominations. A final round of voting was held in November. Despite the volume of participation, some of the votes were achingly close—a testament to the wealth of great options available around the region when it comes to entertainment. Thanks to all of you who participated in the balloting. We had a great time watching the results pour in. We know you’ll recognize many of these names, but hopefully you’ll find a few new ideas as well. Congratulations to all our winners, you are the toast of the town. Might we suggest you raise a glass of champagne to the good work you do and to our readers who recognized the effort.
Best Happy Hour
Pine Tavern
The Pine Tavern isn’t so much a restaurant as an institution in Bend. Complete with signature ponderosa pines that jut through the center of the dining room, the Pine Tavern has been part of the fabric of Bend’s dining and downtown for nearly a century. It has welcomed loggers, mill owners, debutants and dignitaries. It also happens to be a great watering hole. The restaurant’s cozy lounge offers, a welcoming spot to belly up the oak bar. It’s the reason that Bend Magazine readers selected Pine Tavern as their top happy hour spot in Central Oregon—well that and the incredible value on food and drinks. Small bites and shareable snacks start at $4.25 and go up to $5.95. There are also specials on well drinks and drafts, including the popular Pine Tavern Sangria. Happy hours are weekdays 3 to 6 p.m., opening to 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Best Pizza
Pizza Mondo
When it comes to Readers’ Choice Awards and pizza, it seems there is only one choice, Pizza Mondo. The downtown Bend pizza nook has become a veritable institution by serving up amazingly consistent and creative pies, delivered in a hip atmosphere that bustles with urban energy. It’s been this way since founders John Picarazzi and Steve Koch opened Pizza Mondo in 1996. Other pizza joints have come and mostly gone, but Mondo remains an essential part of Bend’s dining scene—no matter how you slice it.
Best Coffee
Backporch Coffee Roasters
Dave Beach is quick to acknowledge the number of choices that consumers in Central Oregon, and particularly Bend, have when it comes to choosing a cup of coffee. It’s the reason why as the owner of Backporch Coffee Roasters, Beach has put so much thought into what goes into your cup. From the biology of the coffee plants, to the soil where it is grown, to the farmers and laborers in El Salvador and Columbia who pick and process the raw coffee beans, Beach leaves little to chance. But at the end of the day, Beach says the key ingredient that has allowed Backporch to flourish (the company now as four locations and 26 employees) isn’t a proprietary bean or roasting technique, it’s relationships. “It can’t just be product, because there are a lot of good cups of coffee out there. It’s about relationships that are made over the counter,” said Beach.
Best Sushi
5 Fusion & Sushi Bar
Over the last decade, 5 Fusion & Sushi Bar has provided a menu of consistent delights, but chef Joe Kim, a James Beard nominated chef, said variety and experimentation are key to 5 Fusion’s success. Kim prepares ten to twelve specials a day to keep things fresh. It’s not all about the food, however. He credits meticulous service at the front of house for 5 Fusion’s popularity, something that has lasted in the ten years of 5 Fusion.
Best Spa
Anjou Spa
About a year ago, Anjou Spa reopened in a new location on Bend’s west side after a fire destroyed its previous building downtown. The move turned into a rejuvenation of sorts for the spa, said owner Jenna Walden. They focused more on the local customers, promoting a generous spa membership for regulars. They also adjust the spa menu with feedback from customers and employees as well as seasonally to be up to date on the needs to the community. “We try to be inclusive and make it comfortable for both women and men; that was translated in our interior design choices and our men’s spa menu,” said Walden. “We really want to make ‘spa’ more approachable for men so they are addressing relaxation, skincare and other options and incorporating it into their lives.”
Best Staycation
Brasada Ranch
Tucked into the southern facing hip of Powell Butte, Brasada Ranch escapes the gaze of many locals. But if you haven’t been there, you don’t know what you’re missing. The resort has become the premiere destination for Northwest families looking for something different than Disneyland, while becoming a staycation staple for locals in the know. In addition to a spa, world class golf and dining, the resort offers equine activities at its on-property stable and perhaps the best pool in all of Oregon, complete with lazy river and waterslide—and that’s just the beginning. Hot tubs, steam rooms, sauna, workout facilities, on site concierge and mini-taxis have VIP written all over them. Add in a world class sunset that arrives like clockwork over the distant desert peaks and you can see why readers were quick to name Brasada their top staycation spot in Central Oregon.
Best Yoga Studio
Yoga Lab
“When people walk through the doors of Yoga Lab, they feel like they’ve traveled somewhere different—to a place that makes you feel like you really are in a sanctuary,” said Rebecca Bell, one of the owners of The Yoga Lab in Bend. That feeling is just one of the ways that The Yoga Lab is set apart from other studios in Bend. Founded by Bell, Aleta Adams and Ulla Lundgren, The Yoga Lab offers more than two dozen yoga classes a week in a variety of styles. “Because we’re a non-dogmatic school, we can offer classes the community to meet people where they’re at,” said Bell. That community focus, along with teachers who have been leading classes for years, has kept yogis coming back to their mats at The Yoga Lab time and time again.
Best Bike Shop
Hutch’s Bicycles
Hutch’s Bicycles was founded in Eugene in the 1920s, and expanded in Bend in 1981 with Eugene transplant and longtime Hutch’s employee Jim Lewis at the helm. The rest, as they say, is history. Said Hutch’s Petie Thom of the store’s enduring popularity, “We are cyclists first and we know how happy riding a bike can make someone. We want to help share that passion with our customers.” Hutch’s offers bicycle sales, rentals, service and car rack systems from three Central Oregon locations—two in Bend and one in Redmond.
Best Art Gallery
Red Chair Gallery
Located in the historic O’Kane building in downtown Bend, Red Chair Gallery features a large variety of art and contemporary craft from local artists. Potters, painters, glass artists, fiber artists and more are represented. “Nine years ago, a number of local artists and artisans were in need of a place to be together,” said Managing Partner Rita Neely Dunlavy. “We are a gallery for everyone, owned and operated by Central Oregon artists. We’re dedicated to keeping up the good work.”
Best Tour Company
Wanderlust Tours
Since its founding in 1993, Wanderlust has been on the forefront of local ecotourism. The company pioneered canoe paddle tours on the Cascade Lakes in summer and moonlight snowshoe tours in winter using a model that emphasizes sustainability, accessibility and inclusion. It’s an approach that is less about conquering the outdoors and more about harmonizing with it. “We try to be as sustainable as possible. It’s a huge part of what we do on our tours—how we plan them out, where we send people and what we discuss when we’re there,” said Brooke Perkins, marketing manager. “Rather than just having fun and playing in the snow—and we do have a lot of fun— that education aspect is a really important part of what we do.”
Best Burger
Dandy’s Drive-In
The best burger in Central Oregon is a hotly contested debate. Everyone has an opinion about where to find the best one. But there’s something about Dandy’s that keeps it on the top of most people’s lists. It could be that Dandy’s doesn’t mess with the classic drive-in burger recipe, just cooks it to no-frills perfection. It could also be the nostalgia-inducing service, with employees who bring you your burger on roller skates. Whatever it is, Dandy’s took the top prize for our inaugural awards.
Best Tacos
El Sancho
El Sancho’s beginnings were as one of Bend’s first food trucks, but their brick-and-mortar location off of 3rd Street has only served to make them more popular. The restaurant’s menu of Mexican street food (think all kinds of tacos), tasty fresh margaritas and cervezas leave guests coming back for more. The big patio, colorful space and the shop’s commitment to affordability and sustainability don’t hurt either. “We try to have as much fun working at El Sancho as customers do eating and drinking at El Sancho,” said owner Jon Barvels. “It’s just one big party, we’re just the ones making sure it all come together.”
Best Breakfast
McKay Cottage
There’s little doubt that Bend pioneers Clyde and Olive McKay would approve of the delicious breakfasts and lunches served today in the 1916-era Craftsman bungalow that was their home. For years, McKay Cottage has been pleasing lovers of fresh-made comfort food, while winning best breakfast contests in the process. Owner Pam Morgan, who has been in the restaurant business for thirty years, said, “When I opened McKay almost thirteen years ago I had no idea we would be so successful.” She credits her serving and kitchen staff for their welcoming nature and talent. “We create new and interesting comfort food to keep our menu exciting and I love being a part of this creative process. And, we were lucky enough to locate McKay in such a great rustic 100-year-old Craftsman full of such character. It really is a part of Bend’s history.”
Best Local Brewery
Crux Fermentation Project
When Crux Fermentation Project opened its converted garage doors 2012, it immediately became a hit in Bend’s booming craft brewery scene. Known for its trendsetting experimental and one-off brews, Crux draws a steady mix of visitors and locals to its somewhat difficult to reach location between the Box Factory area and the Bend Parkway. A recent expansion will add more room to the indoor/outdoor seating, leaving more room for the ever-expanding crowds that are drawn to the brewery’s atmosphere and large grassy area where families can hang on a sunny afternoon.
Best Food Cart
Brown Owl
Of the Brown Owl, one could write an ode to its fried chicken sandwich, a novel dedicated to the pigs in a blanket, wax poetic about the breakfast burrito and build-your-own bloody mary bar. The food cart set up its permanent home in the Box Factory but still cooks its delicious meals from the truck. Drinks are inside and the assortment of regional beers are great pairs to the diverse menu. It’s a popular place for bites and drinks any day of the week.
Best Bakery
The Sparrow Bakery
Just saying the words “ocean roll” will elicit drooling in locals. The staple pasty of The Sparrow Bakery may be its most popular treat, but the bakery is also known for its quality bread and creative breakfast options. The two locations in Bend mean that you won’t have to wait too long in line to treat yourself to the bakery. Beyond the baked good, the bakery is also a trailblazer in treating their employees well and providing a great working atmosphere.
Best Wine List & Best Restaurant
Zydeco Kitchen & Cocktails
Voted Best Wine List and Best Restaurant in Bend, Zydeco Kitchen & Cocktails took the top prize for two categories in our Readers’ Choice Awards, which puts it in the company of just a handful of other businesses in town. Perhaps it’s the unique menu (at least by Bend’s standards) of Northwest cuisine meets Southern and Creole fare. The regional wine list and knowledgeable staff adds a level of sophistication that’s hard to find elsewhere in Central Oregon. And the atmosphere draws crowds each night in search of a great date spot, place to bring visitors and family.
Best Bloody Mary
Victorian Cafe
Drive past Victorian Cafe on any weekend morning (or weekday morning, for that matter) and there will surely be a line out of people outside the door awaiting their turn for a coveted seat at the Victorian Cafe. The brunch restaurant is well known for its colossal bloody Mary, which won our Readers’ Choice award for the best bloody mary in town, as well as its plates of eggs Benedict cooked to perfection. And in the competitive breakfast cocktail scene in Central Oregon, coming out on top is quite the accomplishment.
Best Jewelry Store
Silverado Jewelry Gallery
Of all the jewelry stores in Central Oregon, Silverado Jewelry Gallery came out on top. The store on the corner of downtown has options for every style and budget. It’s easy to spot the style on locals and visitors around town.
Best Women’s Clothing
Vanilla Urban Threads
One more than one occasion, usually a local festival, I’ve spotted a woman who stands out from the crowd in the perfect outfit. When I ask where she found it, the answer is consistently Vanilla Urban Threads. Located in the Old Mill District, the locally owned clothing store is the place to find trendy and quality men’s and women’s clothes in Bend. In a variety of prices and styles, Vanilla has a selection that speaks perfectly to Bend’s casual chic ethos.
Best Outdoor Gear Shop
REI
There was a time when locals bristled at the notion of a national outdoor retailer setting up shop in the heart of Bend. Sticker campaigns were launched. In the ensuing years, it’s become clear that there is enough room for REI and everyone else in this outdoor loving town. The employee-owned company remains a beacon of corporate responsibility and social leader with campaigns like #optoutside. With two floors of outdoor clothing, gear and accessories, ensconced in the historic, brick power house building, the store is browsing paradise for outdoors lovers of all stripes.
Best Trivia
Silver Moon’s Trivia on the Moon
It seems as if it’s almost hard to find bar or pub that doesn’t offer some sort of live trivia night. Silver Moon distinguishes itself by being on of the few that writes its own questions, allowing an injection of local color and knowledge into the proceedings. Wash it all down with one of Silver Moon’s award winning beers in the Greenwood Avenue pub and rest assured that you’re living like a local.
Best Ladies’ Night & Best Late Night
The Dogwood Cocktail Cabin
The Dogwood Cocktail Cabin, opened in 2014, feels unlike any other bar in town. Dark wood accents, plus the unique array of refurbished decor, creates a mid-century-meet-cabin vibe that is a great place to drink for any occasion. The one-of-a-kind cocktails and the small plates menu provide drinks and bites that you can’t find anywhere else in town. It’s a formula that owners Doug and Phoebe Pedersen has stuck to since they opened, and has been successful. On any weekend night, you’ll find Dogwood packed with people. “We’re really appreciative that Bend loves us as much as we love Bend,” said Doug Pedersen.
Best Date Night
Ariana Restaurant
Ariana Restaurant opened more than a decade ago, and husband-wife team chefs Ariana and Andres Fernandez continue to delight its loyal following. The fine dining restaurant won the peoples’ choice for best date night in Bend. The intimate setting inside in a cozy westside craftsman on Bend’s west side provides a romantic setting for two. And don’t skip on the desserts.
Best Live Music Venue
Les Schwab Amphitheater
Summer officially kicks off in town with the first outdoor concert at Les Schwab Amphitheater, so it’s no surprise that the outdoor concert venue was chosen as the top live music venue. Bringing in national touring acts as well as featuring local up-and-coming performers, the amphitheater draws thousands of locals and visitors alike to performances from big name artists throughout the season. Concert goers are treated to views of the Deschutes River as well as clear starry skies, making it a sought-after destination that added to Central Oregon’s booming growth.
Best Hiking Trail
Deschutes River Trail
The Deschutes River Trail epitomizes what Bendites love about their town: the river, hiking trails (that also allow dogs) and friendly faces all in one place. When tasked with naming the best hike in Central Oregon, there were a lot of great options to choose from. But what took the cake was probably the obvious choice in the end. In town, accessible and open to bikers, runners and walkers and the perfect location to soak your feet in the river or kick back on a patio at the Old Mill, the Deschutes River Trail really is the hiking trail that has it all.
Best Public Play Course
Widgi Creek Golf Club
For more than twenty years Widgi Creek Golf Club, or simply Widgi, has served as Bend’s de facto municipal golf course—a go to track for locals and visitors alike. Visionary owner Barry Helm was among the first of Central Oregon golf course owners to actively cultivate local play with deep discounts on “twilight” rounds and locals’ discount passes. Central Oregon locals have rewarded Helm and course managers with a loyal following that speaks not just to the discounts, but also Widgi’s stellar customer service and tireless focus on a great golf experience for all.
Best Swimming Spot
Elk Lake
Central Oregon is not quite the land of 10,000 lakes, but locals and visitors do have their fair share of alpine lakes to choose from when it comes to cooling off on a hot day in the summer. Of all the options, Elk Lake was chosen as our readers’ choice for the best lake for swimming. It’s a half-hour drive from Bend and easily accessible, with beach access to spread out with your family and hang out by the lake all day.
Best Place for a Workout
Juniper Swim and Fitness Center
The Juniper Swim & Fitness Center is operated by Bend Park & Recreations District with a variety of fitness and aquatic exercise and play opportunities. It boasts hundreds of classes each week, three pools, yoga, exercise, and cycling studios, hot tub sauna and steam room. With everything it has to offer year-round, including the open-air pool, the center was undoubtedly chosen for the best place to workout in Bend.
Best Salon
Lemon Drop
When it comes to hair, the results were abundantly clear—Lemon Drop Salon was the choice for Best Salon in Bend. Focusing on just cut, color and extensions, the salon has honed its skills and techniques that allows Bendites to trust it with their tresses.
Best Indoor Entertainment
Tower Theatre
When the Tower Theatre reopened in 2004 after an extensive renovation, it created a headquarters for Bend’s thriving cultural scene and brightened downtown Bend’s main street with its marquee. Almost every night of the week you’ll find a concert, play, talk or event taking place, and it’s the hub of activity for conferences throughout the year. Bringing in national touring acts as well as showcasing local arts, the Tower Theatre is without a doubt the best place for indoor entertainment year-round.
Best Place to Hang Out With Friends
Floating the River
No surprises here. When the community was tasked with nominating and voting for the best place to hang out with friends, Bendites chose being outside. Specifically, floating the river. On a summer day, the Deschutes River is packed with people on rafts, floaties, paddleboards and kayaks who are taking advantage of the water to cool down and relax with friends.
The Office Group is a nonprofit in Bend that counsels at-risk students and prepares them for life after high school and college.
Three years ago, Dustin Follett was a 17-year-old junior and two-sport athlete at Summit High School—everything was seemingly going according to plan. There was just one problem: there was no plan. Follet, like many of his peers, hadn’t thought beyond his high school years. None of his family had graduated college, so the path forward was particularly unclear.
It was right around the time that Follett discovered The Office Group, an off-campus counseling service aimed at helping students facing social, economic and other obstacles navigate the transition between high school and adult life by ensuring they graduate high school and are prepared for the next phase, whatever that might be.
Fast forward three years and Follett is a computer science major at Eastern Oregon University and excited about what the future holds for him. He says before The Office Group, he never thought college was an option for him.
“I can honestly say, with 100 percent certainty, I wouldn’t be here without The Office Group’s help,” explained Follett over the phone, as he finished his classes for the day. “They helped me prep for the SAT exams—my family could never have afforded a private SAT prep course—and they coached me with my college application essays. Also, they drove me to visit different college campuses, even one out of state.”
Success stories like this are not uncommon for the four-year-old counseling nonprofit that locals Brad and Melissa Kent started with Summit head football coach Corben Hyatt and his wife Kristal.
Brad and Melissa approached the Hyatts about helping them start The Office Group in March of 2014, and by July of that year, they had recruited ten students. Since then The Office Group has grown every year. To manage numbers, they now require prospective students to receive a nomination from a teacher, counselor or coach before they can apply. Currently, thirty students from five different local high schools in Central Oregon are represented at The Office Group.
Hyatt says working at The Office Group was a natural fit, since as a coach he had to make sure his football players were academically eligible to play. Even now, it’s Hyatt who holds The Office Group students accountable. He makes sure they’re going to classes, and he checks in with them about their exams and grades.
Follett also credits Hyatt and the Kents for finding extra college funds to help pay his tuition at EOU, and it was The Office Group that helped his family wade through the myriad of complex federal tuition aid requirements.
Both the Hyatts and the Kents say the Office Group couldn’t do it without their faithful cadre of forty volunteers, who help with everything from homework to college and career counseling. So far, sixty-nine students have gone through The Office Group program and they’re represented at thirteen different colleges and universities on the West Coast, with one earning admission into the Air Force Academy and two others who opted to enlist in the Marines and Navy.
“What we’re trying to do is level the playing field and give them the resources, so they can be successful. That may be college, it may be the trades or military. We want them to have options and put them on a successful path post-high school,” Hyatt said.
Eberhard’s Dairy in Redmond is run by four generations of the family.
Bob Eberhard. Illustration by Mona Daly.
It was the late 1940s when a twentysomething immigrant who spoke no English got off the train in Redmond to find a job. He’d seen the Swift & Company cream buying station from the train and knew how to make butter, so he thought he’d try his luck.
By 1951, that Swiss immigrant, John Eberhard, had bought the company, which purchased cream from local dairy farmers and sold it to the community. By 1964, Nelda and John Eberhard’s three sons, John, Bob and Richard Eberhard, were running the company, Eberhard’s Dairy Products, expanding it to produce milk, chocolate milk, whipping cream, cottage cheese, ice cream and more. Jack and Richard had retired by 2005, and Bob Eberhard carried on nearly until he died at age 82, in 2017.
Today, the founder’s grandson, Mark Eberhard, 55, is at the helm as company president. In many ways, he’s been training for the job nearly all his life. Starting at age 10, he and his five brothers and sisters were involved in the business. They started out bagging ice.
“When I was 14, my grandfather taught me how to make butter,” he said. “That was his passion and got him where he was, and today we do it the same way—with a different churn, but with the same style.”
Every summer they’d be at the Redmond dairy, helping. “At Redmond High School, I played sports, basketball, but I still worked, it was just ingrained in you—that’s what you do.” He values the life lessons and business sense he learned from his grandfather and father (both John or “Jack”) and “how to hold people accountable and hold yourself accountable.”
Twelve years ago, Mark Eberhard became general manager and his Uncle Bob mentored him in sales, helping him develop relationships with customers. When the economic crisis of 2008 hit though, he looked for partners in other markets and began creating ice cream for Seattle-based Haggen foods.
Through the generations, three core family-business values endure. No matter who has been at the helm, the Eberhard’s brand is associated with supporting local businesses whenever possible, treating their fifty-seven employees well, and donating to local nonprofits, from schools and veterans’ services to musical events, Eberhard said. A fourth generation is involved, too. His daughters, Emily Holston, 26, runs Eberhard’s quality control department and Maddie Kirby, 27, runs the company’s social media from the East Coast.
The Miller Lumber Company in Bend was founded in 1911 and is currently run by its third generation. [Illustration by Mona Daly]
It’s 1929, along the Deschutes River in Bend, and 10-year-old William E. Miller is feeding draft horses. They’ll be hooked up to go to the Shevlin-Hixon mill on the opposite bank and distribute lumber throughout Central Oregon. It’s a daily chore that the boy does for his father, Harry A. (Ham) Miller, who’d come to Bend from Wisconsin and founded the Miller Lumber Company in 1911. Later, William will ride his horse to the Kenwood School, five blocks from his home.
By 1944, a day such as this would seem like paradise to him. A U.S. Navy fighter pilot, he was shot down over the Pacific, stranded at sea for three days, then on a deserted island for eighteen more days before fishermen would find him and hide him from the enemy until he was rescued three months later, just after Christmas.
When he got home, he returned to Stanford University and earned a bachelor’s degree and M.B.A., before joining his father back at the family business. Today, Charley Miller, the decorated war hero’s son, runs the company. He and his seven siblings also worked at the company while growing up. Like his father, he left Bend to go to college and was called up for service, albeit of a different sort.
“I went off to Oregon State University [in Corvallis] in 1980, and things were pretty bad in 1980 in Central Oregon,” said Miller, 56. “Most of us left, not expecting to come back.”
The great recession had hit the nation, and at the same time, the local timber industry was collapsing. “I came back in ’85, mainly because the business was in trouble—not that I was going to save it, but I was sure going to help,” he said.
Hard work, lean operations and creativity got them through it. His father had given him advice that he still follows, and that Miller believes was shaped by his father’s war experience. “He was always forward thinking,” said Miller, who became company president in 2001, the year his father died. “You learn from the past, but don’t dwell on it.”
Miller learned about civic and philanthropic work from his father and grandfather, too. Harry Miller was a founding member of the Bend Chamber of Commerce in 1926, and helped found Central Oregon Community College in 1949. The two elder Millers each served as Bend mayor, and on many nonprofit boards as well as contributing to hundreds of causes, he said.
“Being active in the community is important,” said the chief of the thirty-employee company, which includes his sister, Constance Marshall, chief financial officer, and his brother, Harry C. Miller, vice president. “There’s lots of pleasure and satisfaction in guiding the community in the right direction.”
The family has fifteen in its fourth generation and one may choose the family business as a career path, Charley Miller said, “but we don’t want to force it … otherwise, we have great staff here.”
Thom Marchionna handcrafts “insanely great” furniture, under the name Able Fine Woodworking, from childhood experience and high-tech design.
An irresistible impulse to examine, admire and even run one’s hands over the wood is all part of experiencing Thom Marchionna’s furniture for the first time. An African mahogany coffee table is slit down the middle in wavy, book-matched grain, joined across the gap by contrasting square accents. If set on its end, the table could qualify as wall art. The seat of a chair gives the illusion of being made of woven leather but is, in fact, sturdy cherry.
All his pieces—from tables, chairs, dining room sets, doors and boxes—blend soft, beveled edges and organic contours with hard geometric lines in unique, modern designs. “I spend a lot of time refining, playing with proportion, simplifying lines, matching grain and getting it to harmonize throughout the piece,” he said. “Paying close attention to using the wood in the best possible way is my way of honoring a tree and giving it a new life for generations.”
Marchionna spent his early childhood in western Pennsylvania, the son of a cabinet and woodmaker. “Dad picked me up after school, took me to his shop, gave me scrap wood, a hammer and nails, and let me do what I wanted.” The family later moved to the San Francisco area in the 1960s where his father built apartments and custom homes.
photo by alex jordan
The younger Marchionna framed houses during college summers, installed cabinets, expanded houses, built fences, decks and took an interest in furniture. “[Woodworking] became a necessary pastime,” he said.
His design aesthetic that elevates simplicity as the ultimate sophistication came from an entirely different direction. In 1986, Marchionna was working at an ad agency in Los Gatos when he got a call from Apple Computer offering him a job.
“I wasn’t sure. I had a five-year-old son and a mortgage. I was drawn by the salary and Apple’s insistence on great design,” he said. “It turned out to be an eight-year PhD course in design. It was an environment for powerful simplicity where less was more and an insistence on making things insanely great.” He became a senior creative director who managed dozens of people and designed print and marketing communications for Apple.
“Apple changed people’s lives for the better, especially in adaptive technology, and allowed the ordinary to become the extraordinary,” he said. But competitive market forces in the 1990s altered Apple’s focus, causing it to pull back from the founding spirit. “Over time, much of the joy [of the work] receded as well,” he said.
He left Apple in 1993, working as a creative on his own and in ad agencies in Silicon Valley and Portland. For the next two decades, his work paralleled the ups and downs of the high-tech industry.
By 2016, he was ready to pivot out of the agency world to working with his hands. He chose a familiar medium: wood. He moved his family to Central Oregon for the same reason that many others come here. “I saw that Bend had 290 days of sunshine, it was a small town, had good food and the people were nice,” he said.
Today, Marchionna spends his “second act,” as he calls it, in a soaring warehouse on Bend’s northeast side handcrafting furniture under the name Able Fine Woodworking and using traditional joinery methods. The space is filled with wood he collects from Hardwood Industries in Bend, and Crosscut Hardwoods and Goby Walnut, both in Portland, along with clamps, design sketches, prototypes of furniture under construction, saws, sanders and all the necessary tools to make commissioned pieces costing from hundreds to thousands of dollars for a growing list of clients.
“It’s design and execution for people who want something they’ll cherish and pass on,” he said. Some might even say Apple’s original mission of “insanely great” can be appreciated in the handiwork of one former employee.
Saxon’s Fine Jewelers was founded in 1983 by Ron Henderson, and his daughter Natasha plans to continue the family legacy of making jewelry and giving back to the community.
Illustration by Mona Daly
In 1983, Bend’s timber industry was dying, and downtown was dusty, desolate and depressed. Most people wouldn’t have thought it a good time to move here to start a jewelry store. But Ron Henderson had a truck, jewelers’ tools and his fiancé, Annette, when he came here to open Saxon’s Fine Jewelers.
Henderson, discovered jewelry making in high school in Klamath Falls, shortly after moving there. His father had a lung illness caused by years of working in a nuclear plant in Livermore, California, and needed clean air. A high school jewelry-making teacher recognized Henderson’s talent and encouraged him to pursue it.
Without the money to send him to college, Henderson’s father bought him professional jewelry-making tools and paid for an apprenticeship with a jewelry manufacturer.
“It was in high school when he set his sights on Bend,” said Henderson’s daughter, Natasha Henderson, who manages Saxon’s. “He always knew Bend would be something, and he was willing to gamble on it.”
Natasha recalled that during the 1980s, to build his business, he’d spend weeks at a time at his shop, sleeping there and eating food from cans. Saxon’s grew, with farmers and ranchers from around the region coming to Henderson when they were ready to propose marriage or celebrate family milestones. Henderson devoted time to Rotary, served on the board of Central Oregon Community College, and supported the High Desert Museum and other local nonprofits.
The family had just returned from a business trip to Thailand in 2004 when a catastrophic tsunami killed thousands there. It was Christmas, and Henderson had just finished his annual rounds portraying Santa. He began calling vendors and friends, raising $1 million to support relief efforts.
“It plain and simple feels good to give to someone who is in need and might not have had the opportunities that we have had,” Ron Henderson said. “It helps to introduce you to people that you might not have had contact with otherwise, and opens doors to continued friendships.”
Along the way, the Hendersons and Saxon’s co-owner Bruce Plummer have developed longstanding relationships with customers, knowing their wedding anniversaries and children’s birthdays. It was Plummer who reminded Natasha how much she loved that. It’s what lured her back, after she had graduated from Linfield College in McMinnville and was trying out a career in banking.
“I hope to continue the legacy, of being a good steward of where you live,” she said.
Taylor NW is a family-run business in Bend that has focused on serving the Central Oregon community.
Todd Taylor. Illustration by Mona Daly
Hap Taylor and Sons was a big name in construction in Central Oregon in the 1980s and ’90s, with one of those sons, Todd Taylor, continuing to dominate in that sector here today. He and his wife, Lorri, have run Taylor Northwest, a heavy construction contractor and commercial development company in Bend since 2008.
Although the Taylor company name is well known locally, Todd Taylor believes the behind-the-scenes influences of his mother and grandmother were crucial in the family businesses’ longevity and success. It began in the ’60s, with Hap Taylor, now 81, working in construction here through the ’70s, on projects such as Black Butte Ranch and Sunriver resorts. He formed his own company, and by 1987, had added “and Sons” onto the name.
The family sold that enterprise to Knife River in 1998, and Todd Taylor was its regional president overseeing Oregon, Washington and Idaho for the decade before he and Lorri launched Taylor Northwest.
“One thing that’s really important to me and Lorri, and she is truly my equal in life, is that growing up, you can’t underestimate how important my mom was in process. My dad had the name, and my mom was a huge influence on doing the right thing,” he said. For decades, his mom, Sandy Taylor, 79, worked with many nonprofits, including one providing meals for people in need, which she still does today, or donating her time as an interior decorator.
Sandy would get the family company to donate labor and equipment for community projects. In the 1960s, Bend Parks’ legendary leader Vince Genna would routinely recruit local businesses including Hap Taylor’s to help get local parks and ball fields built.
“Early on, we recognized we could use those tools philanthropically as well,” said Todd Taylor. The company’s 170 employees get satisfaction from it, too, whether it’s making an exhibit trail accessible to wheelchairs at the High Desert Museum or doing structural work for J Bar J Youth Services.
“It’s just part of being in business in Bend and being a community member in Bend,” he said. “A lot of people give in a lot of ways, and our way may just be more visible because we have big equipment … tools that most people don’t have.”
The Taylors expect their children to carry on the company’s tradition of community service—should they continue to prove their passion for the work, he said. Their son, Joe Hap Taylor, 25, and daughter, Abigail, 22, are interested in the commercial development side of the business and are meeting their parents’ criteria of pursuing a master’s degree in a related field. Both are in the real estate finance program at Portland State University.
“They must present passion and desire to be a part of it and put in the energy, as Lorri and I as owners, and the rest of the employees have,” Taylor said.
Read more about legacy businesses in Central Oregon including Eberhard’s Dairy Products, Saxon’s Fine Jewelers, Newport Avenue Market and Miller Lumber Company.
Thanks to the long lens and quick shutter of photographer Trevor Lyden, we had more pictures than pages for our feature story on Bend’s adult ice hockey D-League. Lyden snapped dozens of images that capture the spirit of a growing group of adult players participating in a beginners-only league. On-ice shots and behind the scene images show the small triumphs and tribulations of these players.
Bend might not yet be a real hockey town, but don’t tell that to the growing ranks of D-league players.
As the scoreboard clock hits high noon on a warm Tuesday in November, several hockey players weave between each other and flip wrist shots toward an empty net at the Pavilion in Bend.
A few focus on agility as they skate between orange cones near the bench. And some pair up to practice passing, pushing the puck back and forth and concentrating on hitting their partner’s stick on the tape. This dedicated group works on their fundamentals while most people their age work on their lunch.
Could the extra ice time help one of them become the next great American hockey player?
Not likely.
Well, for starters, most of this ragged bunch is probably in their early to mid-40s and have to be back at work after an hour of breathing heavily and sweating heavily under all their gear.
A few are retired and the mid-day hockey is just helping them pass the time until there’s enough snow to ski on. And some, like me, maybe just tried ice skating for the first time a week ago and are still trying to figure it out.
Author, Ted Taylor, making his ice debut
While Bend is not yet a hockey town, there is a small group of adult hockey players here who grew up with the sport. Excellent skaters and pinpoint snipers from the wing who maybe, just maybe, could have been something more than amateurs. This story isn’t about them.
Instead, this is about the marginally-skilled, constantly sore who have more enthusiasm than experience. They are grown-up hockey players new to the sport and eager to strap on the skates and pads for competition, camaraderie and cold beers. Many of them find themselves in the Deschutes League, aka the Development League, aka the “D” league.
The men and women of the D-League are a minority among Bend’s hockey players, but their ranks are growing as fast as any other segment of the hockey population. Last year the D-League had two teams. This year it has six.
Ryan Buccola, a Bend real estate agent and second-year D-Leaguer is one of the league’s biggest ambassadors. A place he never expected to be. Two years ago, Buccola’s on-ice experience consisted of family outings to the rinks at Sunriver and Seventh Mountain Resort. But once his 11-year-old son proclaimed that hockey would be his sport and that he planned to join the local traveling team, the Bend Rapids, dad wasn’t far behind.
“I’m 42 and played soccer all my life and love the competition,” he said. “I wanted to learn something new, so I just signed up.”
This year, Buccola is one of the team captains for the Flames, one of the six, sixteen-player D-League teams that play on Monday nights. In all, the adult hockey program has twenty-two teams playing in the A-D divisions. That’s up from sixteen teams in 2015 when the Pavilion first opened. The growth here has mirrored what’s happening across the country.
Nationally, adult hockey participation has soared to nearly 180,000 players—a 53 percent jump over the last decade according to USA Hockey. “We were hopeful to get eight teams total that first year,” said Pavilion Manager Kevin Collier. “We knew there was interest in the ice rink, but it exceeded our expectations from the get-go.”
Bend isn’t yet a hockey town, but there’s a movement to make it so. And it’s not just adult hockey fueling the interest in ice sports. A year after the rink opened, nearly 150 youth hockey players fielded fourteen teams. This year the program has nearly 250 players and twenty teams. Show up at 5:30 a.m. and you’ll find one of the Bend Rapids club teams, the cream of the local crop of young hockey talent getting in some practice before school. (It’s one of the few times that the team can book ice due to the popularity of the rink and the challenge of scheduling around school start and release times.)
Show up mid-morning and you’ll be able to see some talented figure skaters dancing and spinning in the middle of the rink.
Swing by after 7:30 p.m. on Monday night and it’s a different story. Monday is D-League night in Bend. Three back-to-back games of moderately paced and modestly skilled hockey. The D-League is the Bad News Bears of adult hockey. A league full of Washington Generals and no Harlem Globetrotters. A senior version of the Mighty Ducks before Gordon Bombay showed up. More spunk than skill. In fact, for several players in the league, the first game of the current season, which began in November, was the first time they’d ever played organized hockey.
The inexperience is evident, sometimes with comical implications.
At one point during the league’s first game of the year, there were three players down on the ice at the same time while two others appeared to be hugging (but more likely trying to keep each other from falling) in front of the goal.
But just a couple of minutes later, one of the more skilled players broke free with the puck and made an actual hockey move—a nifty toe-drag to his forehand, putting the puck into the back of the net.
It’s true many of the players are new to the sport, but the D-League teams this year also feature several who could probably be playing up in the C-League. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Having some experienced and skilled players on the ice tends to elevate the play in general—the old adage that a rising tide floats all boats apparently applies even when the water is frozen.
It also helps that the league provides coaches—two per team, in fact. And while there aren’t any organized practices for the teams, the coaches take a lot of time during the game to impart some wisdom to players on the bench.
Rory Howatt’s been volunteer coaching kids and adults since the Pavilion opened. A native of Eastern Canada, the 66-year-old said since many of the adults are new to the sport, they’re more willing to listen and learn. But they often get frustrated because their athletic abilities don’t always immediately translate to success on the ice.
“We have to encourage them and remind them that hockey is a tough sport,” he said. “You’re required to have athletic ability, reflexes and speed and you’re doing it on a blade of steel that’s 3/8th of an inch wide. You have to take your time and you have to practice.”
“Practice” happens during lunch hour stick time offerings and the formalized skills and drills sessions that happen late on Friday nights. It’s a hockey boot camp of sorts for die-hard beginners willing trade date night, family night or whatever for a few more hours on the ice.
A handful of coaches run the players through skating, shooting, passing and game situation drills, taking time to correct mistakes and shout words of encouragement for a job well done. There’s a lot of falling and sprawling and more fumbled passes than completed connections.
It’s not just late nights, it’s also early mornings for players like Buccola who will return to the rink for their kids’ practice before sunrise the next morning. On a recent night D-league goalie Travis White brought his travel camper to a Monday night game so he could overnight near the rink. White lives in Madras and his son is a goaltender for the Bend Rapids 12 and under team. It was easier to camp in Bend than to finish his game and drive back to Madras only to return a few hours later for his son’s 5:30 a.m. practice.
These are the kinds of sacrifices that lead even season players to give up the game. So the question is why? Why stay up late when others are ensconced in warm covers? Why struggle? Ask a few in the D-league the question and the answer usually comes down to “why not?”
First-year player Andy Conde’s skated a lot as a kid thirty years ago and was confident the skills would return when he hit the ice. His family wasn’t so sure.“My wife and my kids think I’m crazy and they think I’m definitely going to get hurt,” the 54-year-old said. “My kids have seen me skate at [Seventh Mountain Resort] and say, ‘Dad, you can’t do that’.”
That’s just the kind of motivation old guys like Conde and Buccola need to give the sport a try. Katie Willis has IPAs to thank for her introduction to hockey.
She showed up at the rink to watch some friends play one night a few years ago. She was greeted by a beer cart in the Pavilion lobby, but it was what was happening on the ice that intrigued her more. After the game they suggested she come out and play in the Pavilion’s pick-up games.
“I had had a few beers and said, ‘Yeah, sure, I’ll be there’,” the 37-year-old remembered with a laugh. She showed up. And it didn’t take long for her get hooked, thanks to the vibe she felt immediately after taking the ice for the first time.
“If you show up and demonstrate an interest, everyone will support you,” she said. “I didn’t have a single negative interaction that first time out. Nobody treated me like I didn’t belong on the ice.”
Last year the D-League had just a handful of women, but this season there are nearly twenty. “The D-league is going to stand for Dames pretty soon,” Willis said. “The ice is genderless. You show up and you are supported.”
That sense of community is what helps hockey in Bend thrive.
“There’s a really great camaraderie when you surround yourself with people who are also learning something new,” Buccola said. “We’re competitive, but we’re also celebrating everyone. Everyone’s dripping wet and fired up. We got some really great exercise, everyone gets out of the house. There’s just a pretty awesome social aspect to it.”
Players from the other leagues can often be found at the D-League games cheering on friends and having a beer. The D-Leaguers usually come to hang out before their game and long after their games have ended. The Silver Moon beer cart inside the Pavilion was still pouring IPAs after 11 p.m. when the last game of the night finished up on a recent Monday night.
“The Bend hockey community is relatively small when compared to other areas in the country,” said Rick Marshall, one of the D-League coaches. “We only have one rink so people really get to know one another and it has created an atmosphere of camaraderie that you don’t find in places that have larger leagues or multiple rinks.”
Marshall retired from the Army in 2017 and watched with interest from Afghanistan as Bend mulled the idea of a hockey rink. The Connecticut native had chosen to retire here and thought his days of playing hockey were over.
Once the Pavilion was built, Marshall was all in, joining the adult league, working with the youth teams and coaching the adults.
During the first period of his first game of the year behind the bench, Marshall wasn’t shy about providing some good-natured ribbing.
“This is lazy hockey!” he shouted toward the ice. “You play harder during pick-up games.”
But as soon as the offending line was back on the bench, he was smiling and offering encouragement.
“I enjoy it because I love the game of hockey and I like being around players who are excited to learn and get better,” he said. “The best part of it all is seeing the players get better and being there to high five them when they make a good play.”
Buccola might be new to the sport, but like with any athletic endeavor there’s a desire to improve.
“I’m terrible,” he said. “I started at nothing and I’ve learned to skate backward, pivot and several different shots. I’m at the stage of my hockey career that every time I go out I get better and that’s really fun.”
After his first year in the league last year, Buccola and some buddies went to a hockey camp in Las Vegas to hone their skills.
“It’s a good thing to move up and get challenged and get beat a little bit,” he said. “I hope I end up in the C League so I can continue to improve.”
There’s also an interesting social experiment component to it all, bringing adults together in an uncomfortable environment and asking them to succeed together as a group.
“We put kids in team sports for a reason, to learn all those skills you want them to develop in a team sport,” Willis said. “As an adult are you in any less of a need for that cache of skills? Be uncomfortable, be engaged, show up, deal with a challenge. It’s just amazing.”
A Tetherow home is designed for a clean aesthetic and maximum functionality.
Mary and Greg Noble were some of the first buyers in the Bend luxury development Tetherow. In 2007, they purchased a lot on the 17th hole of the golf course, which sat on the rolling landscape between the west side of Bend and the national forest, boasted views of the Cascade mountains and offered plenty of room for the modern home the couple envisioned. Mary and Greg were both nearing the end of thirty-plus-year careers with Boeing and were eager to leave the Seattle area for Bend, which they’d visited on ski vacations for many years.
But as it turned out, they would have to wait. The economy stumbled and the Great Recession settled in, postponing their retirement. Still, though they knew a move to Bend was likely years away, they reached out to Bend architect Eric Meglasson and started a conversation about the home they desired. That conversation went on for many years, until the Nobles were finally able to break ground in 2013.
Meglasson said that the home, completed in 2015, would not be what it is if it weren’t for that lengthy delay. “During that time frame, I really got to know Mary and Greg,” he said. Meglasson even visited their Seattle home, seeing the ways in which they lived and posing questions about how that might be improved. Meanwhile, numerous site analyses were completed on the Tetherow lot to determine the best placement and orientation of the home. When go-time arrived, “we designed the house on the first pass,” said Meglasson. “I learned that the longer you stew on a project, the quicker the design process goes.”
The 3,300-square-foot two-level home that resulted is contemporary minimalist in style and yet long on livability and functionality. A primary feature is an interior courtyard completely surrounded by the house, which provides privacy as well as an aesthetic focal point that changes all year. “It’s outside, but feels as if it’s inside the house,” said Mary. “In the winter, it’s very interesting as snow falls and drifts into the courtyard.” Planters and boulders sit on a surface comprised of pavers and nearly black stones, and a single fir tree provides a Zen-like touch.
The courtyard also contributes light to the interior of the home, as do the many exterior floor-to-ceiling windows. “Coming from Seattle, we really wanted the light,” said Mary. Large white tiles comprise the flooring, which incorporates a radiant heat system. Quartz countertops are also in light colors. The natural stone of the living room’s expansive fireplace mimics almost exactly the color of the pumice pit, the signature feature of Tetherow’s 17th hole, visible just outdoors. Throughout the home, materials are metal, concrete and ceramic—“all highly durable and low maintenance, yet still with a sense of warmth,” said Meglasson.
A particularly dramatic feature is the interior stairwell. Because Mary wanted the home to be “transparent,” with few visual barriers, a unique approach was necessary for the stairwell. Cables were strung ceiling to floor, with enough tension to support the stairs. The eye passes through the cables to reveal views of the courtyard. “It was quite a challenge to string, but the result is dramatic,” said Meglasson. “It has a veil effect depending on how light falls on it.”
Throughout the home, simple but highly functional features dominate. Mary credits her husband Greg—who has a graphic design degree and worked in design for Boeing—with the vision for many of these design concepts. The flat screen television rises from a built in cabinet and can swivel to be kitchen-facing or living room-facing. Closets along the main hallway are nearly invisible, behind a seamless line of wood paneling opened by the touch of a hand. Along that stretch is a powder room, also all but hidden behind continuous paneling. In a bedroom closet, a full-length mirror is installed on a mechanism which allows it to be unfolded from within. A table is similarly unfolded from a wall panel. “I’m much more traditional, but I came to appreciate his aesthetic,” said Mary.
The home has two master bedrooms, one upstairs and one down. Currently, Greg’s mother resides downstairs. But the couple envisions a time when they will move to the main floor themselves. Two other rooms are flexible—one mainly an office, but easily converted to a temporary bedroom. The other an art/yoga studio which functions as a guest room as well.
The exterior landscape was important to Mary. Each side of the house offers a slightly different view. “I like a continuous hardscape, so that you can walk all the way around the house without your feet getting yucky.” Natural landscaping includes manzanita and bunchgrass. A few old snags invite visits from great horned owls and hummingbirds. A water feature and various seating arrangements expand the livability of the home.
In the twelve years since the Nobles purchased their lot, much has changed in the Tetherow landscape. The economy is strong again, and many homes have been built around the Noble house. But that’s okay with Mary and Greg. Aside from proximity to Mt. Bachelor and views of the Cascade Range, one priority for them when they were deciding where to live was that that be around other people. “Coming from Seattle, we knew no one in Bend,” said Greg. “We wanted to live in a community. This is just perfect for us.”
Dan Simoneau, a former Olympian and local Nordic coach, is on the mend from heart surgery and back on the snow in Central Oregon.
Photo by Bob Woodward
Dan Simoneau has spent most of his life with two skis attached to his feet. Whether he was slicing snow in the granite hills of New England or competing on the cross-country skiing world stage in the Swiss Alps, his resumé tells the story of a life dedicated skiing.
Simoneau, who serves as the Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation (MBSEF) Nordic ski director, underwent triple-bypass heart surgery in September. For a man whose life was predicated on fitness, it was a shock. After cycling around Crater Lake in September 2018 with his MBSEF team roller-skiing in tow, something didn’t quite feel right.
“I’d stand up, take a deep breath, and my wife would be worried,” said Simoneau. “I just felt like crap, and we discovered I had a significantly high calcium score that was building up plaque in my arteries.”
He was soon diagnosed with Type-2 diabetes. Upon the diagnosis, it was discovered that he possessed a genetic heart condition. Within days he was in the operating room undergoing surgery. Now on the mend, Simoneau is looking forward with the same determination that led him to three Traffic jam in the highlands of Peru Olympic games in 1980s.
A native of Livermore Falls, Maine, Simoneau first visited Oregon in the 1970s to train for the cross-country World Championships. He fell in love with the ease of access and alpine glaciers and enrolled at the University of Oregon. His skiing career led him to compete in multiple world championships and represent the United States in three separate Olympics in 1980, 1984 and 1988. Although, he didn’t technically compete in the 1980 games, arriving at Lake Placid as an alternate, he was on-hand for one of the biggest upsets in sports history when the United States hockey team beat the Soviet Union in the game that came to be known as the “Miracle On Ice.”
After developing muscle compartment syndrome in his legs and requiring surgery, he retired from professional racing following the ’88 Olympic games in Calgary. He moved on from the competitive side of the sport and began a career on the business side, joining the team at Fischer Sports and relocating to Massachusetts. But the mountains called him back to his adopted home, and Simoneau returned to Central Oregon in 2003 where he began coaching with MBSEF while exercising a little of his own competitive juices by claiming three Pole Pedal Paddle individual titles.
He became the MBSEF Nordic program director in 2008. For the last decade he has watched his athletes grow from beginners into collegiate, national and international competitors. Fast forward to 2018 and Simoneau can lay claim to numerous athletes that have received college scholarships. This year fourteen MBSEF skiers are heading to the prestigious U.S. Nationals, a proving ground for future Olympians.
“When you [see] someone succeed because of hard work, perseverance, and because they showed up, it’s really, really cool,” said Simoneau.
Thanks to a full recovery from triple-bypass heart surgery, Simoneau is back doing what he loves—skiing in his free time and coaching and mentoring in the rest of it. He might be hoping for the next winter Olympics miracle, maybe one with a storyline that leads back to his adopted hometown. But at this point it’s about more than gold or silver. It’s about helping young men and women achieve their dreams, whatever they might be, he said.
“I’ve gotten more aspirational with what I see us doing,” said Simoneau. “There’s a sign on my door that says, ‘We are the sum of the decisions we make.’ It’s things like that help me remember that it’s not just about skiing. It’s about what you teach beyond skiing.”
Classic and timeless books about Oregon, by Oregon authors, to read this year.
Oregon lays claim to many world famous authors from Jean M. Auel of Clan of the Cave Bear fame to Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club. I could name a host of bestselling novelists who reside in Oregon, but few books features this incredible and varied land better than the following.
The Jump-off Creek by Molly Gloss
Gloss created a masterpiece in this gritty, slim and sparse novel of the trials and hardships of early pioneers. In The Jump-off Creek, Lydia Sanderson leave her home in Pennsylvania to homestead in the rugged eastern Oregon of the 1890s. With little food in the bitter winters and brackish water in the boiling summers, Lydia stubbornly claws a life for herself in a raw and unforgiving land.
Martin Marten: A Novel by Brian Doyle
One of my all time favorites and a great feel-good/comfort read. Martin Marten is about the intertwining lives of the humans and animals that call Wy’east (Mount Hood) their home.
The Sky Fisherman by Craig Lesley
Central Oregon doesn’t get as much play in novels about our state as does our iconically rainy side. But Lesley’s coming of age story, The Sky Fisherman, feels firmly rooted in our part of the country, complete with beautiful descriptions of fly-fishing and the ravaging wildfires that we are all too familiar with.
Trask by Don Berry
Based on the real-life mountain man Elbridge Trask who settled in the Tillamook area in the 1840s and his relationships with many tribal people in the area. Trask is a wonderful example of historical fiction at it’s finest.
Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
Sometimes a Great Notion makes my list of just all around “Great American Novels” along with Grapes of Wrath and To Kill a Mockingbird. Faulknerian in language and Shakespearean in it’s execution, this epic story of the Stamper family and a logging strike in a coastal town is truly a must-read for Oregonians. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it.
Ryan Houston was recently named the executive director of the Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA).
Artwork by Teafly
Ryan Houston, the recently named executive director of the Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA), spent his free time in the desert of Southern California when he was growing up. “I’m a westerner,” said Houston, 44. “I like the wide open spaces and the big sky of the West.” He spent almost two decades leading the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council, finding common ground between public and private interest to protect and restore the Deschutes River. Houston said he feels fortunate to join ONDA, a nonprofit dedicated to the preservation of Oregon’s desert, in this moment. “It has a tremendously talented professional staff in place, and it has a lot of accomplishments under its belt,” he said. “We know who we are, we know what we want to do, and we stay focused on that.” Here, Houston talks about his desert education, finding common ground for environmental conservation and why public lands matter in Oregon.
On a Desert Education
Unlike most folks who grew up in San Diego who went to the ocean any chance they got, when I had free time, I turned toward the desert. When you head out of San Diego and head over the mountains, it’s a lot like Oregon, where suddenly the wide open desert appears. My earliest exploration was with my older brother. And I had some science teachers in middle school who were interested in introducing people to the natural world. They opened the door. I’ve always been interested in ecology and biology and the desert. When you apply all that to conservation values and a love of environmental protection, it all sort of fits together.
On Science and Conservation
I’ve always loved the natural world. I’ve always had an interest in conservation. To me, my career has been this combination of a love of science and a desire to engage and make the world a better place for the things I care about. What I learned very quickly is that science is one thing, but when it comes to actually achieving conservation objectives or making a difference in environmental issues, it’s a lot more than science. It’s people, politics, economics, collaboration. It’s relationships and coalition-building. Fundamentally that diversity of elements is what’s interesting about it. I don’t just want to sit in a room and do science. I don’t just want to sit in a room and do the legal work. But trying to pull it all together is fascinating.
On Finding Common Ground
Especially in today’s political environment, it would be easy to interpret that there’s just no common ground between different political interests. What I found working on these issues is that a rancher outside of Sisters loves the river, in different ways, but just as deeply, as a conservationist from Portland who has a very different relationship with it. One may vote Republican and one may vote Democrat, but it’s really neat to see people find that place where their interests overlap and they actually start working together. That’s not always possible, but it’s inspiring because it reminds me that we have a lot more in common than what divides us.
On Finding Hope in Small Wins
Part of the challenge of the environmental or conservation field is that it’s littered with all sorts of depressing stories. The pieces that inspire me are the small wins where you actually see measures of progress. Out in Whychus Creek, salmon and steelhead are coming back for the first time in fifty years because of the reintroduction effort that was started in the 2000s. There was a fifty-year period where salmon and steelhead were completely blocked from coming up the Deschutes River and going into places like Whychus Creek and the community of Sisters. There’s probably a day in 2019, where you and I could go out there and see one. We’re at small numbers—five, three, eight. But they’re actually there. Those are big deals. To think that in this time period, we can actually make those kinds of changes, that’s actually inspiring.
On Public Lands
Oregon has a lot of public land. It’s important for Oregonians to remember. Wherever we come from—whether you’re a fifth-generation Oregonian or you’re a recent transplant from another part of the country—this is something really special and it’s something you need to pay attention to. The occupation out on the Malheur reminded people that public lands can’t be taken for granted. In fact, all 350 million in the United States are public land owners. That kind of a shift is really important for the work we do. It’s easy for people to go to look at deserts and see them as things like wastelands. As people get a little closer to look at the desert ecosystem, and understanding that it’s all of ours, you can see people stepping into a stewardship role.
On The Next Generation
The most rewarding thing for me as a parent is being out in the open spaces and watching those guys really explore their world. In early July I took my 10-year-old girl and my 13-year-old boy out in the desert east of Steens Mountain for eight days of just bumming around. We fished in the rivers and we hiked. One day, we drove in this dirt road, to an area with a unique geothermal hot springs. As we got out of the car, the kids were looking around and there was this beautiful veneer of small pebbles across the landscape. Both of them got down on their hands and knees, and I think we spent two hours crawling around and checking out the rocks. Just that freedom is the kind of experience that I like to create for them. That’s why I love public lands, because it creates opportunities for people to connect and explore. And you can’t script that.
The Santiam Pass Ski Lodge, a historic but neglected ski lodge off the highway, gets a new lease on life thanks to the dedication of one Oregon couple.
Dwight Sheets’ first memory of the Santiam Pass Ski Lodge is of being a child, standing inside the lodge and looking around at the seventy-five windows, feeling like he was outside. It’s a memory that has stuck with him for decades even as the iconic lodge slipped into disrepair.
After seeing the building sit vacant for three decades, Dwight and his wife, Susan, made the restoration of the lodge a personal mission. Today, the massive task of revitalizing the long-neglected lodge is looking less like a pipedream. In November of 2018, the lodge was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It’s a designation that has taken decades of work, and, along with recognizing the significance of the lodge, will help with the costs of the renovation in tax credits.
The lodge was built as a Civilian Conservation Corps project in 1940, just a year after Hoodoo Ski Area began operating. It had a rope tow, overnight lodging and was popular with skiers, but Hoodoo took off because it was more easily accessible from the road.
By the 1950s, it had been turned over to the Presbyterian church and used as a retreat center for the next three decades. In 1986, the church opted not to renew its permit, and the lodge was boarded up. No one came forward to claim the lodge, so it sat empty. But it wasn’t forgotten.
In 1989, Catherine Lindberg, an archeologist for the Willamette National Forest, began the work of getting the lodge on the National Register of Historic Places, cementing its place in Oregon history. It was also key to securing its future thanks to the protection and benefits afforded such places. She wrote an evaluation of the lodge, detailing much of its history and recounting stories from the skiers and travelers who had experienced it in the 1940s and 1950s.
In 2000, some internal support structure was added to keep the aging lodge from collapsing, but still no one showed interest in taking on the lodge. In 2003, the lodge was almost lost. The B&B Complex Fires burned more than 90,000 acres of the Cascade Range and threatened the lodge, but a team of community members and wildland firefighters wrapped the Santiam Pass Ski Lodge in Kevlar, cut a fireline around the perimeter and were able to save it even as the forest around it burned.
While clearly many cared about the lodge, no one was ready to take up its revitalization as a cause. That is until Dwight and Susan Sheets toured the lodge with a ranger in 2016. Dwight, a former college professor, and Susan, a former music teacher, decided they wanted to take on the restoration project and revive the lodge for the public. They’ll be operating the lodge under a special use permit that was given to them in January of 2018. They formed a nonprofit, Friends of Santiam Pass Ski Lodge, to raise funds for the project, which they estimate will cost up to $3 million.
Darren Cross is the McKenzie National Forest district ranger and is aiding the Sheets during the restoration project. “I give them a lot of credit for taking this on in the public interest,” said Cross. “It’s a unique and important site for [the Forest Service].”
Cross said the Santiam Pass Ski Lodge is at a location that will draw people year-round who are visiting Hoodoo Ski Area, Ray Benson Sno-Park, Big Lake and the Santiam Off Highway Vehicle Area.
With the permit in hand and some funding secured, Dwight and Susan can start the renovation, beginning with restoring the iconic windows that captured Dwight’s imagination as a young man. They will also remove some of the outer additions that were added after it was built, restoring the original architecture of the lodge.
Dwight and Susan envision the lodge as a rest stop along Santiam Pass as well as a destination for cultural events. They plan to add new ADA restrooms (“Something that’s really needed as you travel along the pass,” said Susan) along with a cafe with snacks, desserts, drinks and maybe a gift shop. In the winter, the area is used by snowshoers and cross-country skiers, and the Sheetses expect that the lodge will still be used as a warming hut. The main level upstairs will be an event space, and they are hoping to draw music and arts events.
“The thing that stood out for both of us, is we wanted it to be enjoyed by as many people as possible,” said Dwight.
Aerial yoga can decrease risk factors for heart disease, improve your flexibility and is just plain fun.
I’d wager that your New Year’s resolution has to do with health, something like running three miles every day, cutting out gluten or drinking less beer. That’s pretty standard, but a growing population of Central Oregonians will be starting their new year by turning the traditional workout on its head, or at least its horizontal axis with “aerial” yoga, a mashup between traditional floor-based yoga and silk aerials.
While aerial yoga has been trending in the health and fitness world for a few years, the benefits aren’t a passing fad. A 2016 study from the American Council on Exercise found that “a single session of aerial yoga offered participants many of the benefits associated with low- to moderate-intensity aerobic exercise like brisk walking or leisurely cycling” and “[a]fter the six week program, participants displayed measurable reductions in some common risk factors for cardiovascular heart disease.”
The term aerial might conjure visions of Olympic snowboarders or Chinese acrobats, the reality is that you don’t need to have Olympic strength or circus coordination to assimilate. Even me, a goes-on-walks and sometimes-makes-it-to-yoga person, could handle aerial yoga. (My one pro-tip would be to not eat dinner beforehand.) The silk hammock, an admittedly intimidating piece of workout equipment, can withstand up to 3,000 pounds. Yogis can sit, stand, twirl and hang in and on the fabric without fear of falling, but it’s a mental battle as much as it is physical.
Timea Eckerdt is a certified yoga instructor with Tula Movement Arts, a yoga and massage studio in NorthWest Crossing that opened in 2017. An instructor since 2013, Eckerdt tried aerial yoga and “instantly fell in love with the silks,” she said. “It felt really supportive.”
Aerial yoga is an extension of Vinyasa and Hatha yoga, where the silks add leverage to stretch muscles and then support inversions. Eckerdt said that it can be a much more accessible form of yoga. “With the silks, anyone can go upside down,” said Ekerdt. “There’s a woman who’s in her seventies, and she finds it more supportive, easier and accessible.”
The postures, aided by the silks, can increase strength and flexibility and are a good reset after a day at the office. “It’s a great counterbalance of our daily lives and all the things we do that mess up our bodies, like sitting all day,” said Eckerdt.
Take a road trip to the Oregon Coast this winter and bring along this perfect itinerary for the gastronomically inclined.
Buttercup Ice Cream and Chowder Restaurant in Nehalem, OR. Photo by Justin Bailie
Winter in Central Oregon is gorgeous, but sometimes the ocean calls you away from the mountains for a weekend getaway. Four hours west and you’re in the land of sand, sea and salty air. At the beach, the flavors of the ocean, forest and farm come together under the skilled hands of local chefs to create delicious foods and crafted beverages. At the beach, don’t practice restraint. Taste everything. Here’s our suggested coastal foodie tour weekend itinerary.
Begin with a Friday night pint of pale ale at Astoria’s Buoy Beer Company, housed in a 100-year-old warehouse on piers overlooking the Columbia River. Dinner is at the Astoria Co ffeehouse and Bistro, where the halibut tacos are fresh and the ambiance vintage Americana. Grab an ice cream cone for dessert at Frite and Scoop, to the sounds of the sea lions barking on the waterfront.
Buoy Brewing in Astoria, OR. Photo by Justin Bailie
Saturday brunch is in Manzanita at Yolk, where you might linger over eggs benedict or fresh tuna salad long enough to make it to happy hour, offered with class at MacGregor’s Whiskey Bar down the street. Craft cocktails and a menu of more than 200 brown liquors are offered in this locals’-favorite gathering place with a fire pit out front.
Grab some chowder for the road at Buttercup Ice Creams and Chowders in Nehalem, where freshly made seafood soups range from Thai to Indian to good old-fashioned clam chowder. Your dinner destination is Local Ocean Seafood on Newport’s bayfront. Grab a crab po’ boy sandwich with crunchy French fries and a Willamette Valley pinot gris, or perhaps the supremely fresh grilled albacore tuna kabobs are more your style.
Local Ocean Seafood in Newport, OR. Photo by Justin Bailie
Grab Sunday breakfast at the Drift Inn, on the highway in Yachats. Live music and divine seafood dishes light up this place at night, but breakfast brings crepes, eggs benedict, or clam and eggs to your plate. Blown glass light fixtures and umbrellas (open and hung from the ceiling) mark the Dri ft Inn, which has a long and salty history as a dive bar that you can read about on the back of the menu.
Sunday lunch is in downtown Coos Bay at Shark Bites, which features locally sourced seafood including Coos Bay oysters and Dungeness crab cakes, surrounded by traditional coastal décor of drift wood and surfboards on the wall.
Redfish in Port Orford, OR
Your gastronomical tour concludes in Port Orford with dinner at the renowned Red fish restaurant, perched on a cliff with a panoramic view of the beach. The black cod primavera comes with local vegetables. The sun setting over the ocean is 100 percent local, too, and just as satisfying as the amazing meals you’ve enjoyed all weekend.
Make Union Creek Resort your basecamp for cross-country skiing at Crater Lake this winter.
A lush, wintry landscape surrounds you. Douglas fir, spruce and cedar hang overhead in a sheltering canopy over Highway 62, west of Crater Lake, on one of the prettiest scenic drives in the state of Oregon. Blink and you’ll miss Union Creek Resort, but those in the know never miss a chance to take a break here, at least for a slice of Beckie’s famous pie. This winter, make a longer stop by booking a rustic cabin and making a weekend of it.
Union Creek Resort was built in the 1920s, and the cozy getaway retains a sense of going back in time. The collection of cabins sheltered in the forest near the narrow channel of the upper Rogue River are a peaceful retreat. Beckie’s serves homestyle breakfast, lunch and dinner in a log cabin that’s listed on the National Historic Register—and don’t forget about that pie, which comes in a dozen flavors.
Even better, from Union Creek Resort you’ll find easy access to some of Oregon’s most epic—and outrageously scenic cross-country skiing. It’s only twenty-four miles to the rim of Crater Lake via the south entrance, which is the only route kept clear of snow for vehicles in the wintertime. Reach the rim and put on your skis. Glide the trail a short ways or a long ways, depending on your stamina and how many times you stop to gape at that incredible bowl of blue water contrasted by white snow. Return to the resort for hot chocolate and some time in front of the fire. Perfection achieved.
A Bend mother-son duo could be HGTV’s next makeover hit with a new Bend-based show,“Mom & Me,” set to debut in 2019.
photo by alex jordan
With a sparkling personality and a natural ease on camera, Karrie Trowbridge of Bend is parlaying a home remodeling and design business into something that could become an ongoing series on HGTV.
A pilot show that aired in August 2017 rated well enough for HGTV to enlist Trowbridge and her son, Tristan, the oldest of three sons, to produce six additional episodes titled “Mom & Me.” The network is planning to air them in early 2019. If they gain traction, the Trowbridges could be signed up for thirteen more episodes. Owned by Discovery, Inc., HGTV broadcasts home improvement programming to millions of viewers through cable and satellite channels.
They’re definitely riding the crest of HGTV’s second wave of programming aimed at a younger demographic, the Gen X and Y viewers who are starting to buy their first homes. Petite and blond, Karrie is a youthful 42. Tristan, at just 22, believes he may be one of the youngest remodelers on HGTV. “They ended up liking me,” he said. “With us in its lineup, the network can reach out to a younger demographic. It’s a new niche.”
Like many success stories, the Trowbridges’ foray into television started with an unlikely event. Karrie had been fixing up and selling homes for more than a decade when a local investor hired her in 2015 to renovate and prepare six foreclosed Central Oregon homes for resale. She posted a before and aft er shot of one of the remodeled kitchens on Instagram. It caught the eye of a production company, which began informal auditions on Skype to see whether she and Tristan might be the next undiscovered talent for HGTV. The company, Essential Quail Television, liked what it saw and shot a “sizzle reel,” a four-minute video, to pitch the Trowbridges to HGTV.
“I feel like I’ve won the lottery, and I didn’t even purchase a ticket,” Karrie said. “We weren’t looking to do this. I’ve since learned that tons of people are always pitching their ideas to the network with hopes of landing a show. The thought never occurred to me that this could happen to us.”
Behind the scenes on the first season of “Mom & Me”.
“There’s a magic that happens with them on screen, and that’s why they’ve made it this far,” said Patrick Trowbridge, Karrie’s husband and Tristan’s father. “A fter shooting the pilot, they got better and better.”
The Trowbridge’s Bend home makeover narrative is more than just a made for TV plot. They have been living this story for almost two decades. The family moved to Bend in 2000 with hopes of buying their first home. They slept in a tent for two months while searching for the perfect starter home. Although that didn’t pan out right away, they eventually bought a 1923 Cra ftsman near Newport Market. “It was in terrible shape,” Karrie recalled. “We did the work ourselves and when the remodel was finished, I thought, ‘Ooh, I want to do more of this work’.”
Thus began a cycle of buying, fixing up and selling, with Patrick serving as real estate guru and Karrie as general contractor. “I love what I do,” Karrie said. “It’s almost like a sickness. The worse the house, the more I love it.” A fter the pilot aired, HGTV began casting for homeowners in Central Oregon willing to turn over their homes to Karrie and Tristan. Those chosen had to commit at least $60,000 to pay for their home remodel and move out for six weeks while the Trowbridges worked their magic. “People trusted me with their home, even though it was for a reality TV show,” said Karrie. “My number one goal was to ensure that the client was happy with the results.”
photo by alex jordan
Because of the high cost of filming, the six homes had to be completed within ten weeks. “It was extremely stressful,” Karrie said, adding that she designed each renovation, enlisted client input, coordinated contractors and was on camera with Tristan.
Under normal circumstances, each of the homes would have taken six months to finish. But Karrie was able to hire local subcontractors and had a project manager, Peter Carmichael, to facilitate the fast pace. “The tight deadlines, high pressure and the stress, especially for my mom, brought us together,” Tristan said. “When it got really hard, we were there for each other.”
A film producer was on set to direct interviews between mother and son. Their banter is good natured, with Karrie respecting Tristan’s input. “He’s so supportive, plus he’s got a great design eye,” she said. “We like to bounce around ideas that we think the client is going to love.” The Trowbridges hope they can continue making shows for HGTV, but if that doesn’t happen, they’ll still be out pounding nails and transforming client homes. “Making a beautiful space to live in is never going to go out of style,” said husband Patrick.
Newport Avenue Market CEO Lauren Johnson is the second generation in her family to run the specialty, employee-owned grocery store on Bend’s west side.
Debbie and Rudy Dory. Illustration by Mona Daly
When she’d turned 16, Lauren G.R. Johnson applied at Newport Avenue Market to be a courtesy clerk, bagging groceries, a job that in the late 1990s was called “box boy.” She moved up to donut fryer, then checker.
“Everybody has a first job that’s really about getting the foundation of showing up on time, with a clean uniform, doing what you’re told and when,” said Johnson, 44. “I had great people mentoring me in good customer service.” There was an added wrinkle—those department managers knew that one day she might be their boss.
Johnson’s parents, Rudy and Debbie Dory, store owners since 1991, were slowly transforming the conventional market into a specialty store, with both of their children working there as teenagers, but Debbie didn’t think either of her children would step into their shoes.
Lauren left Bend for two decades to be a flight attendant, work the front desk at a public relations firm in Portland, and to be at home raising her daughter there as well as in Texas and Vancouver, Washington. About eight years ago, she came back to the family business. A top priority was its nearly 100 employees, which still included some who’d trained her as a teenager.
“With the difficulty of the business and the continuing increase of expenses, I wanted to look after employees, and one of the best ways was to be employee-owned, which allows them to retire at some point and be a viable, important part of the community,” said Johnson, the market’s CEO. She and her parents had talked about it for years, but the market had to generate enough sales to justify the expense.
“We wanted to continue our legacy in the community and reward employees who make us who we are,” she said. They made the store employee-owned in 2014.
“Lauren was away for twenty years, and I didn’t think she’d be coming back, but she did,” said Debbie Dory. “She’d always been here for annual meetings, so she always had her finger in the pie, so to speak, and remembered a whole lot more than I’d thought she would, not being in Bend, and it has been an excellent thing. It’s always nice when you have fresh ideas. For one, our store is a very fun place, it’s not a typical grocery store.”
Rick Bartow, a late Native artist who lived most of his life in Newport, Oregon, is featured in a traveling retrospective exhibit of his work that will be at the High Desert Museum beginning January 26.
A rare treat awaits visitors to the High Desert Museum when an exhibit by Rick Bartow, an internationally recognized American artist with deep roots in Oregon, opens January 26. Organized by the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon, the retrospective, “Rick Bartow: Things You Know But Cannot Explain,” brings four decades of Bartow’s powerful, gripping, and sometimes humorous drawings, paintings, prints and sculptures to his home state after traveling to nine other American museums.
Bartow was a lifelong resident of Newport where he was born in 1946 and died in 2016. His mother was white, and his father a Wiyot Indian of the Mad River Tribe of northern California. This dual heritage greatly influenced his art.
“Rick worked from an intercultural position, embracing both,” said Charles Froelick, a friend and owner of the Froelick Gallery in Portland. “He was at the forefront of intersectional identity, and yet his work was simply about being human.”
Another lasting influence came from his experience in Vietnam. The Army drafted him in 1969 after he graduated from Western Oregon University. While in Vietnam he worked as a teletype operator and played music for dying and wounded soldiers, earning a Bronze Star for his service. But he came home broken from what he’d seen.
“I had buried a lot of monsters with alcoholism and drug abuse and when they started getting out of the box, I lost the lid and couldn’t put it back,” Bartow told Cultural Survival magazine in 2007. That struggle is reflected in Bartow’s gripping work. In fact, the exhibit takes its name from a graphic-on-paper drawing of a tortured figure, mouth open in horror, with a hand seeming to reach outside its paper prison. He completed this painting in 1979, the same year he sought help from an elder of the Siletz Reservation and got sober.
“There’s a lot of intense emotion in his artwork,” said Froelick. “I was asked many times whether the artist was a sad or angry person. People were afraid to meet him,” he recalled. “I’d have to laugh because Rick was a most delightful person, mild mannered and very gentle.”
Bartow’s work took off after 1985 when William Jamison of Jamison/Thomas Gallery in Portland offered him a solo exhibit. Following Jamison’s death in 1995, he joined the Froelick Gallery and by 1997, he was among twelve Native artists who contributed sculptures for display in the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden at the White House.
In 2012, he carved a pair of twenty-foot poles from a 400-year-old red cedar. He topped one pole with a bear, the other with a raven. The two, titled “We Were Always Here,” stand at the entrance to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and overlooking the National Mall.
He had a lifelong fascination with animals and the stories told in all cultures about them that manifested in his artwork. His paintings and drawings often contain a human head on an animal or animal features on humans in the seamlessness of life. “He was equal parts observant, irreverent, scholarly and goofy, and constantly intrigued by the connectivity between humans, other animal and the spirit realm,” according to his longtime friend and companion, Erin Tormey. “The nexus was endlessly inspiring to him.”
He was a guitarist and singer, and performed around the Northwest. In Newport he was known as a generous man who donated his work to charity events, played music at benefits and at local venues with his band, the Backseat Drivers. The group also appeared at the Sisters Folk Festival.
“He was excited by life and inspired by its complexities—the poetic, the dark and the joyful mysteries,” recalled Froelick. “His work didn’t have a political agenda, and that’s why I believe it’s so powerful and impactful. He simply expressed his art from his own genuine sense of self, and that’s why he’s so respected and why people keep writing about him. His worldview was highly elevated but had plain spoken directness that made it so searing.”
Amy and Courtney Wright embrace healthful cuisine and yoga without sacrificing flavor at Sunny Yoga Kitchen in NorthWest Crossing.
Courtney and Amy Wright
It’s about 4 p.m. in NorthWest Crossing, and Sunny Yoga Kitchen is closed after lunch, but the aroma of pork, sesame oil and chilis, just beginning to braise in a hot pan, has wafted onto the sidewalk of this tidy, planned neighborhood. The fragrance is headily distracting. If this were a cartoon, passersby would be levitating, their noses gliding along the entrancing, vapor tendrils.
There’s a knock on the door. A woman asks if the eatery-yoga-studio offers gluten- and dairy-free dishes. Chef Amy Wright explains that the menu is entirely gluten-free, and she favors using avocado, nut cheeses, cashews and nutritional yeast as a cheese alternative. She shuts the door and returns her attention to the pork, which she has marinated for two days in an amino-acid packed protein concentrate from soybeans.
Beyond the kitchen, barely bigger than a Eurovan, the rest of the 1,000 square feet seats twenty. Hours before, Vinyasa yoga students were exploring rhythmic, moving meditation on the smooth wooden floor. Given the establishment’s big-picture goal—to build a thriving community by helping people strengthen their minds and bodies through yoga and fresh, nourishing food—one might expect this endeavor to be heavy on the passion, light on the palate. Think again.
“I appreciate it when people are excited that this is not typical, yoga-inspired food,” said Wright. “People try it and are surprised. They expect it to be a little more on the ‘crunchy side’ or ‘ski bum’ side. We want to be different, but not afraid of being ourselves.”
Wright’s partner in the business and in marriage is Courtney Wright, who performs a work trifecta: yoga teacher, prep cook and server. They met in 2008, the day Amy reported for her first day as a server at Restaurant Muramoto in Madison, Wisconsin, and Courtney was tasked with training her. Within two weeks, Amy was managing the enduringly popular sushi and Asian-fusion spot in the food-focused city. Chef Shinji Muramoto’s influence on Amy is evident in Sunny Yoga’s Shinji salad of cabbage, peppers, arugula, cilantro, sesame seeds and vinaigrette.
Burmese Pork and Golden Juice
Her fluency in Asian flavors was built atop the culinary foundation she’d developed from 2000 to 2007 at the acclaimed Zuni Café in San Francisco, famous for chef Judy Rodgers’ evolving hybrid of Eurocentric cuisine. During that time, the café and Rodgers won several James Beard awards, including outstanding restaurant in the country in 2003, and outstanding chef in 2004.
Amy, a liaison between floor staff, management and Rodgers, took it all in. “When you work somewhere for so long, you tend to learn everything,” she said. “It’s where I got my chops.”
In 2012, Amy moved with Courtney to Portland, where Amy helped chef Vitaly Paley and his team open Imperial Restaurant and Portland Penny Diner in the Hotel Lucia, downtown. Courtney was teaching yoga and serving at nationally recognized chef Jenn Louis’ restaurant, Lincoln. The Wrights frequented Yoga Pearl, which sparked the idea to open a restaurant-yoga studio.
Both snowboarders, they fell in love with Bend, moved here in 2013, and opened their business in 2014. They were grateful that it was popular, but Amy found herself working 100-hour weeks. The stress contributed to an inner ear infection and a crippling, five-day bout of vertigo.
“It was the first time in twenty-seven years of working that I’d called in sick, and it was to my own restaurant,” said Amy, who learned that she was allergic to dairy, a contributor to ear and throat problems.
The following year, Courtney had surgery to remove her thyroid after a cancer diagnosis. “It was another huge sign to not drown ourselves in work,” Amy said. “Instead of expanding and hiring more people, we decided to [stop] doing dinner, and focus on lunch and having more energy to nourish and rest ourselves.”
Sunny Yoga Studio Class. Photo by Adam McKibben
They cut sugar from everything on the menu (“except for the Burmese pork, because it’s so amazing,” Amy said). For everything else, Amy raves about monk fruit sweetener.
Like other healthy alternatives that also pack great flavor, such as liquid aminos as a substitute for tamari, monk fruit sweetener is significantly more expensive, but Amy believes it’s worth it. She hopes it gains popularity, which also will help bring the price down.
The Wrights are also proponents of using locally made Ablis CBD oils in their juices. Derived from hemp, the oil has no THC, and thus no psychotropic effects. Amy endorses it as a healthful way to manage the pain of being on her feet all day in the kitchen.
They discovered the oil after Max Bendis, national sales director of Ablis, became a fan of the Wrights’ food, especially the Burmese pork and the golden juice: carrot, orange, local turmeric and ginger over ice.
Bendis said, “They are two of my favorite people in Bend, they are so awesome, so nice and have really good food.”
Thanks to our skiing ancestors in the European Alps for coining the phrase “après ski” and instituting one of the best parts of winter recreation: the after party. A warm plate of comfort food and a tall pint are the ultimate reward after a day of adventure, but the après ski scene is as much about the atmosphere as appetizers. In Central Oregon, with the mountains just a short drive away from town, you’re never too far from a warm fire to thaw your frozen toes after a day in the snow. For your next post-powder gathering, shortlist some of these pubs and patios around the region to relax and refuel for the next day’s adventures.
When you’re looking for a spot to knock the snow off your boots after a long day of mountain play, don’t overlook one of the newcomers to the scene, River Pig Saloon. This upstart watering hole with a Portland pedigree feels right at home in Bend where owner Ramzy Hattar has settled into the Box Factory in style. A throwback Western-themed bar wraps around the center of the room affording visitors a view of the multiple televisions where you’re likely to find a Ducks, Blazers or Timbers game playing. Behind the bar a life-sized stuffed Bison watches over the proceedings. Upstairs a loft allows for a semi-private gathering space and serves as an elevated stage for live music.
The piece de resistance though isn’t inside the thoughtfully designed saloon, it’s outside where Hattar commissioned Orion Forge’s Hunter Dahlberg to build one-of-a-kind galvanized steel hearth complete with wrought iron doors and a smoke alleviating chimney. It’s a perfect venue for gathering on a winter afternoon around the handful of tables on the sidewalk facing Arizona Ave.
Once you get yourself comfortable, order a round of the friend pickle chips, sliced dill pickles, rolled in cornmeal batter and deep fried to delightful perfection. If you’re appetite is as big as a buffalo, order the bison burger, a lean cut of ground American bison on a duck fat infused bun from Jackson’s corner. Wash it all down with River Pig Pilsner from Backwoods Brewery and pass the pickle chips. — Eric Flowers
Some of us old timers might be tempted to call it the Owl’s Nest, but by whatever moniker, Twisted River Tavern in the Sunriver Lodge is a classic destination to gather with friends at the end of a winter’s day. A remodel a few years back updated the interior to a modern sheen, as well as justified a name change, but the moody ambiance and chance to tuck up next to the fireplace with your friends and a bevvy remain intact.
Order a Millionaire’s Coffee or a Chocolate Martini alongside some duck nuggets or fried pickles and kick back to watch the sun slip behind South Sister. A terrific happy hour is offered seven days a week, covering extended hours on Saturday and Sunday, beginning at 11:30 a.m. A full menu draws on some of the flavors of the finer-dining next door at Carson’s American Kitchen. Your children and underage friends are welcome here, too. Make a night of it—Twisted River is open late. — Kim Cooper Findling
When the then-upstart 10 Barrel Brewing opened its flagship pub in 2010 nobody could have predicted the company’s meteoric rise, opening pubs in Boise and Portland and its ultimate sale to the international brewing mega corporation, InBev. While there have been many changes, including the opening of a second larger pub on Bend’s east side at 10 Barrel’s corporate headquarters, a few things have remained constants.
One of them is the neighborhood vibe that presides over the flagship pub on Galveston, where locals and visitors alike gather year-round on the open-air patio, huddling around a crackling wood fire that is stoked with regularity. It’s one of the best places in town to strike up a conversation with a stranger or kick back with old friends.
The prime location makes 10 Barrel a coveted location for an après ski layover. Assuming that you can find parking on the bustling Galveston corridor, you’ll be rewarded with a huge selection of taps, including small-batch and pub-only beers. Pair those with some of 10 Barrel’s pub grub and you’ve got the makings of a great post mountain pit stop. 10 Barrel’s pizza and burgers are the staple of this menu, but a great après ski dish is one that can be shared. For that, you can’t go wrong with the guilt-inducing flavorfest that is the steak and gorgonzola nachos. A staple of the menu over the past eight years, the dish is an inspired variation on traditional nachos, offering guests the option of either house-made Cajun chips or fries as the foundation. From there add a liberal dose of gorgonzola, ground steak and chopped applewood bacon, topped with four cheese sauce. If you’re looking to make up some lost calories on the mountain, look no further. — Eric Flowers
Comfort food, revolving taps and family-friendly atmosphere. Fresh off Cascade Lakes Highway, it’s hard to beat Brother Jon’s Public House for an après ski gathering that everyone in the group will enjoy. Grab a corner table, order a pint from the ever-changing menu of brews and dig into the comfort food. The spicy buffalo mac and cheese includes jalapenos, peas and buffalo meat in a spicy Sriracha cheese that will warm you from the inside out. It’s best paired with an easy, light beer that can wash down the heat. The dish could easily feed two, or at least would make a stellar leftover lunch. But if you’re ravenous after a day on the slopes, it’s definitely going to be enough to fill you up. — Bronte Dod
In Sisters, the place to après ski is the Sisters Saloon & Ranch Grill. Housed in the refurbished Hotel Sisters that was originally built in 1912, the restaurant opened in 2016 with decor that is on theme in true Sisters fashion and a menu that is a modern take on Western fare. Get started with the loaded potato skins and chicken wings. But make sure to save room for the coup de gras, a pulled pork sando served Memphis style with house-made slaw under a freshly baked brioche bun. Still got an appetite? The Saloon Cracklin’s are a local favorite: flash-fried pork rinds in a chili lime seasoning. Order it all to share, a cocktail from the full bar or a beer on tap and kick up your feet in the family-friendly atmosphere that channels just enough Billy the Kid attitude to keep things interesting. — Bronte Dod
The AdvenChair, created by Geoff Babb and Dale Neubaurer, is an all-terrain wheelchair designed to go off-road.
Geoff Babb. Photo by Michelle Simmons
In September 2016, almost eleven years after suffering a near-fatal brain-stem stroke, Geoff Babb sat in his modified wheelchair at the Bright Angel trailhead with his family and a group of friends. Given the path that he had traveled to reach that point, a wheelchair journey into the belly of the Grand Canyon didn’t seem far-fetched.
An avid backpacker, climber and mountain biker before his lifechanging stroke, Babb wasn’t content to surrender his outdoor lifestyle because of his limited mobility. Determined to get back into the wild places that inspired him, he soon realized that his enjoyment of the outdoors with friends was limited not so much by his legs, but the frailties of his wheelchair.
“Normal wheelchairs just can’t cut it in the wilderness,” said Babb. “To get off the beaten path, I needed something that was much more durable and versatile than anything out there. That’s how the AdvenChair was born.”
Babb, a fire ecologist for the BLM, began developing the all-terrain AdvenChair several years ago with the help of Dale Neubauer, a friend and helicopter mechanic. Together they created a human-powered vehicle with mountain bike tires, a detachable front wheel, a rear handle bar with dual disc brakes, and a harness that would allow a team of up to four people to push, pull and guide Babb up and down rugged trails, as well as over sand and snow.
“What drove me to work with Geoff was his incredible perseverance, optimism and positive drive,” said Neubauer. “When you spend time around someone like that, the last thing you’d want to do is hold him back.”
Initially, Babb’s stroke therapy included sit-skiing with Oregon Adaptive Sports and visits to Healing Reins Therapeutic Riding Center, which gave him the idea to trek with friends into the Grand Canyon via pack mule. But when the wait for a permit and other logistics got in the way of a trip in September of 2016, he decided to put his AdvenChair to the test instead.
Despite surviving rugged trails at Mount Bachelor and Smith Rock State Park, as well as at Mount Rainier, Crater Lake and Glacier national parks, the AdvenChair ultimately succumbed to a broken axle sheath two miles down the Bright Angel Trail. “The pounding of the wheels over dozens of water bars was just too much,” explained Babb.
The break sent Babb and his team back to the drawing board to strengthen the AdvenChair.
Photo by Michelle Simmons
“The structural failure of the axle assembly allowed us to start with a clean slate,” said Neubauer. “Geoff came up with the idea of blending the attributes of a sit-ski with high-grade aluminum mountain bike components, including beefier twenty-seven-and-a-half inch wheels, that led us to an entirely new hybrid design.”
After receiving encouragement at Bend’s Venture Out Conference in October of 2017, Babb was preparing an IndieGoGo campaign to help produce prototypes of Version 2.0, when he encountered a significant bump in the road. On November 10, 2017, he had a second stroke—twelve years to the day after his first one.
“The chances of surviving a brain-stem stroke are about 10 percent,” said Geoff’s wife Yvonne. “I knew getting him back from another one at age 60 would be pretty miraculous. But he looked at me from his hospital bed the next day and confidently murmured, ‘Not our first rodeo’.”
Despite doctor’s predictions, Babb relearned how to swallow and eat solid food all over again, and emerged more determined than ever to bring the AdvenChair 2.0 to reality, not just for himself, but for the nearly 15 million people nationwide suffering from limited mobility, and highly limiting wheelchairs.
Oregon Adaptive Sports Executive Director, Pat Addabbo, sees tremendous potential on a global scale. “As a program provider, the things I look for are adjustability for different sizes and abilities of people, ease of assistance by staff/volunteers and durability,” he says. “The AdvenChair fits all of these. It will surely fill a need in the adaptive recreation industry.”
Babb’s fellow Oregon Adaptive Sports skier Kirk Petersen, who is paralyzed from the waist down, is anxious to test the new chair.
“The chair is going to do wonders for getting people like myself to remote places,” said Petersen. “We don’t want to be stuck in the house watching TV. We want to be doing the same things everyone else wants to be doing outside. We just need a little help.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, Babb chose November 10, 2018 as the day to launch his fundraising campaign to help build and test several prototypes. With funding through his website, his goal is to begin selling chairs in 2019, and ultimately, to see them in use throughout the country, so people can share their stories online.
“Having access to nature and solitude does wonders for the mind and body,” said Babb. “Whether venturing to the bottom of the Grand Canyon or not, we hope to provide some very rewarding journeys.”
Cross-country or Nordic skiing is a popular sport in Central Oregon. But not every trail or sno-park allows dogs. If you’re looking for a new trail to try this winter with your furry friend, here are some great options.
Nordic skiing has a long history in Central Oregon, with the first ski club formed in the early 20th century. There are miles of cross-country trails to explore across the region, but not all of them allow dogs. Since this is Central Oregon, and dogs are even allowed at some breweries, here are some options for where to take your dog cross-country skiing with you. Keep in mind that the Forest Service asks that dogs stay within voice control at all times and that they be leashed when in the sno-park.
Kapka Sno-Park
Near Sunriver off Forest Service Road 45, Kapka Sno-Park is one of the few places where dogs are allowed on the ungroomed cross-country skiing trails. The low-elevation sno-park has limited views, but its also one of the least-trafficked sno-parks in the region, so you and your pooch will have plenty of room to explore. Dogs are allowed at the park, along with snowshoers and snowmobilers, so keep an eye out and share the trails.
Wanoga Sno-Park
One of the first parks off Cascade Lakes Highway in Bend, Wanoga Sno-Park is also one of the most popular. There are designated trails for snowshoeing, Nordic skiing and snowmobiling, and the park is also busy with families who take advantage of the legendary sledding hill. A two-mile cross-country skiing trail, maintained by DogPac, allows dogs and is a popular winter Nordic skiing destination for those that don’t want to leave the dogs behind.
Edison Butte Sno-Park
Edison Butte Sno-Park, also off Cascade Lakes Highway, is open to skiers, snowshoers and snowmobilers. There are miles of trails to explore from here, and most will lead to one of two warming huts in the park. Dogs are allowed on the looped network of trails that can keep skiers and dogs busy for hours. Edison Butte is farther up the highway than other popular parks, and you’ll probably be sharing the trails with other skiers and their dogs as well.
What started as a small backyard concert and modest fundraiser for Oregon Adaptive Sports has grown into the region’s premier private concert event. A one-day, all-inclusive concert and charity auction that celebrates Central Oregon’s commitment to a level playing field athletes of all abilities, Bigstock Bend is the primary fundraising event for Oregon Adaptive Sports.
This year the event returns to Coyote Ridge Ranch in Tumalo on August 10, 2019 when Big Head Todd and the Monsters and special guest Freddy Jones Band will take the stage for an unforgettable evening of music under the stars.
Presented by Bend Magazine, Bigstock Bend welcomes headliner Big Head Todd and the Monsters for its only Central Oregon appearance this year. The Boulder, Colorado-based band is known for its powerful live performances that cover a twenty-plus-year career. With hits like “Broken Hearted Savior” and “Bittersweet“ from the band’s platinum-selling breakout album, Sister Sweetly, Big Head Todd’s career has spanned the arc of modern radio music. The band’s most recent album New World Arisin’ was released in 2017 and continues the group’s commitment to hook-driven rock and heartfelt lyricism.
Supporting act Freddy Jones Band ensures the day will not be short on funky groves and extended jams. The Chicago-based band cut its teeth during the mid-90s and has been touring hard ever since while scoring hits like, “One World“ and “In a Daydream.“
Bigstock Bend is a celebration of music, friendship and philanthropy that makes a positive impact on the lives of differently abled athletes by ensuring the outdoors is open to all.
In addition to live music, Bigstock attendees can participate in a silent auction with proceeds going directly to Oregon Adaptive Sports, an organization committed to providing equal access and opportunities for athletes of all ages and abilities.
A hosted bar includes local beer, wine and craft spirits with each ticket, as well as a cocktail mug. A diverse sampling of the region’s culinary offerings will also be featured in a pop-up food court featuring some of the area’s most popular food trucks.
All the best New Year’s Eve parties, celebrations and events around Bend. Central Oregon knows how to throw a good party.
Photo by Brad Bailey courtesy of Wanderlust Tours
If you’re looking to join in on some of the festivities for New Year’s Eve in Central Oregon, here are all the best places to ring in 2019. From resorts to the mountain, these are the parties and concerts that you don’t want to miss.
Bonfire on the Snow
Where: Wanderlust Tours and Deschutes National Forest When: Depart from the Wanderlust Tours office in Bend at 9 p.m. Who: All ages are allowed on the tour Details: For a unique way to celebrate New Year’s Eve, join the Bonfire on the Snow event from Wanderlust Tours. You’ll follow a naturalist guide on a showshow tour through the old-growth forest to a bonfire carved out in the snow. Sip on tasty warm beverages (including cocktails for adults) and local desserts while a guide talks about the history of the forest and the starry night sky.
River Pig Saloon
Where: River Pig Saloon When: Beginning at 8 p.m. Who: 21 and over Details: The River Pig will be hosting one of the biggest celebrations of the night. A Bend New Year’s Eve starts at 8 p.m. and will take over the Box Factory. There will be live music, a silent disco and a ball drop at midnight with a complimentary beer or champagne toast. A portion of the ticket sales will go toward the Bend Fire Community Assistance Program and there will be a 20 percent discount on all Lyft rides to and from the event.
Brasada’s New Year’s Eve at the Ranch
Where: Brasada Ranch When: Dinner from 6-10 p.m., Kids’ Cosmic Pool Party from 6:45 p.m.-12:45 a.m., NYE Barn Party 8 p.m.-12:30 a.m. Who: All ages are allowed at the dinner. Kids of all ages are allowed at the pool party. NYE Barn Party is 21 and over. Details: Head to Brasada Ranch for New Year’s Eve events that the whole family can enjoy. Start with a prix fixe dinner that will include ribeye and seafood paella. Kids can hang out at the cosmic pool party all night while the adults enjoy dancing at the barn and a champagne toast at midnight.
Hoodoo’s New Year’s Eve Party
Where: Hoodoo Ski Area When: 9 a.m.-12 a.m. Who: All ages Details: Spend New Year’s Eve at Hoodoo Ski Area. It’ll be an all-day party on the mountain, followed by a special dinner at the lodge, live music and a professional fireworks show at 9 p.m.
McMenamins Old St. Francis School
Where: McMenamins Old St. Francis School When: 9 p.m.-12:30 a.m. Who: 21 and over Details: If you’re looking for live music and a party, head to McMenamins in downtown Bend. There will be live music at Father Luke’s Room and in the Theater. There are also some special lodging packages available if you’re visiting from out of town or are looking for a staycation in Bend.
Sunriver Resort
Where: Sunriver Resort When: Dinner 5-9 p.m., Family night from 7:30-9:30 p.m., Party from 9 p.m.-1 a.m. Who: Dinner and family night are open to all ages. Party is 21 and over. Details: The whole family can celebrate New Year’s Eve at Sunriver Resort. There is five-course plated dinner that is open to the whole family with a sparkling cider or champagne toast. Families can then head to the Homestead building for games and snacks. Adults can join the party that will have live music from Precious Byrd and a champagne toast at midnight.
Larry and His Flask at Midtown Ballroom
Where: Midtown Ballroom When: 7 p.m.-2 a.m. Who: 21 and over Details: Local favorite Larry and His Flask will take over Midtown Ballroom New Year’s Eve for a raucous party. Their sound and genre are all their own, but never fails to get the crowd dancing. If you’re looking for a great concert in downtown Bend, this is the place to be.
Tetherow New Year’s Eve Party
Where: Tetherow Resort Pavilion When: 9 p.m.-12 a.m. Who: 21 and over Details: Tetherow Resort is hosting its annual New Year’s Party. There will be hosted time zone cocktails at 9, 10, 11 p.m. and midnight to ring in the new year. If you dine at Solomon’s beforehand, your ticket price to the party will be reduced. There will also be a DJ and a photobooth to round out the festivities.
The Cutmen with Tang at Volcanic Theatre Pub
Where: Volcanic Theatre Pub When: 9 p.m. Who: 21 and over Details: If you’re looking for a concert, The Cutmen, joined by Tang, will be taking over Volcanic Theatre Pub for the night. It’s always a party there, and even more so on New Year’s Eve. Plus, with tickets at just $5, it’s one of the least expensive options for the evening.
Local book expert Kaisha Khalifeh Gaede recommends her favorite books to give this holiday season, because books make the best holiday gifts.
Everyone can appreciate getting lost in good book. One of our local book experts Kaisha Khalifeh Gaede recommends the best books to give this holiday season that everyone on your list will enjoy.
How to Raise a Plant: And Make It Love You Back by Morgan Doane and Erin Harding
It’s impossible not to notice the explosive rise in the popularity of houseplants. How to Raise a Plant and Make It Love You Back is beautiful guide written by the creative minds behind the Instagram account @houseplantclub and is a great gift for anyone young or old who is trying to get more green into their life and into their living space.
There’s No Such Thing as Bad Weather: A Scandinavian Mom’s Secrets for Raising Healthy, Resilient, and Confident Kids by Linda Åkeson McGurk
If you are looking for a good gift for new parents, this is a great option. Less a parenting advice book and more an exploration into the science and benefits of a life lived in the great outdoors, There’s No Such Thing as Bad Weather will inspire the whole family to bundle-up and get outside.
Shinrin Yoku by Yoshifumi Miyazaki
For the person in your life who loved The Life Changing Magic of Tiding Up. While Shinrin Yoku: The Japanese Art of Forest Bathing has nothing to do with cleaning, this book on the practice of Japanese forest bathing is a beautiful and fascinating book to give to those people in your life who love hiking, yoga and meditation, which, if they live in Central Oregon, they probably do.
Cræft: An Inquiry Into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts by Alexander Langlands
Written by an archaeologist and historian, Cræft is the perfect gift for that person who loves handmade furniture, artisan breads, craft beers and really appreciates and is fascinated by an authentically crafted life.
Brave New Weed: Adventures into the Uncharted World of Cannabis by Joe Dolce
Brave New Weed is a fantastically researched and entertaining look at the new world of legal cannabis, the history of cannabis prohibition and the emerging research on this fascinating plant. It’s a great gift for those who partake or those who are just curious.
The Royal Wulff Murders by Keith McCafferty
This is a great Dad-gift, especially if your dad is a huge C.J. Box fan or a dedicated watcher/reader of the Longmire series. In The Royal Wulff Murders, a fly-fishing guide in Montana turns his hand to solving crime in this first volume of the Sean Stranahan mysteries.
Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr by John Crowley
For that friend who reads mostly fantasy but every once in a while dives in to hard-hitting literary fiction, the one who loves George R.R. Martin and Haruki Murakami. Narrated by a crow, Ka is a deep, slow river of a book that creeps into your soul and leaves you with new eyes to see the world.
The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
The Heart’s Invisible Furies is one of the best books I have read in ages—every lover of a good, heart-stirring novel that I know is getting a copy this Christmas. The novel follows the life of Cyril Avery, given up for adoption in the early 1950s in Ireland. His loves, his triumphs and his sorrows are fully animated and full of life in this novel that is both hysterical and heartbreaking.
2018 has been a good year for Bend’s restaurant scene. Here are some great new restaurants that popped up in Bend this year.
Poke Row
Bend tends to attract bold, creative entrepreneurs as well as people working up appetites on the river, mountain, and forest trails at every turn. So, it follows that new culinary offerings are a given. Lately, this has meant an infusion of global flavors, from a lifted embargo on Cuban cuisine to Mediterranean bistro fare, savory pub grub and Bend’s stylized take on a world-class steakhouse experience.
Cuban Kitchen
133 SW Century Dr. Suite 204, Bend
Open: Tuesday-Friday 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Closed Sunday and Monday
The flavors of the Little Havana section of Miami come together at Cuban Kitchen in Bend, which offers classic dishes based on family recipes, bringing a dash of the Caribbean to the Cascades. Try the Cubanos, pressed, grilled sandwiches with savory fillings such as roasted pork, ham and Swiss cheese, or slow roasted pork or chicken, or thinly sliced and pounded sirloin. They’re also stuffed with sautéed onions, or sweet plantains with lettuce, tomatoes, mustard, mayonnaise and crunchy fried potato sticks, which all meld lusciously. The cheese melts, the bread toasts and the result is as satisfying as a lifted embargo. Top entrees include puerco asada, slowly cooked with a mojo marinade of garlic, cumin, and oregano and orange juice, and Cuban-style chicken fricassee and rice.
With a name that harkens back to the Pacific Northwest’s logging past, River Pig Saloon landed in a trending district on NW Arizona Avenue in Bend. The neighborhood is complete with a marijuana dispensary and board-game emporium, but this modern-day saloon delivers cocktails evocative of Bend’s burlier days, such as the River Pig old-fashioned, in which whiskey has its way with bitters and fig and maple flavors, or the PickleBack, whiskey neat, with a chaser of house pickle juice. Meanwhile, the red-headed stranger concoction tempts, with vodka, grapefruit, ginger and pear cider. Appetizers and rustic pub fare range from fried pickles in buttermilk batter with ranch on the side, to fried cheese-stuffed yucca with spicy ranch. Bratwurst with pickle relish and caramelized onion, mac and cheese, tacos and steak salad are suppers that will make you feel as fortified as a tree-feller.
Poke Row
2735 NW Crossing Dr. #105, Bend
Open: Monday-Thursday 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Friday-Saturday 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
At Poke Row in Northwest Crossing, the focus is on fresh, casual Hawaiian cuisine, drawing on poke (pronounced poh-kay) which historically referred to how fishermen would season small slices of their daily catch as a snack with some seaweed. It has evolved to a menu in which patrons select yellowfin or spicy tuna, shrimp, salmon, chicken or tofu, as well as sauces such as spicy mayo, spicy yuzu, sweet ginger soy, wasabi aioli and toppings, from cucumber or mango to pineapple, jalapeno and edamame, all served with rice and mixed greens. The signature bowl is tuna, shrimp, salmon, mango, sesame soy, spicy yuzu, avocado, green onions, sesame seeds, crispy noodles and toasted seaweed. The endeavor was founded by the team at Bend’s award-winning 5 Fusion and Sushi Bar.
The Lemon Tree
718 NW Franklin Ave., Bend
Open: Tuesday-Sunday 8 a.m.-3 p.m.
At The Lemon Tree, a quaint eatery in the heart of downtown Bend, two chefs who cooked on cruise ships, using fresh ingredients from the daily port of call, have landed their style here. The breakfast and lunch service features international fare such as: shakshuka, a Tunisian dish with poached eggs in a sauce of tomatoes, chile peppers and onions, cumin, garlic, paprika and coriander; feta and spinach frittata garnished with toasted pine nuts; crab cake Benedict; nasi goreng, Indonesian-style fried rice with prawns, chicken and vegetables topped with an over-easy egg and amaretto french toast with slivered almonds and raspberries. With friendly service and a charming, European-influenced atmosphere, this bistro sprung up to fill a niche in the abundant downtown restaurant offerings.
Boneyard Beer
1955 NE Division St., Bend
Open: Every day 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
Since its scrappy beginnings in an old auto shop off the beaten path in 2010, Boneyard Beer has had a growing fan base, prompting the opening of an expanded brewhouse and pub on NE Division Street. With about a score of brews to its name, the eclectic menu offerings pair well with a range of what’s on tap, typically ranging from a wheat “witbier” and a German Pilsner to their Diablo Rojo Red Ale and Incredible Pulp Pale Ale. Palate-stimulating food pairings include bold, umami-packed Asian and Latin American flavors, such as marinated, roasted wings ranging from Japanese barbecue, spicy green chili verde and carrot habanero to honey-mustard-Boneyard beer. Starters include a roasted vegetable platter with a celery root puree and local Sparrow Bakery pretzel. Japanese-style bahn mi hot dog with local Primal Cuts sriracha pork sausage and a crunchy-coated Japanese pork belly sandwich with Asian slaw, pickles and ginger aioli exemplify the emphasis on innovative flavors.
Bos Taurus
163 NW Minnesota Ave., Bend
Open: Every day 5-10 p.m.
Bos Taurus Chef George Morris leverages modern techniques for classic steakhouse fare with a progressive American (and Bend) twist. Try the Japanese Hokkaido A5 Wagyu, with its off-the-chart marbling for tenderness and flavor, or the hanger steak from 7X Ranch in Hotchkiss, Colorado, where the sustainably raised cattle graze on nine types of grasses. Morris rubs the steaks with hickory-smoked salt and a blend of peppercorns and seasonings, sears them on a custom-made, two-inch thick, 200-pound, cast iron slab heated to 550° F, removes them, rubs them with local butter, lets them rest, and re-sears them to achieve the perfect crust and medium-rare doneness. All that, plus top-shelf service and craft cocktails, make it a must.
The Old Mill District is much more than a shopping mall. It mixes your love of shopping, dining and the outdoors into one spectacular place. Riverside restaurants, trails, shops and shows—Bend is here! That’s why we have partnered with our friends at the Old Mill District to bring you an exclusive Holiday Giveaway. One winner will be randomly chosen.
Dana Robles has been a brewer at Boneyard Beer in Bend since 2015. Here’s what a typical workday looks like for her.
Dana Robles thought she might become a teacher after college. But she started working at Oakshire, a brewery in Eugene, and decided that she could turn her homebrewing hobby into a career. “I met a lot of brewers, and it just really made sense,” she said. “The lifestyle and everything about brewing seemed to fit me more.” Robles, 34, ended up going to brewing school, then landed a job at Ninkasi, where she met her now-fiancee, Mark Henion. In 2015, she got her brewing position at Boneyard Beer and moved to Bend with Henion (who’s also a brewer at Boneyard).
She said the thing she enjoys most about brewing is how hands-on it is. “It’s a lot of physical work, and can be challenging when things go wrong,” she said. “It challenges you to troubleshoot, think and act on your toes and dig into the well of knowledge gained throughout the years to keep things running smoothly.”
Robles added, “Work hard, play hard seems to be the M.O. Plus, we make beer, which is inherently fun and interesting.” Here’s how she spends a typical workday. — Bronte Dod
4:30 a.m. Not all of our shifts start this early. This is the opening shift, and we all rotate through it. That being said, 4:30 a.m. is really too early to be getting up. This morning, like every morning that I work at 5 a.m., I groggily get out of bed and turn on the coffee maker, which gives me 15 minutes to throw on my Carhartts, T-shirt, socks, sweatshirt and boots, brush my hair, my teeth and pack my lunch. Then I am out the door at 4:45 a.m.
5 a.m. Arriving at the brewery, I unlock the doors and immediately begin mash-in. On a day like this, we will brew three batches of beer, it takes about fourteen hours. Mashing-in, at our facility, consists of loading a super sack of milled malt above a bucket elevator that dumps the grain into the mash mixer scoop by scoop, while hydrating it with water. This morning is cold, and so is the grain. I am mashing-in at a strike temperature of 166 degrees. The strike temperature is the temperature that the water from the hydrater meets the grain. The goal is to finish mash-in with the entire mash at 150 degrees, the perfect temperature for the enzymes to convert starches to sugar in the malted barley. This process takes one hour, from start of mash to transfer to lauter tun, the vessel in the brew house used to wash the sugar from the mash and send it to the kettle.
6 a.m. Cellar-persons and racking crew have began to arrive. I am transferring the mash to the lauter tun via a three-inch pipe and a pump. This process takes ten minutes. After “first wort” (the most sugar-concentrated liquid) is through, the sparge water will rinse the grain for the remainder of the run to kettle. The liquid created in this process is called wort. This is usually un-hopped until boil.
7 a.m. Yeast harvest. There are many ways to harvest yeast for the days brew. It is an essential part of the process because the yeast is what converts the sugar to precious alcohol. At our brewery we harvest into fifty liter kegs depending on the batch size, then pitch the yeast in line to the fermenter, mixing it with wort and oxygen. The oxygen is another essential ingredient in the process. Yeast needs oxygen to thrive. Without the addition of oxygen, fermentation would be sluggish and the yeast would struggle to grow and survive in that environment. 8 a.m. Second mash-in. We are mashing three beers today, and mash-ins occur every three hours, unless there is a problem.Today, everything is going smoothly. Another brewer has joined me at this point and is helping with mash-in. The other brewer has weighed out the hops we will use for today’s three brews.
8:30 a.m. Kettle full and grain-out. This is the boogie. The “boogie” is a term coined by a brewer named Anders Johansen who I worked with at Ninkasi. He’s a veteran brewer with thirty-plus years experience, and has a one-of-a-kind vernacular. The boogie is the part of the brew day that ultimately has the most going on, requires multitasking and usually involves attention to multiple vessels at once.
While still mashing in, we get to kettle full, which is at sixty-seven barrels of wort. The kettle is boiling, hops get thrown and the lauter tun is ready for grain-out. After securing the kettle lid and recording boil time, I hop on the forklift to assist my fellow brewer in graining-out. An “iris” below the lauter tun is manually opened and out pours hot spent grain into plastic totes. Most people visiting the brewery at this moment remark on the terrific smell of the spent grain. After each bin is filled, I fork lift the totes outside behind the brewery. Later, an employee of Barley Beef will come by and we will load the totes onto his truck. That grain will later be taken to feed their cattle.
We have many “Groundhog Day moments” at the brewery. Mashing-in and graining-out are two of those moments. Brewing is monotonous and is designed to be so. Consistency is key in making quality beer that people can trust will taste like the last one they had. So everything we do throughout the day is part of a very regimented minute by minute brew schedule. Only when equipment fails, or people, does chaos happen.
9 a.m. Grain-out is over, and the new mash has been transferred to the lauter tun and is resting before vorlauf. Vorlauf, a german word, is the process of recirculating wort. We do this for about twenty minutes, until it is bright enough to send to our secondary holding tank called the wort receiver. The kettle is still full and boiling so we cannot send wort here just yet.
This is a good time to check in on the rest of the brewery’s happenings. I head over to the keg line, and help load empty dirty kegs onto the keg line. I bring new stacks of dirty kegs to the line via forklift, and remove the tags and shrink wrap. I haul away freshly packaged beer and help out wherever possible before returning to the brew deck. At this point in the day we are all hands on deck. If I leave the brew deck to help with cellars or packaging, there will surely be another brewer or two keeping an eye on the brews.
10 a.m. We are just about done transferring the boiled wort to the whirlpool. This process is called knockout. It is essential in separating heavy solids out of the beer to help with clarity downstream and in not clogging the heat exchanger when we send the wort to the fermenter. This process takes twenty minutes. Once the brew kettle is empty we send what we have collected in the wort receiver to the empty kettle and repeat the process we just completed with the first brew of the day.
10:30 a.m. Time to send the wort from the whirlpool to the fermenter. This is called “pump over.” This consists of running hot 200 degree wort through a plate and frame chiller, that has cold groundwater running the opposite direction of the wort. By the time the wort exits the heat exchanger it should be at our fermentation temp of 67 degrees. This is where I add the yeast I have harvested earlier. Pump over takes one hour.
11 a.m. Third and final mash-in. Now it is nice to have three brewers on shift. One monitors pump over, another filling the kettle and grain out and the third mashing in. We have an incredibly manual large brewery, so it is a very hands on process for the size.
Noon Lunch break. I take a half hour to sit quietly in the office and chow down on some food I got from the taco cart down the street.
12:30 p.m. Back to work, for the next hour and a half I will be loading kegs, cleaning drains and tank feet and monitoring run to kettle.
2:20 p.m. Final kettle full, final grain-out. I assist in graining-out, while my co-worker forklifts the totes away. My other coworker is finishing the second brew as it goes into the fermenter. Once I get the lauter tun empty, I do some final tidying around the brew house while the late shift brewer pulls plates up and rinses the lauter tun, tucking it away for the night.
2:40 p.m. Today is special because we have sensory. A nice surprise and a good way to end the day. I sample five different beers, rate them in order of preference, describe the aroma, flavor and appearance and offer criticism or praise for each.
3 p.m. My shift is over. I take a stroll to the back office to indulge in my favorite after work pastime: pinball and beer. I pour a PABO pils off the kegerator and fire up Playboy Pinball. “Welcome to my party,” Hef exclaims as I hit player one. Ball is life.
After that I either go home and head to Cycle Bar for spin, dig into a sewing project I dreamt about at work or snuggle with my old pup who isn’t doing so well right now. Or all three! Either way I am happy to be home and happy to kick off my stinky boots. Ready to make some more delicious beer tomorrow.
Elena Pressprich (you may know her as @findmeoutside on Instagram) is the staff photographer for Ruffwear and gets to take photos of dogs all day. Here’s what a typical workday looks like for her.
Elena Pressprich
Talking to Elena Pressprich over the phone, you could hear her dogs playing together in the background. She recently added a third to her pack, Millie, a golden retriever. On Instagram, you may know her as @findmeoutside. Pressprich has built a following around her outdoor adventures, always with her dogs by her side. She said she got into photography in high school, and after a few years exploring careers in the medical field, she landed a job as the staff photographer at Ruffwear in Bend a little more than a year ago. Pressprich, 32, has lived in Bend her entire life, and spends her free time exploring Oregon. “When I’m not working my nine to five, I’m still working at home to find the next place to travel to get photos,” she said. She’ll go anywhere that’s driving distance, so she never has to leave her dogs behind. Here’s how she spends a workday at Ruffwear. — Bronte Dod
6:00 a.m. Wake up, check phone. (Guilty… and I know I’m not the only one who does this…)
6:05 a.m. Ok, let the dogs out to use bathroom.
6:08 a.m. Let the dogs into bed with me and hug and cuddle them for at least ten minutes.
Elena’s first dog Rio
6:18 a.m. Realize I need to stop cuddling my dogs and really get in the shower.
6:35 a.m. Feed dogs, dress myself, make coffee.
6:55 a.m. Try to convince Baya that she really should eat her breakfast because I need to go to work.
7:10 a.m. Still trying to convince Baya to eat, while trying to make myself a breakfast. Try to stop Millie from eating Baya’s food, put gear in the car, stop Millie from pulling the stuffing out of her toys (which are now scattered EVERYWHERE).
7:25 a.m. Now time is flying and Baya still hasn’t had too much food? I need to get to work RIGHT. NOW.
7:30 a.m. Actually leave for work after giving the pups lots hugs and kisses.
Elena’s second dog, Baya
7:45 a.m. Arrive at Ruffwear. I left my job in the medical field kind of on a whim that there was something out there that would better suit me. While I loved being an x-ray technologist, I knew my true calling was something with photography. Ideally, that would be with dogs! When I reached out to local companies seeing if they needed photo help, my dream company wrote me back asking if I would accept a full time in house position; Ruffwear. I replied with in a minute, probably in all caps, YES I CAN START RIGHT AWAY!
8:00 a.m. Pack gear for photoshoot. I Make sure I have charged batteries, clean lenses, cleared memory cards, the dog gear I am shooting (leash, collar, harness, coat), dog treats, bowl, water, and that the van is ready to go.
8:15 a.m. Pick up talent at his house, head to the McKenzie River.
9:50 a.m. Arrive at the McKenzie River.
9:55 a.m. Begin to outfit the pup with the Ruffwear gear, making sure everything fits properly and pup is comfortable. Make sure the human is prepped and ready for the trail running photoshoot. Proper attire on everyone? Check, check, and check. We are ready to shoot.
10:15 a.m. Been scouting an exact location for a bit and just found the magical spot to photograph them. Stoked!
11:15 a.m. Exhausted, slightly muddy and 2,000 frames later. Oh boy, this is going to be a lot of editing—whoops! Got a little shutter excited.
11:25 a.m. Gear off, gear put away, give pup treats and water, and we are ready to hit the road back home.
12:55 p.m. Drop off human and pup at their house.
Dave & Harley in the Vert Jacket, Shot for Ruffwear
12:20 p.m. Arrive back and Ruffwear and I’m HUNGRY. Head back out to go grab a burrito at Longboard Louie’s.
12:55 p.m. Back again at Ruffwear, throw jackets, leash and harness in wash and unload photos from the photoshoot.
1:00 p.m. Social media planning meeting
2:15 p.m. Finally sitting down at my desk, excited to see how the photos came out.
3:15 p.m. Finalizing photography assets for a fun spur-of-the-moment social media idea.
3:16 p.m. Take a quick walk break, wishing I had my pups with me today like normal, but I’m almost done with the day and will be home to them soon! Head back in to begin to sift through the photos.
Elena’s dogs Millie, Rio and Baya
4:45 p.m. It’s time to head home! I need to go pack for a trip to Baker City.
5:05 p.m. Home! Play with the dogs, lay with the dogs on the ground, dogs jump all over me, lick me, step on me. It’s torture, but it’s love.
5:15 p.m. Time to pack! Things! Dog stuff! My stuff! Hiking stuff! Sleeping stuff! Wintry stuff? Camera stuff!
5:45 p.m. Friend picks us up, load car and we’re off! Night one to John Day. This was an assignment for Travel Oregon! It was a takeover for their Instagram Stories. My area to explore was to Baker City and Anthony Lakes. You can see the post on their account here.
6:45 p.m. Arrive at Crooked River Brewing for pizza and beer.
7:55 p.m. Leave and make the trek in the dark to John Day. Put on a ’90s love song Spotify playlist, sing loudly, and relive all my lonely, awkward high school dances.
9:55 p.m. Woof. We arrived. Check into hotel. Tired, and ready for bed.
10:25 p.m. Snuggle all my pups in bed and lights out.
It wasn’t the legendary ice road highway in Alaska, or the persistent deluge of the Oregon Coast. It wasn’t the dengue fever or the dog attack in Peru. In the end it was the wind. The cursed, never-ending wind that almost broke Kristen and Ville Jokinen. The pair were riding the final leg of an unprecedented transcontinental bike odyssey when the wind started pummeling the desolate Patagonia plateau.
Traffic jam in the highlands of Peru.
The Jokinens had left Bend in June 2016, more than a year earlier, on a journey that began on the edge of the Arctic Circle in Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay. The goal was to make it to the tip of Patagonia, the southernmost part of the American continents. The journey had taken them through a dozen countries. They had crossed the Andes six times in Peru just for the scenery. They’d be damned if they were going to let something as simple as wind stop them short. So they took turns grinding against the neverending gusts.
The persistence paid off. In February this year, the two rode together down the final stretch of road at Bahia Lapataia in Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego. They gazed out at the expanse of the sea and shared an embrace. An improbable journey had been ridden to its conclusion.
“We knew that nothing short of a serious injury was going to stop us because we are both so stubborn,” Kristen said.
Eight months later Kristen, a Bend native who graduated from Mountain View High School, is still readjusting to “normal” life. Traffic, text messages, work meetings. The pair have given numerous presentations about their arduous journey to students and civic groups. Kristin, 37, is working on a book and Ville, her husband of seven years, is editing hours of footage, some of which has already been shared on the couple’s fittingly titled blog, We Lost the Map.
Given just the basic outline of the Jokinen’s story, the first question that comes to mind is “why?” But the more you hear about their epic journey, the more pictures you see, the more snippets you gather of their simple sustained existence, the answer becomes obvious. They did it because they could. Like Sir Edmund Hillary, they climbed the mountain because it was there.
Ville and Kristen Jokinen in hot and humid Colombia.
The narrative also makes perfect sense when you consider the context. The pair met on a boat in Vietnam, diving in the Asian sea. Their courtship included numerous trips across the Atlantic when Kristin was living in Bend and Ville, a Finland native, was living in Helsinki. It culminated in the mother of all hikes, the Pacific Crest Trail, which started on the Mexican border and ended at the Canadian border with an engagement proposal in 2011.
It was shortly after that epic trek that the two started contemplating the idea of a bike tour. That idea grew from a flicker of a notion into a full-fledged odyssey when the couple, in the middle of an exhausting home remodel in Bend, decided to pull the plug—on everything. Armed with cursory research by Ville and a passing familiarity with their newly acquired bikes, they set off for Alaska in June 2016 with a backpacking tent, a few camping supplies and a monthly food and entertainment budget of $800.
Given the obstacles, it’s somewhat of a miracle that they completed the ride. They relied on their gear, their wits, luck and sometimes strangers willing to help a pair of gringos far from home.
“We relied so much on other people because we didn’t have money. We had a tent. We’d have to ask if it was safe to camp and [take certain] routes since we didn’t always know which way to go. We didn’t have GPS,” said Kristen.
On February 17, the pair broke their final camp and rode thirty miles to Ushuaia, the southernmost outpost of civilization on the American continent and the launching point for Antarctica-bound cruise ships. It was their logical stopping point, but they weren’t quite done. There were a few more miles of road to be followed. So naturally, they did just that. They bumped their way down a dirt track another fifteen miles where the land gave way to sea. After weeks of nonstop rain and wind, the clouds retreated to reveal blue skies and a sparkling sea. They shared a moment and a few tears. They finished as they began a year-and-a-half earlier, anonymously chasing an impractical dream because they could.
Kristen on Salar De Uyuni, the world’s largest salt flat, in Bolivia.
“That’s how we started. No one was there in Prudhoe Bay, just a few oil field workers. No one knew what we were doing but us,” Kristen said.
As the pair lingered, enjoying a bottle of champagne, a bus arrived with a load of tourists and photographers on a National Geographic tour headed to Antarctica. Noticing the pannier bags and touring gear, someone asked where the adventuresome pair had started their journey. When Kristen replied that they had embarked from Alaska, they were given an impromptu ovation. The anonymous bikers were now celebrities.
After eighteen long months on the road, the pair spent several weeks in Buenos Aires indulging in some of the pleasures they had foregone during their bike odyssey. They ate steak and drank wine. They learned to tango. Then it was time to say goodbye.
Kristen is now back at work selling real estate. Ville, a financial analyst in another life, is working at a grocery store. They’ve sorted through the mail and the unanswered email. They finished the remodel that they abandoned for the trip. Kristen is hoping to finish her book about the journey by the end of the year. The newly finished house is already on the market. They’ve decided they don’t need that much space, not when you can live comfortably out of a tent. They only question, where to next?
Patti Calande’s original collaborations fuse social commentary with civic sensibility.
Patti Calande
If you’ve flown out of the Redmond Airport in the past year, then you’ve encountered Patti Calande’s handiwork. Calande is the Bend artist responsible for the giant red, white and blue tapestry that hangs near the main airport entrance. Calande, along with about two dozen of her artist friends, created the handstitched patchwork American flag from repurposed T-shirts as a fundraiser for the Central Oregon Veteran’s Ranch. The flag was included in a raffle that raised thousands of dollars for the Redmond rehabilitation facility. The owner of the winning ticket donated the flag in turn to the airport.
This is the kind of project that perfectly blends Calande’s progressive community vision with her talent for developing practical artistic collaborations.
Calande said the idea of the flag came amidst the backdrop of toxic discourse in this country. She felt the flag was one symbol that everyone could support.
“Each unique piece when stitched together creates a symbol of unity, freedom and the resilience of our community,” explained Calande. “When you see this flag, you’ll notice each piece is uniquely different, each one made by different hands, each set of hands with their own experiences, background and religion.”
Now in her second decade in Central Oregon, Calande moved with her husband and children from Santa Cruz to Bend in 2004 for a lifestyle change, where the family could enjoy more nearby outdoor pursuits like mountain biking, hiking and skiing. She also found a small but thriving arts community. The first year here, she immediately connected with other artists.
“I’ve made and taught mosaics, soldered copper pipes for garden art and jewelry, taken metalsmith classes and ran a jewelry making business, fused glass and silver, molded clay for ceramics, knitted, felted, and done paper crafting and loved encaustic art,” said Calande, 54, who never feels you’re too old to learn a new art form.
“I feel especially thrilled when I can repurpose something, saving it from the refuse and giving it a new life.”
So, it’s no surprise that Calande has once again brought together the arts community to help Un-bag Bend, a community-driven initiative that aims to eliminate single-use plastic bags in Bend. Recently, Calande invited her friends to bring their sewing machines and scissors to her home to make shopping bags from—you guessed it—used T-shirts.
“In a few hours with about nine or ten women, we made 200 bags that will be distributed around Bend later in the year,” explained Calande. “It just goes to show many hands make light work.”
Calande said Portland, Eugene, Corvallis and Ashland have already banned the single-use plastic bags and said it’s the next logical step for environmentally conscience Bendites.
Though not everyone may agree on a wholesale ban, most Bendites can endorse the idea of making better alternatives readily available. That’s where Calande blends her plastic bag politics with her passion for artistry, providing an environmentally friendly alternative with a touch of local style.
Winter in Central Oregon isn’t just about carving perfect turns on the mountain, but that doesn’t mean you have hole up inside with cabin fever. Whether you want to try a new winter sport or are looking to soak in some history and culture, there’s something here that everyone in the family can enjoy to make it through the season. These are some of our favorite things to do around the region when the days are cold and the nights are long.
1. Take a Snow Bike Ride
Photo by Anelise Bergin
Trail riding has long been a year-round sport in Central Oregon, but the notion has taken on new meaning with the addition of a new “fat bike” loop at Wanoga Sno-Park. Under an agreement with the Forest Service and Meissner Nordic ski community, fat-tired mountain bikes are welcome on a segment of the groomed trail network out of the snow park, located off Century Drive en route to Mount Bachelor. A short and a longer loop allow riders to explore the winter landscape from the bike saddle. The Central Oregon Trail Alliance provides ongoing trail condition updates throughout the winter riding season, which officially begins once two feet of snow has fallen at Wanoga Sno Park. Several bike shops in town provide fat bike rentals, as well as tips on gear and riding conditions. Moderate terrain and the supreme traction and float provided by the wide tire technology makes snow biking an endeavor that can be enjoyed by the whole family. Pack your sleds and enjoy a few closing laps on the adjacent hill, or grab a cup of hot coffee at the well-provisioned snow shelter. We bet you’ll soon find yourself an ambassador of this off-season approach to biking. — Eric Flowers
2. Take a History Tour
Avoid cabin fever this season by visiting one of the region’s museums. The High Desert Museum will keep a family entertained for hours exploring the cultural and natural history exhibits. The new interactive exhibit “Animal Journeys: Navigating in Nature” opened in September and showcases the incredible feats that migrating animals undertake each year. Also on display is an exhibit featuring the photographs of Edward Curtis that depict Native American women, juxtaposed with displays of the women’s art. It’s a fascinating exhibit that explores the multiple layers of this history. — Bronte Dod
3. Become Pinball Wizards and Jukebox Heroes
Try out a different kind of pub crawl in Bend. Gather a group of friends who are game for anything and head to downtown Bend. Start your night at Vector Volcano Arcade. The bar has a lineup of ’80s and ’90s arcade and pinball games that will keep you entertained while you drink a beer or two. Next, head across the street to The Capitol, where you can test out your skills at skee ball and more. End the night at JC’s with a rousing of game of giant Jenga. You’re forgiven if you knock over the tower as long as you don’t spill your drink. — BD
4. Throw a Festivus Party
TV writer Dan O’Keefe’s father created Festivus in the 1960s as an alternative to the pressures of Christmas. The curious holiday entered the popular culture when O’Keefe wrote it into a “Seinfeld” episode. You, too, can celebrate Festivus each December 23 by putting up a simple aluminum pole, delivering the airing of grievances and presenting feats of strength. Don’t forget the Festivus dinner: meatloaf on a bed of lettuce. — Kim Cooper Findling
5. Make a Literary Date
No excuses—it’s time to work through that pile of books on your bedside table. Deepen your relationship with all things literary by seeing author Sarah Vowell speak at Bend High on November 15 as part of Deschutes Public Library Foundation’s Author Author series. Vowell has authored seven nonfiction books, contributes regularly to “This American Life” and is the voice of Violet Parr in The Incredibles. Finally, plan for spring literary events by picking up a copy of the 2019 selection for A Novel Idea, Bend’s community reads program. That title will be announced December 1. — KCF
6. Make Bigfoot Tracks
Photo by Richard Bacon
Take a break from the alpine descents and take a snowshoe tour through the forest. The Gear Fix usually has a few pairs of used snowshoes in stock that you can buy. Or you can rent a pair at Pine Mountain Sports or the Powder House. Pack a backpack with warm drinks, snacks, and extra pairs of gloves and socks—there’s nothing worse than wet and cold feet or hands out in the snow. Drive up Cascade Lakes Highway and take your pick among the sno-parks. Edison Sno-Park has a few designated snowshoeing trails, the longest of which is 3.5 miles. About halfway through the trail there’s a rustic hut where you can warm up any frosty hands or feet by the fire. Pour a warm drink and soak in the quiet forest before heading back out. — BD
7. Take a Sunriver Staycation
Photo courtesy Sunriver Resort
We love winter here in Central Oregon. We build chairs out of old skis, we actually own snowshoes. Heck, we even have a whole weekend dedicated to celebrating winter complete with ice sculptures and locally imported snow. But sometimes we all need a little break from winter. You’re thinking Mexico. Us, too. But when you don’t have the time or the money to beat a full-blown tropical retreat, you need to be creative. Central Oregon’s bevy of destination resorts, complete with indoor pools, spas and gourmet meals make a great getaway even if you feel compelled to pack your skis. You can’t go wrong in Sunriver where onsite amenities, including the SHARC indoor aquatic center, skating rink and ready access to Mt. Bachelor make it a family friendly excursion that’s light on travel and big on fun. If you have young children, this is the place to be around the holidays, beginning with the “Grand Illumination” tree lighting party in mid-November that kicks off a month and a half of holiday activities geared toward families. — EF
8. Enter the (Bowling) Cosmos
The lights are low, the neon is glowing, the ’80s music videos are rolling, and the strikes are coming fast and furious. You must be cosmic bowling at Lava Lanes. Rent the whole 300 Club for a private event and bring everyone you know. Food and drinks are at the ready and Lava Lanes has plenty of bowling shoes to go around. — KCF
9. Find Open Ice
Photo by Eric Flowers
After fifteen years of trial and error, I can say with somewhere north of about 90 percent certainty that sometime between when the last Jack o’ Lantern is snuffed out on Halloween and the time that you start seriously debating tossing out the remnants of your Eberhard’s eggnog, there will be a window—maybe several days long, maybe a week, maybe longer—when the barometric pressure and jet stream align just so, delivering a true glimpse of winter’s full glory. When it does, a near perfect sheet of ice will appear fleetingly on several area water bodies. I prefer Reynolds Pond in Alfalfa, a seemingly unlikely yet reliable place to find a game of pick-up hockey in Central Oregon. Wake early on these mornings, head east and you’ll find a dedicated group of skaters who take to the gleaming sheet with the abandon of schoolchildren. If you’re lucky, there will a bonfire crackling in the freshly fallen snow. You won’t find rental skates or be asked to sign a waiver of liability—this is old school DIY winter entertainment, Gordie Howe style. Game on. — EF
10. Book A Dog-Sled Ride
Photo by Alex Jordan
If you’ve ever parked a car at Mt. Bachelor’s Sunrise Lodge lot, then you’ve heard the eager yips of Rachael Scdoris’s sled dogs. A former Iditarod racer who gained notoriety for completing the epic race as a legally blind musher, Scdoris runs Oregon Trail of Dreams with her husband, Nick, offering adventuresome riders a little slice of Yukon Gold Rush culture in the heart of Central Oregon. Ensconced in cozy wool blankets, riders glide along groomed trails at the base of Mt. Bachelor behind a pack of sprinting sled dogs. Grab a hot chocolate in the Sunrise Lodge to warm up afterwards. — EF
11. Get Your Knit On
Having a project to do each winter is one of the ways to justify your hours-long TV binges. Try your hand at knitting or crocheting a blanket. The learning curve is fairly easy, even for kids, and with two new yarn shops recently opened in Bend, you can find find inspiration and community to guide you through the project. Fancywork Yarn Shop and Wool Town both offer weekly sessions, so you can step away from the screen and meet fellow textile hobbyists. — BD
12. Host A Cookie Party
Baking holiday cookies is a tradition that transcends time and trends. It’s a delightful messy activity that puts friends and family in the heart of the home, fosters conversation and encourages collaboration that can be arranged with little expertise or investment. This year, invite friends over and turn it into a party. It’s a great way to host a casual gathering during the all-too hectic holidays. Supplies are cheap, so offer to provide everything that’s needed for baking, flour and yeast, sugar, colorful sprinkles and frosting. Convert your kitchen into a makeshift bakery complete with stations for making and rolling dough, as well as shaping and decorating cookies. Stock up on cookie tins or ask your guests to bring their own. Your friends can load and label them as gifts to help spread a little seasonal cheer. — EF
Thom and Cyndie Bell’s extravagant remodel “Ranger’s Ridge” is a museum-like art venue on a cliff-top view property.
Photo by Brandon Nixon
When Thom and Cyndie Bell moved from Orange County in 2004 and bought a property west of Redmond, they chose the house for the view. Set high on a canyon cliff overlooking a stretch of the Deschutes River just upriver from Cline Falls State Scenic Viewpoint, with the peaks of Mount Jefferson and Mount Bachelor in the distance, the home offered a birds-eye view of rimrock, the river, wildlife and plenty of sky. The eight-acre parcel was just enough for their two horses, a border collie named Ranger and themselves.
But the house itself, built in the 1980s, needed updating. The Bells, who are retired from the advertising business in Los Angeles, are avid art collectors with vivid and specific design ideals. By the time they were ready to renovate their home, they’d spent years contemplating exactly what they had in mind to recreate Ranger’s Ridge.
The four-year project, completed in 2013, took the house down to the studs, added 1,500 square feet, incorporated dozens of floor-toceiling windows, and completely transformed the house. The result is a stunning 4,200-square-foot modern home filled with works of art and offering views at every turn.
Light and Sightlines
Photo by David Papazian
The dominant design concept for the redesign was “open.” The couple doubled the number of windows in the house, turning walls into windows in many places. “The floor to ceiling windows opened things up considerably,” said Thom. “Every view was enhanced.”
To get a sense of the home’s aesthetic, step into the master bathroom. While primarily a utilitarian space, it’s a gorgeous one. The room incorporates an uninterrupted row of horizontal windows at eye level, through which are old-growth juniper trees covered in green lichen, and beyond, chocolatecolored river canyon walls sliced through by the blue cut of the river. Cyndie loves the room for “the views and the light,” she said. A glass shower, deep tub, and tile and wood accents balance out the room.
The bath illustrates the grandeur of the home, throughout which great measures were taken to maintain precise design elements and an open feeling. For instance, the supporting wall near the front entry, which extends to the second floor alongside the stairway, was constructed as a screen wall instead of a solid wall, meaning stacked, vertical-grain fir beams separated with steel supports. Guests’ eyes can see easily, if not completely, through the slots between the beams, maintaining light and openness.
The wall, as well as a striking handpatinaed metal fireplace, were the two most challenging features of the home to complete, said Dan Stockel of R&H Construction, contractor on the home project. He said that working closely with the Bells to adhere to their high-concept design ideals was challenging but rewarding. “In Thom’s view, perfect does exist,” he explained. “It was great to see our crews pushed to achieve that.”
Personal Art Gallery
This Egyptian horse sculpture in bronze is centuries old and tops a high bookshelf. Photo by Brandon Nixon.
Every wall and every room in the house is adorned with art. Paintings galore and sculptures in metals, ceramic and glass are everywhere. “Our vision was that our home be like a museum gallery,” said Thom. “We collect museum-quality pieces with classic, iconic design. We look for timelessness and lasting design principles.”
A reproduction of Donatello’s David perches near the living room windows. Carved stone busts sit on tables. A polished horn of a Texas longhorn adorns the kitchen counter. A stylized Egyptian horse several centuries old sits high on a bookshelf in the upstairs lounge. A spectacular contemporary mixed-media painting is hung from the back of the fireplace. Five lengths of fused glass in varying colors cling to the laundry room wall.
“Our aesthetic is contemporary mixed with antiquity,” explained Thom. “Modern balanced with classic.” The furniture and fixtures are as much of a work of art as the artworks themselves. A white leather couch is partnered with black leather Barcelona chairs in the living room. Nearby, the dining room table has a clever set of gears within that retract the table’s leaves, depending on number of guests for that meal. “We want every room to have a balance of color, form and texture,” said Thom.
One piece of art is particularly personal. It’s a torch from the 1984 Olympics framed in plexiglass and secured to a dining room wall. “The torch had been carried across the U.S., runner to runner,” recalled Cyndie. “I was the last runner in Orange County, and carried it to the stadium.”
Cowboy Culture
Western themed tack room. Photo by Brandon Nixon.
If the house is a museum of antiquity and contemporary art, the tack room is a spatial immersion in Western culture. Thom is an avid horseman who enjoys cutting competitions and formerly participated on a mounted search and rescue team for San Bernardino County. Equally laden in artworks as the house, the tack room exudes classy, cowboy charm. “This space is totally different than the house,” he said.
A shelf of whisky glistens in an antique cabinet; leather tooling backs a coat rack; signed rodeo posters line the walls. A cowhide chaise lounge accents the center of the room. Saddles hang from the wall, indicating that for all of its beauty, the tack room is a working space, too.
But About That View
Photo by David Papazian
The former deck, Cyndie said, was multilevel with many different, disjointed heights. “We leveled it all out,” she explained. The wide expanse of composite decking is the perfect platform to take in what drew the Bells to the site in the first place. “We see eagles, osprey, hawks,” Cyndie said, gazing down upon the river. “At night the moon reflects in the river. The trees change. You can really see all four seasons portrayed here.”
Thom stood near, taking in the expansive view. “We feel very blessed,” he said.
An avid runner and entrepreneur re-envisioned a common product that hadn’t seen updates in decades.
How do Bendites incorporate kids into their exercise routines? For runners, it used to be so-called jogging strollers. But those were heavy, awkward and hadn’t seen innovation in decades. That is, until Will Warne had an idea.
In 2009, he fused a windsurfing harness, a toilet plunger, two deconstructed baby joggers and a web of PC pipe to create a hands-free stroller capable of towing a child. One morning, Warne took what he dubbed the KidRunner out for its first trial run with his six-month-old daughter in tow. The debut model, while shaky, demonstrated that hands-free kid strollers were not only practical, but superior to their push-operated counterparts.
Warne, 50, is a Los Angeles native who was working in “global retail logistics” at the time. “I started drawing on napkins like people do,” said Warne of the product’s origins.
After his initial Home Depot-sourced prototype, Warne took his idea to a do it yourself workshop in San Francisco, and then reached out to partners with industrial design and engineering experience hoping to streamline the design process.
“Running is a really dynamic motion, so in order to make running with something attached to you comfortable, we had to innovate,” said Warne.
Local professional runner Max King was an early ambassador of the product.
“I’ve used it on easy runs and used it in the Bigfoot race,” said King. “I’ve run with traditional strollers for a long time, and it was always a pain in the butt. It was a great new experience being able to run hands-free and biomechanically efficient.”
Fueled by Bend’s enthusiastic running community, KidRunner prototypes began to crop up around town, but the product got its first taste of national publicity on the popular entrepreneurship TV show Shark Tank in 2016. Although the company didn’t receive an offer from the celebrity investors, the slot got the product in front of approximately 14 million viewers—the equivalent of an estimated $9 million worth of advertising.
KidRunner recently sold out its go-to-market launch of 100, and the next step will involve exploring new distribution channels with retailers like REI.
“Today, we represent the first and only high-performance, multi-terrain hands-free kid jogger in the world. We want to create a whole new category for active parents in children mobility—biking, cross country skiing and running. We want to be a great Bend outdoor brand,” said Warne.
Head north for a day of outdoor exploration that includes a dramatic waterfall, rockhounding and a well-earned happy hour in Madras.
Plunge Into White River Falls
Photo by Gavin Hardcastle
Tell friends in Bend that you spent the day exploring the greater Tygh Valley area and you’re likely to get a blank stare in return. That’s understandable, given that this sparsely populated section of the Columbia plateau northeast of Maupin doesn’t get a lot of visitors. But it’s worth more than a passing glance with its rolling wheat fields, historic homesteads and almost ghost towns. The biggest attraction is the sprawling White River State Park that is wedged into a narrow valley between Mount Hood to the west and the Deschutes River to the east. The heart of the park is a dramatic plunge falls that cascades 100-plus feet over a basalt shelf into a roiling pool below. The park also includes a historic powerhouse, a remnant from an earlier era when the river was harnessed to provide electricity to farms and towns around the valley. The hydroelectric project was idled in the early 1960s when the Dalles Dam was completed on the Columbia River, delivering power to the valley and well beyond.
Dig a Thunderegg
Central Oregon’s volcanic origins left us snow-capped mountains and refrigerator-cool desert grottos. If you want your own piece of Central Oregon’s geology, then head to Richardson’s Rock Ranch outside of Madras. Here, rockhounds are invited to work one of the region’s largest and most productive thunderegg beds. These orange-sized rocks are split open to reveal a marble-like interior of polished quartz and silica in brilliant colors and elaborate patterns. Richardson’s provides digging materials and basic instructions for a DIY dig, or just peruse the ample selection in their onsite store (while dodging the roaming peacocks outside) and grab one for the road.
Kick back in Margaritaville
After you’ve checked waterfalls and rock mining off your to-do list, reward yourself with a stop a Rio Distinctive Cuisine in Madras. If you’re on a tight schedule, grab a cold cerveza and order the table-made guacamole before you head home. Better yet, linger a bit. Order a Casa Del Rio Margarita and a plate of the puerco emmolado, slow roasted pork shoulder served with mango mole sauce.
Breaking down three winter beers made in Central Oregon that run the gamut of flavors and profiles.
The Godfather
Deschutes Brewery: Jubelale Style: Old Ale / Winter Warmer Alcohol by volume: 6.7% Barrels brewed annually: 9,500
The first beer bottled by Deschutes was created in 1988 by John Harris, one of the company’s original brewers at the Bond Street pub. Harris’s intent was to brew a “winter warmer” in the style of an English Old Ale, a traditionally stronger beer often brewed during the holidays in appreciation of a pub’s loyal customers, as well as a stronger tipple to get through the winter months. The Jubelale recipe has changed very little over the years, though in 2011 Deschutes adjusted the process slightly to recapture its character from the early years.
The Sleeper Pick
Worthy Brewing: Dark Muse Barrel Aged Imperial Stout Style: Imperial Stout Alcohol by volume: 10.1% Barrels brewed annually: 30
A burly beer for the winter months, Dark Muse is roasty, chocolatey, creamy and warming—exactly what an imperial stout should be. Developed by Worthy’s original head brewer Chad Kennedy, Dark Muse is aged in bourbon barrels for an additional contribution of oak, vanilla and booziness. The recipe changes slightly each year based on the specific variety of bourbon barrels that Worthy acquires, yielding a vintaged treat that can be enjoyed over the holidays or laid down to age for future years.
The New Kid on the Block
Monkless Belgian Ales: Friar’s Festivus Style: Belgian-style Quadruple Alcohol by volume: 10.2% Barrels brewed annually: 35
Belgian brewing has a long tradition of brewing Bières de Noël, or Christmas beers, brewed strong and often incorporating holiday spices in the recipe. Monkless is the only local brewery brewing in this tradition, and at the same time, a bit outside the box from Belgian tradition. Friar’s Festivus, returning for its second year, is boozy but balanced and spiced with mace and cardamom for something festive yet slightly different.
The year is 2040. You drive through Bend, population 150,000, following signs to the local campus of Oregon State University.
OSU-Cascades officially opened its doors in 2001, holding classes on the Central Oregon Community College campus. In 2015, the university broke ground on a permanent home on the west side of Bend, despite opposition from neighbors concerned about traffic and an already crowded housing market. Many Bend residents had barely glimpsed the 128- acre site, which housed an old landfill and 100-foot-deep pumice mine, long cordoned off by chain-link fences and berms. The campus got final approval for its long range development plan in the middle of 2018. Here’s a peek at its future.
If you want to visit the campus, go to 1.
If you want to visit the surrounding area of Bend, go to 2.
1. Visit OSU-Cascades Campus
Zip around a series of new roundabouts to arrive on campus. Watch out for bikes! Especially the electric ones now preferred by students and faculty. They zoom along bike lanes and paths to avoid traffic jams, occasionally using the boost of an electric engine to arrive at class without breaking a sweat or burning a drop of fossil fuels.
Park your car or dock your bike and take a moment to look around. Forget about ivy-covered brick walls, this is not that kind of college.
It is “a really beautiful campus with lots of space for people to access, whether walking your dog or taking a bike ride or coming for a lecture or maybe some music event,” said Becky Johnson, vice president of OSU-Cascades. “We’re specifically designing it so it invites people on campus.”
A total of over ten miles of soft trails and paved bike paths zig zag across the campus, which is quiet despite the steady stream of students and joggers. The low-slung, modern-style buildings, all clad in neutral colors, recede into the sagebrush and ponderosas.
Population growth in Central Oregon has far outpaced student enrollment. Kelly Sparks, associate vice president for finance and strategic planning, estimated in 2018 that a new building would be constructed every couple of years, as 200 to 300 more students join the ranks. And Julie Gess-Newsome, dean of academic affairs, said that for the first decade or so, two to five new academic programs would be added each year. So even as the campus master plan was approved in 2018, officials didn’t know exactly what each building in the plan would be used for—or even what topics the students and faculty inside would be studying.
In the heart of the development is the quiet academic core of the university. Because the site is terraced, these buildings appear from the edge of campus to be just one story tall, even lower than the private developments across Chandler Avenue.
A young woman in an orange OSU-Cascades T-shirt is walking backwards and speaking to a tour group. She motions for you to join them.
If you want to join a tour for prospective students, go to 3.
If you want to join a tour for out-of-town architects and building professionals, go to 4.
2. OSU-Cascades and Bend
Remember back in 2018, when the area surrounding the university’s west side campus looked like a suburban business park? Parts of it are unrecognizable now. A parade of excavators, cranes and cement trucks has morphed this into a bustling urban core. About 500 acres between the university and the Old Mill District were rezoned in 2016. It’s one of three “opportunity areas” identified by the city as hubs for taller, denser redevelopment. The designation allows for mixed-use buildings with restaurants and retail on the ground floor, and offices and apartments above.
In 2018, ten years into an expansion cycle that saw Bend emerge as one of country’s fastest growing cities, Bend’s planners predicted at least one more softening of the market and another ramping up as well by the year 2040.
“We haven’t assumed the build-out of that whole area, by any stretch,” said Brian Rankin, long-range planner for the city of Bend who developed some of the city’s growth plans for the area. “Built into those plans was some flexibility to absorb the ebbs and flows of the economy. When the market softens, things slow down. It continues in these longer, larger cycles.”
About ten mixed-use developments have popped up here, each six stories tall. Rather than segregating industrial, commercial and residential development, a combination of uses is allowed in a single building here. It is one of the fastest-growing areas within Bend’s city limits. This one neighborhood has about 1,500 more homes, including apartments, and 1,500 more jobs than it did in 2018.
Along 14th Street, it’s hard to discern exactly where the campus begins. This is a gray area, an “innovation district” with private buildings that are connected to the university.
A young woman in an orange OSU-Cascades T-shirt steps in front of you and announces that a tour is beginning. You decide to join it.
If you want to join a tour for prospective students, go to 3.
If you want to join a tour for out-of-town architects and building professionals, go to 4.
3. Prospective Students
With a public elementary school on campus that includes an early childhood education center—both closely affiliated with the university’s education programs—there’s no need to wait until age 18 to go to OSU-Cascades.
“You could go to elementary school here, you could recreate here, you could go to college here, you could get a job here … you may even be able to retire here,” said Sparks.
Roughly 2,000 students, 40 percent of the total enrollment, live on campus. The campus also has housing for faculty and, when space allows, makes it available at market rates for unaffiliated households earning $45,000 to $90,000 in 2018 dollars.
The campus is where you’ll find one of the most diverse populations in Central Oregon, and that’s not by accident. It’s the result of programs like Juntos, in which OSU employees work with Latino families statewide to make sure high school students get the support they need to access higher education.
There’s no football team at OSU-Cascades, but you can cheer on the skiing, cycling and Frisbee golf clubs. There are recreational fields in the far corner of campus, near Simpson and Mt. Washington. A fitness facility is twice the size required by the university, so members of the public can swim or take an aerobics class here. Health was one of the initial goals of the campus.
“We want students to be healthier when they graduate than they were when they arrived,” said Christine Coffin, a spokeswoman for the university.
The campus rehabilitated the mine and landfill even before it dotted the refreshed landscape with buildings. Creating public open space was part of the university’s campaign strategy, as campus growth was dependent not only on state funding but on private donations, as well.
“Cleaning up the old landfill, building new roads … that’s not generally paid for through tuition,” said Johnson.
Sometime between 2018 and 2040, the state likely changed its methods for funding higher education “and probably not in a favorable way,” Johnson added. “I think in general there are other states where the state has stopped funding capital [improvements]. And when that happens, you have to borrow, and the only way to pay back is tuition, so you have to keep raising tuition.”
One of the campus’s stated goals is sustainability, and campus leaders say that if college is not affordable for students, the institution itself isn’t sustainable.
Matt Shinderman, senior instructor of natural resources, said that although he doesn’t expect OSU-Cascades to have solved the college affordability crisis by 2040, he does expect to see the university running “at least a program or two leading the way.”
If you’re ready to enroll, begin your internship by going to 5.
If you would rather kick back at the campus pub, go to 6.
4. For Professionals
It may sound odd for a college campus to offer tours to building professionals, but if you’re going to spend any time at OSU-Cascades, you might as well get used to it. Beginning with a feature in Landscape Architecture Magazine in 2018, the campus has garnered all kinds of attention for its sustainable approach to designing and building atop not one but two former blights: a landfill and a pumice mine.
Workers sorted and reused materials from the landfill, which was a buried pile of construction debris. By reusing materials already on site, the campus eliminated the need for nearly 30,000 truckloads of imported fill material. Berms and fill were moved around to transform the mine, a pit that was 100- feet deep, into the base of a three-level terrace.
Some walls of the mine were left exposed, a subtle nod to the land’s mining heritage. Crevices were carved in those cliffs to provide habitat for native bat species—just one example of how the campus’s development is on the forefront of environmentally minded design.
“I really want the physical … campus to be a demonstration site, a living, learning laboratory where we’re demonstrating site-appropriate landscaping strategies that also serve a habitat benefit, water conservation strategies, a place where we can take our students to learn about what we’re talking about inside the classroom,” Shinderman said.
The initial goal was for the campus to be net zero in energy, water and, most ambitiously, waste. In 2040, the campus is getting ready to go off the grid entirely, thanks to geothermal energy and a field of solar panels.
Many of the trees and native plants that you pass are decades older than the campus itself. As part of the sustainable construction process, native shrubs and grasses were dug up and housed in a nearby nursery, then replanted around new buildings and paths. Thanks to a project that Shinderman’s students started back in 2017, native plants across campus have QR codes posted to next to them, which visitors may scan with their smartphones to learn more about the species.
You walk across an oval green to return to the busy portion of campus along 14th Street known as the “innovation district.”
If you want to clock in for your internship, go to 5.
If you want to relax in the campus pub, go to 6.
5. Internship
To get to your internship on the edge of the OSU-Cascades campus, you could walk, bike, ride a bus or try a mode of transport that didn’t have a name back in 2018.
“OSU-Cascades is the catalyst for transportation options on the campus but also expanding out of it,” said Jeff Munson, executive director of Commute Options, a nonprofit in Bend. He said the university is responsible for bringing the first bike sharing and car sharing programs to Bend. And the university created a mobility lab to experiment with new methods of transportation, including an on-demand carpooling program that’s a cross between Uber and a bus.
The innovation district is made up of private businesses, each one doing “something that’s very collaborative and connected to the university,” Johnson said. “We think that is going to spill out beyond the campus as well. That’s just going to keep moving up toward Colorado [Avenue].”
Kinesiology students and engineering students could work with physical therapists in the district to make prototypes for new medical devices, for example. Or outdoor product design students and natural resource students could team up with a bike touring company to help reduce cyclists’ impact on local trails.
“By 2040, I hope the innovation district is half-built,” said Sparks. You walk into a building that’s named after Chuck McGrath, who moved his biotechnology company, Grace Bio- Labs, from Michigan to Bend in the mid-1990s. Grace Bio- Labs also has two buildings within a mile of the campus, on Emkay and Cyber drives. An early booster of OSU-Cascades, McGrath donated $1 million to help fund one of the first academic buildings.
“I would like to see Grace Bio-Labs be an anchor tenant in the new innovation district,” he said, looking forward to a day when his company, which develops new technology for vaccinations, helps train students “and my company can recruit from there.”
Gess-Newsome said that by turning to the community for help determining which new programs to offer at OSUCascades, the university can help meet the economic needs of the region. And private donations help fill funding gaps to develop new academic programs. A $250,000 donation by Bend-based Hydro Flask helped fund the development of a unique outdoor products major, for example.
“It’s beneficial for us to create a talent pool right here in our backyard,” said Lucas Alberg, a spokesman for Hydro Flask.
McGrath said that by attracting biotechnology companies, for example, the university will help “recession-proof” Central Oregon, which is currently vulnerable to market downturns because it’s so heavily dependent on discretionary spending such as recreation and tourism.
When you’re done working, head to the campus pub. Go to 6.
6. What’s Next?
You didn’t think Bend would be home to a dry campus, did you? Of course not. In all likelihood, by 2040, science and engineering programs, along with buy-in from local breweries—how many are we up to now?—has led to a fermentation science program at OSU-Cascades.
So go ahead and order a pint. It’s the result of decades of vision and investment from the community. As you take a sip, you wonder: What’s next?
Tim Riefke didn’t have a background in high tech and was a newcomer to Bend, which naturally made him the perfect person to take the helm at BendTECH last year.
Tim Riefke is technically the first executive director at BendTECH, a local nonprofit coworking space and startup incubator. During his short tenure he has helped to nearly double the organization’s membership while pushing initiatives like an Out in Tech event to promote inclusion of the LGBTQ community. Next up is a planned expansion that will add work space to accommodate the organization’s recent growth. We talked to Riefke about his accomplishments and plans for BendTECH.
What is BendTECH?
BendTECH is really becoming the front door for a lot of people who move here. A lot of what we do here as a nonprofit coworking community is connections. We get people plugged in and pointed to the resources for whatever field they are in.
What brought you to Bend?
I moved to Bend to retire from corporate life. I took a five-month sabbatical and played in the mountains and had an amazing summer. I consult part time to pay the bills, but I really dedicate a lot of my time to be involved in the community. Last year was I working with three nonprofit organizations: BendTECH, Bend 2030 and Out Central Oregon, which is an LGBTQ organization, and I transitioned them from a Facebook social group to a 501c3 with a mission and a board and the infrastructure to take that community to the next step.
You’ve also made inclusion of the LGBTQ community a priority at BendTECH as well, right?
It’s not just LGBTQ, it’s all underrepresented groups who don’t have the same access to resources and networks and even just basic needs. There’s definitely an underserved community in Central Oregon, and it’s disheartening to see some of the struggles that people have to endure. So it’s part of what we decided our mission would be, to create a safe place for everybody.
What attracted you to this position?
I managed a $10 billion real estate portfolio for Deutsche Bank. I understand real estate—buying, selling, operating. But I quickly realized the group of individuals in this room is more than the sum of its parts. The community is a phenomenal group of people in just a traditional Bend way. Everybody is trying to help each other. Seeing two people sitting next to each other at a desk and have an idea, start a company and go raise money in real time is really powerful. It made me excited about being in Bend because there are a lot of things going on here. It’s more than just the mountain and being outside and drinking beer. There’s a vibrant entrepreneur community.
Do we have the capacity to support more of this remote worker and startup economy in Bend, or have we reached our ceiling?
As long as the economic conditions remain favorable and barring any sort of major events, I think we’re really riding a macro trend right now with the gig economy and big companies embracing working remote policies. And it’s always going to be certain niches. Product managers, developers, freelance creative types—that’s where I see a lot of growth. We’ll never be Silicon Valley, but we also don’t want to be Silicon Valley. Everyone who has moved here from California wants to live the Bend life.
How do you see BendTECH’s role evolving beyond the coworking mission?
What I see are a lot of silos across the city. As executive director of BendTECH I think we could use our platform to connect the community in new and interesting ways and broaden the reach of what is being accomplished today. Maybe that’s a little ambitious. But if we create more partnerships and collaborate, we can accomplish more.
The “Elbow Room” appeals to anyone who wants to get away from it all—but mostly to women.
It was Virginia Woolf who first coined the phrase “a room of one’s own,” and what woman—especially those who have shared homes with men, children or pets—hasn’t craved a private space over the years?
Builder Pauly Anderson of Bend responded to his wife’s desire for her own space and created the Elbow Room, a freestanding, self-enclosed and very small building. He’s built five 200 square foot Elbow Rooms in Bend so far, and though he doesn’t restrict his clientele by gender, he said it’s mostly women who are reaching out. Some see the Elbow Room as perfect for an art studio or yoga space, some for a small office or place to escape from the kids.
“Men want a larger space, a dirty garage,” he said. “Women are more likely to want a small, enclosed space, something warm and cozy. I am in conversation with many perspective clients, and most of them are women.”
Anderson is a native North Dakotan and he and his wife Shelly have been Bend residents for nearly a decade. Shelly works as a voice and visual artist. “We have a Jack Russell terrier that likes to bark,” said Pauly. “My intent was to create a space to isolate her from noise.”
As a professional builder, Anderson wasn’t willing to just throw up a pre-fab enclosure, however. The Elbow Room, while classified as a garden shed in terms of land use (the structure is under 200 square feet and has no kitchen or bathroom), is anything but. “You’ve heard of the ‘She Shed’,” he said. “Those are actually sheds. They have limited use. I want the Elbow Room to be used year-round.” Anderson builds sturdy and beautiful structures beyond the expectations of building code. Transom windows allow light from above while maintaining wall space to hang art. Electric radiant heat in the flooring keeps the space warm.
Shelly spends around six hours a day in her Elbow Room, which stands behind the couple’s west side Bend home. The space, as intended, is cozy and warm, attractive and appealing, with a slanted roof and exterior painted a cheerful, whimsical leaf green. “It’s easy to come to work,” said Shelly. “It’s easy to focus here. I look forward to it.”
Making a case for a building a garage you actually want to spend time in.
Man Cave. Dude Dungeon. Bro Bungalow. Mantuary. Man Land. Whatever you call this sacred room, don’t go looking for floral chintz pillows, French country decorative candles and definitely not for potpourri within its boundaries.
Women know our homes are not our man’s castle, they are our castle. We make most of the decorating decisions in most of the rooms, which is why the men in our lives get full domain and decorating decisions in their man caves.
A poll by servicemagic.com, a home improvement marketplace, found that 40 percent of surveyed homeowners had a man cave, while another 13 percent reported they had one in the planning stages. “Guys want one room they can retreat to and indulge in,” says Mike Yost, founder of mancavesite.org and co-author of The Man Cave Book. “Man may no longer rule over his castle, but he’s still king of the garage, or his man cave.”
Bend homeowner Tim Scianamblo has been building the perfect man cave for five years, since he moved to Central Oregon. His 2,800-square-foot garage/man cave is as large as his actual house, and next spring he plans on expanding it so that it would be 800 feet larger than the house.
“My whole life I’ve dreamed of a garage like this,” said Scianamblo, as he spread his arms in his man cave. Some men collect sports memorabilia for their man caves, like a Seahawk’s football jersey or sports trophies from yesteryear. Scianamblo’s decorations are taken to another level. He collects classic cars, and all things auto related, including a full size traffic light, a real parking meter that takes coins, and an 8-track player that still plays his Peter Frampton and Pat Benetar tapes. The space is really more like a car museum, with high gloss black and white checkered flooring.
“When I was 16, I owned a 1957 Chevy, and my fascination of cars grew from there.” Scianamblo’s car showroom houses collector cars in mint condition, among them a red 1971 Jaguar E-Type. “Enzo Ferrari once said this was the most beautiful car ever designed,” explained Scianamblo, running his hand over the hood of this aerodynamic car. “There’s a ton of history in this car, and it’s also found in New York City at the MoMA [Museum of Modern Art] as part of its permanent art collection.”
Next to the Jag sits a 1967 Corvette C-2 Stingray in Marlborough Maroon and three Porsches: a black 1987 Porsche 911-Targa, a taxi yellow 1973 Porsche 914 and a fire engine red 2012 Porsche 997.2 GTS, which Scianamblo has taken on the race track at the Portland International Raceway a few times.
The garage door is graced with a large Batman poster, and Scianamblo jokes that this is his bat cave, but he does share it with his wife, Jane Dunham, who has her own classic car. “Yes, this is my white 1968 Mini Cooper Innocenti from Italy,” said Dunham, gesturing at the exterior wood trim. “When I drive it, people are always waving at me and stopping me. It’s really fun to drive.”
Tucked away near the Mini Cooper are four beautiful vintage Vespa scooters. On a vacation to Vietnam, Dunham and Scianamblo rented these vintage scooters, and liked them so much they brought them home as souvenirs.
Scianamblo said his man cave isn’t for entertaining. “This is just a place I want to be in, and to get away to when I have free time.” But Dunham laughed at that notion. “Every dinner party we host, we always end up in here.”
Drive south from Bend and hang a left at La Pine. This is the Oregon Outback. Rugged, remote and nary another soul in sight.
Homesteading History
Photo by Alex Jordan
Stretch your legs in history at the Fort Rock Homestead Museum. A handful of late-1800s era buildings are filled with historic items to discover. Take a few minutes to learn about the history of the homesteaders who tried to make a home in this rugged country.
Race Against the Snow
Photo by Kat Dierickx
Hager Mountain is about an hour from the museum. While the trail is heavily trafficked in spring and summer for peak wildflower season, by late fall the hike has mostly cleared out. There are a few routes to get to the top, depending on how far you want to hike. A four-mile trek to the summit begins at the trailhead on East Bay Road. Follow the trail through a Ponderosa forest until you reach the top. A rustic fire lookout awaits at the summit, and can be rented out from November through March each year. (Getting a reservation is difficult due to its popularity.)
Oregon’s Outback Steak (and Chicken) House
Photo by Melissa Whitney
Hopefully the eight-mile trek has worked up an appetite in you. A half-hour drive back to Silver Lake is all that sits between you and one of the best meals you can dream of. Cowboy Dinner Tree is a destination in itself. The reservation-only restaurant provides a generous meal—think a whole chicken to a plate and steaks bigger than your head—all without using electricity. It’s a family-friendly dining experience, where you’ll leave on a first name basis with the owners and chefs.
Sometime between the middle of September and the middle of November, I get the urge to read a moody book. I am not a person who likes to be scared; horror movies and truly scary books I just pass right over. But, I do love a solidly creepy tale during autumn. There is something about the light of fall, the crisp air and the smell of woodsmoke that makes me want to curl up with a slightly sinister novel. I have read all of these books multiple times and have cherished copies that sit proudly on my bookshelves at home, waiting until the leaves begin to turn to be pulled out and re-read.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
If you want that sinister autumnal feeling and a murder mystery.
Less of a Who-Done-It than a Why-Done-IT, Tartt investigates the banality of evil in a beautifully crafted novel about a group of college friends, who while studying Classics at an elite New England college manage to kill someone during a reenactment of a Bacchanalian rite. Fair warning: There are no “likable” characters in The Secret History, but it is still oh so good.
What Was She Thinking: Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller
If you want a story that will slowly give you the creeps.
Sheba Hart is a middle aged, middle class teacher in suburban London when she begins an illicit affair with an underage student. When the scandal breaks Sheba is a social pariah, ripe for the kind friendship of prim, respectable Barbara, an elderly teacher who has been at the school forever. And Barbara has been waiting for just such a friend as this, utterly alone and desperate. What Was She Thinking: Notes on a Scandal will give you a deep case of the chills.
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
If you love Jane Austen’s books, but wish there was more Satan in them.
When Laura Willowes’ father dies, she is left with her inheritance and the unassuming, and unremarkable, life of a spinster aunt caring for her brother’s children in London. For years she does exactly what society expects of her, until all of a sudden she doesn’t. Lolly Willowes is an early feminist classic that’s a perfect read in the fall.
Thornyhold by Mary Stewart
If you want a mildly witchy hearth-and-home novel.
Thonyhold was once described to me as a “Witchy Anne of Green Gables” and it fits. Geillis lives a lonely childhood in pre-WWII England, periodically brightened by random visits from her eccentric herbalist and world traveling aunt. As a young woman, the same aunt leaves her an old estate in the English countryside. As Geillis learns the secrets of her overgrown estate and its heirloom flowers she discovers maybe Thornyhold isn’t all she inherited from her aunt. This is every inch the comfort read with white magic, hedgewitchery and a cat named Hodge.
Bunnicula: A Rabbit Tale of Mystery by Deborah and James Howe
If you wish books had more vampire bunnies in them.
I can’t recommend autumnal stories without a bonus mention of a book I read every year (a tradition which now my children have picked up). I can honestly recommend Bunnicula: A Rabbit Tale of Mystery to everyone between 5 and 105. When a small rabbit shows up at the Monroe household, leaving behind mysteriously drained vegetables, it is up to Chester the Cat and Howard the Dog to solve the mystery of this night creeping rabbit before it is too late.
Hyper-visited Smith Rock settles down to just you and a few friends in late fall. Now’s the time to hike crowd-free and ponder the towering tuff spires.
To climb or not to climb?
Pack a jacket and bring your park pass but don’t worry about finding parking, because fall is far less crowded at Smith Rock State Park. Drop to the Crooked River and climb up aptly named Misery Ridge for the workout and the views. With kids, dogs or your parents? Stroll around the base of this majestic volcanic tuff formation instead—it’s an easy hike with plenty of splendor, no climbing required.
Alpaca, Youpacka
Photo by Justin Bailie
Alpaca babies are called cria, and they are born March through autumn. Stop by Crescent Moon Ranch in Terrebonne to see alpacas up close, from the newest babies to their fuzzy parents. Crescent Moon is also home to an Alpaca Boutique, showcasing items for sale from wool scarves to socks to hats, perfect to outfit you into the colder season.
Tacos and Beer For the Win
Kobold Brewing has been around since 2015 and opened the Vault Taphouse in Redmond a year ago. Roll in after your Terrebonne tour for a sip of the Screeching Blonde Ale, an easy-to-drink brew with light biscuit and honey flavors. Munch on the never-ending supply of popcorn from the Vault’s popcorn machine or grab a taco from the Westside Taco Company cart on site. Try the chicken mole—olé!
The Single Speed World Championship, a mountain biking race that doesn’t take itself too seriously, recently took over the town, with raucous and rowdy results.
I looked up from the bottom of “Hospital Hill” after navigating my borrowed 1999 singlespeed GT mountain bike down a treacherous section of questionable trail. Covered head to toe in dust, I peered through the sealed, dark lenses of mountaineering goggles looking like I’m straight out of a scene from Burning Man. I gazed up at what may as well be a ski slope without the snow. After ingesting a shot of rye whiskey from an “aid” station at the top, racers either glide their bikes, walk or stumble their way down this sheer mountain face of infinite dirt. But the “Rasta Rocket” (Adam Prosise) came ripping down upon his bike, leaving the rest of us in a cloud of volcanic dust.
After surviving the weekend upon the saddles of two-wheel singlespeed cycling machines hurling through raucous pub crawls, historic parties and a forty-mile bike race, the dust clouds have finally cleared, and the 2018 Single Speed World Championship (SSWC) has come to a close. For five days in October, Bend saw approximately 700 riders from across the globe partake in the twenty-third annual event of cycling shenanigans.
The event was originally coined in 1995 as “The Wasted Hairy Insanely Retro League of Enlightened Degenerates” and took place in Big Bear Lake, California. It began more as a counter culture movement than a serious world championship race. Today, the race is a mix of both. In Bend, the festival offered plenty of beer drinking and wild parties in addition to the hard racing. I knew I had to sign up.
Designation for each year’s hosting site is decided by some form of beer drinking or outrageous challenge held during the previous year’s race. In Rotorua, New Zealand, the location of the 2017 SSWC, a Bend coalition of cycling aficionados won the honors of bringing the event to Central Oregon for the very first time. Local cycling legends like Carl Decker (’08 SSCW Champion) and Adam Craig (’09 SSCW Champion) helped lead the charge, designing the forty-mile course. Crow’s Feet Commons owner David Markis designated the coffee and bike shop downtown as the official SSWC headquarters.
“It was really neat to see how all of this was unfolding,” Decker said. “You kind of just count on the kindness of others and for them to come through, and the community really just did a great job.”
Riders from as far as Japan, Scotland, and Australia were entertained by daily group rides through Bend’s epic scenery and trails. On Thursday night, riders rode their bikes from brewery-to-brewery and ended at Volcanic Theatre Pub in what was dubbed “Carl’s Crawl.” Friday night, an official welcoming party at Tumalo Creek Kayak & Canoe had countries like Slovenia and Canada vying for next year’s hosting location, battling through beer-drinking challenges and “nautical” endeavors.
Saturday, I joined 700 other singlespeed diehards at the starting line of the forty-mile race. From pros and legends to unicyclists and tandem racers, all the racers were dressed in costumes laden over cycling jerseys, spandex shorts and sometimes hardly anything at all. Each and every one of us was ready for the time of our lives while wearing tutus, onesies and superhero capes. Clearly, Halloween had come to Bend early this year.
With forty miles and 4,000 feet of climbing ahead of us on top of our singlespeed steeds, riders ascended in pursuit of the worldwide coveted “trophy tattoo” adorned by every winner of the event for the past twenty-three years. As we hammered along, dehydrated riders pulled into aid stations that resembled outdoor living rooms, accompanied with hookah bars, margaritas, bacon and water. I watched elite riders complete a keg stand or chug a beer before getting back on their bikes and the trail.
Grins painted with dirt and sweat spread across riders faces as they rolled into the finish line and were welcomed in by high fives and weary hugs. Defending Marathon National Champion and Red Bull athlete Payson McElveen won tattoo honors in the men’s category. Course designer Carl Decker finished in a close second place. Pro rider Rachel Lloyd took home the lifelong prize in the women’s category.
When it was all said and done, the party gathered at Crow’s Feet Common for the official award ceremony. The “branding” of the winners took center stage and live music filled the air as everyone simply celebrated finishing the race in one piece.
Almost twenty-five years later, there is no doubt that the event continues to inspire both mockeries and legends. Plan on it all happening again next year halfway across the world in Slovenia, the official hosting location for 2019. Bring your wits, your good vibes and your singlespeed.
Dennis McGregor mixes humor with colorful, whimsical notes in his paintings, writings and songs.
For a sixtysomething guy who says he’s never had a “RG”—a real gig that offers conversation around a water cooler or employer-paid benefits—Dennis McGregor hasn’t had trouble staying busy. Instead of punching a clock, he’s followed his creative impulses to build a life around painting, music, songwriting, book illustration and writing. “I’ve never had a job, but it’s on my bucket list,” he joked.
McGregor’s sense of humor is evident in the playful work he creates. His second book, You Stole My Name, published in 2017, is a series of humorous play-on-word paintings that pair an animal with the animal from which it takes its name. For instance, a parrot is coupled with a parrot fish, a cowbird sits on a cow and an elephant seal swims with an elephant. The animals are colorful and whimsical, painted in opaque water colors known as gouache.
Verses accompany each illustration. The alligator lizard’s rhyme goes like this:
“All you ever do is bite – bite all day, bite all night. I just want to do the same. That is why I stole your name!”
McGregor is largely self-taught in art and music. He dropped out of college to play acoustic guitar and violin with the band Natty Bumppo in the 1970s. After twelve years with the band, McGregor said he traded “one low-paying job for another.” For a few years, he was a self-employed graphic designer living in Southern California, until he moved to Sisters in the 1990s seeking a simpler lifestyle.
A chance meeting with Jean Wells, the prominent Sisters artist and quilter, launched McGregor’s career as a poster artist when she commissioned him to create a poster for the 1992 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. This led to thirteen more posters for the quilt show and then commissions from the Sisters Rodeo, Sunriver Music Festival, Crooked River Roundup and the Oregon Country Fair.
“Dennis wears many different hats and seldom goes bareheaded,” said Helen Schmidling, manager of the Sisters Gallery & Frame Shop which sells McGregor’s original paintings, prints and notecards. “He’s one of our top-selling artists, plus he’s a singer, songwriter, performer and multitalented artist,” she said.
McGregor’s art can also be viewed at Forest Service interpretive centers and in large-scale outdoor murals throughout Central Oregon. A buck jumping over the moon can be spied above the Sisters Liquor Store. In Bend, McGregor’s oversize depictions of a mule deer, bull trout and a chicken hawk adorn five-foot-tall and fifteen-foot-wide panels recently installed in the Old Mill District.
It’s no coincidence that nature plays a central theme in his art. His studio is located on five acres outside Sisters which he bought in 2005 and where he built “a humble abode and could work the land,” he said. Visitors are likely to be greeted by McGregor, sitting on a wood chair on the front porch of his hand-built studio, a guitar hanging on the exterior wall behind him and his pound dog, Hank, lounging alongside. The woodsy setting includes his home and a serpentine stack of wood that is both decorative and functional. (It provides heat to his residence and studio.)
He’s produced three albums, and his band, Dennis McGregor and the Spoilers, can be seen playing original tunes around town on any given night. McGregor’s two books (the first one, Dream Again, was published in 2013) are sold in independent bookstores throughout Central Oregon.
Not one to idle, McGregor concluded this writer’s interview by announcing that he was “itching” to get back into the studio to finish drawings for a client. He’s also working on You Stole My Name, Too, a sequel to the first book, a pond he’s digging by hand for his grandchildren and an occasional mountain bike ride “to try to stay in balance,” he said. “It all keeps me pretty happy.”
Bend’s Next Level Burger may just have the new recipe for the fast food franchise.
Matt de Gruyter wants to change the way America thinks about its favorite food, the good ol’ burger. A former venture capital manager, de Gruyter operates Next Level Burger, an upstart restaurant chain based in Bend. His creation might just be the next big idea in fast food: a gourmet burger, hold the patty, or at least the meat. Now with seven locations, including New York and San Francisco, Next Level has ambitious goals, including opening 1,000 restaurants by 2024.
Skeptics might be quick to dismiss de Gruyter as another granola-munching do-gooder whose ideals don’t square with the consumer behaviors that bolster a $290 billion fast food industry, dominated by beef-centric businesses like McDonalds and Burger King. But de Gruyter isn’t your stereotypical vegan and his restaurant concept turns the notion of what a vegetarian restaurant can look like on its ear.
“I didn’t want another too-cool-for-school vegan concept, because there are a lot of those. I wanted to make an unabashed burger joint that would appeal to the 25-year-old who walks in and says, it’s not a burger unless it has meat, because that was me,” said de Gruyter, who, while growing up in Denver, was raised on a diet of sausage for breakfast and steak for dinner.
A reluctant experimentation with vegetarianism as a show of solidarity with his wife, Cierra, turned out to be life-changing. De Gruyter said he pledged to follow a vegetarian diet for thirty days, but realized after two weeks that he was feeling better and had more energy. He hasn’t looked back since. The new diet also opened his eyes to the lack of variety in vegetarian dining options. Instead of grumbling about the omission, he seized on the opportunity.
Next Level Burger founder, Matt de Gruyter
Walk into the company’s flagship location in Bend, which served as a proof of concept for de Gruyter and his backers, and you’re immediately struck by the familiarity of a fast-food restaurant. But it’s also clear that you’re not in your father’s fast-food joint. There are no heating lamps behind the counter, no smell of fried fat lingering in the air. Instead there’s a palette of warm pastels on the walls, punctuated with slogans like, “Burgers for a Better World.” It’s a vibe that evokes Oregon’s other popular fast casual places such as Café Yumm and Laughing Planet. But while those restaurants mix in vegetarian and vegan options with traditional proteins like chicken and beef, Next Level Burger is 100 percent vegan. That’s not to say that diners don’t have choices. Next Level is all about showing how many ways the traditional burger can be deconstructed and rebuilt, from black bean patties to mushroom and quinoa-based combinations that look and taste like their meat counterparts.
De Gruyter said Next Level Burger is about more than adding another vegetarian option for consumers. He wants to challenge how people think about burgers. If he’s successful, he will expand diners’ choices while reducing their impact on the planet.
De Gruyter doesn’t necessarily spend a lot of time trying to sell folks on the ethics of his burgers. He’s more concerned about the flavor. The same goes for his business model. Next Level Burger grew out of his own lifestyle changes, but the business plan is anchored in an understanding of the changing way that Americans are approaching their plates. Growth in sales of plant-based foods reached eight percent last year, according to Forbes, and is expected to continue growing at that rate over the next seven years as millennials tilt the scales toward environmentally informed foods and aging boomers search for healthy alternatives to traditional foods.
“I have two children who were the catalyst for reinventing the concept of the all-American burger joint, but I think there is a pent-up demand for healthier options,” said de Gruyter.
The plan was to open the first location in Portland where the market seemed ready-made for the Next Level concept, but a visit to Bend in 2013 convinced de Gruyter, whose wife was raised in the area, that Central Oregon was the perfect place to test their idea. The couple sold their house in Southern California, and de Gruyter left his private equity job in the oil and gas industry. He jokes that Next Level’s environmentally responsible business model is an atonement for his past profession where words like conservation and climate change were rarely uttered.
They packed up and moved to Bend within a few months of that initial visit and threw themselves into developing the restaurant, which opened in July 2014.
That pent-up demand was evident from day one. Customers came first partially out of curiosity but have returned out of loyalty. The same pattern has been repeated in Portland, where the concept caught the attention of an early Twitter engineer, Alex Payne, who has since become a friend and investor, helping to fuel Next Level’s rapid growth that includes locations in Brooklyn and the Bay Area.
A recent association with Amazon-owned Whole Foods Market has been a boom. Five of the company’s seven restaurants are inside Whole Foods, including its San Francisco, Brooklyn and Seattle locations. Next on the horizon for the business is a location in Austin, Texas, in the heart of burger country, slated to open before the end of the year. De Gruyter said he realizes that growing from a half dozen locations to a thousand in just a few years is beyond ambitious, but doing what can’t be done is just part of the recipe at Next Level Burger.
“We have taken a different approach, and that was always the intention and our plan from the beginning. We wanted not to be just another regional player. We want to own the reinvention of the American burger joint.”
Luthier and woodworking artist Will Nash inhabits the space where trees meet design.
Photo by Alex Jordan
In his warehouse studio parking lot, Will Nash wields a chainsaw, making strategic cuts into a hefty maple log, set on end and towering several feet over Nash’s head. Sawdust, airborne moments before, comes to rest as fine as cosmetic powder on Nash’s auburn-gray beard and black-rimmed glasses. “It will be a couple embracing,” he said, pausing before the rough column. “Right now I’m trying to find the heads.”
With just a few slashes, it’s easy to see something akin to Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss” trapped in the splintery trunk, the medium for a commissioned sculpture that Nash had begun that afternoon. The monolith had brooded for a week outside his workspace on Northeast 2nd Street, in Bend’s burgeoning Maker’s District, before Nash began sawing.
“There’ll be an embrace, there’ll be a kiss, hopefully not a grotesque representation of love,” he said. “There’s a lot of ways to mess up a sculpture, but there’s a lot of ways to fix it, too.”
Photo by Alex Jordan
A creative commission such as this is the kind of work that Nash thrives on, and finds the most satisfying use of his talents, although he can build practically anything—grand homes from the ground up, cabinets, trellises, Jewish wedding chuppah canopies laden with lichen and moss, guitars, ukuleles and custom furniture, as well as art and functional objects.
This artist-craftsman’s life seems to have been all about wood and inspired design right from the start. He grew up in a geodesic dome on forty acres of old-growth juniper in Tumalo in the 1970s, making forts and climbing trees, which were not just play structures, but plant playmates. “I had my first conversations with trees,” said Nash, 49, who as a child could sense the memory locked in the gnarled, twisted trunks.
His mother had fled the Bay Area to realize her dream, living on the expanse of land with her five children. She built the geodesic dome home in 1976 when Nash was 7, and the hemispherical thin-shell was hailed as a way to shelter more people comfortably, efficiently and economically.
After Nash graduated from Redmond High School, he studied literature, art and architecture at the University of Oregon, did post-graduate study in architecture at Portland State University and went to work at Wieden + Kennedy advertising in Portland.
After five years, he was laid off. He began making musical instruments in a tiny, 1920s converted carriage house in Portland and teaching himself the craft, poring over books by master luthiers. He and his wife, Donna, moved from Portland to Bend in 2002 (before daughters Doris, 14, and Eleanor, 11, were born) and he began building mandolins for Breedlove Guitars here.
“It was bootcamp luthiery,” said Nash, whose rough hands reveal his preference for working with them. “I was finishing three mandolins a day, and starting three a day. I built more than 800 mandolins there.” Bend guitar maker Jayson Bowerman worked there at the time, too, and trained Nash, a quick study who single-handedly built all the company’s mandolins for a several years.
“Will’s greatest strength lies in his ability to work with clients, internalize their design intent and translate that into any style of piece,” said Bowerman. “His training as an architect gives him the ability to work with small, intricate minutia to large, architectural size work. His gestalt is the ability to use his wide-ranging skillset for anything he puts his hands to, and so it’s hard to pigeon-hole someone so versatile, who can embrace so many different styles.”
For example, he cited architectural-scale pieces such as the pulpit that Nash created for the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Oregon. Nash won the commission to create eighteen pieces for the new state of the art, LEED-certified, Unitarian building in Bend in 2014. The scope of work included the altar, minister’s tables and chairs, entry benches and information kiosk.
On the other end of the spectrum are Nash’s rocking chairs, made in the iconic style of Sam Maloof, the first craftsman to receive a MacArthur fellowship, known as the “genius grant.”
“It’s not the easiest to build, and Will mastered that chair construction, which is a high art form,” said Bowerman.
Back in his studio, Nash had completed a twelve-foot-long conference table of ambrosia maple. The surface consists of two highly polished slabs that meet seamlessly, imparting a Rorschach-test-like mirrored effect, with the natural edge of the tree on the perimeter. In a saucer-sized gap in the wood, perhaps where a tree branch had grown, Nash inlayed mussel shells gathered by the client and his daughter. Nash had crushed and suspended the shells in epoxy, smoothly filling in the void. The table base, inspired by George Nakashima, father of the American craft movement, was a first for Nash.
Yes, he loves the process of crafting, but the culmination satisfies him most. “It’s the human exchange, that’s the best part. I get to be creative, and you get something [in return].”
A former Silicon Valley engineer, Tom Tormey retired and is now a pilot for the nonprofit Angel Flights, an organization that connects private pilots with medical patients in need of transportation.
It’s a bit of an inside joke among weekend pilots that they will make any excuse to get their wheels off the ground. Need a gallon of milk? Better hop in the plane. Looking for great Mexican food? It’s just a half hour away by air. Most pilots don’t need any reason at all to pull the wheel chocks and taxi down the runway. Flying is addictive.
Tom Tormey is no different. A retired electrical engineer and self-proclaimed wannabe astronaut, Tormey started flying twelve years ago in his free time, which was limited given a demanding career that saw him bounce from one Silicon Valley startup venture to the next. His last stint, with a company that made software for electric vehicle charging stations, was lucrative enough that Tormey was able to buy his dream airplane, a twin-engine Beechcraft Baron that seats six passengers and luggage. It was the perfect plane for weekend escapes. He flew from the Bay Area to Death Valley for quick getaways. He flew to Tahoe and the Central Valley to visit family. Still, Tormey had an itch to do something more with his time in the air.
The son of a Navy pilot who flew Corsair fighters off aircraft carriers in the Pacific during World War II, Tormey wanted to fly with a purpose. When he read about Angel Flights, an organization that connects private pilots with medical patients in need of transportation, Tormey knew immediately that he wanted to be a part of it. Tormey had the plane and the skills. What he didn’t have was time. That changed when he retired and moved to Bend with his wife, less than three years ago.
Since then, Tormey’s interest has grown into a sort of obsession. He’s become one of Oregon’s most prolific pilots in the Angel Flights West fleet. By his own account, Tormey has flown more than 120 “missions” that have helped dozens of patients and families from rural areas access hospitals and specialists that are located hundreds of miles away. Some of the patients are children, some are mothers and grandmothers. Many are cancer patients who can neither afford nor handle commercial air travel.
“You get involved, whether it’s a kid or an adult. It’s hard not to. Trying to help these amazing people—amazing in the sense that they haven’t fallen apart with stress in their lives. You go the extra mile to help them,” said Tormey.
Early Angels
For an organization that has provided more than 40,000 medical flights over three-plus decades, Angel Flights maintains a relatively low profile. The small Santa Monica-based staff often must convince doctors and hospital staff that the program is not a scam. You can hardly blame the skepticism. In a me-first society, the notion that private pilots are flying patients back and forth to MRIs and oncology appointments at no cost to the patient or the hospital sounds too good to be true.
“A lot of times you knock on the door of a hospital and they find it hard to believe it’s real. They think we must be trying to sell them something, or there must be a catch. Believe it or not, it’s really difficult to give away this free service,” said Ivan Martinez, Angel Flights West Outreach and Communication coordinator.
No catch has been the philosophy from the start, when in the early 1980s a small group of Southern California pilots hatched the idea of providing free, non-emergency medical flights. In its first full year of operation, the organization provided a total of just fourteen flights.
It’s Martinez’s job to make sure that health providers know that Angel Flights exists. With chapters or “wings” in thirteen western states, word is steadily getting out. Over the past three decades the growth has been steady and sustained. Last year, Angel Flights pilots logged 4,500 flights, serving more than 1,000 patients. For these patients and their loved ones, the experience can be transformational.
Linda Dunham met Tormey three years ago. Dunham boarded Tormey’s twin-engine plane at a time when her life had been turned upside down. Dunham’s husband, Rick, had been recently diagnosed with brain cancer and undergone surgery. Doctors gave Rick fourteen months to live. His best hope was an experimental treatment offered at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), almost nine hours away from the couple’s Eugene home by car.
To participate in the program, Rick had to be in California twice a week. Driving was time-consumptive. The couple operated a furniture store in Eugene, and time away from the business meant lost revenue at a time when medical bills were mounting. Flying commercially was both expensive and difficult, especially given that Rick’s condition included frequent seizures. Airport crowds created stress that could easily trigger Rick’s seizures. And yet, Rick needed to say yes to the UCSF trial program. “There wasn’t any other option,” Dunham said. “UCSF was the closest facility that could manage this type of brain tumor. And they were the best of the best.”
A hospital social worker offered a glimmer of hope by telling them about Angel Flights West. Desperate for help, they reached out. Tormey was one of the pilots who answered. Linda and Rick signed up for the UCSF trial program. Linda said she didn’t think they would have participated without the support of the Angel Flights program.
“We needed hope and having Angel Flights take us to these appointments gave us hope. There is no dollar amount that you can put on that,” Dunham said.
Getting the Message Out
Flying Linda and Rick was Tormey’s first Angel Flights mission. It quickly became a regular trip. Linda remembers Tormey flying most of the missions during the last several months of Rick’s care, with flights ending in 2017, after the hospital halted the experimental study. Linda and Rick looked for more options, but his health deteriorated. He died in August 2017, more than three years after his initial diagnosis.
Linda speaks publicly about her Angel Flights experience regularly. I met her at one of these talks in June. It was a meet and greet for Angel Flights pilots at the Aurora Airport outside Portland. Linda brought a framed picture of her husband, who she referred to as her “sweetie.”
Less than a year removed from his passing, the emotions were still raw. Still, she shared her story openly and graciously. It’s important that the pilots know what the flights meant to her, she said. Tormey and other pilots gave her the gift of time—time with Rick, and time to take a break from her role as a caregiver, just for an hour or two, during the plane ride. That emotional break is a common theme for Angel Flights passengers and patients.
Not to mention the fact that flying in a small plane can simply be … fun. It’s a thrill. It’s a different feeling than flying in a commercial jet—the difference between riding in the back seat of a car and riding on the back of a motorcycle.
Pam Allen is a cancer survivor who relied on Angel Flights to get her from her home in Medford to an oncologist in Portland at a time when she was too sick to drive herself. She remembers feeling desperation and fear—fear that missing even a single appointment would mean a major setback. She also remembers feeling something like joy for the first time in a long time on one of her first flights as a patient. As she soared over the Oregon landscape, her mind was, for once in long time, on something other than her illness.
“It was literally the first moment of fun that I’d had in the last twenty-five months,” Allen told a group of Angel Flight pilots in June. “That’s one of the other benefits—you give someone something fun during the worst time in their life.”
Tormey, who started a commercial air taxi business earlier this year to help cover the costs of all of his charity flying, relishes these bright little moments. He makes a point of letting patients take the “stick” for a few minutes, piloting the plane. It’s a singular thrill for many. At the end of each mission he likes to snap a photo of the passengers. He later posts them on a Facebook page that serves as a clearinghouse and log for all his Angel Flights missions. Some patients he will transport again in a matter of days or weeks. Other passengers will continue with their treatment and their lives without crossing his path again. That’s part of the job—knowing you’ve done your small part and letting go.
Dunham hasn’t flown with Tormey since Rick passed last year. Still, she remembers the patience he showed. She remembers the small things, how Tormey remembered names, the things that Rick liked, the things Rick could do and things he couldn’t.
“Some people treated Rick like a patient and some people would treat him like a friend,” Dunham said. “Tom treated Rick like a friend.”
This season, indulge in these delicious and classic Bend restaurant desserts.
You know the moment. You’re happily satiated by a meal, and then, the dessert menu arrives. The list is placed before you, suddenly the only thing you can see in the room, positively illuminated with its many virtues. Our advice? Say yes. Life is short, and Bend’s best pastry chefs know it. Here are a few of our favorite desserts from around town to enjoy this season.
Oregon Cider Berry Cobbler | The Row
Fresh off a trip to the mountain, stop by Tetherow’s The Row, the popular 19th hole of the golf resort, for a warm treat. The Oregon Cider Berry Cobbler offers something light as an alternative to the rich, heavy desserts that often come after winter meals. It’s a deconstructed cobbler, with two perfect slices of biscuit, a dollop of ice cream, and whole strawberries, blackberries and blueberries baked together in a sea of sweetness. Paired with a cup of coffee, and with flurries of snow falling around you, the dessert is a winter indulgence that will warm you up. — Bronte Dod
Donut Holes | Washington Dining & Cocktails
Perched on the corner of Mt. Washington just a short walk from Compass Park and Summit High School is Washington Dining & Cocktails,
A modern eatery that takes its casual chic queue from the surrounding NorthWest Crossing neighborhood. The menu features upscale comfort food prepared with a fine dining touch. You can keep it casual by ordering a double bacon cheeseburger with house-made pickles for dinner, or go upscale with beef tenderloin medallions with asparagus and potato hash. Whatever you order, don’t skip dessert. Washington features a classic flourless chocolate torte and crème brulee, but the most popular item is the donut holes. A ricotta-based treat that’s battered, deep-fried and then dusted with cinnamon sugar, the donuts are a great shareable item that are a little savory and a little sweet, said chef John Gurnee. “We wanted to keep a playful element to go with the casual theme and not be so elevated in our dessert menu.” We recommend pairing the donuts with ahandspun chocolate milkshake to complete the retro-casual theme. — Eric Flowers
Mozza’s Budino| Ariana Restaurant
Ariana Restaurant on Bend’s west side is consistently voted one of Central Oregon’s best fine dining locations. The luxurious interior with crystal chandeliers, chocolate colored woodworking and white tablecloths is as classy as it gets east of the Cascades. The menu equals in glamour, featuring octopus, duck and filet mignon. For dessert, tempt your taste buds with a dish that Ariana borrowed from Mozza Restaurant in Los Angeles. Mozza’s Budino is an Italian butterscotch pudding, blanketed with a layer of caramel and topped with vanilla whipped cream and a sprinkling of sea salt. The dessert is incredibly rich and best tasted in tiny dips of the spoon, perhaps alternated with sips of whiskey or champagne—just for balance, of course. My daughter and I enjoyed it straight up and still had a little leftover to take home in a plastic ramekin for her sister. Both girls declared the dessert “fancy” and the caramel the best they’d tasted anywhere. — Kim Cooper Findling
Breitenbush Hot Springs Retreat and Conference Center leaves you alone in the woods—in a good way.
There’s getting out of town, and then there’s really getting out of town. Breitenbush Hot Springs, east of Detroit, Oregon, is maybe one of the last places in the state (or anywhere?) where you can sleep in the woods with little danger of being interrupted by the irritants of civilization, technology or even your own vices.
At Breitenbush, not only is there no cell service or wifi, but you will be asked to consume an organic vegetarian diet (provided for you) accompanied by no alcohol, no tobacco and no caffeine. Meditation, yoga, ecstatic dancing, silence—these are all encouraged, as is clothing-optional soaking in one of seven outdoor hot spring-fed pools. When you don’t even need clothes, that’s about as purist as it gets.
Breitenbush has existed as a gathering place since Native Americans inhabited the area. In the 1920s, a Portlander who invented the first ice cream cone machine turned his profits into a resort on the banks of the Breitenbush River. In the 1970s, hippie culture came along and Breitenbush embraced it, as it still does today. If you want to know what Oregon was like four decades ago, it lives on in these sprightly woods. Think bell bottoms, unkempt hair and an exceptional amount of hugging.
The setting has been the stand-out feature over time. The historic lodge, meeting structures, cabins and tent-sites of Breitenbush are surrounded by a lush and magical forest cut through by the glistening Breitenbush River. Salmon swim in the river, deer wander through, eagles fly overhead.
Trails take you deeper into the woods, where even the modest crowds of a busy Breitenbush summer day fall away. Here, a mile or so up the trail, belly full of organic vegetables and marionberry lemonade, hold still and take in the silence, the scent of the woods, the thermal energy teeming beneath your feet. For a moment, these are all that matter; this is all there is. You can’t help but feel present and grateful, in that woods alone, which leads you to suspect that maybe the Breitenbush purists are on to something after all.
Emily Kirk, the evening weather anchor for NewsChannel 21, has known she wanted to be a TV reporter since she was 10 years old.
Emily Kirk reporting for NewsChannel 21
The most asked question of Emily Kirk, the evening weather anchor for NewChannel 21 (NC21), is how the greenscreen works. “The greenscreen is everyone’s favorite part,” she said with a laugh. She started at NC21 four years ago and became the evening weather anchor in 2016. It was a job she’s known she wanted since she was 10 years old, when she was moved by a TV reporters emotional storytelling on a tragic news story. “It struck a nerve,” she said, “and that’s what I wanted to do.”
She’s a graduate of University of Oregon where she produced for and anchored Duck TV, and learned the technical side of reporting. She moved to Bend with an idea of moving up to a larger TV market, but fell in love with the town and decided to stay.
The morning we talked, Kirk was on her way up to Tumalo Mountain for a hike, before coming back to town, putting on her TV makeup, and reporting the news and weather. Here’s what a typical workday looks like for her.
Sometime between 8 a.m. – 10 a.m. (depending on the day’s activities)
While everyone else is getting their hustle and bustle on at work, I’m just waking up. Breakfast is usually small: a hard-boiled egg, apple with peanut butter or oatmeal. Monday through Friday I have five to six hours in the mornings and early afternoon to do as I wish before work. Some mornings the rig is packed with skis, boots and layers and I’m off to Mount Bachelor. Other times of the year I weigh other outdoor activity options: mountain biking? A 5-mile hike along the river? Paddleboarding in the sun? Or maybe I’m being an “adult” and going grocery shopping or to the dentist. The day could include volunteering with the American Red Cross or speaking to a group of first graders answering questions like, “did you have braces?”
Today I sleepily said “goodbye” to my boyfriend as he left for work, looked out the window at the frost on the roof and debated carrying through with my plans (my cold threshold is extremely low), made a cup of coffee, loaded up the car and headed out the door.
By 11:30 a.m. I was at the top of Tumalo Mountain taking in the views of the fresh dusting of snow on the Cascades. When I got back to the car at 12:15 p.m. I decided to try biking on a trail near Tumalo Mountain. Because I’m learning and new to mountain biking I don’t go for very long by myself, so I was back in the car by 1 p.m.
At 1:30 p.m. I arrived to the Athletic Club of Bend where I did a quick weight circuit, sweated the rest out in the sauna, showered quickly (non-hair washing day – dry shampoo saves lives!), and headed to work.
2:30 p.m.: Prep Time
I go through my checklist: Dress? Check. Straightener? Check. Make up bag? Check. Snacks? Duh. (I’ll usually throw some veggie sticks, hummus, apples, protein bars, or a random leftover in my lunch bag). I head off to work in either my dirty midsized SUV (so Bend-y) or motor scooter. If I go the back way I can make it to work in less than ten minutes.
2:45 p.m.: “The Daily Grind”
First task is hair and makeup. (Yes, I do it myself. No, there is no hair and makeup person.) To be quite honest, this is my least favorite part of the day. If you’ve seen me outside of work I am typically out enjoying the elements—sunscreen all over my face, sweat dripping from my forehead or wet from swimming. I’ll drink another coffee in the dressing room while I get ready. Shout out to Strictly Organic for the work caffeine!
4 p.m.: “Now, From Central Oregon’s Newsleader this is NewsChannel 21 Fox at Four.”
By this time I should have the promo—a quick video to tease ahead to the evening shows—and most of the forecast done. I update graphics and numbers throughout the day during our newscasts at 4, 5, 6, 6:30, 7, 10, 10:30, and 11 p.m. For the next seven and a half hours I, personally, will be responsible for around forty-five minutes of ad-libbing on live television. During the early evening shows I often use Facebook Live to interact with viewers and answer questions.
My job is essentially to be the messenger. I research what the weather will bring and how it will impact our community for the next week. Whether (ha! I never make puns!) it be “good” or “bad” weather, my job is to best inform you in an efficient and effective manner to get you prepared for your day. Should I wash my car (you know every time you do that it rains, right)? Will I need my powder skis or rock skis? Are clouds going to block my view of the Cascades?
7:45 p.m.: Dinner Break
Some nights I’m at home eating quinoa and veggies followed by a walk around the neighborhood. Other nights I’m meeting friends for a bite. Or maybe Costco is calling my name for a quick shopping trip accompanied by pizza.
Tonight I met a few friends at Goodlife for some story-swapping over a delicious soul-warming garlic potato soup. We laughed about how we really should learn how to change a bike tire tube and talked about how much has changed and what has stayed the same. After hugs goodbye in the cold parking lot we vowed to “do this again soon!” and we will. Maybe a few months from now, but we will.
10:00 p.m. – 11:45 p.m.: The Late Shows
Emily Kirk in front of the greenscreen.
Back to work for another hour and a half of live TV. During this time, I make sure the forecast is still accurate, update any graphics and monitor social media. This time of night is interesting at NewsChannel 21 because only a few people are working. We have a technical director, audio/graphics person, producer, reporter, anchor and myself. At 11:35 p.m. The Tonight Show music plays and we take off our microphones, turn down the studio lights and say goodnight to each other. The hum of the cleaning crews’ vacuum says farewell as I head out the door with my trusty backpack.
Midnight – 1 a.m.: Wind Down
I’m home and begin to settle into the night. The house is quiet, dark, and sleepy, and so am I. I’ll either do the remaining dishes in the sink, watch a quick show or read. Recently, I’ve been stretching out the day’s work on the living room carpet right before I head upstairs. Then it’s time for the fifteen-minute process of removing my makeup, brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed. I fall asleep to the smell of lavender lotion and plan out the next day’s unique story according to the forecast I just gave to thousands of people. If I have plans to play outside the next day and rain ruins my plans, then I’ll also be cursing the weatherperson.
As summer slips away into fall, there is a brief window of time where you can witness beautiful fall colors in Central Oregon throughout the region. Here’s your guide to not missing out.
Fall has arrived. That means it is time to dig out the scarves, find our fleece-lined jackets and footwear, don our thickly-knitted wool caps, and set aside the weekly stipend to curb our cravings and sustain our thirst for pumpkin-spiced lattes, ales and various deserts. But let us not forget; this season, which many of us look forward to, is also a time of change for the flora of Central Oregon. That’s right, it is time to watch trees.
Before we paint you a clear road map of where to go to see some of the best fall sights in Central Oregon, let’s dig into the science behind it all.
So why do leaves change color and fall?
Photo by Grant Tandy
Common deliberation may tell you that high winds and cold temperatures are the culprits behind autumn leaves falling, and honestly, you wouldn’t be completely wrong to say so. At first glance, this widely shared piece of wisdom seems simply plausible as a mechanism of force. As it turns out, weather doesn’t quite provide the catalyst for falling leaves, as much as it is the trees making a choice of efficiency; choosing to make a simple budget cut.
During the early weeks of fall, many trees and other plants are faced with a choice. The problem at hand is a weighing of costs and benefits of the leaves. As less and less sunlight is available, and the temperatures continue to drop, the tree must decide whether or not the leaves are worth keeping. Leaves provide much needed photosynthesis for trees. They absorb the rays of the sun, and turn it into usable energy. As the leaves slow their levels of photosynthesis, the green chlorophyll is broken down, leaving behind the varied coloration of leaves we seen this time of year.
As the leaves become less and less efficient to the tree, where the cost of energy output for keeping the leaves from freezing outweighs the benefit of energy from photosynthesis, the tree chooses to simply eject the leaves from its system. If you want to sound smart at your next gathering, you can explain this process to your friends as family as “abscission.” During abscission, the tree experiences a lack of chlorophyll, and then releases chemical hormones that signal the cutting of the leaves. It’s a tree making a decision to “trim the fat.” (Similar to me telling myself that the dozen or so of pumpkin ales I want to have this week might not be exactly financially sound, and maybe I should stick with the far more cost-efficient water.)
That’s all well and good, but let’s get to the important stuff—where do we go to get that perfect fall photo?
Photo by Grant Tandy
For our many East Coast transplants here in Central Oregon, the term “leafing” in the fall is well known. For those of our residents who hail from the southern reaches of the West Coast, the term may be completely unknown. It’s simply a term given to activity of seeking out fall colors in changing leaves. But for all of who now call Central Oregon home, regardless of our origins, finding a bit of fall color in the trees and shrubs around us may present a particular challenge. After all, we are in the high desert, where comparatively few deciduous, color-changing plants are found native to our region.
Of course, you can’t go the season without making at least one annual visit to Drake Park, where oak trees stand in plenty, releasing their pre-winter wares. For the true feeling of fall in Bend, this park is a must-see. I, for one will, be taking my children, a rake, our dog, and an iPhone for our yearly photo session of live-action shots in the romping of piles upon piles of beautifully arrayed fallen leaves. But what if you are feeling a little more adventurous?
Fear not, my fellow leafers. You need not travel far to find fall colors in the wilds of Central Oregon. Simply drive west. A few dozen miles will do. Head over on Highway 20, not far from Sisters. There, on the cusp of where the east side of the Cascades meets the west, you will find a sight unknown to even to most well-rehearsed East Coast leafers, here the colors of autumn can be found hiding in the most unlikely of places. Groves of quaking aspen can be found woven between the color-challenged ponderosas pines. Peer even farther into the unique, as low-lying Vine Maple and Douglas Maples are sprinkled throughout jet-black obsidian flows and other rocky croppings, creating sights visible for a only matter of weeks before snow comes and blankets all that surrounds.
If you can, schedule yourself a flight over the Central Oregon Cascades during the transformative weeks of October. There you will see how truly unique our fall is. Yes, it is shorter than most of us prefer. If you have lived here long enough, it almost feels as if you are tossed directly from the heat of summer into the bone chilling cold of winter, and autumn only makes a short cameo along the way. But perhaps that is what makes the high desert fall so special. The season may not last a matter of months like it does in many other regions in the United States, but its seemingly fleeting arrival, to me anyway, makes it more worthwhile. So catch it while you can.
How a wildlife curator at the High Desert Museum in Bend spends her day.
Alysia Wolf
Alysia Wolf is the Associate Curator of Wildlife at the High Desert Museum in Bend. She’s worked there for more than five years, spending her days taking care of the wildlife that live at the natural and living history museum. Here’s how she spends her days.
8:30 a.m.: After a stop by the wildlife kitchen I’m on my way, privileged to start my day with the best morning greeters around: Rogue, Brook and Pitch. The three North American river otters seem to anticipate my arrival or, more likely, the arrival of their breakfast, which includes fish and quail.
9:00 a.m.: While the otters indulge in their fresh, healthy meal, I clean their habitat. It’s a lot of scrubbing and even more scooping. Some of the smelliest odors come from these adorable creatures, but keeping the otters’ area sanitary is important for their health. This won’t be the only time today that I put on my custodian hat! All the animals at the Museum benefit from clean, well-maintained habitats.
10:00 a.m.: Once the Autzen Otter Exhibit is sparkling (and the otter bellies are full), I’m off to work with the raptors. Like all the animals in the Museum’s care, the birds receive routine, daily health checks. The birds are weighed daily so we can prepare the right amount of food for them, and we conduct a visual inspection of their feet, beak, feathers and the rest of their body to make sure they’re looking and feeling their best.
11:30 a.m.: One of our most popular experiences at the Museum is the summer Raptors of the Desert Sky outdoor flight show. Our female peregrine falcon is a crowd favorite as she speeds over and even between visitors to get to the lure—a leather object in the shape of a smaller bird that I swing during the flight show. Even after summer programming is done, the twice-daily Bird of Prey Encounter gives visitors a chance to learn about everything from the birds’ habitat and diet to their environmental challenges and adaptations. Sometimes wildlife staff uses the talk as a training session and visitors get the chance to see the birds fly, swooping right over their heads. Teaching visitors about the colorful and agile Aplomado falcon is a highlight of my day. He is an ambassador for his species and helps thousands of our visitors understand how they can help not only raptors, but all types of wildlife.
1:00 p.m.: I return to the Autzen Otter Exhibit once again, this time to give an educational talk to help visitors learn about the role otters play in our riverine ecosystems. Our youngest otter, Pitch, has been progressing every day in his training, so I decide to turn this Otter Encounter into a public training session. He’s becoming a pro at following his target stick (known as target training), a behavior that allows me to check his nails, paws, fur and more to ensure he stays fit and healthy. Head on over to the Museum and you might catch me and Pitch during a talk.
2:00 p.m.: All the animals at the Museum get a fresh, healthy diet prepared daily based on their nutritional requirements. We have herbivores who get fresh greens, veggies, seeds and nuts. Our carnivores love a variety of meat ranging from mice to pigeons. Clyde, the American badger, particularly loves rat, which of course is the smelliest food to chop up. Wildlife at the museum is fed throughout the day, so you might catch them enjoying a meal while you’re here.
3:00 p.m.: Between feedings, cleanings and talks is when I fit in training sessions. I head out with Clyde for a walk, which is a lot more than just exercise for the badger. A walk through the woods builds trust, reinforces learned behaviors and can help train new behaviors. The wildlife staff strives to make every interaction with the animals the most positive they can be, giving them a chance to indulge in their species-specific behaviors. Clyde and I make regular pit stops so he can sniff for squirrels under rocks or use his long claws to dig.
4:30 p.m.: Before heading home for the day, I do one last walk-through to make sure the animals have everything they need for the night ahead.
From shiitake mushroom ramen bowls to quinoa taco salads, these vegan dishes are innovative and delicious.
Vegan falafel at Kebaba. Photo by Alex Jordan
The days of vegans lurking in the shadows of organic health stores are in the past. Veganism has made its way into the mainstream and taken on a life of its own. New vegan restaurants have popped up around Bend and older restaurants have adapted to this trend with dishes much more creative than merely substituting tofu for meat. Whether you prefer shiitake mushroom ramen, collard green wraps or curry basil noodles, Bend has a little something for you.
Ramen 123: #2 Combo Ramen Bowl
Aside from the veggie Top Ramen, vegan ramen is not an easy find. Ramen is traditionally accompanied by pork, or some kind of meat, and an egg—that’s what makes the vegan ramen bowl at 123 Ramen such a treat. Located on 2nd Street in Midtown Bend, 123 Ramen opened almost two years ago and offers a diverse menu for ramen seekers in Bend. The vegan bowl features sake-braised shiitake mushrooms from Top Hat Mushrooms in the Willamette Valley and roasted cauliflower, grown a mere twelve miles away from Bend at Radical Roots Farm. The bowl comes with a house-made side of pickled veggies. Enjoy this steaming meal in the cozy, hip space.
Fix & Repeat: Chickpea and Millennial Toast
Artisanal toast has become a delicious staple of millennial culture, with restaurants popping up around the country devoted to the trend. The Millennial Toast at Fix & Repeat, one of Bend’s new plant-based restaurants, is one restaurant that has jumped on the bandwagon and offered its own take. Unlike many restaurants, Fix & Repeat, located in the Box Factory between downtown and the Old Mill District, does not skimp on the avocado. A hefty portion is topped with a simple pinch of garlic, olive oil, chili flake and sea salt. If you’re looking for a more filling meal, add the chickpea toast to your order. Styled as an open-faced deli sandwich, this toast boasts chickpeas, red peppers, celery, scallions, fennel, parsley, tarragon, dijon and soy-free veganaise all on a bed of arugula and sliced cucumber. Take your pick of bread from Sparrow Bakery’s miche bread or the Little Northern Bakehouse’s gluten-free bread.
Pure Joy Kitchen: Mexican Nacho Plate
Spice up your palate with the Mexican nacho plate at Pure Joy Kitchen. Opened last year, Pure Joy Kitchen has a menu of organic, plant-based foods serving vegan and gluten-free options. Unlike most nacho plates, drenched in pools of cheese, this plate features all vegan ingredients, but is delicious all the same. Sunflower refried “beans,” a meat substitute made from carrots, sun dried tomatoes and coconut sour “cream” sit on a bed of romaine lettuce and organic blue corn chips, topped with Mexican seasoning, guacamole and salsa. After this plate of nachos, you won’t be missing the cheese.
Salud Raw Foods: Island Wrap
Salud Raw Foods has some of the freshest and healthiest options in Bend. You may have a hard time choosing what to order at this raw, plant-based cafe and juice bar. The good news is, no matter what you order, you really can’t go wrong. Try out the island wrap, one of several collard greens wraps, consisting of bell peppers, carrots, red cabbage, mango, mint and cilantro, drizzled over with house-made ginger-cashew pesto and almond-pina drizzle. This surprising flavor combination makes for a fresh, crisp taste and is amazingly hearty. Served with a side of sweet potato chips, this dish is absolutely delectable.
Wild Rose Northern Thai Eats: Curry Basil Noodles
Wild Rose is one of the most popular restaurants in town, and for good reason. Don’t expect to find any pad thai or peanut sauce here; these are strictly Northern Thai meals, all derived from the owner’s family recipes. A popular menu item, the curry basil noodles are easily made vegan upon request. The dish is comprised of delicious wide rice noodles stir fried in a yellow curry seasoning with basil, tomato, onion, carrots, mushrooms and a choice of tofu or extra vegetables. Either choose to keep it mild or amp up the spice level and let this dish’s authentic flavor and the restaurant’s eclectic decorations transport you to the streets of Chiang Mai.
Kebaba: Falafel Sandwich
It is always a gamble ordering falafel. In the hands of a skilled cook, falafel is a revolutionary take on the garbanzo bean, deliciously breaded and crisp packed with flavor. Falafel done wrong, however, is near inedible; it can taste like a crunchy ball of sand that falls apart at the mere touch that no amount of tahini can resurrect. Needless to say, Kebaba, one of the few restaurants that brings traditional Middle Eastern cuisine to Central Oregon, offers a falafel sandwich cooked just right, not too dry or salty, two characteristics that falafel often falls victim to. It is rolled in homemade pita accompanied by a lathering of tahini sauce, lettuce, tomato, cucumber and pickled onion. The sandwich comes with your choice of zataar fries, soup, taboule or Israeli couscous salad.
Bethlyn’s Global Fusion: Thai Coconut Curry Noodle Bowl
A true melting pot for dishes from all different cultures, Bethlyn’s Global Fusion caters to both carnivores and omnivores alike. It is the kind of place a vegan can take their meat-eating family and not hear any complaints. A popular item on the menu, the Thai coconut curry noodle bowl is just one pick out of a handful of vegan options. The dish consists of rice noodles and seasonal vegetables, oftentimes broccoli, carrots and potatoes, doused in creamy coconut curry sauce. An assortment of bean sprouts, crushed peanuts and cilantro come sprinkled on top. With these fresh farm-to-table ingredients, Global Fusion is bound to please the entire family.
Plantd: Buddha Bowl
Plantd is the newest gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian cafe and marketplace in Bend, rooted in the former location of Fearless Bakery on Division Street. Opened by two nutritionists, Plantd offers clean and organic order in and grab-n-go meals. All ingredients are sourced from small and sustainable farms. The Buddha bowl incorporates a wealth of vibrantly-colored vegetables and is high in fiber, nutrient-dense and rich with a variety of minerals and vitamins. The dish has an abundance of seasonal veggies, such as roasted yams, beets and summer squash, housemade chickpeas, tricolor quinoa and Oregon blueberries, topped with sunflower seeds, micro sprouts, lemon parsley and tahini sauce.
Ma’ama Jama’s: Quinoa Taco Salad
Rooted in one of Bend’s new food truck pods the Podski, Ma’ama Jama’s is a plant-based smoothie and snack bar. The truck, now at its first permanent location, offers gluten, corn and soy-free options, as well as paleo-friendly dishes. The quinoa taco salad is a filling option for vegan and gluten-free diners. It includes seasoned quinoa, carrots, celery, onions, mushrooms, fresh greens, radish, scallions, raw carrot noodles and avocado topped with cilantro, siete grain-free chips and sunflower poblano sauce. Also try one of Ma’ama Jama’s hand-pressed coconut mylk smoothies.
CHOW: Warm Multigrain Salad
Breakfast is perhaps the most difficult meal of the day to eat vegan, with overpriced oatmeal and granola oftentimes being the only options. Nevertheless, CHOW, a popular breakfast destination, caters to vegan and vegetarians and has carefully crafted a menu that appeals to a wide variety of dietary needs. The warm multigrain salad, listed on the lunch menu, makes for a hearty vegan breakfast. It comes with organic farro, quinoa, spinach, black beans, tamari, lemon and garlic, but adding on roasted sweet potatoes and avocado will be well worth your while. Not all of the vegan options are listed on the menu, so make sure to check in with your server to hear all of the options.
Erika Nuetzel is a naturalist guide for Wanderlust Tours in Bend. Here’s how she spends her days at work.
Erika Nuetzel gets paid to be outside. She’s lived in Bend for the last year and a half and works as a naturalist guide for Wanderlust Tours. “Somehow I’ve convinced my boss to pay me to do the things I’d like to be doing in my own time,” said Nuetzel. Here’s how she spends a normal working day in Bend.
6:00 a.m.: I wake up, and take my dog, Zephyr, for a walk. After heating up some veggie hash for breakfast, I consider my options for a morning activity. Bend has so many amazing things to do, it’s always easy to squeeze something in before work!
Erika and her dog climbing at Smith Rock.
Noon: After spending the morning running Big Eddy laps, hiking, or climbing out at Smith Rock, I head into work around noon to prep for my upcoming afternoon and night trips. As naturalist guides, our schedules vary from day to day. My afternoon at work could involve some hiking around Newberry National Volcanic Monument, or spelunking through an 80,000 year old lava tube cave. Today, I’ll be running an afternoon kayak trip and a moonlight canoe tour. Now that I know my schedule, I load up the van and the kayak trailer with the gear I need, and head over to pick the guests up at the Wanderlust Tours office.
Erika cleaning kayaks at Wanderlust Tours.
1:30 p.m. I meet my group of ten adventurous guests and we embark on the journey to Paulina Lake. A forty-minute drive through the Deschutes National Forest provides the perfect opportunity to discuss the natural and cultural history of this part of the world. We pass through the second-growth Ponderosa pine forest in the high desert and climb higher into the old-growth subalpine ecosystem, all the while talking about the 100-plus species of animals, plants, and trees that live here, and how people have moved throughout the land over the last 15,000 years.
2:20 p.m. Once we arrive to the boat ramp, we set up the kayaks and paddles before launching off. Afternoons at Paulina are the best time for kayak trips. We cross the lake to take a dip into the hot springs that line the north shore, then we jump in the clear waters of the lake. After our swim, we pause a while on a beach overlooking the Big Obsidian Flow and Paulina Peak. From this vantage point, you can really tell we’re kayaking in a collapsed volcanic caldera! Osprey fly high overhead and take turns plunging into the lake as they dive for an afternoon snack in front of our boats.
5:30 p.m. The afternoon passes much too quickly. Before long the tour is over and we’re heading back to the Wanderlust Tours office. After parting ways with my afternoon guests, it’s time for me to go to the Wanderlust Tours warehouse to get ready for the night trip. Since the gloomy smoke from far-off wildfires has finally cleared, I’ve decided I’ll take my group up Cascade Lakes Highway to Hosmer Lake to paddle beneath the stars. I prepare the canoes for the night trip at our shop by loading them onto the trailer, and loading the van with life jackets and headlamps.
7:45 p.m. We arrive at the boat ramp as the sun sets behind us, illuminating South Sister, Broken Top and Mount Bachelor with the glorious alpenglow of the late summer evenings. Once I’ve explained the mechanics of canoeing to the guests, we set off on the lake. We’re just about the only boats on the water. At this time of day, most people have gone home, and the nocturnal animals come out in their place. A bald eagle is perched on the third story of a subalpine fir, so we pause our paddling to observe him. Soon enough he makes a move, diving into the lake to pluck an Atlantic salmon out for dinner. We leave him to enjoy his bounty in peace and continue paddling as the sky darkens.
9:00 p.m. Bats and nighthawks swirl around our boats as we continue down the main channel towards the north end of the lake. We pass a beaver swimming stealthily across the lake towards her lodge in the tule reeds. As the sky darkens, Venus, Jupiter and Mars appear on the horizon, and the Summer Triangle is the first asterism to emerge. Pretty soon, the entire night sky is speckled with stars that make up various constellations, satellites flying in outer space, and the Milky Way shines brightly through the Summer Triangle.
9:45 p.m. At this point, we group all the canoes together, and I pass out delicious Sparrow Bakery desserts and homemade hot cocoa to all guests, and a Deschutes Brewery beer to those over 21. I share the Greek myths behind the constellations above us as guests enjoy their goodies, and we discuss nighttime ecology of the area. Again, nature provides an incredible backdrop to these stories and although I wish we could sit among the stars for hours, we eventually make it back to Bend.
11:00 p.m. I say farewell to my guests and drive the Wanderlust Tours van back to the warehouse. While enjoying my shift beer, I listen to music and clean out the van and canoes. Then, I head home to play with Zephy, eat some food, and pass out… ready to do it all again tomorrow!
Revitalize your soul in these mineral-rich pools. With the weather cooling off but winter sports not yet in full swing, there is no better way to embrace the changing of the seasons than soaking in hot springs. Opt to hike to rock-lined pools along rivers and lakes or spoil yourself with resort-style bathhouses that are scattered through Oregon. Treat your sore muscles and revitalize your soul in these mineral-rich pools all within a day-trip from Bend.
Paulina Hot Springs
Located off a spur on the Paulina Lake Loop Trail, the springs are primitive at best. If the lake shore waters are high, the pools may be washed out. However, when the waters are just right, hot springs may be dug out of coarse beach sand and reinforced with found wood and stones. Because these pools are not commercial, visitors often bring a shovel, such as a collapsible avalanche shovel, to re-dig one of the several pools. Although the pools might be crude, the view is magnificent. Paulina Peak towers at nearly 8,000 feet tall. Its center crater is infilled with Paulina Lake’s waters that sweep across the horizon line and counterpoint sunsets that light up the sky like pink cotton candy.
For lodging, or to rent a canoe for paddling across the lake to the edge of the hot springs, stop in at Paulina Lodge. Open in the high season, May through September, the lodge offers everything from stays in its cabins and intimate A-frames to lunch and dinner dining. Look forward to sampling the chef’s famous prime rib, homemade cobblers and handcrafted cocktails. Reservations are required. See paulinalakelodge.com.
Newberry National Volcanic Monument, operated by Deschutes National Forest, gained its monument status in 1990 as a result of the area’s outstanding volcanic features. Obsidian flows, alpine lakes, fissures, cavernous lava tubes, a lava cast forest, and a massive caldera (or collapsed volcano) are all natural wonders to experience en route to Paulina Lake Hot Springs.
Driving time from Bend: 1 hour Open: May to September
East Lake
If you think Paulina Lake’s hot springs are primitive, you have not seen the springs at East Lake, Paulina’s neighbor in the Newberry Crater. These springs are great for those tired of the Paulina Lake crowds. There are trade-offs—unlike those at Paulina, these springs smell heavily of sulfur and can reach temperatures up to 120 degrees. They can be accessed by a short quarter-mile trail from the hot springs boat ramp, walking until reaching bubbling water. On a typical snow year, these springs usually are submerged in the lake until late July, so are best-visited in the late summer or fall.
Driving time from Bend: 1 hour Open: May to September, but best starting in late summer when water level is low
Bigelow/Deer Creek
The quiet neighbor of Belknap Hot Springs, Deer Creek, also known as Bigelow Hot Springs, is one small pool tucked on the banks of the McKenzie River in the Willamette National Forest. This peaceful pool is sectioned off from the river by rocks, with hot spring water flowing from the pool’s bottom. Its close proximity to the river cools it off too much in the winter, but makes it the perfect soaking temperature in the summer and fall. It can only handle a few guests at a time, so consider going on a weekday or prepare for a possible wait. Even with its close proximity to the highway, clothing is optional in typical Oregon hot springs fashion.
Driving time from Bend: 1 hour 20 minutes Parking and fees: Free to soak, Turn onto Deer Creek Road, cross a bridge over the McKenzie River to park Open: Year-round, but can be too cold in winter months
Crystal Crane
Hidden in a high-desert oasis twenty-five miles east of Burns lies this magical hot springs resort. A longtime hub for dirty travelers, Crystal Crane hot springs consists of a 101-degree mineral hot springs pond and several private soaking tubs, rentable by the hour. Plan a visit on a clear night and stargaze while you soak. With its close proximity to Steens Mountain, the Ochocos and the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, pitch a tent nearby or choose one of the resort’s unique overnight options, including a teepee with a private hot tub.
Driving time from Bend: 2 hours and 30 minutes Open: Year-round, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Summer Lake
Southeast of Bend in the Oregon Outback amidst a vast high desert landscape awaits this 145-acre hot spring resort, Summer Lake. On your drive out, watch for birds of prey, antelope, deer and other wildlife. Stop at quirky and charming homegrown Oregon outposts to re-supply beverages, firewood and gasoline. If you have time, take a small detour to Fort Rock to see the remnants of a tuff ring, a volcano that erupted under a shallow sea. Fort Rock is also home to an ancient reed sandal mass storage cache, which has helped anthropologists pinpoint a date indicating the earliest known people in the region. On the outskirts of the municipality, look for a smattering of walk-through historic ghost town buildings.
When you arrive at Summer Lake, enjoy the four developed outdoor hot pools with 360-degree views of the desert, forest, sky and mountain peaks, as well as the largest pool, located inside a bathhouse. These springs have been flowing for thousands of years, traveling to the surface through a natural fault to almost a mile underground, and were unknown until hundreds of feet of lake water receded. Established in 1988, the resort features a bathhouse and outdoor hot springs-fed rock pools, all between 106 and 118 degrees. Either travel down for the day or choose from a variety of accommodations, ranging with low-price tent campsites to geothermally-heated cabins or guesthouses. Summer Lake is also known for hosting pop-up music festivals and retreats of all kinds.
To find RV or van-specific parking, hookups and amenities, Ana Reservoir Park and Lonepine RV Park are choice picks. After a detoxifying dip in the hot springs for registered guests of the lodge, travel 20 minutes north to the town of Summer Lake and visit The Flyway at The Lodge at Summer Lake for casual American food. See summerlakehotsprings.com.
Driving time from Bend: 2 hours Open: Year-round, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. for day use, open 24 hours for overnight guests
McCredie Hot Springs, once a historic resort, consists of several undeveloped pools on either side of Salt Creek off of Highway 58 near Oakridge. These springs are great for large and small groups alike, with the largest “party” pool being 30 feet wide and the smallest being only a yard in diameter. The large pool is a short walk from the main parking area between milepost 45 and 46 on Highway 58. If looking to reach the smaller, more secluded pools and avoid crossing the two-foot-deep creek, turn down Shady Gap Road, turn right at both splits and park at the first wide spot. From here, a mile-long hike through ferns, moss and wildflowers leads down to the pools. Since these pools are relatively isolated, prepare to be in the midst of naked hippies or become one yourself.
Driving time from Bend: 1 hour 30 minutes Distance: If accessing the main pool, just a short walk down to the river from the main parking area. If visiting southside pools, prepare to hike a 0.9 mile out and back trail down to the springs. Parking and fees: Free to soak, park between milepost 45 and 46 on Highway 58 next to McCredie Station Road near Blue Pool Campground for main pool. For southside pools, turn down Shady Gap Road, turn right at both splits and park at the first wide spot. Open: Year-round
Bagby Hot Springs is nestled deep within the Mount Hood National Forest on the Collawash River. An easy 1.7-mile hike through lush forest leads to the bathhouse, consisting of cedar wood tubs in both private and community settings. The spring water is 138 degrees Fahrenheit but can be cooled off with water from the river below. Unlike most Oregon hot springs, nudity is not allowed (but that has never stopped Oregonians before). Because of its close proximity to both Portland and Salem, these hot springs are highly frequented and often mistreated, so make sure to pack out your litter and be respectful of your surroundings.
Driving time from Bend: 3 hours Distance: 3.4 miles roundtrip from Bagby Trailhead Open: Year-round, but road not maintained in winter months
Modern and antique, private and public, inside and outside, sleek and organic. A Bend couple got it all in a home design that relied on a little bit of clever artistry.
Nancy Burfiend and Joey Reiter had been visiting friends in Central Oregon for twenty years before they decided to buy a lot in western Bend that boasted an unobstructed view of the Cascades and ready access to mountain biking trails.
Based in Seattle, the couple interviewed several architects before selecting DeForest Architects, also of Seattle, to design their two bedroom, two-and-a-half bath home. Burfiend, owner of NB Design Group, had worked with principal John DeForest on other projects, and Reiter, whose professional experience was that of a financial consultant rather than as a designer, readily responded to the firm’s clear presentation and communicative approach to working with clients and contractors.
Before deciding the practical specifics of the layout, DeForest assigned the couple “homework” so he could better understand the spaces in which they felt most comfortable, and then used block models to show them how rooms could flow into each other and integrate the criteria that had been set forth.
The team then brought on Young Construction in Bend as the general contractor to build the 2,600-square-foot home. The company had already built two nearby homes and was well acquainted with the requirements of the neighborhood and the demands of Bend’s climate.
“While there are more and more tools that break down the distance between us and a site, to have Doug [Young], who already had established relationships with city agencies and subcontractors, and who could also give us experienced information on Bend’s climate, the neighborhood and appropriate construction materials, was invaluable,” DeForest said.
The finished modern home is stained in two charcoal tones reminiscent of aged wood so that it sits “lightly on the land,” explained Burfiend, who handled the interior design elements of the project. The integration of inside and out starts at the approach to the home, where guests walk a route to the front door that abuts an exposed interior courtyard. Inside the house, the use of the exterior colors continues where the palette is based on gray, white and natural tones with the occasional burst of chartreuse green.
To accommodate the need for public and private areas and to ensure adequate storage and space for such necessities of living as books, records and cherished found objects, DeForest used hiding panels and doors to configure rooms and camouflage shelving. Views that stretch across public rooms and down hallways to reinforce the expansiveness of the space can also be shortened by a series of sliding doors used singly or in multiples to provide privacy for the homeowners and guests. The wall between the living area and master bedroom, for example, can show or hide a fireplace, television, storage and bedroom spaces behind its gliding panels. “The house,” explained DeForest, “is built like a Swiss Army Knife.”
Burfiend acknowledged that the toughest part of the project might have been acting as both designer and client. So she relied upon her staff to remind her of the calm simplicity that the couple was striving for. As for Reiter who found the design and building process fascinating, “It amazes me that I get to wake up on this property every morning,” she said. “It’s just a fabulous home.”
Brad Tisdel talked with Teafly about the importance of discovering music at a young age and how Sisters has cultivated its arts community.
Brad Tisdel grew up outside of Portland, lived around the West, and moved to Sisters in the mid-90s after entering the Sisters Folk Festival songwriting competition. In 2000 he started the Americana Project, a music program in Sisters’ school district. He’s currently the creative director of the Sisters Folk Festival and books the talent that brings people from all over the country to the small town for the annual event.
On Discovering Music
I was a choir kid. I always sang and had a real passion for singing. In college, it seemed like everybody could play a little bit of guitar, and so I thought, “How hard can that be?” When I got to write songs and play guitar, I realized that was what I wanted to do. After doing it for about ten years, though, I realized that not only is it a hard road, but also I wasn’t sure how committed I was for my whole life. I wanted to be involved in the folk music community, but not necessarily just as a musician. In 1995, I was living in Seattle and I entered the Sisters Folk Festival songwriting competition. I was a finalist two years in a row for that. Back then, the festival was still small. I lost that year to Dave Carter, who is a fantastic songwriter.
On Bringing Music to Schools
In 2000, the Folk Festival asked me to start the Americana Project, a collaboration between the Sisters Folk Festival and the Sisters School District. A lot of big picture stuff is taught through the lens of art and music education. I’m really proud of the Americana Luthier program as well. When we talk about carrying on age old tradition, I think the fact that young people have the opportunity to build ukuleles and guitars in their high school is a shining example of the uniqueness of the opportunity to grow up here. Other school districts have cut their music and arts because they could not figure out how to fund them. Here, we made it a focal point.
On The Next Generation
From the beginning, for me as a songwriter, it was always important that kids learn how to write and perform original music. As a compliment to that, they also need to know who they are, what their sense of place is, who they are becoming and how that connects with their community. Having the language, as an artist and a poet, of composition, line, space, form, harmony, and melody in visual art and music is immensely valuable, even if students do not become artists themselves. We want young people to understand it is important to have that value in their life.
On the Arts in Sisters
The town has embraced Sisters as an arts community for a long time now, but it wasn’t always valued. I think Kathy Deggendorfer and others have done amazing things in changing that. I’ve seen the strength of the galleries grow, and the recognition of Sisters as an arts town is growing. Between the Americana Project, Sisters Arts Association, Hood River Arts, the Quilt Show and even the Rodeo, there is a cultural identity around these events that has always been a part of Sisters.
On Experiencing the Moments
The Sisters Folk Festival is overlooked as an event for world class music. Don’t come for a day. You can’t capture all of what is going on in just one night. It is interesting to find something you didn’t expect that you love. It’s really a place where you come for one artist but you discover three others. For me, watching the festival unfold and connecting with community is always super special. One of my favorite things is when there are musical moments that could only happen at that venue on that night because of a number of different things, intentional or not. You can see the artists eating dinner together in the restaurants through the weekend. There is always a late night jam on Saturday night at Angeline’s and those have incredible moments. I look around and what I see on people’s faces is joy, beauty, excitement and connection. That’s what it’s really about.
Beginning with skills passed on from his grandfather, Bend furniture maker Daniel Laudenslager of dl_dzine keeps mid-century style alive.
When one thinks of plywood, beauty isn’t usually the first thing that comes to mind. But the work of Bend-based furniture designer Daniel Laudenslager can turn that concept upside down.
Laudenslager’s tables and cabinetry often include a layered edge grain plywood, cut at an angle and varnished to a high shine. The result reveals the plywood’s contrasting layers of brown, dark brown and white wood, eliciting texture, color and style on the edges of the finished piece. The occasional imperfection that might emerge from the plywood’s layers only makes the furniture even more interesting.
Plywood isn’t Laudenslager’s only medium, nor are tables and cabinets his only product. His design interests could be defined partly by their diversity. Most of his work is custom furniture, mainly privately commissioned, under the umbrella of his company dl_dzine. Dining tables, credenzas, armoires and cabinetry are his specialties, but he also created a garden planter, a tool to treat plantar fasciitis, fireplace facades and more. Throughout, his work emanates a classic, sleek, high-style aesthetic.
“I consider my style to be somewhat contemporary and very organic,” he said.
A signature Daniel Laudenslager piece sits in Legum Design in Bend.
Laudenslager calls his works “functional art,” and loves the process of dreaming up a design, figuring out how to make it work and creating an object that will be appreciated for its beauty and used for its function.
“I love gathering people’s ideas and forming them into a piece they will love for years after.”
Originally from Pennsylvania, Laudenslager, 43, earned a degree in architecture from Kent State University in Ohio and moved with his family to Bend sixteen years ago. His interest in functional design germinated much earlier, when he was a young child.
“My grandfather built furniture and did upholstery. He made work benches for me when I was small, first offering me plastic tools to work with alongside him. Eventually, he made me three generations of work benches, some I still use today. He also passed down tooling that I also still use today.”
That legacy contributes to the traditional style in his work.
“I use a lot of wood, glass and steel,” he explained. “I incorporate a lot of traditional methods, such as joinery as opposed to fasteners.”
A signature Laudenslager piece resides at Legum Design in Bend. The large boardroom table sits on a blade steel base, fabricated through his partnership with Bend company Modern Fab.
“It’s very heavy steel designed to feel light,” he said.
The top is layered edge grain plywood, inset with a specific design element.
“I’m a big ocean person,” Laudenslager said. “Surfing is my passion. Down the center of this table runs a spine, to replicate surfboard style.”
A recent table is designed with the local brewpub scene in mind. The project’s inspiration came by way of Laudenslager’s 12-year-old daughter, who studied traditional Japanese origami folding. Laudenslager watched her at work and decided to “fold” a table base.
“The rectangular steel base is a replication of the angles and structures you can get with paper folding,” he said. The top is solid white oak inlaid with a functional steel channel. “The channel is designed to accept inserts, like a lazy Susan or a beer tasting tray.”
Laudenslager’s cabinetry was on display at the Tour of Homes in July. Scandinavian high-gloss laminate in white oak was paired with a quartz countertop in a clean modern style, all Laudenslager’s design and produced by Bladt Woodworking of Bend.
“I love to collaborate with other artists,” he said. “Seeing the puzzle pieces come together and bringing a project to fruition is very satisfying.”
Bend’s Alice Drobna has rewritten the ultra-endurance record book—and she’s not done yet.
Photo by Linda Guerrette Photography
Alice Drobna, an understated 43-year-old graphic designer for Hydro Flask, is arguably the nation’s toughest long-distance mountain biker. She is certainly the most dedicated. After completing five 100-mile mountain bike races in 2013, she still wanted more. As in, more miles, more solitude and more challenge. Drobna is the first—and still only—woman to complete the trifecta of ultra-endurance mountain biking, known as the Triple Crown Challenge of bikepacking. She’s also the only mountain biker, man or woman, to do so on a singlespeed.
To claim this rare distinction, riders must finish all three of the sport’s classic dirt events, the Arizona Trail, Tour Divide and Colorado Trail, in the same season. This is a Herculean challenge in terms of total time in the saddle as well as the short recovery time between races.
The 750-mile Arizona Trail takes place in April; the Tour Divide, which spans 2,745 miles from Alberta to New Mexico, begins in June. Approximately three weeks after finishing the Tour Divide, would-be Challenge finishers must complete an arduous 500-mile journey gaining 70,000 feet through the Rockies from Durango to Denver.
Drobna’s record-setting time set in 2015 still stands at thirty-six days, six hours and fifty-six minutes, in which she rode 4,080 miles and logged 380,000 feet of climbing. (That’s about 10,500 feet of elevation gain per day, or riding from Bend to Mount Bachelor three-and-a-half times). She joined nine men on the list of cyclists who have accomplished this brutal feat.
Born in what was then Czechoslovakia, Drobna came to the United States in the early 1990s to attend college. She stayed, gained citizenship and bounced around the country before landing in Park City, Utah. There she met Ross Windsor, her longtime boyfriend (and three-time U.S. trials bike champion) who in 2008 introduced her to mountain biking on a single-geared bike.
“Riding singlespeed just made perfect sense to me,” she said. “It was quiet and light, and I got strong really quick.”
Her mountain bike racing career began with cross-country and then marathon distances, and she won a national title in 2011. She followed that up by completing five 100-mile mountain bike races in 2013. Still, Drobna wanted a steeper challenge.
Drobna a few hundred feet below the South Rim in Grand Canyon on the Arizona Trail Race in 2018.
“I found that I felt more at peace going slower and farther,” she reflected. “What I really like is being all by myself. For some reason, I was still searching for something longer. That’s when I started researching the Tour Divide. I thought, ‘If I can ride 100 miles, why not try to ride 100 miles every day?’”
Competitive bikepackers race alone and unsupported. They carry a GPS device to navigate the route, and to keep all competitors honest, along with their own food, water, tools and gear for camping. It’s this self-reliance and solitude that attracts Drobna to these extreme events. That, and the simplicity of it.
“You can go days without seeing any people,” she explained. “It’s like you almost live a different life. You leave everything you do at home behind—responsibilities, relationships, work. It’s just you and the trail and the bike. You’re in the moment all the time.”
In bikepacking events, Drobna’s custom-built titanium singlespeed—carrying food, water and gear—weighs in at forty pounds. She typically pedals sixteen to seventeen hours each day, including a few hours in the dark. Depending on the trail, she might cover 170 miles during that time. If the route is particularly steep or technical, or requires more hiking, she might log only eighty—all the while burning 10,000 to 12,000 calories.
Since her record-setting season in 2015, Drobna continues to enter long-distance bikepacking events but with less frequency. Despite vowing not to, she’s been back to the Arizona Trail twice, with the aim of besting her 2015 record time. This past April, she won the female division again, but failed to beat her record-setting time.
Of all the racing she’s done, Drobna describes the Arizona Trail ride, which stretches from the Arizona-Mexico border to the Utah state line, as the “most brutal.” Part of the difficulty is the twenty-four-mile portage across the Grand Canyon, which requires riders to disassemble their bike, affix it to a pack, and trek down and then back up the canyon wall.
That, and the weather. “There’s no shade, and there’s constant sun beating down on you,” she recounted of the 2018 race. “I was having a hard time staying hydrated. I was drinking seven liters a day [more than three-and-a-half gallons], and it wasn’t enough. When I climbed out of the heat into Flagstaff, the coldest night was fifteen degrees with fifty mile per hour winds. I was worried about being hypothermic. It was incredibly brutal conditions, from one extreme to the next.”
Despite this, Drobna now holds the two fastest finish times among women.
“One of the things that draws me to [ultra-endurance cycling] is it’s never the same,” she explained. “One time I ran into three bears in two days, I almost hit a moose during a night ride, almost kicked a rattlesnake with my pedal. You just never know what’s going to happen, and that’s exciting to me.”
For the remainder of this year, Drobna is taking a break from racing, but hasn’t written off resuming her ultra-endurance career. “It’s crazy hard,” she said, which seems like a gross understatement. And then added: “But you can’t get mad when you’re out there, because you’re in the most beautiful place.”
Central Oregon’s Rastovich Farm helped to pioneer a profitable relationship with local breweries.
Rob Rastovich looked proudly over his east Bend farm, soaking it in before another busy day with his cattle. His morning often starts before sun up and ends well after the sun has set. It’s a hardworking lifestyle that he has known well for much of his fifty-plus years.
The Rastovich Family Farm traces its roots back to 1919 with his grandparents, who homesteaded this hardscrabble land. This makes the property one of the oldest farms in Central Oregon still being farmed by its original homesteading family.
For his part, Rastovich has helped transform this nearly century-old farm, bringing it into the 21st century by implementing new technologies and using a sustainable food source for the cattle that is plentiful in beer-loving Bend. “Let the cows eat craft beer,” joked Rastovich, who collects the spent grains, known as mash, from local breweries. “That’s why we call it barley beef, or beer beef.”
The cows eat mash two times a day, five days a week, plus some hay and grass grazing. Rastovich and his ranch hands won’t divulge their feeding ratio “recipe” of mash to hay to grass, though Rastovich said, economically speaking, the farm spends 30 to 40 percent less on hay because of the mash.
It’s a win-win situation for both the ranchers and the breweries. An added synergy, Rastovich collects the spent water from the local breweries (as it can’t legally be put back into the water system without extensive and costly treatment) and uses it to irrigate his fields.
“Because the spent brewery water has a high content of nitrogen in it, we don’t have to use much fertilizer, either,” explained Rastovich. “We get these byproducts from seven local breweries free of charge, but I had to hire a full-time employee to pick up the mash.”
Rob Rastovich
Rastovich isn’t the only ranch in Oregon working with breweries on a mash-to-meat program, local Borlen Beef and Pioneer Farms are also working with brewers. But it is one of the largest, with 200 acres—and as many head of Angus-Hereford cattle spread among his farm, his cousins’ and his uncle’s farms. All the cows are well fed, and since they’re eating beer mash, Rastovich jokes they’re also happy cows, very happy. Rastovich walked over to the corral where some cows were eating mash and pointed to the big steers that were heading to the butcher the following week.
“Once the cows are fattened up, they’re butchered and brought back and sold as hamburger, steaks, pot roast and prime rib to Sunriver, Deschutes Brewery, Silver Moon and many of the other brewery restaurants that gave us the mash in the first place,” said Rastovich, who also sells his beef direct to consumer. “It’s the ultimate recycling program. Support your local farmers and drink beer.”
He said that his beef “has a different and special taste” when compared to corn or grass-fed beef. The churn is also much faster than with grass-fed beef. Rastovich butchers at least three cows every week. Each harvest produces 1,200 to 1,400 pounds of ground beef, along with another 800-900 pounds of other cuts, known as locker beef. The efficiency isn’t an accident.
As his father was aging, Rastovich, who holds a master’s degree in computer programming, came back from Silicon Valley to farm full time in 2006. He likes to say that he’s a better programmer than he is a farmer, but he’s brought some of his high-tech knowhow to the family business, inserting RFID microchips in all his cows’ ears so he can track them via computer.
“My goal is to make the animals as stress-free as possible and make the cowboys as safe as possible,” explained Rastovich, who has designed special corrals with a series of automated gates that respond to the RFID chips to help cull the herd. “This eliminates herding and puts less stress on the cow, which makes my beef taste better because you don’t get those stress hormones in the meat.”
Long gone are the days when his grandfather would curse the land. “I remember my grandfather used to say, ‘There’s just a bunch of lava rocks and dust that the wind blew in, and we call it farming,’” recalled Rastovich.
Despite the many lean decades of the past, Rastovich’s creative thinking has turned this nearly century-old farm smoothly into the 21st century. In the end though, it’s still ranching—a volatile vocation that is dependent on good weather, futures markets, hard work and luck.
“I love this land. You’d have to sell this farm over my dead body,” said Rastovich. “Trust me, it wasn’t always easy growing up here. I was the son of a hay farmer, who had hay fever, and yet here I am.”
Casad Family Farms is changing the idea of a sustainable cut of meat.
When he managed Juniper Jungle Farm in Tumalo, Chris Casad would lift a single potato up to ten times before the spud made it into a consumer’s hands. At that small farm, working on a manual scale, he said his team felt like ants working overtime shifts.
It’s one of the reasons that Casad had dreams of farming on a larger, more efficient scale.
“Now we’re starting to become sophisticated ants,” he said from the hay barn of his new property, Casad Family Farm. He gestured toward the tractors, conveyor belt and trucks that are employed in his current operation, which has helped him boost output without sacrificing a commitment to sustainable harvests. The equipment helped the farm produce ninety tons of potatoes this year, with the majority going to supply French fries for salt-craving beer drinkers at Deschutes Brewery, his primary wholesale client.
Ag of the Middle
Casad Family Farm sits in what locals call “the plains” between Madras and Warm Springs, a location that is 1,200 feet lower than the Tumalo farm. The elevation drop was strategic, lengthening the growing season. Down there in the plains, most farms sprawl more than 1,000 acres. Casad Family Farm, at eighty-five acres, falls into a disappearing sector of midscale farms that are neither agricultural commodity scale nor the direct to consumer model. Part of the reason for this vanishing middle is lack of affordability. Casad’s parents made his purchase possible by selling their Bend home to invest in the business, prompting the Casad Family Farm name to reflect the multigenerational venture.
Casad used his seven years of farming experience to make this shift from boutique to midsize farming. It was a calculated risk based on the belief that a blend between wholesale and direct to consumer sales will be profitable if done with care. The security of having a major Deschutes Brewery contract allows Casad to continue farming in line with his principles: Grow organically. Respect the soil. Give farm animals a free range and stress-free life.
Casad’s fiancé, Cate Havstad, took the leap with him. She now puts her successful custom hat making business, Havstad Hat Company, on hold during the agricultural high season to focus on working the land. There among the high desert landscape, Havstad said she enjoys the grounding physicality of the work. The setting even inspired a line of Havstad hats dyed with natural flora found in the plains, such as sage.
Waste Not, Want Not
Each time Casad establishes a ten-to-twenty-acre plot for an annual crop (such as garlic or potatoes) on the property, the plot joins the larger rotation cycle, which avoids the stress created by the standard monoculture approach where one or two crops are rotated annually. “In an organic system, we need five to seven years after harvest to rotate each plot until we plant that crop again,” said Cascad.
Between crop cycles, the farm’s hogs and cattle roam the plots, promoting soil fertility. Growing cover crops, such as mustard, further improves soil health. When tilled into the soil, the cover crops act as an organic sterilizer, neutralizing fungal diseases that are naturally produced in soil. Perennials, such as hay, feed the livestock and provide another revenue stream. Casad Family Farm is one of the only farms in Central Oregon selling USDA-certified organic hay.
“There’s no waste ever here and that is important,” Casad said. “Not having to import, and feeding animals only with grass and hay from the farm, are fundamentals of biodynamic practices.”
All pigs and cows are slaughtered onsite, something that prevents Casad from obtaining a USDA label for the meat since there is no USDA-certified mobile butcher in Central Oregon. That’s a trade-off that they are willing to make to honor the principle of keeping their livestock on the farm for the animal’s entire life cycle.
“Our hogs and cattle live in a pasture their whole lives, roaming free and eating organic, pesticide-free food,” Havstad said. “They shouldn’t then be shoved in a trailer and sent down a highway for slaughter. Instead, they are just living another peaceful day in their life and it happens to end. It’s just the right way to farm.”
Building the Market
After all the planting and tending and harvesting, what’s left is just a matter of bringing the food to the people. Local distributor Agricultural Connections has helped connect mid-size farmers with restaurants and consumers. Parker Vaughn at Jackson’s Corner, Anna Witham at 1-2-3 Ramen and Brian Kerr from Deschutes Brewery are members of a growing contingent of local chefs who Havstad said are committed to bringing local foods to a larger audience. What is still lacking are larger-scale cold storage and distribution methods to supply bigger institutions, such as hospitals and schools, with local food.
Organizations like the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council are working on solutions that will address some of these infrastructure deficiencies. In the meantime, farmers like Casad are continuing to develop their niche at a sustainable scale based on an increasing demand for locally grown food.
“Mills and processing facilities are gone here,” said Casad. “We can practice good regenerative farming and create a good product, but the system in which you sell your product needs to help get it into the hands of local people.” Whether that happens this year, next year or sometime farther down the road, isn’t yet clear. What is clear is that the seeds of sustainable harvest have been planted at Casad and across Central Oregon.
Four sushi-inspired dishes offer very different interpretations of the Japanese classic.
The high desert may not seem like the best place to go searching for sushi rolls and Asian seafood dishes. But there is a surprisingly robust range of fresh seafood offered around the area, particularly in Bend, where local chefs have embraced the artform and given it their own twist. From fine dining to food carts, restaurants take advantage of the area’s relative proximity to the Pacific and the easy access to fresh seafood. Add in a public willing and ready to indulge in bold and experimental dishes and you have perfect stage for raw innovation.
Bibimbap | 5 Fusion Sushi & Bar
The super-heated black stone pot is set before you at 5 Fusion Sushi & Bar, cradling sizzling rice, spicy, crunchy kimchi, dark, rich, pork short-rib and a quivering, perfectly cooked 62-degree egg. Taste with your eyes first, admiring the pleasing arrangement of elements in the rustic crater. Then plunge your chopsticks into the center and stir, unleashing the velvety, buttery yolk, letting it run over its fragile, gelatinous white, bathing the tart, fermented napa cabbage and Korean radishes enveloped in chili, scallions, garlic and ginger. This is bibimbap. It may sound like jazz (BEE-bim-bap), but the flavors are symphonic. This South Korean specialty has been hailed by gastronomes as one of the world’s most delicious foods.
Broiled Tomato | Kanpai
When is a tomato not a tomato? When it’s the broiled tomato created by Justin Cook, owner of Kanpai. It’s one of his riffs on nigiri, which is typically a pinky-finger long slice of raw fish atop a hand-formed pillow of sticky rice. In his iteration, delicate, translucent pink slices of tuna hug a miniature globe of rice crowned with chopped, broiled scallop, minced scallions and anointed with ponzu, the tart, citrusy, mahogany sauce and a Japanese cuisine mainstay. This irreverence is in good company with more than a dozen other ingenious creations, from the Steak N Eggs, with seared filet mignon around rice, topped with a quail egg yolk, wasabi pepper aioli and pickled red onions, to the Godzilla Roll, with tempura zucchini, cucumber and shiitake mushrooms beneath avocado and shoestring potatoes.
U of O Roll | CHI Chinese & Sushi Bar
When the U of O roll arrives at CHI, the golden yuzu tobiko (tiny flying fish roe) atop the creation presented on a bright, deep green banana leaf certainly evokes team spirit. Fortunately, there’s much more to this than just a rah-rah gimmick. The tempura shrimp, cucumber, avocado, spicy poke tuna, razor-thin avocado slices, hamachi (Japanese amberjack or yellowtail), thick, sweet unagi sauce and sesame seeds harmonize to create lovely umami savoriness. The tempura offers a flaky crunch as the tobiko lends a mild briny finish. To be politic, the hyper-local restaurant, which has named many of its dishes after local businesses, also offers the OSU roll of spicy poke, avocado, cucumber, unagi, salmon and sesame seeds. Order them both and host your gastro civil war.
Kobayashi Dog | Ronin Sushi
JapAm or AmeriZen? However you choose to think about it, Ronin food truck’s take on the Kobayashi Dog is the best East-West cultural mashup since Uma Thurman picked up a Samurai sword and zipped into yellow jumpsuit in “Kill Bill.” The bacon wrapped all-beef hot dog is cloaked with crunchy, tangy kimchi (a fermented spicy cabbage, and in this case, a kind of Japanese stand-in for sauerkraut). The subtly sweet flavors of wakame seaweed mingle with the tart-sweet pickles as if doing a Kabuki dance. Tonkatsu dragon mayo leverages Sriracha for a smoky, tangy Judo-kick with heat not found in a typical American barbecue sauce. With fresh mixed greens on a toasted pub bun this dish wins on multiple levels—complex and inventive enough to please the sushi aficionado, and a gateway to a raw-fish-flavored cuisine for those who wouldn’t dream of eating raw fish. At a price of $6, you don’t have to be an emperor to partake.
BendX Bootcamp wants to see more female-led startups in Bend.
Christine Callahan (left) and Talena Barker (right)
Bend is an outdoors mecca, but it’s also a playground of sorts for entrepreneurs with fresh ideas. Recently launched, BendX Bootcamp is an inclusive women’s entrepreneurship program that helps women harness opportunity and put ideas into action. Talena Barker, CEO and founder of Mission Limelight, and Christine Callahan, CEO and founder of Ella & Oak, joined forces to launch this program and share their valuable expertise as early-stage entrepreneurs.
Until recently, there was a serious gap in education for female entrepreneurs in Bend. “When I was first getting Mission Limelight off the ground last year, I realized that the closest such program was in Portland and that I needed that type of education, mentorship and network urgently,” said Barker. “I ended up driving over the mountain for several days each week.”
Female-run companies are less likely to fail, use less capital to reach success and have 12 percent higher annual revenues than those of their male counterparts, but are still receiving less than three percent of venture capital funding. “If we can invest in helping women-founded companies get off the ground in the early stage, the dividends are great for the Central Oregon economy,” said Barker.
The first four-week session convenes in early September and, due to the long waitlist, Barker and Callahan anticipate running another session next winter or spring. The program kicks off helping participants vet their ideas. Successful entrepreneurs like Julie Harrelson of Cascade Angels will be at BendX to work with the participants.
Participants also learn key aspects of launching their company and running a business, from building a team to developing a sales and marketing strategy. BendX gives participants the chance to have like-minded female entrepreneurs as classmates and connects them with female mentors in their fields.
How to design a modern, trendy kitchen that’s timeless.
The Harris family built their dream home and kitchen in Tetherow, after decades in an older remodeled home in Eugene.
“My other kitchen literally had this much counter space,” said Ruth Harris, spreading her arms about three feet apart. “When we built this kitchen I wanted a lot of counter space and a lot of room where we weren’t bumping into each other.”
The family knows all about entertaining guests. Their first year in Bend, they hosted 180 overnight guests, and that doesn’t include the eight lavish parties they throw each year, plus regular Sunday family dinners. A splurge on four task-specific dishwashers interspersed through this kitchen was not out of the question. Each dishwasher is hidden behind wood paneling that matches either the knotty alder wood cupboards or the distressed, crackle-painted fronts in the island.
Another trend in today’s kitchen is the unobstructed single-level island, according to Yozamp, who helped Harris select a massive five-foot by ten-foot granite slab for the island.
“The island is the focal point and hub of the kitchen. It’s an impact statement, but it’s also a workhorse,” explained Yozamp. “There should be plenty of storage all the way around, plus additional seating at the end of the island for casual in-kitchen dining.”
Yozamp said hardwood floors are still the most popular choice for kitchens in Central Oregon today, because they exude warmth, and fit in with the natural environment. The Harris kitchen took their wood floor to another level, by using reclaimed wood from an old home in Independence, Oregon. Each naturally patinaed slat was cut with tongue and groove for seamless installation.
Another popular trend that Harris used in her kitchen was accents of copper, from her backsplash to her hanging lamps over the island.
“It’s extremely expensive, but we’re seeing a lot of fixtures and accent pieces that are in copper and even rose gold,” said Yozamp. “It can be subtle, but a little adds a lot of shine.”
Though not located in the Harris kitchen, but still just steps away, is a show stopping, walk-in, climate-controlled wine cellar, also built with reclaimed wood. It’s fondly known as Chateau Harris and can safely store 900 bottles of wine.
The kitchen is the centerpiece for entertaining at home, which was the case for Bend Hagg-Watter family’s ultra-modern home.
The all-white kitchen was ideal, as homeowner Dr. Jennifer Watter said it keeps it simple, timeless and always looking sleek and clean, something she and her husband Dr. Dan Hagg appreciate with their three busy children.
The sleek and modern minimalistic cupboards allow the Hagg-Watter family to add pops of color that boldly stand out, without it looking cluttered. The white quartz island and counter tops in this kitchen are trending in newer kitchens.
“More and more people are choosing quartz and quartzite countertops over granite,” said Cascade Design Center owner Ronda Fitton. “Quartz is an engineered product that comes in various colors, while the quartzite is a natural rock that is actually harder than granite. Quartz is extremely durable, it’s anti-microbial, and slightly easier to maintain than granite.”
This family also likes to entertain and uses a dining room table just off the kitchen that can seat twenty-one people, and Watter added they’ve had Thanksgiving with fifty-six guests. With that many guests, Watter said her butler pantry directly behind her kitchen wall is her favorite feature.
“What I love about this pantry is the second sink in here. It’s a place where we can have appliances like our espresso machine, plus there’s so much storage in here,” explained Watter, as she put away bottles of wine in the special built-in wine refrigerator. “It’s also great that we can close off this area with doors on either side of this butler pantry.”
Fitton said in many higher end homes, people are requesting butler pantries.
“Because we’re seeing open floor plans, people want their kitchens to always look clean,” said Fitton. “If you’re having a party, you can easily hide dirty dishes in the sink in the butler pantry, and you can keep your kitchen counters clear of appliances by having them in the butler pantry and close the door behind you.”
Christine Pollard at OSU-Cascades FORCE Lab is at the fore of new running shoe research.
OSU Cascades FORCE Lab Director Christine Pollard discusses a study analyzing different running shoe technologies and connections to running injuries. Photo by Rob Kerr
The world’s oldest pair of shoes were made in Oregon. Crafted of oh-so-comfy sagebrush bark, perhaps it’s no wonder someone left them in a cave in Fort Rock 10,000 years ago. We’ve been improving on footwear ever since, and so it fits that Bend is at the forefront of studying the latest technology in running shoes.
Maximal running shoes, with their marshmallow-like cushioning from heel to toe, are gaining traction with runners (particularly those over age 40), walkers, and others such as healthcare workers who are on their feet for hours and want to be comfortable and injury-free. Little is known, though, about how maximal shoes influence running biomechanics.
Bend’s Christine Pollard stepped in to find out. She is associate professor of kinesiology at OSU-Cascades and director of the Functional Orthopedic Research Center of Excellence (FORCE) Lab, which does cutting-edge injury research and intervention strategies.
She brought women runners into the lab and used 3D motion capture and treadmills equipped with force plates to measure the impacts on their feet and legs after running 5,000 meters. First, each woman wore New Balance 880s, a “neutral” running shoe with more cushioning in the heel than the forefoot. Then Teague Hatfield, owner of FootZone, fitted them for a maximal shoe, the Hoka One One Bondi 4. They returned to the lab in about a week and repeated the test wearing those. None of them had worn a maximal shoe before.
“What we hypothesized is that the maximal shoe with more cushioning would be more of a shock absorber, but what we found was the opposite,” said Pollard. She thinks that’s the case because the new, super-cushioned feeling of the shoes unconsciously prevented the runners from controlling how hard they were hitting the ground.
So she sent the runners home with the latest Hoka One One Bondi 5 for six weeks to get accustomed to them, wearing them the first week for 20 percent of their runs and increasing gradually toward wearing them exclusively. Then Pollard will repeat the study and have the results by fall.
“I suspect the loading rate and impact peak will go down, but I don’t know,” she said. “No one has looked at it. We’re excited to be the first.”
Find a dog-friendly respite at Barking Mad Farm in Enterprise.
Chief Joseph, Sacajawea, Matterhorn, Glacier, Eagle Cap, Twin, Sawtooth, Ruby, East Hurricane. Each snowcapped peak unfurls a glimpse into the natural history of the Wallowas and a unique vantage on the verdant patchwork of farmland 5,000 feet below. Up at summit elevation, where the air is thinner than the loose shards of granite underfoot, a person gains a little perspective. Down among the cow-dotted fields, just outside of Enterprise in the Wallowa Valley, it’s just as easy to lose yourself in the oversized scenery. The towering Wallowa Mountains to the west are an ever-present alpine marvel visible even at night when they cut a jagged line across the star mottled sky.
Cattle dog Roo lounges on the covered porch at Barking Mad Farm, cocking his ears to the crackle of the campfire, the hoot of an owl and the rhythmic churn of sprinkler lines soaking nearby fields. Luckily, you don’t have to be a cattle rancher, or a cattle dog, to bask in the majesty of northeast Oregon. This porch is open to all of Barking Mad Farm’s guests, who are invited to grab a seat on the porch swing and soak in the solitude.
Country Charm
When guests awake in the morning, the natural world beckons through the window. From the Seven Devils Suite, early risers can watch the eponymous Idaho mountain range glow a fiery orange on the eastern horizon. The 600-square-foot suite maximizes natural light from its perch on the upper level of a building adjacent the property’s classic white and robin’s egg blue farmhouse.
Next door, in the renovated early-1900s abode, the luxury Treetops Suite spans the entire second floor. Emily Klavins owns the bed and breakfast with her husband, Rob, but the pair originally came to the farm as guests. They recommend the Treetops Suite for romantic getaways.
If the mountain air is crisp, light a fire in Treetops’ brick fireplace.Downstairs, the more straightforward Buffalo Suite has an extra bed and views of the neighboring field populated with American bison. This suite is also closest to the sizzle of frying bacon in the morning.
To Market, To Market
The Klavins have been procuring a whole pig for meat each year since they bought the farm from the former owners in 2013, when Rob was able to relocate to Enterprise while keeping his job with the conservation group Oregon Wild. This year, the novice farmers purchased two sows and a hog and brought three litters of kunekune heritage piglets into the world.
“They are little ambassadors,” said Emily. “So socialized—running up to guests to present their bellies for rubs.”
The investment is the latest step in the couple’s plan to be sustainable stewards of Barking Mad Farm’s forty-two acres, an ethic rooted in how they met teaching outdoor school. Currently, much of the acreage is leased to a third party, but the Klavins are hoping to ramp up their use of land year-by-year, demonstrating rural life to guests.
Something To Bark About
On the morning of our interview, Emily had taken some forty-odd hens to a local natural processor to be butchered and was delivering the meat to neighbors. During the warmer months, trips into town revolve around the farmers’ market and farm stand, respectively. The rest of the shopping list items are crossed off at Ruby Peak Naturals and the organic section at the grocery store.
“We value the actual experience people can have with food before it becomes little packages in your fridge,” said Emily.
Emily cooks guests a scratch-made breakfast each morning. Seasonal fruits inspire dishes such as raspberry crepes with crème fraiche, huckleberry drizzle and toasted almonds. Her homemade granola is always fresh, and she need only step out to the henhouse to gather eggs for the Barking Mad Benedict.
Venturing Out
When Roo wants to take a break from all the pigs and free-range chickens running about, he retreats to a two-acre fenced field. There in the “dog park” he’ll gladly show off his stomping grounds to guest dogs. Dogs (and cats) are welcome at Barking Mad Farm if they are friendly and respectful of other people and animals.
Off the farm, a favorite nearby activity for pups and people alike is the hike to Slick Rock from Hurricane Creek Trailhead, where gurgling snowmelt cascades down one pool after another, creating a natural slip-n-slide (6.5 miles, out and back). Joseph and Wallowa Lake beyond offer arts, culture and recreation in spades.
Back in Enterprise, Sinclair Coffee Co. is a great spot for a lunch burrito and a caffeinated pick-me-up. Another tasty daytime option is Sugar Time Bakery, which has stellar sweets and paninis. Grab a midday or evening meal and a pint at Terminal Gravity Brewing.
Shop for skin products at Wild Carrot Herbals, then head to The Bookloft. Hours will pass by as you peruse local art in the bookstore’s Skylight Gallery, chat with locals at creaky wooden tables and pick up reading fodder to take back to Barking Mad Farm’s Adirondack lawnchairs. There in the sunken seats, alternating page turns with glances at the mountains, you will likely stay planted for the remainder of your trip
Former Microsoft exec Rane Johnson-Stempson on the key role of diversity and inclusion in Bend’s growing tech and startup community.
Rane Johnson-Stempson has spent most of her career finding ways to infuse more diversity into the tech industry. She previously approached the issue from a global scale as the research director for Microsoft Research. Now she’s launched a local initiative to help Central Oregon tech and startup companies discover easy ways to make their workplaces more diverse, inclusive and, ultimately, successful. We recently caught up with Johnson-Stempson to learn more about her consulting startup the Ranemaker Institute and her vision for a welcoming, inclusive and diverse city.
Why did you start Ranemaker Institute?
Our belief is that if you feel valued at your workplace and you enjoy your workplace, you’ll be more of a contributor in the community, happier and more prosperous overall. We want to help train tech and startups about what they can do to be more inclusive and help their employees feel better heard. This helps employees and employers, but it also helps us to attract more diverse individuals to the region.
How did your background with Microsoft prepare you to start Ranemaker?
I was previously the principal research director at MS Research, and I was responsible for growing a more diverse global pool of computer scientists and PhD program graduates. I worked with international organizations, governments, and top research and computer science institutions to solve the diversity problem. We also partnered with organizations to take on different social issues affecting underrepresented communities where we thought tech can make a difference.
Why are diversity and inclusion an important issue, especially for smaller startups?
When you’re creating products and services for a diverse population and you don’t have diverse people informing the process, then you’re going to miss the mark. This is important for startups because they’re often trying to build the next big thing and they don’t want to fall behind their competitors. In fact, McKinsey reported that companies in the top quartile for gender, racial and ethnic diversity are likely to have up to 35 percent greater financial returns compared with their national industry medians. But I understand that startup founders have a lot on their plates, so I try to help them recognize the small things they can do to promote diversity and inclusion. A lot is around how you approach performance reviews, how you advance employees and how you recruit new hires.
When you talk about diversity in the workforce, what do you mean?
I like to ask employers, ‘How do you have the greatest diversity of thought?’ You need people with different skill sets, backgrounds, experiences, cultures, genders and sexual orientations. You have to think about what you’re selling and the people you’re targeting. Do you have the right minds in the room? If not, then you need to recruit more people or skill up your staff. You may not be able to hire dozens of people, but you can task individuals with understanding different populations and taking on initiatives that address them.
What do you hope your work with the Ranemaker Institute accomplishes?
My hope is that Bend becomes a role model for small towns across the country as a welcoming and inclusive place. That people and companies can see that they don’t have to go to large cities to have a good life or find great talent for their workforce.
