Former fashion photographer Paula Bullwinkel now focuses her creative lens on paintings and prints that evoke magic, motion, surrealism and feminine figures—sometimes in disturbing ways.
Photo by Milly Dole
Paula Bullwinkel worked in the highest echelons of fashion photography. She shot for Vogue, British Elle, GQ and more and counted Andy Warhol among her clients. She lived in New York City and London photographing the famous such as Kevin Bacon, Morgan Freeman and Kate Moss. So how did she end up in Bend?
“I was in New York City on 9/11, had two small children. The competition was cutthroat. I was exhausted,” she explained. “My mother lived in Bend, and we wanted to be closer to her. I had stepped out of fashion photography and started painting about five years before leaving the city.” She moved with her husband and two girls to Bend in 2007. “The area transformed me with its exquisite physical beauty and a gentler pace of life,” she said.
Esme in the Lobby
“Paula moved from image making with a camera into painting, where she continues to create magical realism with surreal elements,” said mentor Bill Hoppe, professor of art and director of the 2D program at Central Oregon Community College. “Her study of the human figure through the lens of a camera is now translating itself into ideas on canvas.”
Women and girls, including her own daughters, figure heavily in her current body of work. “My painting expresses the complications of relationships, violence, sometimes the celebration and joy of life,” she said, adding that her pieces can appear both dreamlike and nightmarish. “My paintings often have something disturbing and unsettling, like life itself,” she said. “There’s no smooth sailing.” She takes inspiration from Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse and Vincent van Gogh.
She paints in oil on canvases that average thirty-by-forty inches, but recently she’s been working on five-foot canvases. The subjects invariably include the female figure (she rarely paints men) and often feature theatrical elements such as costumes and hybrid animal-human forms, although she said the latter have become so trendy that she’s moving away from hybrids.
Teaching others and passing along her techniques and passion are integral in Bullwinkel’s life. She’s a part-time instructor of photography and painting at COCC, a printmaker at Atelier 6 and teacher at Bend Art Center. She recently won two prestigious residencies, the monthlong Djerassi Resident Artists Program in Santa Cruz, California, and two weeks at the PLAYA Residency at Summer Lake, Oregon. “She’s reaching out and making connections with artists outside our community and bringing them back to our community,” Hoppe said. “She sets a high mark.”
She recently lost her biggest fan and mentor, her mother, Ann Bullwinkel, who died suddenly in December. She was a local landscape artist and ceramicist. “Mom pointed out colors to me as a child, took me to art galleries and museums and instilled in me the spirit that I could do anything,” she said.
The Portland Art Museum has several original Bullwinkel paintings in its rental gallery. To see more of Bullwinkel’s work, visit Franklin Crossing in downtown Bend in April where she’ll be the featured artist.
Tawna Fenske and Marie Harte are best-selling romance authors living in Bend.
Photo by Alex Jordan
You never forget your first romance novel. Mine was Outlander, the popular time-traveling, historical romance book. I tore through the tome, but dismissed the genre, thinking the rest are like the Nora Roberts novels I always saw my grandma reading.
That is until I did some, ahem, research. I read one of Bend author Tawna Fenske’s recent books This Time Around, a romantic comedy that was smart, with depth and humor that grabbed me from the first page. One week and five romance novels later, I was hooked. But it didn’t click for me just how huge the romance novel industry is until I tried to check out one by Marie Harte, another Bend author, at the library and had to join the (long) hold waitlist. When I did get my hands on A Sure Thing, I read the book, filled with quick-wit and endearing characters, in one sitting.
According to the Romance Writers of America, romance novels account for one third of the fiction market. It’s a $1 billion industry. There are thousands of romance novels published each day, and there is a growing market for niche-genre novels. Popular feels like an understatement; romance novels are a phenomenon.
Harte and Fenske fall under the contemporary romance category, and Fenske even more into romantic comedy. There’s also historical, LGBT, sci-fi, mystery—a romance novel on the shelf for every whim and fantasy. And there are a lot of shelves. “Romance readers are rabid readers,” said Harte, who has written more than one hundred books since she started writing in the early 2000s. Both Fenske and Harte consider themselves fast writers, cranking out thousands of words a day. It’s a common trait of romance authors, who today need to publish books as quickly as possible to meet the demands of readers and keep up with the ever-evolving trends of the industry that publishes almost as many ebooks as it does print.
“Now it’s all about discoverability,” said Harte. “There are so many authors publishing, and not just for publishers but for themselves.” Both Harte and Fenske, considered “midlisters” in the romance industry, have published books with traditional publishing houses and on their own. They’ve both reached bestseller lists with their novels and have a dedicated following of readers.
Both authors talked about how, despite the popularity of romance novels, many people still scoff at the genre because it’s not literary fiction.
“Everyone tries to say that they’re all bodice-rippers, you know the old historicals where she says no but she really means yes,” said Harte. “But they’re not all like that. It’s so different now—so much plot-driven, so much character-driven.”
Both Fenske and Harte also said that dialogue about consent and birth control have been industry-standard for years, far ahead of the social trends.
While there are formulas and contrivances to the romance novel, the best ones are turning those on their heads. One of Fenske’s most popular books, Marine for Hire, does exactly that, with an ex-Marine hired as a nanny by a single mom.
For all the changes in the romance publishing industry, though, there’s one thing that hasn’t changed: the ending. The hallmark of a romance novel is not the sex, but the HEA, industry-speak for the Happily Ever After.
“It’s the bargain we strike with our readers,” said Fenske. “You’ll be taken on a ride and there will be ups and downs, but in the end we promise you that you will get your happily ever after.”
It’s the casual conversations that remind Veronica Vega that, as brewmaster of Deschutes Brewery, she’s still an unusual figure in the industry.
“Typically if I say that I work for Deschutes, they assume that I’m a waitress at the pub,” said Vega, 39, who took over her top role in 2015. “When I explain what I do their eyes open up really wide in disbelief.”
Across town it’s a similar story for Tonya Cornett, innovation brewer with 10 Barrel Brewing since 2012.
“If I’m at a beer event or I’m around a bunch of brewers, there’s always that moment when I get introduced to someone, and then all of a sudden their perception of me changes,” said Cornett, 48.
These two women make up a small cadre of elite female brewers in the industry who are bucking the dominant trend—less than five percent of top brewmasters are women, according to a national study by Stanford University. But a renaissance is blooming as women take over lead roles in the boardroom and in the brewery. This Stanford study estimates about 20 percent of top leaders in the industry are female now. We talked to Vega and Cornett about how the industry is changing and what it means for beer.
It’s 2018 and female brewers are becoming so much more integrated into the industry. Is there even a “women in brewing” story anymore?
Veronica Vega | Photo by Jeff Kennedy
Vega: I have definitely wondered about that, but I keep coming back to these interviews because I get feedback from other female brewers that it inspires them. It makes me realize that it’s important to keep telling my own story.
Cornett: There was a time a few years ago when I was hooking up a jockey box (a mobile tap system commonly used at events) at a festival and someone asked where the brewer was. They didn’t believe my husband when he told them it was me. And I’ve heard of someone walking out of a pub when they learned the brewer was a woman. For a while, my joke was that you can’t even taste in the beer that I’m a woman. But honestly I don’t really get that much anymore.
What’s changed?
Vega: I think the story is moving away from male/female because there’s just an overall diversifying of brewers. More people from all backgrounds are going into brewing. And it’s the consumers who are benefitting from that. If everyone in the room is a guy in brewing, and you’re trying to create a brew for a wide variety of people—well, the diversity is key if you want a diverse consumer. I think that’s being valued more.
Cornett: I think one of the things influencing brewing right now is the popularity of all the cooking shows. In the grocery store there are, like, fifty kinds of ketchup now. That’s translating into all kinds of food, including beer. There are just a lot more diversity of flavors and approaches accepted in the industry now.
Are there approaches that still feel distinctly female?
Tonya Cornett | Photo by Alex Jordan
Vega: I remember this point of realization that I am really being trusted with this senior decision-making authority of the brewery, and it hit me hard. I think it’s possible that men would take that authority more for granted—like, of course, they belong there. For me, that realization was empowering and freeing, but I still feel so much pressure to get it right.
Cornett: I think there may be ways that women are more comfortable learning or managing before executing on a beer. Like for me, I want to make 100 percent sure I know what’s up before I tell someone what I think about it. I’ve noticed that men can feel more confident with less information but that women seem to really like to know what they are talking about beyond a shadow of a doubt before moving forward.
Across the country and right here in Central Oregon, nonprofits, social events, competitions and beer-drinking clubs are cropping up for women, by women.
At the national (and international!) level, the Pink Boots Society is the primary instigator of driving more women into the ranks of professional brewing and now boasts more than fifty chapters across the world.
In Oregon, the 2018 fourth annual SheBrew homebrew competition and pro-festival in early March featured more than 100 entries making up a vibrant female brewers-only event that’s grown dramatically year over year.
In Bend, the Central Oregon Homebrewers Organization, or COHO, has long fostered a strong showing from gals who are just as psyched as guys to spend an entire Saturday brewing up a batch of all-grain.
And the Central Oregon Beer Angels has turned beer drinking into a legitimate social club, attracting more than 850 women in five years with a current membership of 350.
Sam McCoy and her husband, Dan, have grown Atlas Cider from an idea hatched by two teachers to a business expected to produce 7,000 barrels of cider in 2018. Five years in, Sam sat down with us to reflect on the part Atlas has played in the growth of a nascent industry that is upsetting the apple cart in craft-made market share.
It all starts with the apple tree. What are some nuances of using Oregon-grown apples?
The juice has a small carbon footprint—there’s no shipping it across the country or shipping cheap concentrates here from overseas. Cider companies should thrive in apple-growing regions of the country. An interesting challenge with fruit is that each batch we receive from our supplier varies, a factor reminiscent of vintage differences in the wine industry. We can make minor changes to our blends to compensate, we want the fruit to do the talking and embrace the diversity of each batch we produce. This is a major differentiator from making beer or soda pop, where consistency is king. Also, we do not grow our own fruit so we are at the mercy of the often-exorbitant price of the specialty fruits that most of our ciders are made from.
Even though the number of cideries in the U.S. has more than doubled (now 800+) over the past four years, Oregon is one of the few states where cider sales are more than 3 percent the size of beer sales. What shift have you noticed in cider drinking clientele?
People are much more educated about cider in the Northwest now. When we first started sharing our ciders we had to explain what cider was and how it is different from wine and beer. Now we can focus on the things that set our brand apart from others and let people simply taste and form their own opinions.
Cider appears to be the great equalizer, with research showing that market share is fairly equally distributed among men and women (according to international food and beverage market research firm CGA Strategy). This is not the case in the beer and wine industries. Thoughts?
Cider, done right, is the perfect beverage. It all stems from the core of what it is: fruit. Not many would disagree that a fresh bowl of blackberries, apples, apricots, cherries is a wonderful thing. Our cider is at its best is when it is viewed in this way, with no preconceived notions of what it is or what it is supposed to taste like. When we first started I looked at us as the black sheep of Bend beer culture. We still are really proud of that. It can be a more sophisticated choice for the beer drinker, but at the same time it is a more casual choice for the wine drinker.
Cider naysayers tend to poo poo cider for its sweetness, yet some of yours are quite dry. How would you respond, sweetly of course, to these sugary claims?
Cider still has a bit of a problem with the less informed drinkers that have a black-and-white view of it as, “I do or don’t like cider.” Just as a light beer to a triple hopped IPA there is just as much variety, if not more so, in cider. We started the company because we were not impressed with the offerings in the marketplace and we were quite certain we could improve upon it with enough knowledge and the right fruit suppliers.
Atlas was one of the anchor tenants for the revival of the now-thriving Box Factory. You are the first cider partner of the Portland Trail Blazers. What other trends do you plan to set?
Summarized in a quote, “Fine fruit is the most beautiful and useful thing that the world knows.” Cider is about as Northwest as you can get and here in cider country, we are the biggest cider drinkers in the United States. Put simply: drink the fruit that grows here. Over the next few years we look forward to exploring the nature of how and why fruit thrives here. We also want to recognize the people who dedicate their lives to growing fruit and weathering the challenges of each season’s harvest.
Atlas is distributed in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. In Portland, you have a Washington Square taproom and plan to open another in the Pearl District. What percent of your sales comes from your brick and mortars?
Taproom sales make up less than 10 percent of what we sell through traditional channels (bars and supermarkets) but our Oregon taprooms are an important aspect of our brand. We want to give customers a place to experience our cider in an authentic way, to get a sense of who we are in addition to having a few pints. Dollar sales of craft cider were up 39 percent from 2015 to 2016 at off-premise retailers (grocery/convenience stores).
What has surprised you recently about the cider industry?
I see a packaging as a big factor. We started with twenty-two-ounce bottles but we have seen a shift toward customers choosing to buy ciders in cans. It makes perfect sense, especially for sessionable ciders, like ours, that beg to be sipped at any opportunity—not just for a special occasion or with friends. Customers also expect bars to serve it on draft, with many bars now offering multiple handles. Maybe there is something to be said for the phrase, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
What are your top three sellers?
Blackberry has remained our number one selling cider since we released it. We took a risk on making a cider from nontraditional fruits and once we figured it out from a production standpoint we were really able to stand out in the marketplace with a cider that not only tastes delicious but looks the part. Our new dry organic apple and apricot ciders are the next most popular options.
Why are flavored ciders are growing in popularity, up 4 percent from last year off-premise and now representing 16 percent of overall cider sales in the country?
Variety is the spice of life! At our taprooms, our customers flock to our more creative fruit blends. Some of our locals have become cider sommeliers (or pommeliers), perfecting the art of mixing flavors.
How much do you think the newfound cultural awareness of gluten has played into the growth of the industry?
Anything that differentiates cider from beer in a positive way can only help grow the industry. It’s really cool when local breweries sell our cider. It supports what we are doing while giving their customers a gluten-free option so they can enjoy a pint along with their friends.
One of the most popular IPAs in Oregon, Boneyard RPM was first brewed by owner and brewmaster Tony Lawrence in 2010. Lawrence’s aim was to create a hoppy, but not necessarily bitter, beer. The early recipe for RPM had the beer coming in at 7.5 percent alcohol by volume. In 2013, inspired by Firestone Walker Brewing’s Union Jack IPA, he scaled the recipe back to about 6.7 percent alcohol. This didn’t hurt the beer’s popularity, as it still made up nearly 82 percent of Boneyard’s sales for 2017. For old-school RPM lovers looking for a throwback to its early years, rumor has it the brewey’s Hop A Wheelie IPA is based on the original recipe.
Black Butte Porter | Deschutes Brewery
When Deschutes Brewery opened its doors in June 1988, there were four beers on tap: Bachelor Bitter, Cascade Golden Ale, Wychick Weizen and Black Butte Porter. Today, Bachelor Bitter is still on tap at the pub, and Black Butte Porter is the company’s flagship. Frank Appleton, who opened the Horseshoe Bay Brewery in British Columbia in 1980, wrote the initial recipe, but brewer John Harris felt it was too light and tweaked it with more chocolate and dark malts. Harris went on to brew with Full Sail Brewing and open Ecliptic Brewing. Today, Black Butte Porter accounts for approximately 15 percent of all the beer Deschutes brews.
Blonde Bombshell | Cascade Lakes
First brewed in 1999 by Tom Kemp, the recipe for this crisp and popular blonde ale has changed little over the years. Originally brewed as a summer seasonal, the light ale was so popular that the brewery included it in its year-round lineup by 2003. Two-row malt and wheat round out the grain bill, and Liberty hops provide balance against the malt. (These days, the popular Citra hop variety backs it up as well.) In 2017, Blonde Bombshell comprised 26 percent of all beer sold at Cascade Lakes.
Tucked off the highway in quiet Tumalo, Kelly Roark is busy fermenting ciders that intrigue Central Oregon palates while impressing festival judges. From inspired years collecting and hand-pressing windfall apples in Bend, to building his own eco-friendly cidery and releasing the first kegs in 2016, to adding stainless steel fermenters and a bottling line last summer, Roark and business partner Jeff Bennett are carving out a dry cider niche in Oregon.
The growth of their Tumalo Cider Company over the last few years has developed as naturally and destined as a volunteer apple tree. Location proved crucial. Roark sources his custom pre-blended apple juice from orchards in Hood River and Yakima, and buys heirloom varieties from Salem—all an easy truck ride away. Distribution now reaches Portland, but Central Oregon remains Tumalo Cider Company’s priority.
“The people of Bend are the people who created us,” said Roark, surrounded by shiny fermentation tanks in the compact, clean cidery that family and friends helped construct. “In a way, they steered our flavor toward a drier cider. Bend’s support has been priceless.”
Tumalo Cider Company labels up to six different ciders at a time, including an unfiltered Farmhouse series and a few seasonals, like Alpenglow, which won the People’s Choice award at the 2016 Central Oregon Winter Beer Festival, beating out all the beers. Their latest seasonal, Winter Perry, took the same award in 2017.
For now, Roark crafts and bottles Tumalo Cider by hand, but a spacious tasting room and expanded production in Tumalo, plus cans for the outdoorsy Bend lifestyle, are in the plans. Part of Roark’s successful recipe stems from his appreciation of the apple’s myriad varieties and its seasonal differences and from his upbringing in the Willamette Valley’s wine country.
“Cider brings together that holistic kind of feeling. It comes from a tree, you can process it, and then you have this juice and cider, and the work was worth it.” A sip of vibrant, golden green, blossom-perfumed Tumalo Dry Cider deliciously proves Roark’s point.
Three beers made in Bend that have changed the brewing industry.
Sahalie | The Ale Apothecary
Owner and brewer Paul Arney has a knack for turning beer styles on their ear, melding modern techniques with Old World tradition. Though many of his beers can be considered groundbreaking, it was the flagship, Sahalie, that started it all. Brewed with a mix of wild yeast and bacteria and aged for a year in oak barrels, it presents layers of flavor and character and an ever-evolving sensory experience for the drinker.
Ching Ching | Bend Brewing
This Berliner Weisse-style sour wheat ale was at the forefront of the new American sour beer movement, with former brewermaster Tonya Cornett helping to pioneer the kettle souring technique that gives this beer its crisp, lactic-tart snap. Cornett was inspired to create something pink champagne-like, yet fruity and tart, and the addition of pomegranate and hibiscus give it its distinctive rosy color.
Farmhouse Saison | Crux Fermentation Project
Prior to Crux Fermentation Project entering the scene in 2012, if you wanted saison style ale on the regular, you had to prowl the bottleshops for imports or one-offs. Saison is a drinkable Belgian-style pale ale that’s fruity, spicy, dry and refreshing, yet for whatever reason it’s largely underserved. Crux not only brewed an excellent version in Farmhouse, but made it available year-round, opening the door to other Belgian-style brews such as Doublecross.
The life and times of the storyteller, naturalist and namesake of Hosmer Lake, Paul Hosmer.
Paul Hosmer was a master of words. More than anyone else, he took the pulse of Bend’s millworkers and painted their tough world in vivid details. He was their champion.
Hosmer was an enigma. He was the scribe of the community but left a few cookie crumbs behind to explain his upbringing and life before moving to Bend, according to his son Jim Hosmer. Born in 1887 in St. Paul, Minnesota, Hosmer shared a glimpse of his formative years in a 1924 article in the 4L Magazine (The Loyal Legions of Loggers and Lumbermen). Hosmer told readers, “Received my diploma in football, baseball, basketball and spelling. Took a postgraduate course in boxing and had intentions of becoming lightweight champ.”
The spelling diploma presumably led him to newspapers “in half a dozen cities” before Hosmer ended up in Bend in 1915 working for the Shevlin-Hixon Lumber Company.
World War I put a hold on Hosmer’s career. Together with his good friend, Frank Prince, he enlisted in the 20th Engineers (Forest) Regiment. The outfit was designed to set up sawmills in France to provide building materials for the Allied forces. The two friends arrived in Europe in August 1918. Hosmer became a war stenographer, stationed away from the front lines. “After the armistice, I traveled around France playing banjo in a dance orchestra and made enough money to get into the crap games every night,” Hosmer wrote.
Hosmer’s orchestra was one of the most sought-after attractions in the ’20s | Photo courtesy of The Deschutes Historical Museum
In the early ’20s after returning to Bend, Hosmer left the Shevlin-Hixon company and “moved across the river” to work for Brooks-Scanlon. One of his first jobs was to dream up the company newsletter that would define his life, Pine Echoes. Based on personal experiences, Hosmer told the stories of the workers at the mill and timber-fallers at the mill camps.
Hosmer’s articles also found their way into magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post and Oregon Motorist. In the 1930s, he shopped a story about Bend’s “Klondike Kate” Rockwell to the big Hollywood studios. Nothing came about, and the yarn eventually dreamed up by Tinseltown screenwriters for the 1943 film Klondike Kate had little to do with either “Aunt” Kate’s life or Hosmer’s script.
The lack of Hollywood success didn’t slow Hosmer, who remained a prolific writer and photographer throughout his years. It was Hosmer’s antics as much as his stories and images that imbued him with local celebrity status. Hosmer and his friend Prince were inseparable. Hosmer’s son Jim called them “the two roustabouts.”
A photograph Paul Hosmer took of a timber-feller in Bend | Photo courtesy of The Deschutes Historical Museum
“Frank had a lot of money, and dad had a lot of time and ideas, so they paired up and had all these escapades,” said Jim.
Like the time they lit a smoke bomb during a meeting at the Percy A. Stevens post of the American Legion and managed to keep the stunt a secret for several days. They were eventually hauled in front of the high court of the legion. The crowded hall was in full laughter throughout the proceedings. Although their defense strategy was built on an “insanity” plea of “temporary pyromania,” Hosmer and Prince were declared “guilty” of the crime and fined nominally for the prank.
Today, it’s hard to imagine just how isolated Bend was 100 years ago. Most of the culture was either homegrown or imported from family traditions. The mills attracted a large contingent of Scandinavian workers who had worked their way west in pursuit of timber jobs. Bend’s massive sawmills and the region’s extensive timber stock were a siren song for first and second-generation mill workers who came to Oregon from Minnesota and Wisconsin. (Both of Bend’s mills were owned by Minnesota-based companies.) Workers who came to Bend left behind extensive relations in the Midwest and abroad, but they brought along their passion for outdoor living—skiing during the winter and hiking and mountaineering all summer long. Eventually, they founded Bend’s ski club in 1927.
Hosmer came up with the name for the club, Skyliners. He also became the president of the club in 1929 and 1930. When Skyliners celebrated its ten-year anniversary in 1937, one of the founders, legendary cross-country skier Emil Nordeen, wrote that Hosmer was the “faithful pilot, without whose tireless effort the Skyliners’ dream could never have materialized.”
An amateur naturalist, Hosmer lived close to the outdoors throughout his life.
Janis and Paul Hosmer on Mud Lake, which was renamed Hosmer Lake in 1962 | Photo courtesy of The Deschutes Historical Museum
“His idea of having a good time was to walk into the woods with his canoe and paddles and go canoeing,” said Jim. In many ways, it is fitting he is the namesake of Hosmer Lake. Known previously as Mud Lake, it was renamed for him in 1962.
Hosmer retired from Brooks-Scanlon in 1961 after forty-one years as the editor of the Pine Echoes. He died a year later at the age of 74. One of the editorial writers for the Eugene Register-Guard, Bob Frazier, wrote, “the sage of the sagebrush country died last week.”
J Paige & Co crafts artisan leather handbags to hang on the arms of connoisseurs coast to coast.
Paige Bruguier in her studio | Photo by Alex Jordan
After Paige Bruguier graduated from Sisters High School, she left home to attend the Art Institute of Portland. Her goal was to become a jewelry artist—she’d always been creative and had taken jewelry-making classes at Sisters High School. “Metal had always been my medium,” she recalled.
But a trip to Portland leather supply outlet Oregon Leather Co. during her first year of college changed her trajectory forever. “I walked into this incredible shop, this room filled with hides,” she said. “It was so inspiring. I hadn’t realized what it meant to shop for leather.”
In a way, it was a return to her roots. Bruguier was born on a Native American reservation in Montana, and her father has long been a maker of tipis. As an infant, she’d played at his feet in his studio as he ran the industrial sewing machine. Sitting down at a machine to make a leather bag for the first time felt nostalgic. “I absolutely fell in love with bag making,” she said.
Just a few short years later, Bruguier, 25, is at the helm of her own business, J Paige & Co. (Her first name is actually Jessica.) The company creates leather handbags and other home goods sought after throughout the United States. Her artisan bags are simple and beautiful, each handmade by Bruguier in a clean, simple style. “I’ve always liked classic products. I started making what I wanted, and then other people wanted it, too.”
Photo by Alex Jordan
Bruguier left the Art Institute after a year and returned home to Central Oregon to launch her own endeavor. Both her parents are self-employed in artistic fields, and the teachers and peers she’d found here had been particularly supportive and nurturing. Being back home, she felt, would be a good incubator. “Bend is a very good place for artists,” she said. “They make you feel like being a maker is actually possible.”
It was two local shows—at Bend’s creative co-working space The Wilds and then at the athletic apparel store Lululemon—that kicked things off for Bruguier. Her work ended up on a Lululemon blog, she received a flood of orders, quit her job and was able to become a full-time artist. “I love having my own business,” she said. “I feel so free. I have the freedom to create what I want to.”
Bruguier’s process is self-admittedly unstructured. “I grab a hide and start cutting,” she said, demonstrating with a flourish of her hands and a smile. At the same time, she said, leather is famously unforgiving. “It requires me to focus. I have to be patient. It’s good for me.”
Late last year, Bruguier moved production from her living room into an industrial space. This allowed her to acquire a third industrial sewing machine and an industrial kick press. “I’ve become super geeky about machines,” she said. “You feel invincible. You can sew through anything.”
Bruguier’s bags range from $60 for a pouch to $480 for a Wild West bag and can be purchased online or in specialty shops. She hopes to keep J Paige & Co high quality with a modest volume. “I used to think I wanted this to be huge. But there are so many factors to being self-employed that take away from the creative process, and that aspect is very important to me,” she said. “I want every bag to be meaningful, even if that means I don’t sell as many.”
In any case, along the way, she’ll continue to benefit from support from the Central Oregon artist community, as well as from mentors a little closer to the heart. “My parents have been very helpful,” she said. “They are still who I go to for advice.”
Set into an outcropping above the Deschutes River as it tumbles through Tumalo, a modern home is built on the foundations of principles, patience and respect.
Photo by Rick Keating
Rare are the buildable sites in Central Oregon where one can see both the river and the Cascades. The challenge for principal architect Nathan Good and lead architect Lydia Peters of Nathan Good Architects was to design a home that not only took advantage of the views without disturbing nary a rock or tree, but also addressed the homeowners’ criteria in aesthetic design, self-sufficiency and environmental impact, as well as in human factors, including aging in place and universal design.
“Site dictated the design,” said Good of the slim band where the home sits with its mandated river and mountain views. “It was challenging to design a building that could be woven around ghost juniper trees, boulders and other features.”
Working with builder Dennis Szigeti of Leader Builders and a team of landscape experts and subcontractors, Good and Peters set about fulfilling the homeowners’ wishes in a four-year-long project.
Surrounded by stone patios and wrapped in natural stone, plaster and locally sourced wood, the low-slung home is visually tied to its surroundings. It also boasts an abundant use of glass to permit views from the house, through the house and, even from the front walk, over the house.
Photo by Rick Keating
Named Kalorama (from the Greek for beautiful vista) by the homeowners, the finished structure is formed in deliberate zones to delineate the home’s public spaces and private areas. To the left of the main entry sits the great room, the center of the 4,000-square-foot house. Anchored by a massive wood-burning fireplace set on a single raised hearthstone, the spacious area accommodates a welcoming seating arrangement, an expansive dining table, a music area with grand piano and a large open kitchen—all of which have views of the Cascades. (Only one room in the house is viewless, pointed out builder Szigeti, and that’s the wine cellar.)
Meeting the couple’s request that materials be sustainable and welcoming are a fir ceiling, fishtail oak floors made from repurposed shipping containers, a wood, live-edge dining table, frames of European larch wrapped around triple-pane windows and cherry wood kitchen cabinetry. The further use of wood in the floating shelves near the piano and in the bookshelves that form a pony wall by the staircase leading downstairs reinforce the space’s welcoming warmth.
Strategically positioned by the kitchen are a pantry, a mudroom (complete with a dog shower) with access to the garage and a solarium/greenhouse where the couple can grow small fruit trees, flowers and vegetables. (Cold frames are conveniently set just outside.)
Also by the kitchen is an elevator installed to accommodate guests who cannot use stairs and to ensure accessibility for the homeowners as they age in place.
Photo by Rick Keating
Downstairs is the mechanical room, a game room with a television and bar, a guest room with a private patio and a bathroom designed for universal use. Also downstairs is the wine cellar which, while viewless, has a speakeasy window in its door.
Upstairs and on the other side of the front entry is the homeowners’ sanctuary. Separated from the public space by a wood pocket door, a hall gallery of wood bookshelves and storage drawers face two offices that look toward the mountains. The offices’ shared wall is also a sound barrier to suit the working styles of the wife who wants perfect quiet and her husband who wants to play music. Past the offices and per the couple’s instructions, the bedroom was created as a simple sleeping space with a nearby laundry room, spacious closet and master bath.
Throughout the home, the use of common materials such as wood and stone, fittings such as bookcases, and design features such as live edges, chevrons and the home’s Kalorama logo provide visual unity.
Chief among the couple’s wishes was a sustainable and self-sufficient home that could be a harbor in all conditions. “There are eighty-four solar panels on the roof to provide power,” explained Peters. Other practical features such as LED lighting, exterior solar shades, an EV car charging station and connecting the solar panels to Tesla Powerwalls helped the all-electric LEED platinum home garner an energy performance score of zero. Elsewhere on the property, a HAM radio tower, potable water cistern and orchard ensure self-sufficiency.
With retirement in view, the homeowners made aging in place and universal design a priority. In addition to the elevator, doorways are thirty-six inches wide to accommodate wheelchairs. Intentional design decisions, such as zero threshold showers and grab bars in the bathrooms, ergonomic door and cabinet hardware and abundant lighting (even in the closet rods), were made throughout the house to ensure the couple will continue to successfully live in their home.
Photo by Rick Keating
The project was not without bumps. While the lot had been purchased in 2008, the homeowners decided to put construction on hold for two years during the recession. It was a break that became serendipitous because much of the technology used in the completed home, such as the Tesla Powerwalls, had yet to be invented when the project first started. And, pointed out Good and Peters, the interval was also a testament to the couple’s dedication to their original vision because there were few changes when the project started anew.
Builder Szigeti credits the relationship between the architects, the homeowners and all the other professionals and subcontractors to the project’s success. “Everyone listened, everyone was respectful of everyone else,” he explained. “All the subcontractors who started with the project finished with it, too. Everyone felt valued.”
Jenny Green believes that art is for the masses and has spent her career dedicated to making fine art accessible. She has a master’s in fine and decorative arts from the Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London and has worked in galleries, museums and auction houses in London and San Francisco. She moved to Bend twenty-two years ago and has been a cultivator of the arts community in Central Oregon, most recently as a founder of the At Liberty Arts Collaborative. Green sat down with Bend Magazine’s Teafly Peterson to talk about art, community and ensuring that Bend’s economic growth benefits everyone.
On Finding Home at First Sight
My husband, Tim, and I moved here in 1994. We’re pretty different people, so we were trying to figure out where our divergent interests would meet up. We were living in Wyoming, and he came home one day and said, “I think I found the place for us. It’s called Bend, Oregon.” I went to the University of Wyoming’s library and looked up Bend, Oregon in the card catalog. And, of course, all the things in the card catalog were, like, skiing, fishing—all the things Tim was interested in. It was a small town, but it had the Sunriver Music Festival, a few restaurants and an art gallery. We came to visit in 1993 during that last huge snowstorm. We fell in love with the town and moved here.
Discovering Art
My grandmother had art and jewelry and beautiful objects. I grew up in a family that wasn’t that interested in that kind of stuff. But for me, it was like finding treasures. These objects could have meaning beyond simply being an object—that someone could take the time to make it beautiful or to care enough to translate an idea. I remember going through her house, her holding my hand, and talking to me through paintings that were special in some way.
On the Democracy of Art
I wish that everyone understood that art is for the masses. I get really frustrated that people see it as elitist. We’ve had this professionalism take over the arts, where you will talk to someone and say “Oh, are you an artist?” or “Are you a musician?” and they will say no. And then you’ll ask “Do you ever paint or play the guitar?” and they say “Oh, yeah, every weekend.” But they will not call themselves an artist or a musician. If we start embracing that everyone has artistic means and capabilities and that all these things are available to all of us, then I think that would change.
Creating an Arts Collaborative
Kaari Vaughn, René Mitchell and I started At Liberty because we always dreamed of having a permanent contemporary art space that promoted the arts and lifted up other nonprofits by providing space for them. This kind of fell into our laps (while we had also been pursuing it for five years). There was already a history of BendFilm, Muse and other organizations using Liberty Theater as a hub, but we wanted to turn this into something that was more quotidian and that people would know as a space downtown where there is always something interesting going on.
Embracing Diversity
I would like to see us embrace that small town feeling where we are concerned about our neighbors, where there is affordable housing and room for everybody. I get worried that we might become too homogenous in our economic sector. I want to see more room for different ways of thinking, different ways of being. I want us to hold onto that core piece that was here when I moved here, which was community first. I think we have an awesome community, and I want us to continue wrapping our arms around everybody here.
On the Rising Tide in Bend
I feel like the nonprofits and the arts are starting to blossom in these little pockets and are getting stronger. People have the impression of Bend as only an outdoor town, but there have always been these side interests, and those are finally starting to come forward a little bit more. I think that right now we have this rising tide in our community and I am just hoping that it lifts all the ships—the artists, the organizations, the community. If we are having this good moment for our town, I hope we make sure everyone is on board.
“I saw on your Facebook page—you guys are having a baby!” said a customer as Schoolhouse Produce co-owner Jeromy Cockrell rang up her groceries.
“Yep, baby number one’s due anytime,” Cockrell replied with a grin as he went back to hand labeling that day’s beef delivery.
Cockrell pointed to the sign clipped to a Mason jar next to the register that read “New Baby Fund.” “We put that up because Sarah and I kept losing track of who we told,” he said of his wife and co-owner. More shoppers came in and out of Schoolhouse Produce over the next thirty minutes. Cockrell’s banter with each person was affable and often involved first names. Most people bought just an armful of items. The steaming pot of soup, scratch-made daily and also sold frozen, was a hot seller.
Schoolhouse Produce is located on a busy corner in Redmond just a few blocks from Fred Meyer, Jeromy and Sarah’s former employer. The market isn’t large. Let’s say a game of catch spontaneously erupted using one of the oranges stationed by the front door. You wouldn’t need much of an arm to lob a pitch into your co-conspirator’s mitt in the opposite corner of the store by a cooler emblazoned with author Michael Pollan’s admonition “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly greens.”
Schoolhouse Produce co-owner Jeromy Cockrell | Photo by Megan Oliver
“I think we fall more on the health-store side rather than purely the grocery side, so people seek us out when they have health issues or to supplement what they’re getting at the bigger stores in town,” said Cockrell. “We are a year-round produce stand. Most people assume that means it’s all local and organic, but that’s just not possible, as much as we’d like it to be.”
The grocer’s two main produce suppliers are in Portland, but Schoolhouse stocks beef from MC Cattle out of Terrebonne, Tumalo lamb and goat milk soap, honey from Deschutes County bees, Redmond salsa and jelly, Bend toffee, Prineville cheese, twenty-odd other locally sourced products, a number of regionally sourced items and a handful of other essentials such as, you guessed it, La Croix.
“We probably have a couple of things in here that are no bueno from a strictly healthful perspective, but we try not to carry any products with MSG, preservatives, artificial colors or sweeteners,” he said. “The less ingredients the better.”
Cockrell explained that he and Sarah see people turn their energy levels around by looking to real food and supplements that are 100 percent food based.
Jayne Simmons, from whom the Cockrells bought the business in 2014, was a former school teacher. “She said she wasn’t a very good one, but she found that when she started selling produce, she felt that she could teach people how to use, learn and interact with food,” said Cockrell. “We’ve carried on that spirit. Just eat real food. It’s pretty simple.”
When you need to escape the last dregs of winter, retreat to McKenzie Highway where mist rises from the forest and reliable cell phone service is spotty. Find scant snowfall, easy hiking trails, rustic hot springs, a cozy historic lodge and whispers of spring in this charming river community.
Terwilliger Hot Springs
You could drive back and forth along the McKenzie Highway dozens of times and never spot Loloma Lodge. The rustic retreat is nestled in the dense temperate forest, hidden behind layers of green. Driving under the modest wooden archway onto the property and spotting the log-cabin lodge feels like stumbling upon a hidden treasure.
About a year ago, Wallis Levin had that same feeling when she discovered Loloma Lodge. Self-described as obsessed with miscategorized or misspelled items on sites like eBay or Craigslist, Levin found Loloma incorrectly categorized as a single-family home on a real estate website. She and her husband, who both moved to Bend four years ago, jumped on it, and less than a month later found themselves the owners of this historic McKenzie River lodge and resort.
Historic Loloma Lodge
Built in 1932, Loloma is one of the last historic buildings in the area. It’s been through a handful of owners who have added their own touches to the property, but much of its past has yet to be uncovered. “I wish I knew more about the building,” said Levin. “We’ve been told that it’s related somehow to Timberline, but I don’t know if that was the architects or the actual builders. Loloma is a mystery, from what I can tell so far.” The mystery is part of its charm though, as if each person who finds Loloma gets to uncover the story for themselves, and add to it.
Levin and her husband didn’t know much about running a lodge when they became the owners. She has a background in wedding set design and runs an artisan pop-up shop in Bend. Her husband Tyrone works in product development. But they’re committed to holding on to the property and starting a new chapter for Loloma. They’ve had the lodge open to travelers since they purchased it, and they also inherited a full season of weddings booked on the property. Making updates slowly and deliberately, Levin wants to preserve Loloma’s function and character.
“This is definitely a life project, and I’m trying to build [the business] so it actually works,” she said. “I just want to do it right.”
A room in the main lodge at Loloma.
Levin did add her personal touch to the interior design. Her bohemian aesthetic mixed with mid-century modern furniture and color palette blends seamlessly into the property, making it feel modern and comfortable. With chickens running around the property’s eleven acres, a firepit tucked inside a grove of trees and the river as the backdrop, Loloma is an idyllic place to escape.
Roadside Americana
The handful of restaurants just off the highway are charming places for a quick meal. For breakfast, the place to be is Takoda’s. The classic diner’s breakfast options are generous and affordable. Close by, McKenzie Bridge Pub feels like a home kitchen. With a full bar as well, the restaurant is the place to swap fishing stories.
Farther down the road, Vida Cafe is a shoebox-size diner that happens to make some of the best homemade pies in Oregon. Expect classic comfort food dishes that satisfy after rainy outdoor adventures. Case in point: A woman at the table next to us noted that my eyes rolled into the back of my head when I took the first bite of my cheeseburger.
A trip along the highway isn’t complete without a stop in Christmas Treasures, where it’s Christmas all year long. The shop has hundreds of decorations and ornaments for sale. There’s holiday music playing year-round and usually a fire going. This year is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the shop, and the owners will relight the big Christmas tree that helped make the shop famous more than two decades ago.
Belknap Covered Bridge
Take a short detour to the Belknap Covered Bridge, which is just a few minutes off the highway. The wooden, white covered bridge provides a classic photo opportunity and is a reminder that some of Oregon’s best-preserved treasures are just off the road.
Hiking Trails and Hot Springs
Nature doesn’t always comply with the itinerary. Higher up in elevation along the McKenzie River highway, the trails to Sahalie and Koosah falls can have snow on the ground when the highway doesn’t. A fresh layer was melting on our hike along the trail that follows the ice blue, roaring McKenzie River. The Waterfalls Loop Trail is accessible to Sahalie Falls, then turns into a gravel path to Koosah Falls. The short hike is great for families as a destination for a day-trip or as a way to stretch your legs on a long car ride home.
About thirty minutes from the highway is Terwilliger Hot Springs, one of Oregon’s famed naturally warm pools that still feels rustic. You’ll meet a ranger at the trailhead, who gives you the rundown about the four natural pools, which are just a quarter-mile walk up the trail. Clothing is optional in the pools, and that credo is taken seriously, as in there are as many people in a birthday suit as there are in a bathing suit. Spend a few hours soaking in the warmth, protected from the rain by a canopy of trees.
Tamolitch Blue Pool
Pockets of blue sky finally peeked out behind the gray cloud cover on our last day as we hiked from the Blue Pool Trailhead on the McKenzie River Trail to Tamolitch Pool, the impossibly blue and clear natural wonder. Coming from the high desert, the McKenzie River Trail felt like walking into an enchanted forest. Green moss drips from the trees and cascades over the rocks along the trail. And seemingly out of nowhere, you reach Tamolitch Pool, looking down over it from the lava-rock trail. The dry weather and hints of sunshine were a welcome treat after two days of rain. Signs of the seasons to come.
Heart of Oregon Corps empowers marginalized youth to make powerful changes.
Photo by Abacus Photography
As Sarah Larocque-Fields continued the downward spiral of family drug addiction that included homelessness, crime and jail time, she considered herself broken beyond repair. But when the then-24-year-old became pregnant, she was determined to fix herself, raise her child drug-free and end the cycle of substance abuse that took the life of her brother and mother—and she turned to Heart of Oregon Corps to help.
Bend nonprofit Heart of Oregon Corps (HOC) is in the fixing business. They do so by giving at-risk young people the tools—quite literally—to turn their lives around, pursue educational goals and gain real-world work experience. Youth earn wages, stipends, and scholarships that increase economic self-sufficiency and financial literacy.
After meeting with HOC (her new baby girl in the stroller next to her during the interview) and being accepted into its AmeriCorps program, Larocque-Fields found herself in the Sisters wilderness working on wildfire prevention projects. It wasn’t long before she was leading the crews. She then moved on to building homes for needy families, all the while earning her GED through three months of college courses.
The key to HOC’s nearly twenty years of success is enrolling young people who truly want to make a change in their lives. “It gives you every single thing you need to be the person you want to be,” Larocque-Fields said. “It’s up to you to use the tools they give you.”
Because HOC is community-service based, it’s a society that benefits from the labor of volunteers like Larocque-Fields. “The projects our youth complete keep our community beautiful and healthy,” said HOC Executive Director Laura Handy.
Larocque-Fields’ success story comes full circle. Now 34, she spent nearly a decade working for BendBroadband and now works for a local real estate agent. And she serves as the secretary of Heart of Oregon’s board of directors. “I inspire myself when I think about all the things I’m doing,” she said. “I can’t wait to see what I’m doing ten years from now.”
Volunteer Spotlight: Mimi Ladine
Mimi Ladine began volunteering with Heart of Oregon Corps when she moved to Bend three years ago. Ladine is a mentor with the program and helps students with everything from schoolwork to getting signed up for healthcare. “A lot of negativity exists in the world today,” she said. “I think that’s why it’s more important than ever to instill optimism and hope in young people. People should work together to ensure that students have the opportunities and support to achieve their dreams.”
Federally protected salmon and steelhead returning to the Deschutes basin will have one less obstacle to survival thanks to a new fish passage project on the lower Crooked River. Work is set to begin in early summer on a 28-foot fish ladder on the lower Crooked River at Opal Springs Dam, allowing salmon and steelhead as well as resident trout to move freely between the Crooked River and Lake Billy Chinook.
For returning salmon and steelhead who begin arriving in early fall, the fish ladder will add 120-miles of spawning and rearing habitat in the Crooked River and its tributaries. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Brett Hodgson said that he and other fish managers have noticed many returning salmon and steelhead are swimming up the Crooked River only to have their journey cut short. Adding a fish ladder will allow these migrating salmon and steelhead to follow their natural instincts.
“We are confident that we will see natural reproduction and eventually a self-sustaining population once these fish establish themselves in the Crooked River,” said Hodgson.
The project, which is expected to be completed in fall 2019, is a long time coming for fish and fish advocates, due in part to the high price tag. The final project cost is expected to exceed $10 million, with a large portion of that coming from the Deschutes Valley Water District, which operates the dam at Opal Springs.
Christina McKeown is a professional paddler and watercolor artist in Bend.
Oregon’s river systems offer tremendous opportunities for the paddler: premier access, world-class rapids and breathtaking vistas. For professional paddler and watercolor artist Christina McKeown, it’s also a place to paint.
McKeown’s life and career have been about as predictable as a Class V rapid. She’s experienced different paces for different currents, large drops that lead to something new and exhibiting pure grace when being hammered with another oncoming wave. The one-time wound care nurse has not only displayed precise maneuvering when coping with these changes, but also has managed to earnestly pursue her first true love: art.
McKeown, 31, has been living in Bend since she was 13 years old—the same time she first hit the waters of the nearby McKenzie River. Since first appearing on the professional world circuit in 2006, the currents have swept her off to competitions both local and abroad, some as far away as New Zealand and Chile. Sometimes, she was the only woman who showed up to compete.
“There were several races where I was just thrown into the men’s category,” she said. “I even placed second and third in a few of them. But I never felt ostracized or alienated. It was just, ‘Sweet, you’re here, let’s race.’”
Photo by Josh McKeown
McKeown is retired from professional competition, but her fascination with water has evolved into a means of self-expression. As a plein air watercolor artist, she focuses on the Cascade’s imposing landscapes and grand tributaries. Her artwork doesn’t come at the expense of her passion for paddling. Quite the opposite. No matter the season, she’ll typically toss her art supplies inside a dry bag and take her tools of the trade along for the ride.
“I like the flexibility of the watercolors and ink,” she said about her work. “With water, you have control, but you don’t. Things dry differently and it’s kind of a guess sometimes. I just try and interpret the river through my own lens and make it into something that hopefully speaks to other people.”
McKeown has started selling her prints of highly saturated and vibrant colors that reveal a unique perspective of the sceneries as seen from the water. Her work has now evolved from basic prints into cards, holiday ornaments and solid wood canvases. She also works with companies such as Free Range Equipment, applying her art to its versatile adventure backpacks.
As for the future, McKeown hopes to partner with other companies to produce more wearable art and to further display her work at local showings.“I try to be open and present to everything that’s happening,” she said. “I accept it for what it is, just like when you’re paddling.”
Six day trips around Central Oregon to please all kinds of families in all kinds of weather. Consider this your spring break cheat sheet.
Photo by Adam McKibben
Spring break is tricky around here. The kids will be out of school for a week—that much we can count on. The rest is harder to pin down. Seize control of your time off by booking a trip to relax on a tropical island or soak up some culture in a big city. Stay around here, and, well, what is the weather going to do? It could snow sideways. It could rain buckets. Maybe the sun will come out. It’s likely to freeze. But it might hit 65 degrees. I’ve seen every one of those conditions arrive in this single late-March week. Here are a few ideas for you staycationers. No matter what your family is in to or what the weather is up to, at least one of these should fit the bill.
Wander to Waterfalls
Chush Falls | Photo by Adam McKibben
Upper and Lower Chush Falls on Whychus Creek are accessed by a relatively accessible, mellow hike with a great payoff. South of Sisters towards Three Creek Lake is Whychus Creek, which underwent a massive restoration process in the past decade.
These falls are along the upper creek, reached by a very moderate climb on a trail that follows a cliff high above the creek for about a mile and a half. The Pole Creek Fire burned through here several years ago, clearing out brush and trees with the silver lining of better waterfall views. Through the thinned forest, see the fan-shaped falls as it tumbles 200 feet
Eat: Three Creeks Brewing Co. in Sisters is Western-themed and family friendly. The Thai Chicken Nachos are a great choice for the adults, while the kids may just prefer a big ol’ basket of fries
Savor the Snow
Between December and the end of March, the U.S. Forest Service leads free winter ecology tours on the flanks of Mount Bachelor. Strap on a loaner pair of snowshoes and follow a ranger naturalist around the rim of the mountain, working up a sweat while taking in incredible scenery and plenty of fresh alpine air.
On the way you’ll learn about ecology, geology, the watershed, and plants and animals from mountain hemlock to pine martens (the animal, not the ski lift). Beginners are welcome, though the USFS asks that each participant be at least 10 years old, and leave the doggies at home. Tours begin daily at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
Eat: On your way back into Bend, stop at The Row at Tetherow for lunch. Views of the Cascades, the rolling high desert and an award-winning golf course come with burgers, beer and an everything-is-$7 kids menu.
Seek the Sun
Oregon Badlands Wilderness | Photo by Christian Heeb
A good bet for tracking down sunshine is made by journeying into the desert. Head east on Highway 20 to the Oregon Badlands Wilderness, which exemplifies the untamed high desert landscape of old-growth juniper, rimrock and dusty volcanic soils. Fifty miles of trails wind through the wilderness, with some family-friendly hikes that pass by Native American pictographs and juniper trees approaching 400 years of age. In spring and summer, vibrant desert wildflowers appear like small colorful gumdrops on the side of the trail.
Speaking of Native American pictographs, more are to be found on the aptly-named Picture Rock Pass, the high point between the Silver Lake and Summer Lake valleys, about ninety minutes south of Bend. On the south side of the highway, right at the flat top of the summit, are petroglyphs carved into the rocks. Take a little walk and keep your eyes peeled—you’ll find the figures of animals and humans clearly visible in the rock. The kids will love the treasure hunt to find them.
Eat: The Lodge at Summer Lake is home to the Flyway Restaurant, one of my favorite stops when I’m in the Oregon Outback. A homey interior and friendly staff cook up big plates of great food. Try the club sandwich.
Catch a Wave
Bend Whitewater Park | Photo by Paul Clark
We may be nowhere near the ocean, but that doesn’t mean you can’t catch a wave in Central Oregon. Right in the middle of town is Bend’s Whitewater Park, where a state-of-the-art underwater system creates four wave features. Whitewater kayakers, surfers and paddleboarders on the higher-end of the skill set will enjoy this recreational option. The rest of us enjoy watching the action from the footbridge over the park.
For a mellower, indoor wave, visit Sunriver Fitness and Aquatics, formerly known as Maverick’s, which reopened last year. The recreation center’s main attraction is the FlowRider 1800 perpetual-wave machine. Billed as the ultimate surf machine, this beauty makes waves all day long. Ride to your heart’s content on a skimboard or boogie board.
Eat: You can’t go wrong with a visit to Sunriver Brewing Co., where the beers are yummy and award-winning; try the Fuzztail Hefeweizen. The menu is diverse enough for the whole family, and there’s even a kid’s corner with toys and a chalkboard.
Immerse in Culture
High Desert Museum | Photo by George D. Lepp
Cruise the museum strip! Begin in downtown Bend at the old Reid School, Bend’s first school, built in 1914. Today, it’s home to the Deschutes Historical Museum. Visit Ms. Reid’s classroom, learn about pioneer life, shop for books about Bend’s history and more in this grand historic building.
South of Bend is the High Desert Museum, a treasure hunt of history, culture and wildlife. Some of the delights include living history; exhibits covering Native Americans, butterflies, quilts, watersheds and fur trappers; outdoor pathways on which you can see otters, teepees, a homestead and a sawmill; and birds of prey that just might fly right over your head.
Finally, head north to the Museum at Warm Springs, which interprets the cultural and historical journeys of the Warm Springs, Wasco and Pauite tribes. See Pacific Northwest Native American paintings, sculpture, masks, ceremonial clothing, ritual implements and beadwork, and experience firsthand the sounds of ancient songs and languages.
Eat: There is a truly terrific Mexican restaurant in Madras called Rio Distinctive Mexican Cuisine. An unassuming little house right on Highway 97 harbors fresh, amazing dishes and innovative cocktails well-worth the stop on the way back to Bend. Don’t miss the ceviche.
Go Back In Time
Photo by Alex Jordan
Parts of Oregon used to be a lush tropical rainforest populated with prehistoric horses, elephants, camels and saber-toothed cats. Then it all got encapsulated in time. The John Day Fossil Beds National Monument east of Bend represents one of the most complete fossil records in the world. It’s also a really cool place to visit.
Drive east through Prineville and the Ochoco Mountains to the Painted Hills unit first. These gentle mounds of red, pink, bronze, tan and black ash and clay are layered in uneven stripes, surreal and lunar. They were created by deposits of sediment accumulating over thousands of years, like a river laid down a painting to last all time.
Continue east to the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center.Beautiful murals represent the environments that used to exist here, along with more than 500 fossils. Viewing windows allow the public to watch the scientists at work studying of fossils right before your eyes.
Eat: Sometimes I dream about the house-made pie at the Sidewalk Café in Mitchell. If they’ve got blackberry, that’s your no-brainer selection. The juicy burgers and handmade shakes are memory-makers, too.
Central Oregon has an extensive roster of former Winter Olympians who blazed the trail for future athletes with a shot at the games.
Justin Wadsworth
With its mix of homegrown athletes, transplants and former Olympians, there’s no disputing the connections between the high desert and the Olympic winter games. It’s a relationship that dates back decades to the late 1960s when Lakeview grad and Skyliners ski club alum Jean Saubert claimed a bronze and silver medal in slalom and giant slalom at Innsbruck in 1964. Just a few years later an upstart teenage skier from Bend stormed onto the world stage as a late addition to the U.S. Ski Team at the 1968 Grenoble Games. Bend native Kiki Cutter posted the overall top result of any U.S. woman that year in France, skiing in the downhill, giant slalom and slalom events. She went on to become the first American woman to win a World Cup race. Cutter ultimately accumulated four World Cup titles before retiring early to attend college. She went on to become a ski ambassador and publisher. She now lives in Boston, but her influence is still felt in the Bend ski racing community and beyond.
Cutter was for years the only homegrown Olympian in Central Oregon, but others with winter Olympic pedigrees were circulating around Bend. Ski jumper Jim Brennan suited up for the 1960 Squaw Valley games as an alternate. Brennan later relocated to Bend where he worked as a ski coach and realtor. Now retired and still living in Central Oregon, Brennan was inducted into the U.S. Ski Jumping Hall of Fame in 2009.
Former Bend resident Jack Elder was another pioneer. Elder was an early member of the U.S. luge team, picking up the sport while stationed in Germany in the 1960s. He competed in the 1972 Sapporo Games and took part in several World Championships at a time when few Americans even knew the white-knuckle sport existed.
After Cutter, the next homegrown Olympian was Bend snowboarder Chris Klug, who competed at the Nagano Games in 1998 but broke through in the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, winning a Bronze medal in giant slalom. Klug qualified again for the 2010 games in Vancouver, B.C. with Bend ski and snowboard coach Rob Roy in his training camp.
Chris Klug
On the Nordic side, Bend is known less for its homegrown talent (though several have come close to breaking through) than for our propensity for attracting elite athletes, such three-time Winter Olympian and former Bendite, Mike Devecka, who competed in the Nordic Combined in ’72, ’76 and ’80. In fact, there was a time, not long ago, that if you wanted to know which former Olympians were living in Bend, you just needed to check the Pole Pedal Paddle results. The winners read like a roster of former U.S. Olympic Nordic skiers. There was two-time Olympic competitor Dan Simoneau, three-time Olympian Justin Wadsworth and two-time Olympians Suzanne King and Ben Husaby. Wadsworth, who competed in Lillehammer, Nagano and Salt Lake City, won eight consecutive Pole Pedal Paddle titles (a record). He now lives in Canmore, B.C. with his wife, gold medal winner Beckie Scott.
Medals are of course rare, but the memories are plentiful regardless of the event or the outcome. Husaby, who worked as the Nordic director at MBSEF and later founded the Bend Endurance Academy, recalls the excitement and being nearly overwhelmed by the scope of the games.
“The Olympics are a completely different animal. There is the added layer of guidelines and rules … the external stuff going on and a magnitude that’s more involved than the world championships. Nothing prepares you for it,” he said.
Husaby competed in 1992 at Albertville, France and then again in Lillehammer in 1994 after the Olympic committee decided to move the summer and winter games on an alternating two-year schedule. It was in his second games at Lillehammer that Husaby said the immensity of the games hit him. There, Nordic-obsessed fans packed the cross-country ski courses shoulder-to-shoulder in a crowd that Husaby estimated in the tens of thousands. “That was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Husaby said.
Note: Find the complete list of athletes from Central Oregon who have competed in the Winter Olympics in the January/February 2018 issue of Bend Magazine.
Oops. We may have given you some bad directions. If you arrived here from a link in our weekly newsletter, click here to read our story on Bend’s Roster of Olympic Hopefuls.
Ice skating in Bend has seen a renaissance since The Pavilion opened.
It’s 6 a.m. on a cold, dark Monday morning in November, and a group of young ponytailed figure skaters files into the bright light of Bend’s Pavilion ice rink. They are here to work on their edging and jumps with figure skating coach Rebecca King, carving arcing turns into the gleaming white sheet while the rest of Bend contemplates its first cup of coffee.
The history of ice skating in Central Oregon dates back more than a century, and longtime locals recall cold winters in the 1940s and 1950s when downtown Bend’s Troy Field was flooded with water to create an ice rink. Children would skate for free at night, stopping to warm their fingers by the bonfires glowing at the edges of the rink. As winters warmed, skating waned. Now with the recent opening of The Pavilion, King sees a skating renaissance.
Hailing from Fairbanks, Alaska, King started figure skating at age seven and competed throughout the Pacific Northwest in high school. After college, she worked for Disney On Ice as its tour coordinator, or as she puts it, “tour mom,” organizing all travel and logistics for the tours. In 2013, shortly after her parents moved to Washington, King made a quick weekend stop in Bend on her way to visit them. Like many Bend residents, she decided right then that she’d call Bend home. She started coaching at the Seventh Mountain Resort, then at The Pavilion when it opened.
Today, she is the vice president of Bend Ice Figure Skating Club and coaches anyone from young beginners to adults who skated in their youth and want to brush up on their skills. King can coach the tiniest of aspiring skaters and said that if they can walk, then they can get on the ice.
Thea Brown is one of King’s dedicated students who doesn’t seem to mind those early morning practices. At 13, she skates with King because she likes the challenge of improving, learning and making progress on the ice. “I like having Rebecca as a coach because she really pushes me and makes me face things head on. It takes my mind off of school and homework and gives me a different challenge in life.” With King’s guidance, Brown hopes to compete in regional and sectional U.S. Figure Skating competitions over the next few years.
Of course, the other key ingredient to figure skating is pageantry. For young girls, that means donning a sparkly dress that catches the breeze just so as the skater glides around the frozen sheet. When King was young, her mom made most of her competition dresses. Now, skaters anywhere can find reasonably priced dresses on eBay. “Through Bend Ice, we’re also hoping to provide a cost-effective way to let our students borrow or trade dresses for competitions,” said King.
What does she see for the future of figure skating in Bend? “I see nothing but growth in this sport. I’d love to see more boys and men interested in it. Even pairs or ice dancing would be a great addition.”
Careful preparations, choosing durable and easy to maintain materials and designing for safety will ensure the success of your master bathroom project.
Living rooms, like bedrooms, can be rearranged and reinvented. Couches can be swapped, colors added and subtracted. Lighting revamped. But bathrooms, like kitchens, remain stubbornly fixed in time. All the more reason to ensure that any bathroom remodel project is carefully planned and executed.
We talked with designers Martha Murray and Patricia Julber about two recent projects that combined contemporary style with functionality. In each instance the homeowner traded clunky or outright kitschy elements for clean, bright designs that emphasize simple elegance.
“When we looked at the house, you couldn’t help but notice the bright teal color of the bathtub even though the owners had tried to obscure it with a big potted plant,” explained Bend homeowner Shelley Ransom, who worked with Julber on the remodel. Other design features that had to go included small greenish tiles in the jetted tub’s surround and sinks that were carved into the counter to resemble shells.
Kathryn Miller had a different tale of bathroom woe. “I didn’t like the layout,” she said. “A huge shower was oddly placed in the middle of the room, and the dark cabinetry was maybe lodge, maybe Northwest, but not really anything, style.”
Both women echoed what designers say Central Oregonians now want in master bathrooms: light-filled spaces, freestanding tubs, easy to care for materials, white or light cabinetry and functional spaces.
Whatever the reasons for the project, or the accompanying wish list, the common denominators are budget and time. Managing expectations is key. “Watching HGTV has not done anyone any favors,” said Bend designer Julber. “The programs give a distorted view of the projects. Everyone thinks project timelines will be much shorter and budgets will buy a lot more.”
Due to the cost of plumbing and finish work, bathrooms are especially challenging. “It might be a small room,” added Murray, the designer who worked with Miller, “but people just don’t realize what goes into a bathroom—the technical details, money spent on fixtures, the number of workmen involved and the high labor costs in Central Oregon.” Whether the project is new construction or a remodel, upfront planning is essential and hiring a designer is an excellent idea. “I don’t know how someone could act as their own project manager,” said Ransom. “There is too much to do, and in Central Oregon where there is such a demand for good subcontractors, you need a designer who already has everyone in place.”
Many people start by choosing the counter material. Quartz, quartzite and granite are popular and durable choices that are easy to maintain. “I had originally wanted marble counters,” recounted Miller, who opted for low maintenance quartz, “but Martha talked me out of it because it stains easily.” Also out are tiled counters (though tile backsplashes are popular). “I can’t remember the last time I put in a tile counter,” said Julber, who used quartz in the Ransom home. “People want easy care.”
Like small tiles on countertops, big, jetted tubs are also out. “They took up too much room,” said Murray. “People are now asking for freestanding bathtubs.” Both Miller and Ransom replaced jetted-tubs with freestanding models. In the Miller bath, a freestanding tub took the place of the oddly placed shower, and in the Ransom home, it replaced the teal Jacuzzi.
While tubs and countertops may drive the design style, flooring, lighting, and hardware and plumbing fixtures are also important choices for style and safety. Miller and Ransom opted for porcelain non-slip tiles, which are budget friendly and help prevent accidents on wet floors. Additionally, both families had better lighting in their bathroom wish lists. “I like to layer lighting,” said Murray, who added a chandelier to Miller’s space, “with lighting overhead, at eye level and under cabinets.” Julber noted that while different metals have become popular for fixtures, it’s important to choose designs that are easy to manipulate, such as the lever-style faucets and bar-shaped drawer pulls in the Ransom project.
Choices made and work completed, Miller and Ransom are more than pleased with the finished rooms. At the Ransom household, the parents knew the project was a unanimous success when their two young daughters decided they could share the bathroom, as well. “I haven’t had the heart to send them back to their own bathroom,” said Ransom. “I understand why they want to be here.”
The owners of a steep lot in North Rim challenged the architect, builder, and subcontractors to execute their vision of a modern, industrial-style home that incorporated metal and steel in starring roles. The result? A stunning custom home.
The aesthetic unfolds from the front doorstep, where the doorbell is made with an engine bearing from a Porsche race car, embedded with a red button that says, “engine start.” A 1970s restored vintage motorcycle sits in the entry hall. An interior sliding barn door is actually a facsimile of a jailhouse door complete with a pass-through. These are among the fun and quirky features of the home in Bend’s North Rim neighborhood.
Custom built by Dennis Staines Construction between 2015 and 2017, the 4,080-square-foot residence incorporates wood, stone, concrete and other materials common in today’s contemporary styles. But it’s the metal work that sets it apart. And there’s plenty of it.
The owners, Marnye Summers and Kevin Reynolds, both create art from metal, so it’s not surprising they chose to incorporate it in structural components and as artistic flourishes around the home.
“Heating, smelting, forming, twisting, forging hot metal is bending nature’s raw materials to form structures that support and enhance our dwelling,” said Summers. “It is like magic to me. I love it!”
Reynolds restores vintage motorcycles and shares a downstairs studio with Summers. In her main floor studio, Summers creates dog-themed art by painting flat pieces of steel that she’s fabricated with a plasma cutter. These colorful pooches are frozen forever in dynamic poses affixed to walls throughout the home and sold to clients who commission her work. Flesh-and-blood rescue hound Ratty Rat, a pit-bull mix, is one of fourteen dogs the couple has rescued over the past thirty-four years. She keeps a guarded eye on her masters and spends time in her own custom-designed indoor and heated outdoor kennels.
An Urban Loft in Bend’s Foothills
The home’s main living space on the upper floor has high ceilings, oversized, industrial-style light fixtures and radiant heat beneath concrete floors. “There’s an urban loft atmosphere,” said Bend architect Scott Gilbride, who worked with the couple on designing the two-story home. “We got close to building an urban loft in the foothills of Central Oregon,” he joked, adding that “[Summers and Reynolds] don’t have the city, but they have the feel of it.”
The kitchen island and front door illustrate his point. The island’s Caesarstone quartz countertop is supported by a shipping container on steel castors (which don’t actually roll) and metal seats that swivel. The metal panels of the front door are constructed in what Gilbride describes as a “steampunk” design, which plays out in this house as scrap metal put together in a quilt-like pattern with exposed fasteners.
Doug Wagner of ModernFab in Bend built the metal panels for the front door, as well as the jailhouse barn door that separates Summers’ main-floor studio from the living, dining and kitchen area. “Marnye was persistent that the jail door have an opening where she could be fed,” he said, adding that she gave him a lot of freedom in creating the design. Working with the couple was fun because they were open to experimental approaches, he said. Another unique feature is a space high above Summers’ studio where salvaged, dilapidated windows of varying sizes and colors hang from metal railings constructed by Wagner.
A key design concept was to locate Summers’ and Reynolds’ studio and office spaces close together and adjacent to the great room. “We’ve been married thirty years and like to be close,” Reynolds explained. His office, like his wife’s studio, has a standing-height workstation on wheels.
Industrial Meets Contemporary
Despite the inclusion of one-of-a-kind metal touches (for example, all the wood baseboards and door trims are edged with steel, painstakingly incorporated by Elevado Metalwork), the industrial aspects are tempered by curved, knotty cedar ceilings, farmhouse sinks in the kitchen, rustic cherry wood doors and cabinets, bold colors and a wood-burning fireplace in the living room.
The master suite sports less metal, more wood and is a tribute to African art collected during the couple’s travels. The large, open bathroom with windows to the backyard features towel-warming racks, an open shower with no door to squeegee and a head-to-toe body dryer.
But the standout architectural feature is the huge closet. Three walls of floor-to-ceiling cherry cabinets hide clutter and every thread of clothing. (A meticulous streak apparently competes with Summers’ anything goes, artistic impulses.) A peek inside one of the cabinets confirms that shoes and sweaters do, indeed, reside there. The closet also includes an island and mirror to reflect its purpose.
City Style Outdoors
From the rusted metal panels that form the roof to the landscaping, the Reynolds-Summers industrial style found expression on the home’s exterior as well. Two local metal workers, Hunter Dahlberg of Orion Forge and John Herbert of Iron West, shaped steel into metal walls in the landscaping and forged exterior staircase railings and gates. Troy Stone and others of Bend Heating & Sheetmetal created rusted panels for siding. “They showed us different ‘recipes’ for rusting metal,” said Reynolds. The home is also sided with stone and a wood product that replicates the look of barn wood.
In the end, this couple moved directly into the house from Southern California and got exactly what they wanted: an industrial modern home that reflects their love of metal and space to pursue their creative visions.
FAN, or the Family Access Network, connected more than 9,000 children and family members to basic need services during the 2016-2017 school year.
Lena Loukojarvi moved to Central Oregon in 2011, with her two kids, looking for a change of scenery. But with no connections here and no local references, Loukojarvi couldn’t find a job. She struggled to make ends meet.
“I just remember being so completely overwhelmed with my circumstances,” recalled Loukojarvi. “I just needed some direction. I didn’t even know what to ask for. I just knew I needed help.”
A neighbor told her about FAN, or the Family Access Network. Founded in 1993, FAN is a nonprofit organization that works in public schools in Deschutes and Crook County to connect families with basic needs services. FAN’s mission is to ensure that children do not miss school because of a lack of basic needs, such as food insecurity, lack of clothing or school supplies or because of inadequate housing.
A FAN advocate is placed in each school and helps families navigate the government systems of aid, for everything from grants to pay utility bills to scholarships for school. It also connects families with job opportunities and affordable housing, the lack of which, say experts, is contributing the cycle of poverty in Central Oregon.
Loukojarvi met with the Three Rivers school FAN advocate, who helped her with school supplies and clothing for her kids. Then she helped her get into culinary school and pay for it with scholarships.
Loukojarvi described FAN as a safety net without judgment. “There’s no shame with them. Especially with government help, there’s a certain amount of shame you feel by having to reach out. That doesn’t exist with FAN,” said Loukojarvi.
Julie Lyche has been the executive director since 2005, when the FAN Foundation was formed to fundraise for the program. In the 2016-2017 school year, FAN helped more than 9,000 children and family members.
Lyche said that 50 percent of people who use FAN’s services only need it once to get back on their feet. FAN steps in to ensure that families can find stability so that kids “can walk in ready to learn.”
Sunny Maxwell started volunteering with FAN five years ago when her children entered kindergarten. She joined the board of directors shortly after to help fundraise for FAN. “The longer I’ve been on the board, the more I’m aware of the impact we make,” she said. “It continually amazes me that there’s so much need in Central Oregon, even though it’s so often hidden.”
The annual event for women and girls will also launch a month-long program that celebrates women in the Central Oregon community.
The Muse Conference has never felt more relevant or important. After a tumultuous year that saw the rise of action against sexual assaulters and harassers, a local space to elevate the power and voices of women and girls brings a needed message of hope and positivity to the dark social and political landscape.
Created by writer and activist Amanda Stuermer, who is also Bend Magazine’s editor-at-large, the Muse Conference brings people together from around the country for a four-day event each March. Featuring a range of feminist activists from entrepreneurs and artists to authors and athletes, Muse is not only a celebration of women and girls, but also a call to action for social change.
Stuermer said that this year’s conference and speakers will cover a variety of issues facing women today, including the #MeToo movement and sexual harassment, social media, immigration, teen suicide, systemic racism, women’s incarceration and more.
The sixth annual Muse Conference will also feature talks from internationally recognized speakers, as well as art shows, yoga classes, films and workshops.
About more than just awareness, Muse’s mission is to change the narrative about these issues and provide tools for social change at a community level.
“We’re not just talking about all the issues, but really looking at them through the solutions lens,” said Stuermer.
The annual conference is just one aspect of World Muse, the nonprofit organization that Stuermer founded along with a team of other activists and entrepreneurs in Central Oregon. Muse also hosts a camp each summer for girls, as well as programs in local schools for girls.
New this year is the Bend Women’s March, a month-long series of programs and events that will continue after the Muse Conference. Muse will partner with local businesses and organizations to celebrate “all the ways women are contributing to our community through arts and culture and the outdoors,” said Stuermer.
The Muse Conference will take place in downtown Bend from March 1 through 4. Learn more about the conference and how to get involved with World Muse at theworldmuse.org
Pity February and its never-ending nights and frigid days. The second month of the year is so unpopular that we actually shortened its stay to twenty-eight days. But February possesses a powerful irony; the month so unloved is all about…love. Yes, this is the time of year when we celebrate romance and relationships. February isn’t for haters—it’s for lovers! So inspired are we by this notion that we’ve come up with easy weekend retreats that will either rekindle the most dormant romance or throw another log onto an inferno of passion. Whatever your status, we’ve got ideas for a cozy itinerary just for two.
Wintry Escape Into Newberry Crater
A (semi)adventurous overnighter in the heart of a volcano.
Photo by Kat Dierickx
Not much has changed at Paulina Lodge over the past half century, and that’s by design. If you’re looking for a luxury experience, you’ve come to the wrong place. The accommodations are rustic but cozy, especially against a long winter night. The resort offers nearly a dozen cabins ranging from one-bedroom abodes that are perfect for couples and small families to “Grand Cabins” that sleep up to a dozen and are suited for larger groups and extended families. While the resort offers restaurant and bar service for guests and day visitors, all cabins include full kitchens, and many opt to prepare their own meals.
The lodge operates on a special use permit from the Deschutes National Forest, one of two resorts and a handful of private residences that were grandfathered when the Newberry National Monument was designated in the 1980s to preserve the area from further development. Those who have visited during the summer months know that the area is often abuzz with activity. The twin waterbodies of East Lake and Paulina Lake are a draw for anglers who begin arriving in June in search of trophy brown and rainbow trout. In winter, it’s a different scene altogether. The resort’s primary clientele consists of snowmobilers and skiers who come for the hundreds of miles of snow-packed trails that are accessible from the resort.
From the winter basecamp, visitors can explore the surrounding area, making skinny tracks across the frozen lake. On nearby Paulina Peak, backcountry skiers mine some of the region’s steepest and deepest powder stashes, dropping narrow chutes above tree line into broad glades below. Paulina’s primary draw, though, is for snowmobilers who use the resort as wintry basecamp from which to zip around the 150 miles of groomed trails and the more than 300,000 acres of designated off-trail riding.
For the Romance Win: If deep snow doesn’t prevent you, locate the hot springs on East Lake and dig out a romantic soak for two. Don’t forget the champagne.
Storm Chasing On The Oregon Coast
Wildly stormy beach days pack an unforgettable punch.
Winter storms are fantastic entertainment. Waves pummel the shore, trees lash in the wind and flocks of birds arc through the sky in thrilling, pure theater. But an epic storm can be introspective, too. Tucked away at a safe vantage from which to witness the earth’s atmosphere unleash on a coastline, we are able to truly contemplate the power of nature. Even better if you are hunkered down observing the drama with your sweetie by your side.
Just about anywhere on the Oregon Coast will do when it comes to reveling in winter weather gone wild. The Central Oregon Coast offers Lincoln City, where storm watching comes with a fun challenge. Each winter, “Float Fairies” place hundreds of hand-blown glass floats on the seven-mile stretch of beachfront. The city-sponsored program “Finders Keepers” happens daily, rain or shine, giving visitors a solid reason to go forth into a storm. Find a float; take it home. Didn’t find a float? Buy one at Jennifer Sears Glass Art Studio, where you can also see glass artists at work creating the round beauties from scratch. Have dinner at Kyllo’s Seafood Grill, suspended on a platform over the beach and the D River. Stay the night at Inn at Spanish Head, where guest rooms tower ten stories over the ocean and boast floor to ceiling windows perfect for taking in the tumultuous scene outside.
For the Romance Win: A winding forest road and a short hike take you to the tippy-tip of Cascade Head. From a high meadow perch, views of the Salmon River Estuary and Lincoln City beaches to the south are breathtaking enough for a proposal.
Serenity at Sisters’ FivePine Lodge
Find luxury and romance at the base of the Cascade Mountains.
Photo by Benjamin Edwards
Sometimes the best getaways are the ones that don’t take much effort to achieve. A close-to-home destination just right for winter escape and romance is FivePine Lodge and Conference Center in Sisters, where a collection of brand new cabins opened last year. Drive thirty minutes from Bend and check into a luxurious cabin for two in the lush forest at the base of the Cascade Mountains.
The new Serenity Cabins sit at the western edge of the FivePine campus and were designed specifically for romance. Each is appointed with all the necessities for a cozy weekend, including a pedestal bathtub, a shower with three kinds of showerheads, a fireplace, plush robes, gorgeous Craftsman-style furniture and a back patio with two Adirondack chairs facing the ponderosa pine forest. What isn’t in your cabin is nearby: The FivePine campus includes restaurants, entertainment, swimming pools and more. If you’re in the mood for a film, wander over to the Sisters Movie House. Three Creeks Brewing, fashioned after an Old West livery stable where they pour their own terrific craft beers, is also on the FivePine campus, as is Rio, a Mexican dining destination.
FivePine also boasts an incredible spa, Shibui, a serene and beautiful Asian-inspired escape. Enter into an open space, low-lit with an expansive water feature marked by a large Buddha statue. The sound of water permeates into surrounding, luxurious treatment rooms. Before and after treatments, enjoy the Swedish dry sauna and hot thermal soaking tub. Rest in the common area before you leave, basking in a tranquil environment of healing and relaxation.
For the Romance Win: At Shibui, book the couple package, Rendezvous for Two, which includes a hot stone massage and a glass of champagne for each person.
The perennially anemic winter flows in the upper Deschutes basin will get a boost this winter thanks to a decision by Central Oregon’s irrigators to release more water between November and March 2018, a period when river levels are typically at their lowest.
Photo by Alex Jordan
The Deschutes Basin Board of Control, which comprises all the local irrigation districts, voted in mid-November to ramp up releases below Wickiup Reservoir to at least 175 cubic feet per second (cfs), which is the equivalent of 78,000 gallons per minute, or enough to fill roughly seven Olympic-sized swimming pools in an hour. That’s a significant increase from the 100 cfs that the districts had previously agreed to release during the winter to benefit fish and wildlife.
“We could have sat on the 100 cfs all winter and come spring have a big gush of water in the river,” said board chair Mike Britton. “That’s not really what we are after. We are trying to balance the flows in the river over a long period of time versus the historic ups and downs.”
The decision is part of a larger effort by irrigators and interest groups to address the impacts of irrigation withdrawals on the upper Deschutes River, primarily the stretch between Wickiup Reservoir and the Fall River confluence where river flows are most depleted in winter.
The ramping back of releases to below historic averages, and the subsequent ramping up in the summer months to above normal flows, contributes to erosion and negatively impacts wildlife, including native redband trout and the Oregon spotted frog. Britton said those concerns are not lost on irrigators or their patrons, who share the public’s concern about the health of the river.
“They completely understand the dynamics and politics,” said Britton, “and if we can release a little more water to improve conditions, not just for the river, but also our public perception, they are all for it.”
Youthful energy abounds at Hope Springs Dairy in Tumalo. One fall day, the lively chatter of owners Jeff and Lysa Seversons’ six children, all under the age of nine and on their best behavior, echoed pleasantly, complementing a quintessential farm soundtrack. Six piglets rolled in flakes of hay as two cows contentedly munched on their brunch. Two dogs wrestled emphatically, weaving past grazing chickens who clucked disapproval. Mud squelched under hooves, boots and paws as the whole menagerie gathered in the pasture, where each cow-calf pair gets an about an acre of land, so the adults could talk about the raw milk business.
“I wanted to do something where I could be around my kids,” said Jeff, who was working in the building industry until he and his wife started the farm in 2013. “My buddy at the Bend Soap Company pointed out that we’d been milking goats for years so our kids could drink quality milk. We believe in the nutritional benefits, so it was a values-driven business that my wife and I could get behind.”
As the Seversons transitioned from hobbyists to business owners, they also made the move from goats to Jersey and Guernsey cattle breeds. “We met the Jersey cow and it was all over,” said Jeff. “They have great milk—with the best cream—and high production volume. They also have such nice personalities. I needed cows I could trust with my kids.”
The Seversons’ timing couldn’t have been better. Within a year of starting Hope Springs Dairy, the family had enough income to support Jeff diving into the business full-time.
Around the same time, the Oregon Department of Agriculture settled a lawsuit that cited first amendment infringement and stopped enforcing the state law that banned raw milk advertising. In 2015, Gov. Kate Brown signed a bill allowing dairies to advertise in Oregon. While laws regarding the way in which raw milk can be sold vary by state, the number of states that allow the sale of unpasteurized milk has increased more than 20 percent since Gov. Brown’s decision.
“When it came through that they were going to uphold free speech and the constitution, I went gangbusters—advertising and building the business,” said Jeff. “We now have more than 200 herdshare members and produce more than 200 gallons per week. We’ll be growing the business from our own herd and will hopefully have ten milkers soon, producing about 300 gallons of milk per week.”
A herdshare is a partial ownership stake in a cow, which is the only legal avenue for off-farm raw milk sales in Oregon. In Hope Springs’ herdshare program, customers buy a portion of the cow and receive weekly milk deliveries that break down to $8 per gallon, then pick up their deliveries at one of two drop sites, Central Oregon Locavore in Bend or Schoolhouse Produce in Redmond. The Seversons are essentially the cattle’s caretakers, farming, milking and running delivery logistics. They have built the business organically, not having sought any financing for the dairy.
So why all the legal battles and tricky ownership structure for a natural product? Many public health experts warn that pasteurization, the process of heating milk to kill potentially harmful bacteria, parasites and viruses, is necessary for public health.
The Seversons, and other raw milk proponents, argue that cows are milked using a closed milking system (in which a hose is placed over the teats), reducing risky exposure during the milking process.
“I hang my hat on studies that show that the enzymes and probiotics in raw milk attack pathogens,” said Jeff. “We combine that know-ledge with sanitary practices and healthy cows.”
Supporters also cite studies showing the added nutritional benefits of drinking unpasteurized versus pasteurized milk and the large percentages of people who are lactose intolerant who can purportedly drink raw milk with no reaction. While the scientific community is divided on the issue, legislative changes are tipping toward camp “raw,” and the market share of people with raw, unpasteurized milk mustaches continues to grow.
“We couldn’t be more thankful for people who want to eat locally and care where it comes from,” said Jeff, whose cows only eat non-GMO grass, hay and locally-milled barley. “We feel so blessed.”
In 2018, St. Charles celebrates its 100th anniversary. Sister Catherine Hellmann, president of St. Charles for twenty-five years, had the vision for what the medical center is today.
When Sister Catherine Hellmann arrived in 1948, Bend was an emerging mill town of 10,000 people. A nurse by training, Hellman was sent by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Indiana to work as the nursing supervisor at St. Charles hospital in downtown Bend. Hellmann, then just 27 years old, had dedicated her life to service. Though her initial stay spanned just three years, it had a lasting impression on Hellman that changed the course of health care in Central Oregon.
Years before, a chance meeting on a ship returning from Ireland in 1908 between Father Luke Sheehan, a Catholic priest from Bend and founder of St. Francis Church and school, and Mother Gertrude Moffitt, a nun from Indiana, would mark the beginning of St. Charles Health System. At the time, Bend had around 500 people. Sheehan spoke to Moffitt about the need for a hospital in the small, poor mill town. Eight years later, Sheehan visited Moffitt in Indiana, urging her to send nuns to Bend to start a hospital. On Christmas Day in 1917, five Sisters of St. Joseph traveled from Indiana to Bend by train, arriving three days later to start a small hospital on the banks of Mirror Pond.
In 1921, the hospital was rebuilt in downtown Bend and named St. Charles. By 1951, it had been remodeled at the same downtown site into a modern facility with sixty-five beds.
Hellmann returned to Bend in 1969 with a master’s degree in health care administration and a mission to further modernize Bend’s health care system. She was named the president of the hospital that year. It was her foresight and grit that led her to spend the next three decades transforming the hospital into the regional medical center it is today. It was a labor of love, but also of sacrifice.
“It was hard to give up that hands-on nursing,” recalled Hellmann in an interview with the Bulletin in 1987. “But at the top I could have more influence on how patients were treated … I also felt that I could contribute something to the health field by demonstrating that good business and the spiritual aspect of the healing ministry can be in harmony.” In 1972, the Sisters of St. Joseph transferred ownership of the hospital to the new nonprofit St. Charles Medical Center, Inc., which maintained an affiliation with the Catholic church until 2010.
Hellmann’s primary goal was to find a new location for the hospital. She had her eyes set on a sight east of Bend near Pilot Butte, and though “[h]er dream was met with jokes and protests that the new hospital was going to be halfway to Burns,” according to a 1999 Bulletin story, she persisted, and convinced the county to approve a $12 million bond to build the hospital. In 1970, St. Charles purchased the land off Neff Road, and the new hospital was built in 1975.
In her twenty-five years as president of St. Charles, Hellmann oversaw its transition from a Catholic institution to a nonprofit organization. Her “singular vision and determination” took “St. Charles from a $1-million-a-year city facility into a $40-million-a-year regional medical center offering cancer treatment, open-heart surgery and a host of other services not generally associated with rural medicine,” according to the 1987 Bulletin article.
Hellmann stepped down in 1995 when she was close to 70 years old. She was the last of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Bend. She returned to Indiana in 2001 and died in 2009. Today, St. Charles is the region’s largest private employer, employing more than 4,400 people in 2017. It might not be what it is today—a regional health care system with hospitals in Bend, Redmond, Madras and Prineville and still the only Level II trauma center in Oregon east of the Cascades—if not for the vision of Hellmann.
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In Bend, Weld Design Studio crafts aesthetically detailed, highly original sculpture and furniture in a north Bend metal shop.
For the past eleven years, Andrew Wachs has run a metal shop called Weld Design Studio out of a modest industrial space on Bend’s north end. The 1,350-square-foot studio is wedged into a nondescript building surrounded by rabbit brush and juniper near the Deschutes River. Inside is a feeling of order. Steel plates and bars lean efficiently against one wall. Slabs of reclaimed wood are stacked neatly on a table. An enormous CNC plasma-cutter sits unobtrusively in one corner. Simple design elements decorate a wall. Everything, it seems, is precisely in place.
“It works for me this way,” said Wachs, who has lived and worked in Bend for the better part of twenty-three years. “It’s a tight space for a reason. I can work more efficiently. Whenever I feel cramped, I think, ‘If this studio was in Brooklyn, you’d be a king.’”
An amazing diversity of fine art, sculpture and metal fabrication emerge from Weld, as if rabbits from hats. Wachs, who grew up in Portland and studied sculpture at Western Washington University, has completed projects in scope from 10 Barrel Brewing logo cutouts smaller than your hand to a kingfisher perch installed near the Bend Whitewater Park last spring that’s as tall as a tree snag.
Dylan Woock and Andrew Wachs | Photo by Alex Jordan
Lately, Wachs’ passion has turned to furniture. A few years ago, he began collaborating with Portland-resident Dylan Woock, a family friend, Bend native and University of Oregon architecture graduate. The two dreamed up a collection of tables, each individually designed from the top down, that they call the Sketch Series.
That’s where the reclaimed wood comes in. “Each table is handmade and driven by shape,”said Wachs. The table design begins with a wooden slab, suspended mid-air. “We begin with a concept of dimension.”
Legs of rolled steel are essentially ad libbed underneath, fitted to complement the table top, creating a product guaranteed to be different than the one that came before it and the one that will come after. “We use four uniform legs—they are all the same,” explained Woock.
“But by the nature of how we compose them, they look random,” said Wachs. “That’s why I call these tables sketches. They come together like a drawing.”
The collaboration that Wachs, 50, and Woock, 27, share benefits from a “fluid information transfer,” said Wachs. Woock is a skilled computer draftsman and technician, while Wachs is more free-form, accustomed to creating sculptures in real space.
On the other hand, Woock said, “My approach is looser. Andy’s work is beautifully detailed and highly crafted, but my design sensibility is to show roughness here, a blemish there.”
This blend is demonstrated in another recent project, a rocking chair known as Rocker XL that Woock sketched on a whim one day. “That’s been our baby for the last year,” he said. The simple, contemporary sling rocker is fabricated from tube steel treated with a patina, oiled leather for the sling and black and white oak for the arm rests. “The rocker is the classic American piece of furniture,” said Woock. “Ours is clean, contemporary and oversized. It feels like sitting in a hammock.”
For now, the Rocker XL is available only as a commissioned piece, though Wachs and Woock dream of taking it to market on a larger scale. The Sketch Series tables are also mainly commissioned, produced one at a time from Weld’s compact, tidy studio. In each case, they are a demonstration of art meeting purpose, springing from order. “My approach is straightforward,” said Wachs. “Design, fabrication, execution. We’re creating something to function—it shouldn’t be just pretty.”
As Oregon’s top athletes gear up for the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang this year, we look back at the history of Oregon’s bid to host the games.
Chris Klug
Come February all sporting eyes will be on South Korea—assuming Kim Jong Un doesn’t nuke it first. These Games give the South Koreans a chance to show the world they do more than just kimchee and K-pop and that they have a winter sports culture, too. But let’s get real, if seaside Sochi was a stretch, then South Korea doesn’t seem much better.
Let’s do some comparing. PyeongChang, like Bend, has an outdoorsy vibe with a river and trails and cars crowned with roof racks, but unlike Bend, PyeongChang is not a single town but a collection of them. Taken together, they have about the same population as we did circa June 1999, or about 44,000 people. Their mountains, the Taebaeks, are no Cascades at about 5,000 feet. And though PyeongChang does have more ski areas than we do, you could fit every one of theirs into our one, all at once. Snow? We got you there, chingu. In Korea, powder usually refers to what you put on your face. So if South Korea can pull it off, why not Oregon? The U.S. Olympic Committee is lobbying to bring the Winter Games back to home soil. So how about it, why not Bend 2038?
“Well, we did host the National Beard and Moustache Championships here,” joked Kevney Dugan, president of Visit Bend. “The Olympics would be fascinating but, I mean, just some of the basic requirements for something like that, where would we even start?”
The question, it turns out, isn’t “where” so much as “when,” and the answer is a hoot: 1984. That’s the last time someone got serious about trying to bring the Winter Olympics to Oregon, while noting the events that could come to Bend.
The story of the time the Olympics nearly came to Bend but didn’t starts with one Sam Lackaff, a Portlander and general manager of Blue Bell, a potato chip company that Lays would later crush. The Winter Olympics that year were headed to Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, where the Bosnians had to build the starting gate for the men’s downhill on the roof of a mountain-top lodge just to meet the event’s requisite vertical drop. Lackaff thought if Sarajevo could do it, Oregon could do it. So he took the idea public and mentioned aloud how some of the ice skating events could unfold on Sparks Lake.
Jack Elder laughed when he heard that. Elder had been an Olympic luge athlete at the 1972 Games in Sapporo, where he got fifteenth. After the Games, he moved to Bend to work at KBND, so he knew both Sparks Lake and the Olympics well. “I phoned Sam up and said they don’t do Olympic ice skating on lakes any more,” recalled Elder, now 76 and living in a suburb south of Portland. “Sam said to me, well, if you know so much why don’t you come work with me. So I did.”
Elder rallied Oregon grocery store executives, business leaders and a couple of IRS agents to form a nonprofit called Winter Organization Oregon, or WOO, and together they set their sights on the 1998 Games. The timing was good. Anchorage had just been passed over for the 1992 Games, which ended up in Albertville, France and the United States Olympic Committee opened the bidding up to other destinations. Salt Lake City, Reno and “Oregon” all expressed interest.
By 1988, things were cooking. “No better Oregon project than a bid for Olympics,” boomed an editorial in the Oregonian. “Let’s get aggressive and try to land this gem,” read another a few months later. A survey of 300 mostly-Portland residents found 80 percent of respondents would favor hosting the Games. Lawmakers in Salem freed up $300,000 in matching funds to go toward the estimated $1 million it’d cost to just prepare a bid. All in all, estimates put the total price tag of hosting the Olympics at around $700 million. Could this really happen?
“There were a lot of dreamers back then,” recalled Bob “Woody” Woodward, a former Bend mayor who covered six Olympics as a journalist starting in 1980. “I think everyone was a little starry eyed.”
Even so, Bend roared into the discussion on January 22, 1988, when UMA Engineering out of Portland released a technical assessment looking at where exactly the events could be held. Portland’s Civic Stadium, with some upgrades, could hold the opening and closing ceremonies and an expanded coliseum could house the hockey. It mentions housing athletes on cruise ships moored along the riverfront. Mount Hood would likely get the Nordic events on new trails that’d have to be built along with some of the alpine runs. The Bachelor portions might make you gasp.
Today if you head skier’s right off of Bachelor’s Cloudchaser chair, cruise past Wanoga and drop into what the maps call The Low East, you’ll find the kind of terrain the study pinpointed as ideal for a bobsled course. If you come back around and gaze high upon the West Ridge and all the way down Thunderbird, that would be the Olympic downhill course, though today that route is not quite long enough. And ski jumping? “Mt. Bachelor has potential on a small butte near the main day lodge,” the report noted. That’s right; it’d be on the cone.
In the end, the effort fizzled. Salt Lake City, which would eventually land the 2002 Games, had thrown down more money and mustered more political will. An executive at U.S. Bank in Portland nailed the coffin closed after he pulled Elder into a room and told him that none of the big banks were willing to risk the hundreds of millions of dollars it’d take to make it all happen. They tossed him a bone. If he didn’t blame the banks for the failed bid they’d pay off WOO’s $100,000 debt. No hard feelings, Elder said. “To quote The Godfather, it was just business.”
The idea of Oregon hosting the Olympics still lingers, though. Most recently, Damian Smith, founder of Pepper Foster in Portland, launched Oregon 2028 to explore the idea of bringing the summer games to our state. That effort lost its edge when Los Angeles won, but Smith said the idea isn’t dead but postponed. As for Bend, Dugan and others think the town should try to hold a smaller event like such as an Ironman or a Nordic championship. We have the hotels. We have the terrain. We have the will. Until then, we’ll always have PyeongChang.
Luminaria has been a popular cross-country skiing community event since it began more than a decade ago.
Photo by Tim Neville
Twelve months ago, when Bend was still in the thick of the snowiest winter since the invention of the Subaru, dozens of bundled up skiers and snowshoers milled around the parking lot at the Virginia Meissner Sno-Park, ready for one of the coolest events of the season. They futzed with headlamps and bindings and primed their cores with cups of free hot chocolate. Lights dangling from the shelter’s eaves lent the snow a festive flare. Coolest of all, hundreds of tea candles tucked into paper bags lined a trail leading off into the forest. Gemültich didn’t begin to cut it.
Every year for the past fifteen years the Meissner Nordic club—the group that brings you free cross-country skiing and snowshoeing on forty kilometers of groomed trails—has organized the annual Luminaria event. Though the night has fallen under various names and has been held for varying reasons, the purpose has largely remained the same: a community event to get people out into the wilderness at night.
This year was no different, except it was. Whether it was the epic snowfall or the word was simply just “out,” the event drew the most people ever. By the time my daughter, Evie, and I showed up with a couple of friends around 7 p.m., volunteers had already handed out more than 700 glow-sticks to help people see each other in the dark. All told about one thousand people would slip under the faint stain of a moon for the mile or so it takes to reach the Meissner Hut, where bonfires burned in fire pans and volunteer Josh Cook and friends had built a massive snow dragon sculpture complete with an internal luge. We poked our heads inside just in time to see a marriage proposal. (She said yes.)
The event is also a fundraiser for the club, which managed to pull in about $3,000 in donations. That’s but a flake in the blizzard of expenses it costs the crew to groom so many miles of trails each season. (Think in the $30,000 range.) While the fundraising helps, that was never really the point of the event. In fact the first edition, held just weeks after we invaded Iraq in 2003, was called the Luminaria Ski for Peace. “In a small way it was a resistance event,” said Sue Vordenberg, now 74, who started the tradition along with a couple of friends. “It was all pretty spontaneous.”
Every year has been different, of course. It’s been icy or windy or warm and wet. In 2013 the event was dedicated to Vordenberg’s late-husband, Lloyd, who’d spent a couple of seasons grooming the trails with an ATV retrofitted with tank-like treads instead of wheels. A high school jazz club sang around the bonfires. Now the club lords over a $40,000 Pisten Bully groomer, and the event has grown so large that last year’s organizers teamed up with the Bend Endurance Academy to offer shuttles between Wanoga and Meissner sno-parks to help ease the parking crunch.
This year, organizers would love to have a shuttle run directly from town. It’d be nice if the jazz singers came back or if the weather would hold for real. Even if they don’t and even if it doesn’t, you should still grab some sticks and give it a go. Standing in the forest at night with so many candles warming the way, you can’t help but feel that, even in the midst of such an unforgiving season, there’s still no place you’d rather be.
Ruffwear’s president Will Blount on growing an international company in Bend and nurturing a collaborative creative community of outdoor entrepreneurs.
Photo by Will Blount
Colorado native Will Blount has been at the helm of Ruffwear since 2001. The performance dog gear company was founded by Patrick Kruse, who presented a collapsible, fabric water bowl for dogs to an immediately enthusiastic public in the early 1990s. Today, Kruse leads the product development team and Blount is president of Ruffwear, which generates $20 million a year in sales from its headquarters on Bend’s west side. Bend Magazine caught up with Blount to discuss the company’s trajectory, the local outdoor entrepreneurial scene and the cool renovations coming to Ruffwear’s commercial space.
Tell us about your background and how you first came to Bend.
I grew up amid the mountains and rivers of the Rocky Mountains. I earned a business administration degree in college, and knew early on that outdoor pursuits, following curiosity for the unknown and learning by doing were my path to a fulfilling life. When I was 10, my father took me steelhead fishing on the Deschutes River. I remember the beautiful sunrise and sunset and the adrenaline rush of catching my first anadromous trout on its journey back to its birthplace to spawn. This experience ultimately drew me to call Bend home in 2001.
What have been the most significant challenges and benefits of growing an international business in a small Oregon mountain town?
Our backyard is full of mountains, forests and a vast high desert that are the inspiration and testing ground for all our gear. Recreational attractions, combined with a great culture, help us attract amazing talent. As for challenges, one we’ve set for ourselves is to make purposeful visits to our customers and distributors, whether that means down the street or across the ocean, to understand their needs.
Ruffwear is renovating its headquarters to include a new co-working space. What sort of members do you wish to attract, and what sort of environment do you hope will result?
We consider the co-working space to be an incubator targeted toward outdoor-oriented professionals. We envision it as a home to like-minded businesses, independents, startups and freelancers, from creatives to conservation nonprofit organizations. We want this to be a community, with up to 125 new users to the space and nearly 25 percent of the space developed as common areas.
Ruffwear is projecting at least 100 percent revenue growth over the next four years. What are your goals moving forward as a company and as a part of Bend’s outdoor products scene?
From the start, we’ve been a company driven by purpose over profit. We’re focused on building relationships with our dealers and customers, as well as our team and our community. While Ruffwear is an international company now, we started as one fellow working in his garage. We believe in a culture of innovation, and we hope the co-working space will nurture this. Through educational talks, noon-hour mountain bike rides or beers with friends at day’s end, we believe networking, sharing resources and conveying experiences make for engaging days—this makes us better at what we do best. We also believe the time is right. Bend is home to the first outdoor industry-focused accelerator in the country, Bend Outdoor Worx, and a funding conference, Venture Out, for outdoor companies, as well as the Oregon Outdoor Alliance and an outdoor product design program at OSU-Cascades. It’s an exciting time.
What do the dogs have to say about more company at the company?
We’re secretly working on a dog translator! But I think it’s safe to say the dogs are excited about having more four-legged and two-legged friends.
While there’s never a good time to suffer a snowsports injury, twisting an ankle, tearing a knee or nursing a sore back can make for a long winter of sitting on the couch watching ski videos instead of living them.
Avoiding ski injuries starts with prevention, and any good program should include elements of sport-specific strength, flexibility and balance, said Ellie Meyrowitz, a physical therapist at Rebound Excellence Project (REP) Biomechanics Lab, a performance center for recreational as well as professional athletes. Rebound, an official physical therapy provider for the U.S. Ski, Snowboarding and Freeskiing teams, treats scores of cross-country and downhill skiers suffering from snowsports-related injuries, many of which are preventable, she said.
Nordic Skiing
Typical Nordic skiing-related injuries are caused by overuse or repetitive movements, the most common of which are knee pain, back pain and shoulder pain. Less common, but not infrequent, are traumatic injuries to ankles, wrists, thumbs and knees, which occur from falls. To avoid this, stay upright. Here’s how.
Build a strong foundation
“You can shoot a cannon off a deck or a canoe,” said Meyrowitz. Be the deck. A strong core sets the foundation for stability throughout your body, and decreases the likelihood of both falls and repetitive use injuries. Simple, dynamic plank exercises are a good place to start.
Get your balance on
Balance on snow is huge in Nordic skiing—not only for preventing injuries, but also in the ever-constant pursuit of being more efficient. Set aside time when you hit the trails to practice skiing without your poles. Once you’ve mastered this drill, advance to gliding on one ski for as long as you can, maintaining a quiet posture. You’ll get an idea of which leg is stronger, after which you can work toward gliding on each leg for the same amount of time, until your right and left leg glide the same distance with equal effort.
Pace yourself
Possibly the hardest advice to follow is the easiest one. Don’t do too much too soon. Try to resist picking up where you left off last spring by following the 10 percent rule, just as you would with running. Give your body time to adjust by increasing your ski volume by no more than 10 percent each week. This simple step will go a long way toward keeping you on snow and out of a PT clinic.
Alpine Riders
As you might expect, alpine injuries are most often the results of a trauma caused by a fall. And ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) tears take the prize for most frequent injury “by leaps and bounds,” said Meyrowitz, followed by MCL (medial collateral ligament) tears. Keep your knees in good shape with these steps.
Mind your equipment
Good working and well-fitted equipment is critical to avoiding knee and leg injuries. Be sure your bindings release properly and that your ski length is appropriate for your height and your skill level. “The shorter the ski, the easier it is to control,” said Meyrowitz. “We have many local ski shops that are all great in helping the local skiers out for this type of prevention.”
Check your ego
Just because your buddy is shredding the black diamond run doesn’t mean you should. Mind your ability and stick with the terrain you’re comfortable with. Meyrowitz notes that aggressive snow plowing—sometimes referred to as pizza pie—is taxing on the MCL. “Keep the season fun and light, and enjoy runs where you are comfortable,” she said. “If you do find yourself in a big pizza pie, make sure each leg has equal balance.”
Bending is winning
When skiing over bumps, jumps and uneven terrain, be sure to absorb these features with a bent, rather than a straight, knee. And, be sure not to stand erect to avoid a fall. The best way to avoid the rigid-knee response is to practice landing safely doing plyometric ski lunge drills. This teaches skiers to load the leg, spring off, and then absorb the force and land safely again.
When Shanan Kelley first came to Bend in 2009, she told her friends she’d be back to Seattle in a few short weeks. Eight years later, she’s still here teaching yoga, emceeing events and fundraisers and bringing laughter through The Night Light Show, a regular variety show featuring local artists and community members. Adjusting to life in a smaller city has allowed Kelley to tap into her creative side. Kelley sat down with Bend Magazine’s Teafly Peterson to talk about finding her muse and what it’s like to live on “island time.”
Photo and Illustration by Teafly
On Starting Over
I was in denial about moving here. I was living in Seattle, which I loved. I thought if I left it would be a big deal, because it is so beautiful there. So, if I was leaving then surely it was because I was going to New York or London or beyond. But then I got here and it was so beautiful, and the idea of moving at a slightly slower pace sounded really appealing. There were so many wonderful people here who were talking about how much they loved their community, and that really captured me right away.
On Bend’s Growing Pains
I don’t miss making $10,000 a year. I don’t miss being recessed. I think our poverty consciousness has slightly improved. This is why I love the growth. I want more unique people to come here. I want people who have a bigger thought process and broader view of what it means to live in society to come here and help us make good policy and manage how we grow and make the most of what we have here. I want that for myself, and I want that for my larger community as well.
On Possibilities
Bend is a really safe place to do a lot of things. When I first moved here, I felt really strongly that I could build something for myself here. The possibility of what I could build felt like it was worth pursuing, without a doubt.
Leaving the Rat Race
We’re on island time here. When I first came here, I was really shocked by how long it would take for someone to email you back in business. I had to embrace it. And then I loved it, because it gave me some grace. And then you get a bonus of, like, ten hours a week, because you’re not in your car as much. You could use it for anything—exercise, time with your family, creativity! That is really significant. And if you use that bonus of ten hours a week to sit on your ass, it will literally change your life.
On Family
I get my sense of humor from my family. Growing up, we had a lot of stress, but we laughed all the way through it. They made me super sensitive. I had experiences as a young person that were so intense, you don’t un-experience them. Those experiences gave me a level of empathy.
Finding Her Voice
When I got to the University of Washington, I took Drama 101 and I just was like, “Oh my God!” All of a sudden these doors just flew open. I’ve always known I was funny, but as a young person it would veer toward sarcasm. So, I was learning how to manage that. And then I was in this drama class and it was so open and free. I had found my place! Prior to this I thought I wanted to be a lawyer or an engineer. As it turned out, I just wanted to play one on TV!
On Being Ourselves
Sometimes in Bend, we have this “big fish in a small pond” mentality. It is very high-schooly in a way. Do you do this because you love it or because you feel the need to fit in? I would love to see people give themselves permission to break out of that and explore more deeply who they are and why this place called to them. Because that is truly beautiful, people being themselves. There are so many healers here and so many people facilitating opportunities for that kind of work—for true connection and self-discovery, so take it. What are you using your bonus “island time” for?
This winter, skip the lift lines (and traffic) and head to Mount Bailey for an epic backcountry skiing experience. Not into extreme skiing? Close by, Diamond Lake Resort offers adventures for everyone.
Photo Sebastian Folz
What if I told you that we could reduce snowriding to its essence? No resort crowds, no lift lines. How about no lifts at all—and no boundaries. You’re thinking Valdez. But I’m talking about Southern Oregon’s Mount Bailey, where the primary marketing initiative is word of mouth, and the terrain, well, it speaks for itself.
Bailey was once intended to be Oregon’s next-big-thing destination ski resort, but plans to transform the 8,000-foot volcano into a traditional lift-accessed ski area never came to fruition. Instead, Mount Bailey remains a remote outpost of powder skiing. With more than 5,000 acres of terrain and 600 inches of annual snowfall, Bailey’s bounty is reserved for those who hop aboard Diamond Lake Resort’s snowcat for a ride that starts at the resort and ends somewhere in backcountry nirvana above Bailey’s seemingly endless chutes and glades.
Photo Sebastian Folz
One of the oldest ski-touring companies in the west, Cat Ski Mt. Bailey is just two hours south of Bend near Crater Lake in the Umpqua National Forest. Roughly 100 miles from the nearest population center, Mount Bailey is no secret, but its location and lack of amenities has kept it off the radar of most casual skiers.
Assuming you can ski powder on expert terrain at your home mountain, then you’re at least a candidate for Bailey. There are no prerequisite skill tests, but Mount Bailey’s crew isn’t in the babysitting business. It pitches its services to advanced and expert skiers and boarders in plain language. The resort’s website advises would-be visitors to “leave intermediate skiers at home.”
For those who seek the steep and deep, Cat Ski Mt. Bailey’s expert guides and varied terrain offer an experience unlike anything available at traditional resorts. Mount Bailey can provide a once-in-a-lifetime type of day that is savored among each small group of skiers and boarders. (The operation limits its groups to twelve skiers or riders per day.) Powderhounds fortunate enough to load the snowcat after a winter storm lays down a fresh layer of snow can expect a day full of powder “whoops” and snow-eating grins.
“Every day is different, every run is different,” said guide Ryan Oswald, son of the legendary late guide Rick (Oz) Oswald.
Guests can typically expect around six or seven runs in a day, totaling roughly 15,000 to 18,000 feet of vertical drop, according to lead guide Ross Duncan. And while storms are frequent, the durable snowcats and varied terrain mean there are always turns to be had.
Even on storm days when the lifts close at Bachelor, Mount Bailey offers protected tree runs. “Stormy days are great—we love skiing them,” said Duncan.
Cat skiing is typically offered daily from December to early April—conditions dependent—for $385 per person per day. Group rates and ski-and-stay packages are available, with accommodations at Diamond Lake Resort.
Photo Sebastian Folz
Stay and Play
If extreme backcountry adventure isn’t your thing, Diamond Lake Resort also has a variety of family-friendly activities.
“The beauty of being in the mountains in the snow—there’s not many places in Oregon that can offer everything we have,” said Diamond Lake Resort operations manager John Jonesburg.
He’s called the resort, established in 1922, home for twenty-eight years. “I just love it. I can’t imagine living anywhere else,” he said.
The lakeside resort added a new 470-foot “wonder carpet” conveyor lift to its tubing hill last year and offers an extensive network of groomed cross-country and snowmobile trails. It’s even possible to snowmobile to Crater Lake.
Lodging options range from motel-room-style to a full seven-bedroom cabin, added just three years ago. Prices vary from $105 to $1,099 per night. The resort also offers lodging, snowmobile and cat ski package rates.
A mountain molded into the bottom of a pint glass took off like wildfire—and Mount Bachelor is the next peak in line to be pressed forever into glass from North Drinkware.
Photo North Drinkware
On February 1, 2015—Superbowl Sunday—Leigh and Matt Capozzi and their family kicked back to watch TV in their Portland home. On the screen wasn’t the game, however, but a live feed of the Kickstarter campaign they’d launched that morning. The goal was to raise $15,000 to begin production on a pet project they’d dreamed up with their friend Nic Ramirez: a hand-blown pint glass with the shape of Mount Hood molded into the base.
“Our hope was to be able to produce maybe 200 glasses to fulfill Kickstarter orders and gift the rest to friends and family,” recalled Matt. Fate had another plan for the founders of North Drinkware. Instead of the projected thirty-two days, $15,000 was raised in five hours and fifteen minutes. Within forty-eight hours, North Drinkware was 600 percent funded. The campaign ended with $531,000 in pre-orders of The Oregon Pint from more than 5,500 backers.
“We achieved our five-year business plan day one,” recalled Matt. “It was blistering,” agreed Leigh. “We thought, wow, this is a much bigger idea than we thought it was.”
What the North team loved about the handcrafted vessel—the way it celebrated both Oregon craft beer and the state’s beloved and tallest mountain—turned out to be only part of what attracted others. “We fielded hundreds of emails in those early days,” said Leigh. Some interested buyers were Oregon ex-patriots, missing home. Some were one-time visitors seeking a souvenir. Some loved the idea of supporting the art community. Others appreciated the 100 percent locally sourced business model. Overall, the glass hit a serious chord of connection to Oregon and the mountains.
Photo North Drinkware
“What’s great about Kickstarter is that it’s a platform for authentic connection with consumers,” said Leigh. “You can put your idea out to the mass community and see what people really think.”
The team was blown away by the feedback they received, both aesthetic and financial. But challenges were still to come. Taking USGS data of a mountain from 3-D imagery to tangible, detailed design was its own trial. Next was the search for a mold medium that could withstand the 600-degree temperatures of the hand blown glass process. Several very expensive graphite molds (as well as a lot of pint glasses) were destroyed before they arrived at the stainless steel mold currently in use. It took eight months to fulfill the original 12,000 Kickstarter orders and another to launch an online store, which promptly sold out.
These were all good problems to have, and anyway, the trio had come to North Drinkware with a combined powerful skillset. Leigh and Matt met in the late 1990s while working for Burton Snowboards, Matt in product management and Leigh in public relations. Matt and Nic both presently work for Cinco Design in Portland, a product and brand design agency with huge clients such as Nike, Smith Optics and Microsoft.
“All three of us have had the opportunity to work for world-class brands and agencies through our careers,” said Leigh. “Launching a brand and having to manage everything from logistics to development and production to marketing to finance has been an amazing growth opportunity.”
Like so many entrepreneurs, the team has found that what makes this experience stand out in the arc of their careers is that it’s personal. “Doing great work is fulfilling, but doing great work and seeing results for your own brand is super rewarding,” said Leigh.
Matt and Leigh moved to Bend in 2016, fulfilling another dream to raise their two daughters closer to their long-term “personal playground,” Mount Bachelor. Nic and Matt now put in a day or two each a week for North, while Leigh concentrates full-time on the company. Glass blowers create custom pints and tumblers five days a week at Elements Glass in Northwest Portland; warehousing and shipping is all out of Portland, too.
Photo North Drinkware
North Drinkware currently produces glasses featuring mountains from Washington, Colorado, California and Vermont, in addition to Oregon. Custom wood coasters featuring USGS topographic data complement each glass. This February, North will launch a new collection featuring a second mountain from a state for the first time. Not surprisingly, the peak they chose for this distinction is their own most cherished, Mount Bachelor. “We’re excited to honor our local mountain and offer a glass to our hometown,” said Leigh. The Mount Bachelor pint and tumbler will be available at Ginger’s Kitchenware and Lark Mountain Modern in Bend, as well as online.
More mountains should appear in the bottom of your glass in coming years, though maybe not as quickly as that Kickstarter campaign that got everything started. “We have a team mantra of wanting the company to be ‘just big enough,’” said Leigh. “We want to grow responsibly and authentically.”
Check out new page-turners recommended by Sara Q. Thompson and Paige Bentley Flannery of the Deschutes Public Library.
The Moth Presents All These Wonders: True stories about facing the unknown edited by Catherine Burns; foreword by Neil Gaiman
Forty-five memories from forty-five different voices curated by the creators of The Moth storytelling series (and podcast). We meet the English hairdresser who gave David Bowie his first dye job. We stand in the rubble of a catastrophic earthquake with an engineer and his team. We hold our breath with refugees as they board a plane with their children, hoping against hope that this flight will save their lives. We share an awkward family dinner with relatives who have just met for the first time. Reading these moments of honesty and reflection called to mind the old saying, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” —Sara Q. Thompson, adult services manager
New People by Danzy Senna
Maria, a young graduate, is living in New York with her fiancé and college sweetheart, Khalil. Everything seems normal as we follow Maria through libraries while she works on her dissertation and Khalil works though his dot-com adventures. But is she ready for marriage? The biracial twenty-somethings are being filmed for a documentary about “new people” like them who are at the forefront of a new generation. But it’s a young poet who upends Maria’s world, as her interest in him veers into obsession. Danzy Senna, the bestselling author of Caucasia, weaves a story of cultural issues with dark humor. It’s a captivating novel with discussions of race, marriage and family that readers will continue to ponder. — Paige Bentley Flannery, community librarian
Colors of the West: An artist’s guide to nature’s palette by Molly Hashimoto
For the outdoor and art enthusiast in your life, this book can serve as travel book, nature guide, artist manual and coffee table display. Hashimoto weaves beautiful pen and watercolor sketches from national parks, monuments, vistas with flora
and fauna notes, artist profiles, location-specific palettes and painting technique tips. There were many pages that I savored with pleasure. The color palette for the Yellowstone thermal pools took my breath away. Central Oregonians will recognize favorite regional haunts Smith Rock, the Badlands and Crater Lake. The chapters are arranged by color, and the book is so luscious you will likely find yourself flipping through the pages just for the joy of it. —SQT
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
Anna’s family is living in New York City during the 1930s when her father disappears, leaving them without an explanation. Anna begins her journey searching for answers. Her strength is beautifully shown as she takes care of her sister and mother and works in the Navy Yard. There, her independence shines as she becomes the first female diver and works a dangerous job repairing ships to support the war. Readers will appreciate the rich atmosphere in this historical fiction as the heroine rides her bike through alleys, visits Brooklyn waterfront saloons an
d mixes with the gritty characters who earn their living on the water. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan captures the essence of New York City in this magnificent novel filled with survival, war, mystery and romance. —PBF
Five chefs show us how to stave off the winter chill with the stories and recipes behind favorite comfort food dishes on their restaurants’ menus.
In the dead of winter during long, cold nights, our minds dig deep for the familiar dishes that leave us feeling warm, satisfied, nostalgic. Central Oregon has a healthy relationship with comfort cuisine, from traditional recipes to the avant-garde. Several of our chefs have elevated the concept to create flavors that bring us back to grandma’s cooking—that is if your grandma was Julia Child—and conjure up memories of childhood around the table.
Seafood Pot Pie
The Porch | Chef Jon Hosler
“This dish is such a hit because of how it makes you feel when you eat it—like a warm hug to your soul on any day.” — Chef Jon Hosler
The entire menu at The Porch in Sisters fits the definition of comfort food. Meatloaf, chicken and waffles, three cheese mac. The seafood pot pie, a take on the classic chicken pot pie with a Pacific Northwest twist, also easily fulfills the “haute” side of haute comfort. A light cream and vegetable base coats shrimp, scallops and smoked salmon. Puff pastry on top adds texture as well as a mechanism to soak up the delicious sauce.
Cooking tips: Cook down a base of roughly chopped onion, celery and carrots in olive oil and add a splash of white wine. Add seafood and just enough heavy cream to cover the ingredients. Season and let simmer until reduced by one-quarter or veggies are tender. Top with puff pastry (even store-bought will do).
Mac & Cheese Flight
The Blacksmith | Chef Bryan Chang
“To me, comfort food should bring back memories of our younger days and hearty, homecooked meals. I like to combine both modern and classic techniques and ingredients to bring dishes to life for our guests, and I feel our food accentuates our cozy and comfortable atmosphere.”
— Chef Bryan Chang
What’s better than rich macaroni and cheese made with the best ingredients and cooked to perfection? Three kinds! Blacksmith’s flight of three mac and cheese recipes—smoked, bacon and truffle smoked—are arguably the best in town. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but, at Blacksmith, you fortunately don’t have to.
Cooking tips: Tillamook smoked cheddar plus heavy cream equals flavor. Never use skim or low-fat dairy products in mac and cheese.
Ramen Carbonara
5 Fusion | Chef Joe Kim
“On a cold day, there is not much more that I want than tomato soup with oyster crackers or a grilled cheese sandwich, because that is what my mother would cook for me as a child on a cold day. When I was in Japan, ramen was always my comfort food. I think everyone’s comfort food is probably different. It is something that takes you to a place you loved, a person you loved or time you loved.” — Chef Joe Kim
A stunner of a dish, 5 Fusion’s ramen carbonara combines the satisfaction of a hearty soup with the perfect dashes of refinement and balance that place it high among the impressive creations from James Beard-nominated Chef Joe Kim. This dish, topped with a quail egg and bathed in a broth that has an unexpected richness, will get you through a long winter night.
Cooking tips: 5 Fusion’s ramen broth is made in-house with pork bones, shallots, garlic, miso and tamari. The process takes about two days of boiling the pork bones to extract flavor, a method that might be overwhelming for a home cook. Any soup base can be used; instant miso soup is a great substitute.
Trophy Elk Chili
Joolz | Chef Ramsey Hamdan
“People crave comforting dishes and keep returning to them when they offer a more exotic flair that they don’t usually make at home.” — Chef Ramsey Hamdan
Joolz’s trophy elk chili embodies the restaurant’s theme “where the Middle East meets the Wild West.” Garbanzo beans, rose harissa, crumbled feta and Middle Eastern spices are combined with traditional chili beans and ground elk, representing the West. An instant hit when it was added to the menu, this dish provides all the heartiness of a stick-to-your-ribs chili, but is lighter and has a surprising flavor profile that may outshine the original.
Cooking tips: Top it off with Fritos like they do at Joolz to add crunch and offer a taste of childhood.
Fried Chicken Dinner
900 Wall | Chef Clifford Eslinger
“This dish provides a good perspective of the balance we strike at 900 Wall. We have an extensive wine list, yet pour Rainier on tap. We have a seasonal menu that highlights local ranches and farms. While our burger is one of our best sellers, we sell out of fried chicken every Sunday. I think the fact that we are able to offer so many aspects and styles of dining at a consistently high level speaks to our commitment to not doing anything halfway.” — Chef Clifford Eslinger
When it comes to comfort food, it doesn’t get more straightforward than fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy. But look a little closer at 900 Wall’s fried chicken dinner, served Sundays only, and you’ll find a perfectly crispy crust, not too greasy; the highest quality locally sourced chicken; a heap of creamy potatoes and gravy without a hint of a lump in either; and sautéed greens with onions and pancetta. It’s the ultimate rendition of the classic.
Cooking tips: Marinate chicken in a buttermilk base, dredge in seasoned flour and refrigerate for eight to twenty-four hours—a key step in drying it out to make for an extra crispy final product. To ensure a crispy crust, fry chicken in small batches to keep the oil temperature from dropping below 300°F.
The up-and-coming skiers and snowboarders from Bend who have a shot at gold and history in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
Gabe Ferguson, Olympic Halfpipe Hopeful
When the Winter Olympics commence this February half a world away in PyeongChang, South Korea, some fans here in Bend will be watching the games with a little more at stake than national pride. They will be rooting for homegrown and hometown athletes that they’ve known as students, classmates, friends and neighbors. They are the latest local hopefuls who have run the gauntlet of amateur and professional competition for a shot at Olympic gold and a place in history.
It’s rarified air, to be sure. Only a handful of athletes make it to the top. But this year’s games hold promise for a select few, including downhillers Laurenne Ross and Tommy Ford and snowboarder Ben Ferguson. Look a little deeper and you’ll see a number of local skiers and riders in the Team USA pipeline who have their sights set on 2022. Take another step back and you will see a community that is chock full of former Olympians such as speed skater Dick Hunt (’60, ’64) and cross-country skiing great Suzanne King (’94, ’98). Yes, the Games are an international spectacle, but the fingerprints of Bend athletes are all over them. And for those about to compete, We Salute You!
The Current Cast of Olympians
Kent Callister
Age 22
Sport: Snowboard Park and Pipe
A hometown kid with an international pedigree, Callister rode to a surprise ninth place overall finish in the men’s halfpipe at the 2014 Games in Sochi. A Bachelor product, Callister took a side door into the Olympics by joining the Australian team thanks to dual citizenship. His father is Australian, and Callister spent his younger years living in Australia, where he took up skateboarding. The family relocated to Central Oregon when Callister was just nine. He transitioned quickly to snowboarding and showed an aptitude for big air theatrics. Callister followed up his ninth place finish with a third place podium at the World Cup in 2015 at Park City and a sixth place spot at the World Championships in Austria that same year. In 2016 Callister qualified for the X Games halfpipe finals in Aspen, but withdrew after sustaining a concussion during a first-run fall. Several strong subsequent finishes have Callister well positioned for 2018. He remains a member of the Australian Park and Pipe team and is positioned to qualify and compete again in PyeongChang, bringing a dash of Central Oregon freestyle to South Korea.
Laurenne Ross
Age 29
Sport: Alpine Skiing
The Olympics run in the blood of alpine ski racer Laurenne Ross. Her father was a professional ski racer in Canada, and her grandfather was on the 1952 Canadian Olympic hockey team. But Ross has made a name for herself in women’s downhill and super-G on the U.S. Ski Team. Born in Canada and on skis by two years old, Ross has dual citizenship and moved to Bend when she was 7. She earned her stripes racing at MBSEF and made the U.S. Ski Team when she was 17. Now 29 and based in Bend, she’s ranked the sixth best downhill skier in the world and is aiming to make her second Olympic appearance. She made it to Sochi in 2014 and placed eleventh in the women’s downhill, but she’s only gained speed and skill since then. A traumatic knee injury during the last race of the 2016-2017 ski season prevented her from skiing for six months, but the multitalented athlete (she’s also an art student at University of Oregon) is determined to make it to the Olympics again this year. For Ross, it all comes down to the mental game, and if the last few seasons are any indicator, she’s got that part down.
Tommy Ford
Age 28
Sport: Alpine Skiing
Tommy Ford recently landed in the top ten at a World Cup giant slalom race in Colorado—a career best—putting him on the path for a career high in the 2017-2018 ski season. It’s been a long road back for Ford who suffered a serious injury while skiing in France in 2013, but one that Ford hopes leads to the slopes of PyeongChang and another shot at Olympic glory. A graduate of Summit High School and Bend resident since the age of 2, Ford, 28, skied with MBSEF at Mt. Bachelor and made the U.S. Ski Team in 2008. After a storied amateur career that included a second place finish at the World Junior Champioships in 2008, Ford defied critics and punched a ticket to Vancouver in 2010 in giant slalom, one of his specialties along with super-G. A freeskiing injury scuttled his hopes for an Olympic encore at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, but a major comeback in 2015 catapulted him to a second-place finish in giant slalom at the U.S. Alpine Championships at Sugarloaf in Maine last year.
Bend’s Olympic Dreamers
Ben Ferguson
Age 22
2nd place SuperPipe, 2016 X Games Aspen
Ben’s ascent into snowboarding’s elite began at age six on the curvy slopes of Bachelor. A knack for big, stylish airs gradually appeared, and Ben stacked up wins as a junior. By 2013, he had made the U.S. Snowboard Halfpipe Team and became a respected name in the world of professional snowboarding. Soft-spoken and mellow, Ben nonetheless works hard on every angle of his career, and is self-competitive as an athlete. This explains his new-found fascination with freeriding in Alaska, where his truest instincts as a snowboarder come into play. Catch a glimpse of Ben’s chops in his latest film, Hail Mary.
Gabe Ferguson
Age 19
5th place Halfpipe, 2016 X Games Aspen
Little brother of Ben Ferguson, Gabe belongs to the up-and-coming younger generation of mind-blowing snowboarders. Bachelor’s terrain, like a mountain of natural halfpipes, raised Gabe from age 4. Now a U.S. Snowboard Halfpipe Team member, Gabe is rewriting the way tricks are done, like frontside 540 nose grabs. On and off the hill, Gabe is too relaxed to worry much. He keeps his stress level low. Gabe’s riding style looks slow-motion, while brother Ben’s is explosive. No wonder the two took first place for their doubles run at the 2015 Red Bull Double Pipe event in Aspen. Gabe’s career has just taken off.
Hunter Hess
Age 19
2nd place in Halfpipe, 2016 Calgary NorAm
As a U.S. Ski Team Freeski Rookie Team member, Hunter starts the season in 2017 ranked fourteenth in the world for halfpipe. Bachelor’s natural transitions and an MBSEF upbringing helped shape him into a freeskier on the verge of Olympic fame. His confidence draws on a deep love for skiing, and a devotion to the halfpipe, where he’s busy perfecting right-side double corks and learning new grabs. A competitive nature, methodical training and a keen sense of comic relief have Hunter on track to take podiums and Olympic medals in the near future. Beyond that, Hunter plans to debut soon in major ski films, and to spend more time street and powder skiing.
Anna Gorham
Age 17
5th place in Halfpipe, 2016 Alpine Snowmass Freeskiing Open
The youngest of Bend’s U.S. Freeskiing Rookie Halfpipe team, Anna is a soft spoken high school student who has quietly risen the U.S. freeskiing ranks. She has plenty of opportunity ahead to impress judges. Before she was old enough to drive, Anna snagged a halfpipe bronze medal at the 2015 FIS Junior World Championships in Italy. Now she’s looking to enter the top twenty as a women’s halfpipe skier. Anna trained independently on Bachelor to become a professional skier, a testament to her work ethic and inherent talent. A happy-go-lucky attitude and polished manners make Anna a great ambassador, while her freeskiing speaks fiercely for itself.
Jake Mageau
Age 20
4th place in Halfpipe, 2017 Aspen Snowmass Freeskiing Open
Jake brings a free-spirited style to the U.S. Ski Team. An early childhood spent in Hawaii explains his flair. Unique grabs and a whole lot of flow put the spotlight on Jake’s skiing, although his humble nature shies away from hype. Heading into his third year as a Rookie Halfpipe Team skier, Jake looks set to represent his Bachelor roots with plenty of podium finishes. MBSEF coaching focused Jake’s incredible athletic ability and talent, while his originality as a freeskier bodes well for a future of filming and pushing the evolution of his sport.
Jacob Beebe
Age 18
Overall Halfpipe Champion, 2014 U.S. Revolution Tour
Jacob’s halfpipe skills and confidence are high enough to win titles. He proved this as overall champion on the Revolution Tour in 2014 and by making the U.S. Ski Team Rookie Halfpipe squad last season. Although Beebe trained in Sun Valley, he also attended Bend’s Summit High School where he was an honor student. Bachelor’s natural features taught Jacob how to blast airs, and a twelfth place finish at the 2016 X Games in Oslo proved he could compete at freestyle skiing’s premiere events. When he’s not traveling the world to ski pipes and powder, Jacob studies business at the University of Utah.
Artist Dawn Emerson used her past life in the circus as inspiration for her latest art.
When Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Baily Circus closed in 2017, it revived memories of Terrebonne artist Dawn Emerson’s summer of 1975. “I loved elephants and wanted to run away with the circus,” she recalled. “I joined a third-rate, no maybe fourth-rate circus with crusty clowns as a synchronized swimmer between my sophomore and junior years of college.”
The pools were dirty, and she nearly drowned in four feet of water. “We were never really synchronized,” she said with a laugh. She left the circus and returned to school as planned but never forgot the mood and vibrancy of life under the big top.
Four decades later, Emerson recreated images of this bygone era in “Cirque d’Art,” a body of work exhibited last fall at the Bend Art Center. The program guide stated that by “using simple cutouts, textured materials, layers of color and different printmaking processes, Emerson captures a time, place and feeling that lives on in our imagination.”
Emerson sees the circus as a metaphor for life. “It’s serious, magical and humorous,” she said. “We all have to learn to juggle, take leaps of faith and figure out what’s in our own tents.”
Photo by Alex Jordan
Emerson’s own tent turned out to be art and the creation of mixed media pieces, printmaking, book writing, illustration and pastel paintings inspired by French Impressionist Edgar Degas. She also discovered a love for teaching children and adults how to express themselves through art. She spent five years as an artist in residence in the local public schools in the early 1990s, designing an art curriculum for kindergartners through twelfth graders. “Kindergartners are the hardest to teach,” she said, “but they taught me how to make art come alive.”
In 1992, she started painting with pastels and enrolled in workshops to learn from the best pastel artists in the country. She won awards for her pastels and exhibited in galleries across the country, including at Bend’s Mockingbird Gallery where she still shows her work.
Photo by Alex Jordan
In 2008, she met mentor and printmaker Pat Clark, founder of Atelier 6000 studio (the education component of the Bend Art Center). Clark introduced Emerson to monoprinting, a process that results in a single print made with ink and a roller, often called a “painterly print.” After years of working in pastel, Emerson said the new medium caused her to “throw everything out and start anew.”
“The studio inspired a different voice in her work,” said Clark. “She conquered everything that was thrown at her in methods and media.”
Instead of working in small format, the two women created huge plates and then “ran over them” with steam rollers like those used in road building. Clark said Emerson became so skilled with ink that she created her own mixed-media techniques, combining monoprints with pastels. “She’s in the top two percent of American artists who work in pastels. She’s sought after as a workshop instructor and an art show juror,” said Clark.
Today, Emerson continues to challenge and reinvent herself as an artist. Her husband, Bruce, built her a large studio adjacent to their home in Terrebonne. She wrote and illustrated the book Pastel Innovations. And with a growing national reputation, she teaches about ten workshops a year across the country. But unlike her summer with the circus, the spotlight is on her and helping others find their own tents.
Our most popular stories of the year, from top-of lists to historical features.
1. 5 Classic Drive-Ins You Have to Eat at This Summer
Nothing says, “summer is here!” like a burger hot off a sizzling grill with a side of piping hot fries, preferably served with a milkshake. No Central Oregon summer vacation or staycation is complete without a stop at one of several nostalgia-rich, drive-in burger joints sprinkled around Central Oregon.
2. Mr. and Mrs. Smith: Visionary Duo Transformed a Town
It’s approaching midnight on the Deschutes River and the scene is unusually quiet at the Brooks-Scanlon lumber mill in 1973. A workers’ strike has silenced the churning economic backbone of Bend, which, in 1973, supports many of the nearly 15,000 residents, directly or indirectly. The night watchman patrolling the riverbank has no clue his contributions would one day make an “undeniable impact on changing the face of Bend and what it means to visit here.”
In Central Oregon, hiking season is year-round. When there’s snow in the mountains, head to these lower elevation trails throughout the region. Closer to town or in canyon country, these trails usually stay clear of snow throughout the winter months. Read the full story.
4. The Coldest Cold Case
A brazen bombing remains at the heart of a ninety-year-old mystery that rocked the small mill town at the height of Prohibition.
5. Flyte Camp Builds Retro Camping Trailer With Modern Luxuries
Photo by Carol Sternkopf
Flyte Camp, a vintage trailer restoration company in Bend, breaks the mold in the camp trailer industry with its new line of trailers that look vintage, but have modern luxuries. Read the full story.
6. Bend She Shed Doesn’t Sacrifice Style for Space
Named in the same vein as the “man cave,” she sheds are often built by and for women. The outbuildings offer a dedicated space to pursue hobbies and crafts.
7. NW Green Panels Makes Instagram-Worthy Greenhouses
Dutch doors, French windows and wainscoting are not terms you would expect to use when describing a backyard greenhouse. Then again, these are not run-of-the-mill greenhouses. Custom designed, made with Incense Cedar, and handcrafted with wood and stone details, the greenhouses made by NW Green Panels are immensely Instagram-worthy.
What better way to start a workday than with a mountain summit? Mt. Bachelor may seem a little intimidating, but the trail to the summit is beautiful and totally doable. With 2,600 feet of climbing in about 3 miles, it’s only about twice the distance of hiking Tumalo. Usually you’ll have the mountain to yourself, though occasionally you’ll see a lone skier hiking to a high snow-patch for a morning turn.
Central Oregon is known for its almost unnaturally cool summer evenings, but the days are another story. Come July and August, the High Desert begins to live up to its name. If you don’t have air conditioning, it can be tough to beat the heat. (And who wants to sit inside, anyhow?) Thankfully, our wealth of rivers, streams, reservoirs and high alpine lakes offer boundless opportunities to soak, splash and even surf. Read the full story.
10. Whitewater Kayaking in Central Oregon
With irrigation-moderated flows, scores of rapids and a variety of runs, rivers in the Bend area make for great year-round kayaking. Whether you’re front surfing at the whitewater park or running rapids on the Deschutes River, share the water and paddle safely with these practical tips while enjoying the best regional places to point your kayak downstream.
Central Oregon is known as a downhill skiing destination, but you don’t need a set of expensive skis or a snowboard to feel the pull of gravity. The region also has ample opportunities for sledding or inner tubing when you just want to play in the snow. From lift-powered tubing hills at area ski resorts to the DIY experience of sno-parks, here’s our list of the best places to sled and tube in Central Oregon.
Autobahn Tubing
Where: Hoodoo Ski Area, Sisters
For the adventurous, Autobahn Tubing at Hoodoo Ski Area features an 800-foot tubing hill for an exhilarating inner tubing experience. Choose to walk back up the hill or let the rope pull you and your tube after each run. For a smaller hill, Snow Bunny Sled Hill near the Easy Rider lift is also available. Bring your own sled or tube, or opt for rental tubes offered by Hoodoo.
Diamond Lake
Where: Diamond Lake Resort, Diamond Lake
This is a bit of a trek from Bend, but Diamond Lake Resort boasts a 470-foot conveyor belt that effortlessly transports eager tubers uphill. There are multiple lanes to ride down. Tubes are provided, and tickets must be purchased online.
Santiam Sno-Park
Where: Santiam Sno-Park
Santiam Sno-Park offers a sledding hill, generally free of trees or obstacles. While the snow conditions can vary, providing a slick surface for faster tubing with less control, this park is the sole tubing or sledding hill recommended by the National Forest Service in the Santiam National Forest. Restrooms are available on-site, though there are no warming huts.
Wanoga Sno-Park
Where: Wanoga Sno-Park, Bend
If you have an inner tube or sled, Wanoga Sno-Park is the place to be. The park includes a warming hut for breaks between runs. Situated in a dog-friendly area of the National Forest, it offers fun for the whole family, including furry friends. Additionally, the park provides opportunities for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling.
Whether you’re in Sunriver, Bend or Redmond, Central Oregon offers ample opportunity for ice skating. Dust off your skates (or rent a pair if you don’t have your own) and get to these ice skating rinks before the snow melts.
Downtown Redmond’s Outdoor Ice Skating Rink
The ice skating rink in Redmond is located downtown on 7th Street between Deschutes and Evergreen. It’s one of the only ice skating rinks that is completely outdoors, and the rink is open most afternoons and nights for skating. It’s also one of the cheapest places to skate in Central Oregon, especially if you have your own skates.
When: Open every day
The Pavilion, Bend
Photo by Greg Kleinert
The newest ice-skating rink in Central Oregon, The Pavilion opened two years ago to large crowds with no signs of slowing down today. Through Bend Parks & Recreation, you can join pick-up hockey games, join a curling league, or ice skate at one of the open sessions. The Pavilion is mostly open air, so you’ll want to be extra bundled on colder days. When you’re ready to warm up, there’s a café on the site where you can find hot chocolate and other warm drinks.
Ice skating at 7th Mountain Resort | Photo by Sebastian Foltz
Located on Century Drive on the way up to Mt. Bachelor, the ice skating rink is completely outside and open air. The rink is part of Seventh Mountain Resort, but open to the public. With the all-day rate, you can come and go as you please. One of the best times to skate is at night, when there is a laser light display while you skate under the stars.
When: Open every day
Sunriver Village
Part of the growing Village in Sunriver, the ice skating rink was recently updated with an expanded and remodeled warming area. The rink is located in the middle of the village allowing skaters to enjoy the village ambiance as they lap the ice sheet. When you’re done skating, there are lots of places in the village to grab or a treat or a warm drink, including the adjacent Sunriver Brewery and Goody’s confection shop.
When: Open every day but sessions vary. Check online for updated skate times.
Reynolds Pond, Mayfield Pond, and Beyond
You don’t need anything more than a spell of cold weather and some ingenuity to make your own ice rink. Central Oregonians have been skating on frozen lakes and ponds since long before the Bend Pavilion opened in 2016. While the freezing and thawing cycle can make for unpredictable conditions, there are a few reliable locations for DIY skating when the weather is right. Reynold Pond in Alfalfa is good bet, as is Mayfield Pond just east of Bend. Closer to home, there are areas around the Seventh Mountain Resort where conditions can allow for skating on the natural sloughs adjacent to the Deschutes River.
When: After a good week of consistently below freezing temperatures.*
*Note: Venturing out on ice can be dangerous and should not be done alone. Adults familiar with ice conditions should be present with children. If you are unsure, avoid it.
Local running experts Lauren Fleshman and Lucas Alberg share the best routes and trails for running around Bend this winter.
Lucas Alberg running in the winter at Horse Butte near Bend.
Bend is known for its abundance of running trails that are popular in the spring, summer and fall. But in the winter with snow on the ground, there are fewer trails from which to choose. We turned to local running experts Lauren Fleshman and Lucas Alberg to share some of their winter running routes around Bend. The takeaways: If you plan on running this winter, you’ll want a pair of Yaktrax. Or go east.
Lauren Fleshman: former competitive athlete, co-owner of Picky Bars
Columbia Park-Skyliner Loop
From Columbia Park in Bend, head through the neighborhoods toward 17th Street. Most of the streets are quiet and groomed. Then cut over to Galveston Ave., where you pick up the groomed path that follows Galveston Ave./Skyliner west. Turn left on Skyline Ranch Road, left on Metolius and then left again on Mount Washington to take you back to Skyliner. She said the paths are usually groomed enough to run with Yaktrax on. “Basically, if you can find low traffic roads that are plowed, and run during low traffic times, it is very pleasant,” said Fleshman. The whole route is about eight miles and gets you off of some of the busier roads in town.
Old Mill District
Fleshman said that she also likes to run loops in the Old Mill District. From Farewell Bend Park, this stretch of the Deschutes River Trail is mostly paved. Three bridges that cross the river mean you can make the loops as short as a mile or as long at three miles. Fleshman recommends bringing Yaktrax, clamps that attach to the bottom of your shoes, to use if the trail has some snow on it.
Lucas Alberg: avid trail runner, author and PR & Communications Manager at Hydro Flask
Oregon Badlands Wilderness
“I really like the Badlands because of the solitude and the beauty,” said Alberg. The region is relatively flat, with wide and sandy paths. The Flatiron Trailhead is sixteen miles east of Bend, and the whole trail is around six miles, but there are lots of connecting loops for you to choose how long you want to run. “It’s somewhere that you’d never want to run during summer with the heat and sand, but come winter the sand packs hard, there’s not a soul in site, and there’s a perfect stillness and beauty that can’t be matched,” said Alberg.
Horse Butte
Also east of Bend, the Horse Butte area is popular with mountain bikers and runners. “I also enjoy Horse Butte, especially in early winter as you still get some of the color from the sagebrush turning,” said Alberg. The whole loop is ten miles long with one steep section of switchbacks. “Combined with the red lava rock of Horse Butte, it makes for a spectacular combo,” said Alberg.
At Trattoria Sbandati, an almost decade old restaurant on Bend’s west side, Chef Juri Sbandati serves polpette, a traditional Tuscan meatball dish inspired by his grandmother.
Photo by Alex Jordan
Chef Juri Sbandati traces his earliest culinary memory to his grandmother’s kitchen in Florence, Italy. A small stove emanating wonderful smells, cluttered with an array of little pans. A white refrigerator, the kind from the 1950s that you had to open with a floor pedal. A classic red Gaggia espresso machine that chu gged along for decades. “Her house was perfect,” said Sbandati. “Her food full of love.”
For Sbandati, food is comfort. Food is family. Nowhere is that more palpable than in one of his signature dishes, Polpette. Three ground beef meatballs with a texture that cooks dream of achieving are topped with beautifully balanced tomato sauce and melted mozzarella, served with a side of sautéed spinach. Hearty, unfussy and impeccably executed, it’s honest food and is clearly made with love. For Sbandati, cooking this dish, as well as so many others on his menu, is “poetically personal” and you can taste it.
Trattoria Sbandati, an intimate restaurant located at the bottom of NW College Way in Bend, has been serving carefully handcrafted pastas and other authentic Tuscan dishes since 2009. The Polpette has never gone off the menu.
When asked about his meatball secrets, he offered four morsels. Number one: Share them with people you love; number two: Put some bread in the mix; number three: Add Parmigiano-Reggiano, not parmesan; and number four (the cardinal rule): Never mix them with spaghetti! (Go ahead and ask for spaghetti and meatballs if you dare, and incur Juri’s wrath.)
Before she died a few years ago, Sbandati’s grandmother would speak with him on the phone. During those conversations, she would ask him what he was cooking and how he was making it. Inevitably, he was doing something wrong and would get an earful. “I wish I could get yelled at again,” he said. “I miss her every day.”
Instead, he cooks in honor of his most cherished memories of her and for the chance to make his family and others feel those moments through his food.
Wild Oregon Foods brings a modern take on classic deli food from a seasoned Bend chef in southeast Bend.
When James Fink was growing up in the Bay Area, his family would drive forty-five minutes to get sandwiches at a small, hole-in-the-wall deli tucked between a tanning salon and a bank. His nostalgia for that place, and the sandwiches, kept him coming back years later when he was starting his career as a chef.
When he and his wife, Sarah, decided to open their own restaurant here, a location in the Bend Factory Stores, tucked on a corner next to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, brought back James’ memories of that deli from his childhood. Walking into the space for the first time, “I just had that weird, tingly feeling of it being just the right spot,” said James, who before opening his own spot helped craft dishes at Jackson’s Corner, Brasada Ranch and most recently Deschutes Brewery. Within six months, he and Sarah opened Wild Oregon Foods, a modern diner serving a fresh take on casual, deli-style food. A variety of soups, salads and sandwiches are all made using ingredients sourced as locally as possible.
Khrisma Carter, the property manager at the Bend Factory Stores, said she thinks Wild Oregon Foods will thrive in this neighborhood. “I’m really excited about this one, because it’s locally sourced,” said Carter. “I think in this community it’s really going to take off.”
Located on Third Street in southeast Bend, the Bend Factory Stores is the home of Oregon outdoor brands such as Nike, Columbia Sportswear and Pendleton as well as national brands such as Coach and Eddie Bauer. There are more than twenty shops and retailers in the walkable location, and Wild Oregon Foods is the only full-service restaurant there. Carter said that Wild Oregon Foods fits in with the hometown feel of the Bend Factory Stores.
“Wild Oregon Foods being so locally sourced is a good fit for where we’re trying to go,” said Carter. Plus, “their food is delicious.”
Making local and organic food accessible and affordable is something that James and Sarah value.
“We really want to make sure that organic food isn’t a privilege, but something that all of us are invested in,” said Sarah. “Because it’s too expensive, or you can only go to certain places to buy it, large swaths of our community get excluded. That was one of the reasons we chose southeast Bend. There really is nothing down here like it.”
Wild Oregon Foods serves lunch and dinner, and has a marketplace with local snacks and drinks. The restaurant also has a generous happy hour menu, with housemade cocktails inspired by local ingredients. Soon, Wild Oregon Foods will start serving breakfast, too. Sarah and James hope that it becomes a destination for families seeking quality and healthy comfort food, much like the deli from James’ childhood.
“We are trying to pave the path for new, healthy living for a lot of people that wouldn’t have the opportunity two minutes from their house,” said James.
With Wild Oregon Foods, James is on a mission to expose people to better ingredients, and in turn, better food.
“There’s not much to it,” said James of the menu. “It’s very simple, comfort, pure love in the food.”
Wild Oregon Foods
Open Tuesday – Friday, 11 a.m. – 8 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. – 8 p.m., Sunday 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. 61334 S Hwy 97 Suite 360 Bend, OR 97701 541-668-6344 wildoregonfoods.com
Bend Factory Stores
Open Monday – Saturday, 9:30 a.m. – 8 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. 61300 S Hwy 97 Bend, OR 97702 541-382-4512 bendfactorystores.com
Believe it or not, the holiday season has arrived. This weekend find traditional holiday events throughout Central Oregon. For those who aren’t quite ready to get into the holiday spirit, there’s also jazz performances and a chance to stock your pantry with local food for the winter. And for the snow lovers, Mt. Bachelor will officially open for the season on Saturday.
Photo courtesy of Mt. Bachelor
Holiday Food & Gift Festival
November 17-19 | Deschutes Fair & Expo Center, Redmond
Each year, Redmond’s Holiday Food & Gift Festival draws thousands of attendees. While you shop booths from more than 120 local vendors selling their handmade and artisan goods, fuel up with gourmet food samples. Now in its seventeenth year, the festival is one of the largest of its kind in the Pacific Northwest.
Jazz at the Oxford
November 17-18 | 10 Below at the Oxford Hotel, Bend
In the second installment of the Jazz at the Oxford series, the Peter Erskine Trio will be performing two shows on November 17 and 18. Jazz at the Oxford brings world renowned jazz musicians to Bend for a weekend of performances throughout the year. On Saturday, the Oxford will also host a free music education workshop, where members of the Peter Erskine Trio will share their musical skills and knowledge.
Mt. Bachelor Riverhouse Jazz
November 17-18 | Riverhouse on the Deschutes, Bend
Legendary New Orleans saxophonist Donald Harrison performs with the Terell Stafford Quintet in a rare joint appearance for these two contemporary jazz giants in the Riverhouse Jazz Series. Together these modern jazz masters have amassed a stunning resume that includes collaborations with Miles Davis, pianist McCoy Tyner and be bop pioneer Art Blakey.
Mt. Bachelor Opening Day
November 18 | Mt. Bachelor, Bend
Powderhounds, rejoice. With almost 100 inches of snowfall already this season, Mt. Bachelor will officially open to the public on Saturday, November 18. Find your balaclavas and get your skis and boards tuned up so you’re ready for the big day. Pine Marten, Skyliner and Sunshine Accelerator lifts will all open at 9 a.m., as well as the Nordic Center.
Santa’s Workshop
November 18 | Carey Foster Hall, Prineville
Kids ages 3 to 9 are invited to spend an afternoon making crafts and holiday gifts at Santa’s Workshop at the County Fairgrounds in Prineville. With unlimited access to arts and crafts, kids can make projects for gifts to give throughout the holidays. The event costs $5 per child, and they’ll have unlimited access to create as well as time to get a picture with Santa.
Fill Your Pantry
November 18 | Pleasant Ridge Community Hall, Redmond
Fill Your Pantry is a bulk-buying farmers market from Central Oregon Locavore. Stock up your pantry and freezer for the winter with local grains, meat, produce and more. This is the second year for the event, which benefits local farmers and is a chance to get to know more about Central Oregon’s local food system.
Grand Illumination
November 18 | Great Lodge, Sunriver
Families will enjoy the Grand Illumination tree lighting party and ceremony at Sunriver Lodge, which will have children’s activities, visits from Santa, train rides, sleigh rides and more. Live music will entertain throughout the evening. There will also be pony rides and a petting zoo from DD Ranch. Local food vendors will be on site at this free event.
High Desert Chamber Music Annual Benefit Gala
November 18 | Bend Golf and Country Club, Bend
Support the High Desert Chamber Music and its community education programs by attending the Annual Benefit Gala, which has become a holiday season tradition in Bend. The gala includes a performance from the Spotlight Chamber Players, dinner and a silent auction with items from local businesses.
Warm Springs’ Elizabeth Woody on life, loss and becoming Oregon’s poet laureate.
Elizabeth Woody. Photo by Amy Castano
Driving along the winding highway between Portland and Warm Springs on a cloudy day in early April, Elizabeth Woody saw her cell phone light up on the passenger seat. Recognizing the number, she pulled her dusty silver SUV off to the side of the road and picked up, wondering why they would be calling her—she hadn’t worked with them in years.
The unfamiliar voice on the other end introduced himself as Adam Davis, executive director of Oregon Humanities; he told her he had good news. After reviewing her nomination and submitted writing samples, the statewide selection committee was ready to nominate Oregon’s next poet laureate. Appointed by the governor, the poet laureate position is presented to a single author who has made a significant contribution to the state’s literary canon. The recipient spends two years promoting poetry across the state through the written word, as well as their presence at literary events. The committee thought Liz was the right person for the role.
“She has some national presence; when she was selected I heard from people around the country congratulating us on her appointment,” said Davis. For Woody the nomination came at a time when personal events were overshadowing her professional life.
“I was surprised, delighted, honored—and very hesitant to accept,” she remembers, her face filling with emotion. “My first thought was of my mother.”
Beginnings
Photo by Amy Castano
Sitting on a small gray sofa in her mother’s house in Warm Springs, Woody tilts her head to slip on a pair of earrings, pale discs that dangle playfully against strands of her long black hair. While her face shows fatigue from months in mourning and a recent bout of bronchitis, her eyes still light up when she laughs.
Tribal masks with hollow eyes watch over a bookshelf filled with picture frames, hints of Woody’s heritage that color her work and inspire her actions. Amid statuettes of Jesus and a Buddha, the visage of her great grandma Charlotte Edwards Pitt stares off into the distance wearing two long braids, her neck adorned in beads of the Wasco tribe. Portraits of Woody’s grandparents, Elizabeth and Lewis Pitt, sit alongside a snapshot of a smiling Woody with her sister Jolene and aunt Lillian Pitt that was taken at the American Book Awards when she was a finalist. In all these photos, one person is missing. Observing tribal traditions for mourning, Woody has removed all photos that include her mother and, for a year, she won’t even speak her mother’s name.
Surrounded by her heritage, Oregon’s newest poet laureate pays tribute to the lives and landscape that have shaped her literature by sharing her words and connecting with communities, one small town at a time.
Born in Ganado, Arizona in 1959, Woody moved to Central Oregon when she was four years old to her mother’s childhood home in Warm Springs, fifteen miles north of Madras. Created by treaty in 1855, the Warm Springs Reservation is home to the descendants of the Wasco, Walla Walla and Paiute tribes that unified as the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in 1938. As a child, Woody lived with her grandparents in a house near Madras where she and her sister grew up with a strong sense of connection to the Central Oregon landscape.
“Some things have changed, but mostly what I loved about growing up here was going outside,” she recalled. “My grandparents would take us on these long drives to the lava beds and the start of the Metolius River, which now is all a big park but back then it wasn’t anything. We were involved with people who were hunters, fishers and who gathered food, people who knew this land well. It’s the land that became ‘home’ to me.”
After hearing family stories on these long drives, five-year-old Elizabeth started telling stories of her own, written and illustrated on paper with her grandfather’s fountain pen and organized in a three-ring binder.
As a teenager, Woody’s interest gravitated toward images instead of words; she clocked countless hours in the darkroom at Madras High School trying to build up a portfolio for photography school and actually failed an English class. To her, classic literature lacked relevance. That was until a troupe of Shakespearean actors from Ashland performed at Madras High. The scenes were improv, not Shakespeare, but one Hispanic actor caught her attention by making an effort to involve Native students.
“I think that opened a door in Liz’s mind,” said Kim Stafford, a Portland writer and longtime family friend, relating the experience. “It made her think that ‘someone like me could do art’ and now she can open doors for other people because she has a bigger sense of what it’s about.”
In 1978, at end of her senior year, Woody’s English teacher asked her to enter a contest to attend the first Oregon High School Writers Workshop held at Lewis & Clark College. Never having written a poem before, she went home that night and wrote two because, as she explained it, she wanted to meet a living author. That summer, Woody got her wish and was chosen as one of four students to study creative writing with Sandra McPherson and James Welch at the weeklong workshop where she learned to play with words and lyrical rhythms, and discovered her own—previously unconsidered—path.
“When I was in high school, I wanted to be a photographer. My mom wanted me to go to law school, my uncle wanted me to go into natural resources and my aunt wanted me to be an artist,” she said with a laugh. “I could have chosen a lot of different ways to go, but writing seemed to be the thing that happened—the positive in my life came from writing.”
Inspirations
Unsnapping the latches on the worn black case, Woody uncovered the old Royal typewriter. Carefully placing it on the kitchen table, she tapped a key with one finger as a smile spread across her face. Pretty soon she was clicking away until—DING! She laughed as the carriage reached the end of a row, clearly tickled to bring out the tool she used to type her first manuscript. It’s a relic that she hadn’t touched in years. Splotches of whiteout still speckled the machine’s front, leftover evidence of past revisions. Tucked in back is a memo made in her mother’s handwriting to an attorney, a reminder of her mother’s activism and the politics that percolate into Woody’s poetry.
“My grandfather was a translator, secretary treasurer and one of the co-authors of the first tribal council. So Indian rights and tribal treaties—that’s what we grew up talking about at our kitchen table,” Woody said. “This is what we learned in the home, in my home. Not everybody has that, but my family lived in that climate.”
A destitute alcoholic during her and her sister’s childhood years, Woody’s mother turned her life around through social activism. She became a counselor for the Native American Rehabilitation Association in the 1970s and pushed for American Indian freedoms across the state, writing grants to build sweathouse treatment centers in Corvallis and supporting fishing rights struggles on the Columbia River, including the imprisonment of David Sohappy during the 1980s.
Trips to the library to research court cases from microfiche and typing up notes for her mom taught Woody to research her questions and write about them. After studying at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico from 1980 to 1983, Woody returned to her mother’s typewriter in Portland and started reworking her school assignments into a manuscript, written over coffee and conversations.
“I would type draft after draft, then we would go to a little café around the corner and get a cup of coffee for 25 cents,” Woody remembered. “We’d sit for hours and hours; I would read her the poems and she got it. She understood this whole universe of poetry because it came from my roots, which were her roots, too.”
Many of the poems in Woody’s first book, 1988’s Hand into Stone, centered around the Columbia River and American Indian culture, including the loss of tribal fishing areas at Celilo Falls, near The Dalles. (Celilo was one of several historically and spiritually significant spots lost when the lower Columbia dams altered the landscape.) This debut book, which went on to win the American Book Award in 1990, almost almost never was. In 1987 as she was finishing writing, the briefcase containing her first manuscript was stolen in northeast Portland.
“Maybe a week later the police called me, I went in to the police station and there was my briefcase stuffed with these papers, covered with great big cop boot prints and gravel holes—I wish I had saved it,” Woody said with a laugh. “I had said when I lost it: ‘If this ever comes back I will submit it; I will quit holding onto it.’”
And she did just that. Hand Into Stone gained Woody national attention and was reprinted as Seven Hands Seven Hearts, along with another writing collection called Luminaries of the Humble, originally released in 1994. In addition to writing three books in six years, she also earned a bachelor’s degree in humanities from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington in 1991 and continued to write numerous poems, as well as short stories and essays.
Although personal and rooted in her tribal upbringing, Woody’s words also speak to a larger audience.
“One thing I find in her writing is that I need to surrender some of my habits of the rational and get ready for the mythical,” said acclaimed writer Kim Stafford, describing Woody’s works.
“It’s ‘look close and you will see’ rather than ‘let me tell you what it’s all about.’ She makes you work for the mysterious, it’s not all spelled out in neon and requires patience. It’s more challenging than some writing, but she’s not showing off, not even showing–she’s singing,” said Stafford.
Speaking with an honesty that is sometimes considered harsh, Woody recalled audience members walking-out at early readings and claims her writing was “not in its time.” If some found her words abrasive, there is a reason: her works tell the realities of American Indian life, including poverty, homelessness and domestic violence.
“It’s not a manifesto, not a call to arms—what I’m writing about is life,” Woody said of her style and subject matter. “I love complexity; I think that’s what I want to communicate about my experience as I get older. I don’t care if people like it; I do it for people who need my work.” One of those people is her.
Once, Woody called her aunt, artist Lillian Pitt, on the phone to read a draft.
“She would call me and read her new poems,” remembered Pitt. “One time I was exhausted and I said ‘Oh honey why can’t you write happy puppy poems?’ And she never forgot that. But Liz is intellectual, very intelligent and she feels things very intensely.”
Pitt went on to explain that while Woody’s writing has known success, she has known great tragedy: her mother’s alcoholism; a house fire when she was thirteen; layoffs when she was a professor in Santa Fe and most recently, her mother’s death.
In some ways the tragedies and tumult fed her creativity.
“She went through that, kept it all to herself,” Pitt said. “A person does need help to get through traumatic experiences like that. I think her writing has been part of that process.”
Homecoming
Photo by Amy Castano
The news came last September, after Woody had received a call from her mother complaining about pain. Studying X-rays of her mother’s lungs that day at the doctor’s office, Woody said the tumors looked like dark little berries on her lungs. “You don’t have pneumonia,” the doctor told them. The diagnosis had arrived suddenly, but Woody didn’t hesitate to put her life on hold to come to her mother’s side.
With an M.A. in Public Administration from Portland State University, Woody has lived the last eighteen years in Portland, where she directed the Indigenous Leadership Program at Ecotrust, a nonprofit environmental organization, and developed programs at Oregon Health & Science University as well as the Meyer Memorial Trust. As soon as she learned about the cancer, she moved back to Warm Springs to care for her mother, who was gone just weeks later on October 1.
The loss left Woody, her sister and all of Warms Springs to mourn for a mother and counselor who could’ve gone to Harvard (Woody’s mom applied and was accepted to the school in 1973) but instead returned and devoted the last years of her life to helping the people of the reservation. For Woody, the traditional yearlong process of mourning means she won’t gather first fruits or attend celebrations and powwows. But even in sadness, she said the memory of her mother helped her answer the call to accept the poet laureate position, which she illuminated with a story.
“When I was a girl, we would go with my mother all over Oregon and Washington—she wanted us to see everything and everybody,” said Woody. “We supported Grande Ronde when they had their first powwow and all they had was a cassette deck.
“Our uncle Leslie Thomas was the emcee and they only had four dancers, these little kids. But mom said ‘It’s really important. These people need our support. They need to be recognized as who they are.’ We told her ‘But mom there’s nobody here!’ and she said ‘So? You get out there and dance!’”
The message of outreach and solidarity stuck with Woody and in some ways inspired her most recent undertaking.
As Oregon’s poet laureate, Woody is tasked with making more than twenty appearances and presentations at literary events across the state. Her goal is to reach beyond the writing centers in Portland and Eugene to rural communities like the one she came from.
“I felt like I had to pay homage to that spirit of going and supporting people and looking—just looking,” said Woody. “How many people go to these places and spend any time, or have the ability and capacity to try and build some bridges for them?”
In her proposal for the position, Woody outlined a plan to cultivate relationships with border towns, reservations and rural communities. She aims to support the humanities in smalltown schools and libraries by sharing the support that she has experienced. Despite the high school career counselor who discouraged her from going to college, Woody cites many more mentors who have encouraged her to write, including teachers, writers, tribe members and one Madras shopkeeper who was happy to hear she had become a poet.
“The community has always been supportive,” said Lillian Pitt about the impact of the arts on places such as Warm Springs. “The elders have said to us, ‘Keep doing it. By letting people know our culture, it lets them know we’re still here.’”
Walking onto the porch of her mother’s yellow house, Woody listened to the world in Warms Springs—crickets and bees, dogs barking, and the faint sounds of Shitike, her favorite creek in the world. Off in the distance stands Mt. Jefferson, its summit capped in clouds.
Tomorrow, she will return to Portland but will travel back each week to connect with people in places that are important to her. In a few months, when the fires have died down and the wooden fence posts around the cemetery have been replaced, Woody will wait for her mother’s spirit to return in the form of an animal, to assure her and her sister that she’s okay. But that evening, she crossed the highway into the Museum at Warm Springs to attend an opening for her Aunt Lillian’s art exhibit.
Passing under the inscription TWANAT (meaning “to follow the ancestors”), she walked through the doors and watched friends and family sing and dance until it was her turn. The gathering went quiet as she stepped up to the microphone and began to read in a clear and calm voice. Evidenced by the hush, the group seemed intent on hearing what she had to say.
The holidays are upon us—cue the annual family drama and overindulgence. I’ve been known to book a post-holiday cleanse as soon as I feel the first signs of autumn. I sat down with my favorite mindfulness teacher, Cynthia LaRoche, to discuss ways we can avoid the old pattern of holiday stress, carb-loading and the subsequent guilt-induced cleanse.
So, Cynthia, are there ways we can build up our emotional immunity to holiday stress? I’m asking for a friend.
Alignment is the theme of all my work lately. We get pulled by drama, external stimulus and other people’s emotions when we aren’t grounded in our own alignment or haven’t defined what it is we want to feel. Crazy Uncle Larry probably won’t ever change his politics and you may not be able to say no to a third helping of mom’s homemade mac and cheese, but you can change your relationship with these things. This begins by being clear on how you want to feel, then beginning practices that align with this.
You offer a Step Into Stillness retreat down in Mexico every October. Why is this an ideal time?
It’s the ultimate pre-holiday reset. It allows us to step away from our every day, to separate from our current condition, examine it, set new intentions for how we want to be, and then go back into the holidays and our lives with more clarity.
Are there other ways people can find stillness a little closer to home? Again, asking for a friend.
A regular yoga/meditation practice is an amazing way to keep your sanity. Groove Yoga offers a holiday special on class packages each year. I will also be offering two yoga nidra classes over the holidays. November will be a special intention-setting, healing session. December will be a “Holiday Relief” class with comedian Shanan Kelley. If the busyness of the season has you stretched thin, book a private yoga session to learn how to practice on your own.
When that annoying, overly opinionated uncle is sitting across the table, how do we not sling mashed potatoes in his face or tell him to shut his pie hole?
This is exactly what I meant by our alignment work. We have the ability to change our relationship with situations we don’t like. Here’s a practice I learned that really helps me in times like this: Before the family arrives, take a sheet of paper and write “If this situation were different I would feel…” and write how you would feel if the situation were more to your liking. Keep writing the words that come to mind until you begin to feel that way. It’s about taking your power back and not being so swayed by what is going on around you.
Even with all these tips, some of us will still fall off the mindfulness wagon and overindulge this holiday season. So how do we repent?
Falling off the wagon is always worse when it’s filled with guilt and regret. We’re human; ease up about this. Just get back on. Make a choice that moves you closer to alignment next time. Remember, you are in control of you.
EDCO’s Tech Industry Coordinator Teri Hockett on workforce challenges in Bend and the importance of diversity in tech.
Teri Hockett
Teri Hockett spent much of her career recruiting for tech, helping companies find talent and helping talented people find job opportunities. Now she’s using her experience and expertise to strengthen Bend’s tech community. Hockett moved to Bend after winding down her own recruiting firm, What’s for Work, which aimed to specifically help women transitioning back into tech careers after raising families.
After taking a year off, she rolled up her sleeves and got to work as the tech industry coordinator for Economic Development of Central Oregon (EDCO). She’s since repositioned to be the Central Oregon director for the Technology Association of Oregon (TAO), a statewide nonprofit supporting the technology companies. We caught up with Hockett to learn more about her work, her passion for supporting women in tech and her hopes for our business community.
First, what brought you Bend?
After thirty years in the Bay Area, raising our two daughters and launching our respective companies, we were ready for the beauty and serenity of Bend. We love the mountains and we wanted a small town. Boulder had always been on our short list, but it’s not the same Boulder it was thirty years ago. Also, our youngest daughter is at the University of Oregon, so we were coming up to Oregon to visit. You’ve been involved in the tech industry for a long time.
What challenges do you see here?
Primarily the workforce pipeline. Bend employers have long been able to rely on the fact that they live in this great place—that was enough to recruit people. They haven’t had to offer nationally competitive wages or benefits. Now that’s changed. With remote workforces, you’re competing for talent with employers all over the world. Our companies have definitely recognized that and have made some really great hires. But recruiting is still tough.
Speaking of workforce development, can you discuss your STEAM initiative?
TAO STEAM is an effort to help grow the pipeline of women in science, technology, engineering, art and math careers. Most of the tech company executives here want to see more women applying for jobs. That work starts long before you ever see a job posting. We need to see ourselves in those positions and then see the path. Our STEAM events in Bend are giving young girls and women the opportunity to do that.
You’ve helped expand TAO’s presence in Central Oregon. Why is it important for TAO to have someone here?
The first day I started, Skip Newberry, the TAO executive director, took me over to meet the current TAO advisory board members in Bend. They said right away, “We don’t want to do everything that TAO in Portland is doing.” Central Oregon has its own unique community and needs. They were really focused on workforce development, which was a natural fit for my experience with career development. Tech has become an integral part of all business, so we’re helping companies here figure out how to grow the pipeline of potential talent.
What resources does Central Oregon need to help encourage more women in STEAM?
We’d love to have a diversity inclusion program at OSU-Cascades—that’s something that is already underway. TAO STEAM launched a formalized mentorship program specifically for women interested in STEAM careers in October. And then it’s about working with the youth, such as getting more girls into coding and encouraging the state of Oregon to offer high school credits for computer science courses and coding education.
What do you hope that Bend’s tech community looks like in five years?
I’d like diversity and inclusion to no longer be hot topics—because we’ve made them a non-issue. I’d like equal pay to not be a tough conversation that we have to have. For the tech community in general, I think that OSU’s Innovation Center for Entrepreneurship has the chance to help entrepreneurs and companies know that they can come here and start their businesses with all these resources available to them. If you look at the broader business landscape, I think we can be a destination place, known for being an open-arms, inclusive community with opportunities in outdoor, biosciences, technology and more.
Based in Oregon, SMART is a nonprofit that encourages early childhood literacy and fosters a love of reading in children.
In a perfect world, every child would have a parent to sit down with them at night and read Green Eggs and Ham. The reality is that many children don’t get the support or resources they need to fall in love with reading.
In Oregon, a literary program is tackling the problem by leaning on volunteers, many of them retirees, to step in as surrogate teachers for a few hours per month. These volunteers dedicate their time as reading buddies and mentors, allowing students to explore the world of reading at their own pace with a captive audience.
Founded in 1992, SMART (Start Making A Reader Today) is an Oregon-based nonprofit organization that encourages early childhood literacy and fosters a love of reading that kids carry with them throughout their lives. SMART works to improve literacy and cultivate an early love of reading that builds stronger readers by the time kids are in third grade, which is the critical point of education for kids, said Sue Stephens, the senior program manager for SMART.
The program pairs students with volunteers to read one-on-one for the school year. Each student takes home two free books each month that they can keep to start building a personal library. Teachers benefit from reduced reading class sizes since SMART program kids leave the classroom, resulting in more individualized attention for all students.
In Central Oregon, SMART has twenty-two programs in preschools and elementary schools throughout Crook, Deschutes, Jefferson and Grant counties. Jeri Coffin, the site coordinator for SMART at Roslund Elementary School in La Pine, said that giving out the free books is one of the best ways to keep kids reading at home.
“There are families who don’t have the funds to buy books or may not be able to go to a library to get books,” said Coffin. “Kids get to pick the books they take home. If they fall in love with the book, they are more apt to read it with their parents.”
One of the problems that SMART can run into, which happened with two Central Oregon elementary schools in 2014, is overcrowding in schools, which can mean a lack of space to run the reading the program. With new elementary schools recently added to the Bend-La Pine School District, Stephens doesn’t anticipate having a problem with overcrowding in the future.
Most of the volunteer readers are retired. Stephens said the bond that the pairs form is a crucial to the program’s success. “There’s that magic that happens between the older generation and the kids,” said Stephens.
The short, storied life and demise of Pilot Butte Inn, Bend’s iconic chalet.
Maybe today, the Pilot Butte Inn, an iconic building, might have stood today as a living piece of history. It might have followed in the arc of the Tower Theatre, as a restored landmark. Instead, the Swiss chalet-style hotel on the banks of the Deschutes River lives on in memories and photographs.
In half a century, the building went from being the community hub and pride of Bend to a neglected shell of its grandeur. Even a designation on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 couldn’t save it. Less than a year later, Pilot Butte Inn was demolished. A headline from a Bulletin article on the day it was torn down in 1973 read, “Bend era ends with inn’s destruction.” Today, a bank, burrito joint and bakery stand in its place at the corner of Newport Avenue and Wall Street.
Using three-foot thick pine from the nearby forests and the river rock from the Deschutes River that ran just steps away, skilled carpenters and masons built the Pilot Butte Inn in 1917. The inn followed the opening of the two sawmills in 1916, solidifying Bend’s place as more than a homestead community. (Philip R. Brooks, a relative of the Brooks family of Brooks-Scanlon, Inc. financed the construction of the inn.) Designed as an alpine-style lodge by John E. Tourtellotte, Pilot Butte Inn was a destination for travelers, living out its best years in the heyday of motor tourism.
A Legacy of Grandeur and Hidden Pleasures
The inn was built with sixty guest rooms, additional construction over its lifetime added about one hundred more. The first floor had a large fireplace, private dining rooms for men and women, billiard and card rooms and a secret wine cellar. A picture window in the main dining room framed a panorama of the Cascade Mountain Range. Oregon was technically a dry state at the time of its construction, but the grand opening party had “no shortage of spirits” and brought people from all over the state, according to contemporary accounts. Famous guests at the inn included Oregon governors such as Oswald West. In 1934, Eleanor Roosevelt stayed at the inn and reportedly ate a planked trout in the dining room.
Photo courtesy of Deschutes County Historical Society
Bend historian Ila Grant Hopper described Pilot Butte Inn as the center of the town’s social life, with balls, banquets, conventions and weddings held there throughout the years. “But more than any other service, it provided community identity: it was Bend to outsiders, whose surprise and pleasure at encountering a hostelry of such excellence amid reaches of the interior were translated into grateful and lasting memory,” she wrote. “Should its familiar outline vanish from downtown Bend, something vital to the community spirit will be irrevocably lost.”
Beginning in the 1960s, the hotel went through a series of owners and fell into disarray. Local architecture student Jean Anderson was one of the strongest advocates for saving the hotel, but efforts to preserve the building were ultimately unsuccessful.
A piece of the inn does still remain in Bend, though. When the inn was demolished, the iconic stone fireplace was dismantled first, each stone carefully preserved so that one day the fireplace could be reconstructed. The fireplace now stands in the foyer of the Athletic Club of Bend, surrounded by historic photos and available for visitors who want to take in a genuine piece of some building blocks of Bend’s history.
Bend Beer Yoga is a new event that brings together two of Bend’s favorite pastimes: drinking beer and doing yoga.
Bend Beer Yoga at 10 Barrel in Bend, Oregon. Photo by Alex Jordan.
“They tell you to ‘be present, be here.’ For me, when I take a yoga class my mind tends to drift,” said Bend Beer Yoga creator Cady Lindsey. “When you’re holding a beer, and trying to balance at the same time, you can’t help but be present because otherwise you’re going to spill your drink.”
Lindsey said she’s no yogi, but yoga was the most helpful thing she tried while recovering from a car accident. After reading about beer yoga in Germany, Lindsey eagerly looked for a class in Bend.
“When I realized it wasn’t being done here, I thought that it should be,” she said. “It was an ‘If you build it they will come’ sort of situation. Bend people are active. They want to do more than just sit at a bar.”
A successful kick-off class of twenty people at Worthy Brewing in September turned into a full autumn schedule booked at watering holes around town, including 10 Barrel’s new location, GoodLife and Bendistillery. Bend Beer Yoga classes are taught by one of four local yoga instructors. Each instructor brings their own music and style, so classes can range from restorative to flow.
“It’s meant to be pretty beginner and accessible to anyone [who is over 21 years of age],” said Lindsey. “It’s interactive. There’s a lot of ‘cheersing’ and laughing going on.”
So far, class demographics have matched Lindsey’s vision: all levels of yogis, a variety of ages and a ratio of at least one male to every three females. Attendees can even borrow a cup holder to avoid party fouls.
How Mecca Grade is pumping the flavor back into malt.
Photo courtesy of Mecca Grade
Up on the High Desert plateau, just outside Madras, a century farm connects the region’s agricultural past and its present. Owners Seth Klann and his father, Brad, know their history. Their family has been here making a living off the land for generations. Now they are betting they can also see the future. If they’re right, this family farm could be the key to the next step in the evolution of craft brewing: high-end estate malt.
Malt is the backbone of beer. The germination of barley in a controlled environment, followed by the roasting of the grain at its starchiest and most saccharine point, creates beer’s complexion, alcohol content and sweetness. It also, like with hops, contributes flavor and mouthfeel. Yet only a few strains of barley supply most of North America’s maltsters, a ripple effect of bland flavor profiles that dates to Prohibition. Mecca Grade Estate Malt is trying to bring back the nuanced flavors of old European malts with its estate-grown, estate-malted barley varieties bred in partnership with barley scientists at Oregon State University.
“It takes a lot of malt to make the world go ’round,” said Seth Klann, whose family has owned the farmland since 1905. “We’re always looking for a way to keep the farm in the family for another generation. Wheat price goes up and down. Artisanal malted barley is an untapped market with huge potential.”
Photo courtesy of Mecca Grade
Seth, an OSU graphic design graduate who also studied ag business, was sourcing malts from Germany for his homebrews when he had a lightbulb moment. Already growing wheat on his family’s 1,000 acres, he experimented with malting that grain before turning to barley. He convinced Brad to get on board and they headed to malting school in Canada, where 80 percent of barley comes from the same parent strain, much like in the United States.
To the Klanns’ surprise, no one else was trying to turn specialty barley into premium malt and they recognized the novelty in what they wanted to achieve.
“Trying to make a luxury product out of something that’s been a base commodity for so long means that every step of the process, from the field to the finished product, has to be unique,” said Seth. “OSU bred Full Pint, a flavorful barley varietal that grows well in Central Oregon. Through our partnership with them we are continuing to crossbreed Full Pint with old European barleys to create heirloom varietals. Because of this, we are a decade ahead of anyone else in the malt business.”
The father-son duo set to work in 2014, creating a rotational crop schedule where they can gradually add spring and rye barley to a rotation of wheat and Kentucky bluegrass, plus other cold-season crops such as winter peas. Brad and his father were early adopters of water-saving irrigation techniques decades before most farmers, foresight which is helping Mecca Grade during the salmon-safe certification process.
Foresight is a family forte. An Oregon manufacturer accepted the Klanns’ pitch to have a custom malting machine built that now churns out 24,000 pounds of malt per month in the farm’s estate warehouse. They built the zero-waste facility with scaling in mind, leaving room to install three more machines down the road. Last winter, Seth completed an industrial barn-style tasting room that offers client’s beers and Seth’s homebrews on tap.
Three-quarters of the company’s product is a pilsner malt, the lightest form. “It’s a true rustic farmhouse malt: sweet and nutty with a little bit of grassiness to it,” said Seth. “Our malts that we roast longer bring out more of a graham cracker flavor.”
Photo courtesy of Mecca Grade
Using Mecca Grade’s artisan malt costs brewers about twenty cents more per pint than the standard malt, so customer acquisition requires a selling point to brewers and distillers that reaches beyond the “buy local” angle. Thus far, feedback from clients is positive. One of the company’s California brewery clients reports improved flavor character using just 20 percent Mecca Grade malt.
Being in the artisanal libation business also necessitates patience, as the products are typically barrel aged. Oregon Spirit Distillers in Bend and House Spirit Distillers in Portland currently have whiskeys in barrel malted with Mecca Grade. At The Ale Apothecary, Bend’s “vintage batch oak barrel” brewery where bottles go for upwards of $30 each, they like the malt so much they now use Mecca Grade exclusively.
“By developing obscure varieties and malting in-house, our process produces the only flavors like this in the world, all estate-grown on our family farmland,” said Seth. “Our goal is to show people how better quality malt is the next step in the evolution of the craft beer industry.”
A brazen bombing remains at the heart of a ninety-year-old mystery that rocked Bend at the height of Prohibition.
Prineville Sheriff Stephen Yancey (holding a rifle) rests of the bumper of his automobile with his deputies at his side. Yancey served the county between 1925 and 1929 at the height of prohibition. The sheriff was on the front lines of the effort to stamp out the moonshine business in Crook County.
It is three o’clock in the morning and the burgeoning mill town of Bend is asleep. The first blow of the mill whistle won’t sound for another four hours. A dog barks, breaking the silence that envelops the tightly knit neighborhood around Hood Place and Congress Street, just blocks from Bend’s commercial center.
Suddenly, an explosion rips through the Congress Apartments. The ground shakes as bricks fly like cannonballs from the back of the one-story building where a massive hole has opened. Inside the small apartment, two state prohibition agents scramble, alive but shaken. The explosion was no accident, rather a hit ordered by outlaw moonshiners on the agents who worked as enforcers of unpopular prohibition laws.
Welcome to Bend circa 1926, where lawlessness and old school retribution put even lawmen in the line of fire. The brazen bombing is believed to have been payback for the killing of a local moonshiner just a few weeks earlier east of Bend. Despite much publicity at the time, the crime remains unsolved to this day.
Ninety-one years later, Bend Police cold case detectives Sgt. Devin Lewis and Lt. Jason Maniscalco are looking at crime scene photos from the dynamiting of Congress Apartments in downtown Bend.
“Look, the whole back wall is gone,” said Lewis. “I’ve never heard about this case before.”
Although there were never Al Capone-Elliot Ness styled shootouts between the police and moonshiners, Bend was a rough and tumble town in its early days. Loggers and blue-collar millworkers supplied a ready and thirsty market for moonshiners eager to skirt the state and federal laws banning the production and sale of alcohol. State and federal agents were never far behind, and for several years a game of cat and mouse played out across the High Desert.
Confiscated booze was flushed into the gutter during pouring parties. This “party” took place outside the courthouse in Prineville.
According to contemporary accounts in the local newspaper, the attempted hit on the two state prohibition agents was believed to be retribution for the killing of a suspected bootlegger during a raid on a clandestine distillery between Brothers and Burns. Since no one was killed in the explosion, the statute of limitations has long expired. The century-old case is too old for law enforcement to prosecute or even pursue. It is the coldest of cold cases.
Like many local policing agencies around the country, the Bend Police Department does not have a dedicated cold case unit. With limited resources and new cases popping up daily, most detective resources are dedicated to solving the latest crimes since evidence and memories are fresh.
That’s not to say that cold cases are ignored. They might appear to be dead, but they’re just dormant, waiting for the right clue to emerge or witness to come forward. Sgt. Lewis is supervising detective. He assigns the caseload to one of the eight detectives in the unit.
“Everyone has read up on their cases. It’s just easier if we get a great tip or new evidence comes to light,” said Lewis.
A case may never be solved unless a tip comes in or crucial evidence is unearthed.
“It all comes down to the solvability factor,” said Lewis. “You could spend hundreds of hours working on a cold case and not get any further.”
Time is the enemy and the ally in cold cases. It may be years or decades before a citizen decides to provide a clue to police.
“A witness may come forward. It may not be an eyewitness, but maybe a family member who remembers something from the past,” said Lewis. “They tell us, I remember when I was ten years old, my brother was talking about his involvement in the case. I really didn’t think about it until yesterday.”
Lewis stressed it may not be the best information, but it gives the detectives a point of reference to other leads, which could crack the case.
Modern forensic technology has changed the amount of evidence collected. A murder case may contain binders of written evidence, interviews and transcripts. It is not uncommon for a case file to contain 600 pages.
“A fifty-year-old murder case may be captured in a two-inch-thick folder,” said Maniscalco.
In the case of the Congress Apartment bombing, time has erased all but a few historical records. Today, the case is a piece of local lore. Still, the brash act fascinates, offering a window into the Wild West mentality that endured in rural outposts such as Bend well into the 20th century.
A view of the Congress Avenue apartment building on the corner of Hood Place and Congress Street in Bend circa 1926.
To understand the Congress Apartments’ attack, one requires a bit of historical context. In 1916, the temperance movement managed to squeak through a referendum that made Oregon an alcohol-free state—four years before the rest of the country. The dry years were a boon for moonshiners and bootleggers in Central Oregon, but the law and practice didn’t always square, according to Prineville historian Steve Lent with the Bowman Museum.
“Enforcement was pretty lax, particularly up until the Prohibition,” said Lent.
The Volstead Act, which kicked off federal prohibition, made everything containing alcohol illegal and marked the start of a more deliberate enforcement approach. Yet, the laws of supply and demand dictated that moonshiners would fill the void left by shuttered commercial distilleries. These alcohol outlaws made their living by circumventing the liquor ban while avoiding the much-feared state and federal prohibition agents. Stills popped up all over the High Desert, with production facilities hidden in lava caves and backyard sheds.
“There were not enough law enforcement officers to cover all of Central Oregon,” said Lent.
Janelle Alameda remembers hearing stories about her grandfather, “Buck” Mariott, who served as a sergeant in the Marine Corps in World War I. In the early 1920s, Mariott became a state prohibition officer. Stationed in Eugene, Mariott patrolled the Central Oregon high desert together with his partner, “Mac” McBride.
“My grandfather would go out in the wilderness and look for stills,” said Alameda. “It was a dangerous occupation, and he always carried a gun.”
Back in 1926, McBride and Mariott worked for the Oregon Bureau of Prohibition, a sort of local version of the federal ATF. They worked in cooperation with the police and sheriff’s departments in Bend, Redmond, Prineville and Madras.
It was a risky proposition to go after moonshiners who were often armed and eager to avoid losing their investment. But that was exactly what Mariott and McBride decided to do on February 17, 1926. Based on a tip from an informant, the agents travelled to an alleged moonshine operation outside of Hampton, Oregon.
Crime scene photos show the damage from the explosion that ripped through the back of the Congress Apartments where two prohibition agents were living.
The agents reached the area in the afternoon and found a stilling operation stashed in a primitive shelter constructed of juniper logs and dirt. Peering through a window, they found ten barrels of mash brewing over a simmering fire, two fifty-gallon stills and another twenty-four barrels of mash. McBride and Mariott pried open a window, crawled inside and waited.
The following morning, Vayle Taylor, a homesteader from nearby Alfalfa, arrived on horseback. What happened next is a matter of historic record and based on the agents’ recollection.
According the agents, it was Taylor who got the drop on them after spotting their tracks outside his hideout. He turned the tables on the waiting agents by jamming the door, locking them inside. According to the two agents, Taylor then struck a match and brandished a rag. Clearly the bust was not going as planned, with Taylor seemingly ready to burn down his operation with the agents inside. According to Mariott, the desperate agents broke down the door from the inside. In the process, McBride’s gun accidentally discharged, instantly killing Taylor.
Both McBride and Mariott were cleared at the coroner’s inquest in Prineville the following day. Taylor’s associates, a group known as the Bear Creek and High Desert Gang, weren’t ready for a truce. They were looking to settle the score. They didn’t wait long. Just eighteen days later, the violent blast shook the Congress Apartments where Marriot and McBridge were living.
Local blasting experts speculated the criminals had used either fifty sticks of dynamite or twenty five to thirty pounds of TNT. The police eventually linked the explosion to members of the Bear Creek and High Desert Gang based on information from an informant.
Although the crime was investigated by the Bend Police and the Deschutes County Sheriff’s departments, it was never solved. The county court even offered a $1,500 reward to anyone who could identify the criminals who blew up the building. In this case, the mystery is more a matter of historic curiosity than justice.
Everybody connected to the case is long gone. Vayle Taylor is buried at the Pilot Butte Cemetery in Bend beside his mother, Mildred, who died in 1920. There is no gravestone marking the site. Alvie “Buck” Mariott and his wife Myrtle are laid to rest at the Willamette National Cemetery. “Mac” McBride disappeared from the gaze of history in 1932, the last time his name was mentioned in the Bulletin. And the criminals who dynamited Congress Apartments never stood before a judge.
Within five years after the bombing the eighth amendment had been repealed, formally ending prohibition. With the stroke of a pen, President Roosevelt undid seventeen years of prohibition in Oregon. The Bureau of Prohibition and its agents were relegated to history. The first truckload of legal beer rolled into Bend on April 24, 1933.
Still, it would be years before the moonshine business dried up in Central Oregon. It seemed that some locals preferred the cheap backyard brand of booze to the highly taxed bottles in the store. But the heyday of moonshiners had come and gone—with a boom.
How Travis Yamada, aka “the most humble dude ever,” became the unofficial ambassador of surfing and skating in Bend.
The Travis Yamada story picks up in the present tense, as he hovers over a surfboard-shaped piece of foam in the middle of a small, blue-walled room that serves as his workshop and corporate headquarters. Working deliberately, he saws out the rails, planes in the rocker and regularly pauses to pick up the blank, examining his work with the critical eye of a confident perfectionist.
Not far away, wetsuit-clad river rats are surfing Yamada’s boards at Bend’s Whitewater Park, stoked on the smooth green wave and on the laid-back scene. Just a few miles east, a new generation of skateboarders are ripping around the polished concrete bowls and ramps in the Ponderosa 2 skateboard park off Wilson Avenue. The riders may or may not know Travis Yamada, but his fingerprints are all over their urban playgrounds.
To understand that you must go back to where Yamada’s story begins—way back to the early 1980s in California’s Central Valley. It was there that Yamada, whose mother traces her roots back multiple generations, developed his cowboy work ethic, code of responsibility and his love of mountains. Those traits carried him through a stint as a professional snowboarder, fueled his drive to start his own businesses and saw him evolve from a skate punk to a skateboard ambassador, giving voice to a population that was often overlooked by the mainstream.
Photo by Jon Tapper
Jump back to Yamada’s latest enterprise, a freshwater and saltwater surfboard shaping company, dubbed Cubicle. Like Gerry Lopez, another Bend icon, Yamada has taken his talent for carving lines into cornices and curling waves and turned it into a passion for creating unique products that allow others to do the same. On the blue walls hang a master craftsman’s quiver of templates, saws, planers, calipers and sandpaper, all testifying to the complexity of building surfboards. “I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel,” said Yamada. “Surfers figured this out a long time ago.” He’s too modest to admit it, but Travis has also helped pioneer the evolution of river surfboards and river surfing, especially in Bend.
Innovation has followed Yamada ever since he first stood on a skateboard as a kid in the early 80s. His charisma and business acumen, combined with his skilled hands and his experience as a former pro snowboarder, have led Yamada to pursue a lifestyle rooted in surf, skate and snow. The Bend community has supported Yamada for more than twenty-five years, and in return Yamada has made this place more fun, in a sideways-riding fashion.
Photo by Joey Hamilton
Yamada grew up on a cattle ranch in Sonora, California, a rural town in the gold rush foothills of the western Sierra Nevada, where skateboarding was culturally a crime. The son of a Japanese-American father and a mother whose family homesteaded Sonora, Yamada followed his own line early in life. Around sixth grade, Yamada discovered snowboarding in the back pages of Thrasher skateboard magazine. So his dad rented him a board and drove him up to Boreal, where Yamada wrapped his Air Jordan skate shoes in plastic grocery bags, stuffed them into his moon boots and slid down the hill. “I was hooked from there.”
Yamada’s commitment only gained momentum, and he let his life follow it. His evolution from rider to ambassador was, in some ways, as natural as a backside carve. In the early 2000s, Bend skaters had eyed up a plot of dirt under an overpass at Division Street, where the construction of the Bend Parkway had created an urban vacuum of sorts in the neighborhood just north of downtown. Inspired by places like Portland’s Burnside skatepark, Bend skaters envisioned a true grassroots skatepark. Eventually, to make it happen, a handful of skaters organized under the name PUSH, Promoting Urban Skate Habitats. Yamada served as PUSH’s de facto leader. “He’s a great ambassador,” said Christopher “Topher” Laws, a Bend skater and snowboarder who joined PUSH early on. “Travis knows how to read people, and he knows how to get his point across in a very professional way.”
By 2009, PUSH held its first of four fundraisers—actually huge parties downtown, with food, beer, live music and an auction of 100 skateboards painted by local artist friends, all proceeds going to the cause. In total, they raised close to $40,000. Though the Division Street project stalled, the seed had been planted. Led by Yamada and other veteran skaters, PUSH approached Bend Park and Recreation District about a collaboration.
Yamada’s diplomacy paid off, and his argument convinced people like Matt Mercer, the district’s Director of Recreation Services. “The most important thing Travis did was to challenge everybody, including the Park and Recreation District, to consider skate parks as essentially just another amenity in the development of a park, like playgrounds, tennis or basketball courts. And that’s just what we’re doing now,” explained Mercer. Ponderosa 2 finally opened in 2014, and Bend’s newest skate park, part of Rockridge Park, which opened this fall, included skateboarding from the start.
Meanwhile, work had begun on Bend’s Whitewater Park, which included a wave for river surfing. Yamada and friends had been riding standing waves in Central Oregon irrigation canals for more than a decade, a common, though illegal, practice. Hopes were high for the new whitewater park when it debuted in September 2015. Despite much fanfare, the wave, like other elements of the $8 million dollar whitewater park, was not performing as advertised. While some grumbled and kvetched, Yamada and others pushed back, urging the park district to rework the primary features for a better experience.
Ryan Richard, the Bend Park and Recreation District’s wave shaper, has worked with Yamada and the Bend Surf Alliance for more than two years now. “Travis’ best role in talking with Park & Rec is his levelheadedness. He’s always even-keeled, he doesn’t get amped up like a lot of other guys do,” Richard said.
Yamada doesn’t take credit for developing the river wave. But he did help organize the surf community, “to convey our message,” he said, “and not come off as a bunch of whiners.” Just as he did with PUSH, Yamada proposed collaborative solutions.
Scott Huggin, a surfer who worked with Yamada on the whitewater wave, likewise gives Yamada props. “Without Travis, I don’t know where the wave would be right now in terms of a surf wave. I don’t know if anyone would be surfing. Travis wanted a successful wave for the community, but also for himself!”
Yamada is proud of the role he’s played in the projects and he’s excited about the prospects for his company. Still, he keeps things in perspective. “There are people in life doing important stuff. This isn’t important; this is fun. Doctors are saving lives, and I’m making toys, basically.”
Photo by Joey Hamilton
For all he has done, Bend is paying Yamada back in an indirect, double-edged way—by ordering so many boards that Yamada said he hardly has time to do product testing. Ryan Richard, who rides one of Yamada’s Cubicle boards, laughed at this: “I look over my shoulder and always see him creeping from the Colorado Avenue bridge! Still, when he surfs, he rips, man. He reminds me of a bee flying across the face, super agile, super fast.”
Yamada has focused himself on building his brand, which has him working such long days into the night. He has a problem with trying to do everything himself. It’s a weakness he’s aware of, a lesson he said he’s learned, but still hasn’t implemented. As Josh Dirksen put it, “He’s definitely not working at factory speed. He’s doing every board perfectly, how it should be done.”
Rewind back to Yamada’s pro snowboarding days. He’d been working construction during the summers to make ends meet so he could ride all winter. Then his knees got in the way. After two ACL reconstuctions, Yamada knew it was time to let the dream go. “It kinda fizzled out. But I was okay with that. I never thought being pro was sustainable anyhow.”
So he adapted to the new reality, shifted his focus to business and applied his skills in equally successful ways. First, Yamada started Deck Tech, a deck restoration outfit with a loyal following. Next came Paint Tech, a partnership with childhood friend Brent Rankin, who noticed Yamada’s “insane attention to detail.”
“I think Travis adopted his grandfather’s old cowboy ways of doing right by people,” said Rankin. “And that transfers into all aspects of business. Travis respects the people he works with and the clients he works for. It’s partly his boyish charm, his country gentleman style mixed with hip skateboard and snowboard kid.”
Photo by Jon Tapper
Around Bend, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone with a bad thing to say about Yamada. To his friends’ kids, he’s Uncle Travis. But Yamada himself readily admits that it’s not all parties and powder days. “I can be stubborn as hell. I like challenges, to a fault. And I’m really good at making things more complicated or difficult. I think I’m a bit of a masochist in that way.”
Yamada considers himself overly meticulous, “OCD-style,” yet he finds the positive in this like he does with whatever else he’s involved in. “I think that’s what has allowed me, in a short amount of time, to make these boards to surf shop quality. But I haven’t mastered it, and I’m not even close.”
Obsessive perfectionism may slow Yamada down, but the final product honors the countless hours spent designing, shaping, glassing and sanding a board. “Travis loves making things he can put his name on and be proud about,” said longtime friend Rankin. “He does things the way he wants, the way he’d want them done for himself.” Which is why fellow rippers like Josh Dirksen and Curtis Ciszek, who has a Cubicle pro model, ride Yamada’s boards.
“I think Travis’ genuine, legitimate drive for doing what he does is sharing what he loves. Being an ambassador of the sport, making amazing surfboards—he does it because he wants to share that experience with other people. He’s the most humble dude ever,” said wave shaper Richard.
Starting his own surfboard brand has provided Yamada with a welcome challenge, despite the requisite sacrifices. “Figuring out what somebody needs to surf better, being able to execute it, and then delivering something that will improve their surfing is more rewarding than going down to the wave and getting better myself,” Yamada said. “The best part is changing someone’s surfing—they couldn’t be happier. I’ve seen it a bunch. I love that, and I want to continue doing that.”
A modern home in Shevlin Commons is designed to embrace the natural elements that surround it, with function, style and comfort in the details.
Two years ago, when Allen and Traci Clautice-Engle set out to design and build a custom home, they came to the process with some very specific ideas. The couple had lived in Central Oregon since 1998. They’d been married for more than thirty years and raised two children together. This would be their third Bend home. Allen and Traci knew themselves, the community and how they wished to live in it.
But their desires weren’t identical. Allen explained succinctly: “I’m an engineer, and she’s a doctor.” Allen, who is retired, was looking for energy efficiency, low-maintenance landscaping and a location closer to Mt. Bachelor, where he is a ski patroller. “I wanted all LED lights, built-in solar and to spend less time landscaping.”
His wife, Traci, who works full-time as a radiologist at Central Oregon Radiology Associates, nurtured more interior desires—in terms of design, that is. “Not many people have the opportunity to create a custom home to perfectly fit your life,” she explained. “I wanted to spend plenty of time on details and design.”
Both were avid outdoors lovers and travelers who wanted their empty-nester home to be incredibly comfortable and beautiful. Both wanted a special place to display the large collection of art and photography they had gathered from travels around the world. Each wanted a location “in town, but out of town—close enough to downtown to bike in if we wanted,” said Allen. A place near nature trails would be a bonus.
Shevlin Commons was the answer. The community, four miles west of downtown, sits adjacent to Bend’s signature open space, Shevlin Park. The Clautice-Engles purchased a lot with a view of the park and of the Cascade Range. Then they hired builder Doug Young and longtime Bend architect Karen Smuland to craft their home from scratch.
“The first thing to attend to was layout and orientation,” explained Smuland, who has been designing homes in Bend for fourteen years. The lot wasn’t overly large, but offered a few key opportunities. “We oriented the house to best use photovoltaic solar, create one-level living with plenty of natural light, take advantage of the predominant views and create unique outdoor living spaces,” she said.
The Clautice-Engle home is a stunning, contemporary 3,400-square-foot structure with exterior materials of cedar, stone and stucco, and views of Mt. Bachelor and Mt. Jefferson. A U-shaped footprint shelters a south-facing courtyard, which is private, absorbs sun and avoids wind. A combination of shed and flat rooflines is not only visually attractive but also allows more natural light into the home.
The visitor’s eye is drawn to the front door by a cantilevered roof. The entry hall is tile, lined with art niches for the Clautice-Engles’ collection. At the hall’s end is the great room, which boasts three walls of windows with storefront glazing to maximize view and motorized windows to allow in fresh air.
The kitchen, adjacent to the great room, was Traci’s domain. Working with Bend interior designer Kirsti Wolfe, Traci created a room well planned for the traffic patterns of an avid home chef and her guests. “We fine tuned everything on her wish list,” said Wolfe, who has been an interior designer for twenty-eight years. “We wanted the kitchen to flow with Traci’s personality and how she functions.”
The kitchen includes ‘work stations,’ one of which is a beverage bar. A wide counter space is home to tea, coffee, wine and the like, flanked by two roll-up storage spaces housing kitchen gadgets. “It’s a gathering space away from the main cooking area, so that not everyone ends up in the same space,” explained Wolfe. Island seating at two levels—a round eating area at a lower level and bar-height stools—create additional gathering spaces. The counters are black granite, and all woodwork is Sapele, sometimes referred to as African mahogany.
“The flow of the house is outstanding for entertaining,” said Traci.
Allen got his wishes in terms of energy efficiency. The home is Earth Advantage Certified, and a combination of photovoltaic solar, double stud walls, excellent insulation and a heat pump add to the sustainable footprint. Active management of workable windows means that the house is extremely efficient. “I expect we’ll be net zero or positive this year,” said Allen, meaning the home will create as much energy as it consumes.
Perhaps the home’s best features—and the owners’ favorites—are its patios. An enclosed sunroom of wood and glass faces south, absorbing sun and heat in colder seasons and cooler times of day. “Our indoor patio faces the park and is a great place to have a glass of wine or relax,” said Allen.
The outdoor patio is accented with a waterfall, visible from the kitchen window, which becomes a stream that crosses the expanse. “You step over the stream to access the patio,” explained Smuland. “The patio is really the masterpiece of the home.”
Wolfe feels that the patio, like the house, achieves beauty by “using all of the elements—wood, glass, metal and water. All are combined to achieve a more peaceful environment. It’s an extremely serene, comfortable home.”
Within a few years, Blackstrap went from another Bend outdoor startup to being one of the essential—and most popular—pieces of equipment on the mountain.
Photo by Alex Jordan
It seems you can’t get on a chairlift these days without seeing at least one of the colorful Blackstrap balaclavas cinched under a helmet. Indeed, the facemask/headcover is to the mountain what the Hydro Flask water bottle is to the hiking trail—essential equipment.
Coming off an epic winter that saw more than 600 inches of snowfall locally, Blackstrap is hitting its stride. The company is now taking its winning winter formula beyond the ski hill with a line of river-oriented gear, though Jim Sanco, Blackstrap’s brand manager, admits that the company’s employees are still glued to the snow reports throughout the winter season.
Blackstrap manager Jim Sanco. Photo by Alex Jordan.
Blackstrap released its spring and summer line in 2015 with a line of lighter-weight facemasks aimed at anglers but suitable for anyone who spends time on the water or is exposed to sun for prolonged periods. Sanco said it’s more of an insurance policy than a change in business philosophy.
“You have those unforeseens, whether it’s a bad winter or a really good winter—it could go either way,” said Sanco. “If it snows and it’s cold, we’re all geniuses, everyone rejoice. But then you have a bad winter … You get that fluctuation when you’re in an industry that’s bound by the weather.”
Recently, the company released a line of gloves for steelhead anglers to protect their hands when they are stripping fishing line, bringing consistent year-round business into the company.
One thing that hasn’t changed is Blackstrap’s commitment to an entirely domestic production process—from milling fabrics and printing custom facemasks to quality control and shipping. It’s a point of pride for the company that has managed to grow at a steady rate without losing sight of its original mission.
“Our end product is still really where we started,” said Sanco. “We’ve never had this massive influx of capital to do whatever we want. We’ve had to be very strategic about all these things.”
Like others in the industry, Sanco, 32, came to Bend for the mountains. He met Blackstrap founder, Abe Shehadeh, also 32, through mutual friends, and decided to join him, building the business from Shehadeh’s Sunriver home. (Though Shehadeh is the founder, he prefers to stay behind the scenes.)
Blackstrap has remained a small business, with only ten full-time employees (nine men and one woman) who work in the office and warehouse. Sanco describes Blackstrap’s marketing efforts as “guerilla” and credits the widespread success of Blackstrap to its attention to detail in the product, in addition to personal relationships built with resorts and retailers throughout the country.
Blackstrap is currently sold in more than 500 retail locations nationwide. In the 2016-2017 winter season, Blackstrap became the fifth-bestselling facemask in the United States, according to Snowsports Industries of America. “It might be cheaper [to outsource], but we would be going batshit crazy not knowing what’s going on everyday with all that stuff,” said Sanco.
At Powder House Ski & Snowboard in Bend, owner Shanda McGee said that Blackstrap has developed a cult following, with everyone from construction workers to athletes buying the product.
“It’s a great technical product without being out of reach,” she said. She estimates that the ski shop easily sells about one thousand Blackstrap products each winter.
McGee said that working with the team is easy, too. “They’re just a great group of guys,” she said. “Their passion is what makes it fun, too. They’re out on the mountain; they’re talking to people; they support the community.”
Unconventional collaboration defines the work of artists and twins Lisa and Lori Lubbesmeyer.
Photo by Alex Jordan
To spend an hour with Lisa and Lori Lubbesmeyer is to glimpse into the world of identical twins. It is a window into challenges of being separate within the undeniable pull of inseparableness. Four paintings that hang in their Old Mill District studio tell their remarkable story: two acrylic paintings that reaffirmed their collaboration and two darker expressions of today’s political and social climate.
Known nationally for their serene and colorful fiber art “paintings,” the Lubbesmeyers were once so professionally competitive that they didn’t speak. But on their thirtieth birthday, they agreed that they needed to be together and that art was the path.
The creative partnership was not necessarily intuitive; Lori was a painter and Lisa a printmaker. Compromise was in order. They decided to give up their own disciplines and agreed on fiber as their new medium. The sisters learned to sew, and over the years found their way to an unconventional collaboration. Their process involves taking turns working on the same piece without discussing it, without looking over the other’s shoulder, and without critiquing or redoing the work. Each piece takes about a month to complete and contains a dozen to as many as thirty layers of fabric.
Dave Webster and his wife, Liz Fancher, have spent many hours with the sisters and collected several pieces. “They have the twin vibe, a shared consciousness that brings the rest of us into their world,” Webster said. “A lot of their pieces take me to a place, and I’m really there, even though it may not be a real place.”
In 2011, Lori was diagnosed with a disease that damages the nervous system, compromising her ability to work in fiber and altering the collaboration with her sister. Lisa worried about creating without her and wondered whether they should try another medium or just work alone. “I was acutely aware that we may have limited time,” Lisa said.
Photo by Alex Jordan
Lori suggested they consider painting and asked Lisa to try an experiment. They set up two easels, back to back, and painted for an hour without looking at the other’s work. No rules, just paint whatever came to mind. The moment they turned around and saw the other’s canvas—almost identical pictures—it was an ah-ha moment that affirmed their creative connection. “It was thrilling and made us both cry,” Lisa recalled. Not long after that, the sisters added painting to their professional repertoire, employing the same collaborative, back-and-forth technique that worked so well in fiber. As with fiber, each piece takes about a month to complete, with the pair finishing about seventeen projects each year.
Today, the Lubbesmeyer studio showcases fiber art and acrylic paintings that portray their sought after whimsical, layered renditions of nature and hardscapes. Their work is often acquired before it’s finished and has been collected around the globe.
Now 48 years old, the sisters continue their collaboration in fiber and acrylic and hope to begin printmaking together. “We’ve realized there’s a lot of meaning in showing up, slowing down, paying attention to the natural environment,” said Lisa. And after nearly two decades of shared creations, they say they’re on the same track—it just happens to lead in more directions.
Summer Lake Hot Springs is a year-round rejuvenating retreat south of Central Oregon. Flow is the primary theme at Summer Lake Hot Springs. Whether it’s hot mineral water flowing into the bathhouse and pools or the geothermal heat flowing into rustic cabins, the soothing natural energy seems to permeate all things at this back-to-basics retreat tucked in the rugged Oregon Outback southeast of Bend.
While Summer Lake is no longer the secret that it once was, the pace remains easy and visitor pressure remains relatively light. On a recent weekend, a gathering of Central Oregon families made camp around an RV and a row of tents. In the bathhouse, their teenagers shifted nervously in the corner of the bathhouse pool, trying to keep their voices hushed as etiquette decrees, while the parents luxuriated in the healing waters. In an outdoor pool, a California couple soaked. They landed their small plane at nearby Paisley airport and rode their bikes over for one of their regular weekend getaways. Yveline Wilnau drove six hours to stay here during her days off.
“For ten-plus years, I’ve made Summer Lake Hot Springs my annual post-Burn pilgrimage for open sky, majestic nature and healing, sacred waters. I always depart feeling more at home within myself and centered in gratitude,” said Wilnau, who lives in Eugene, but spends two months each summer working for the Burning Man organization at the Nevada event site.
“People will go to the edges of the earth for boutique experiences,” said owner Duane Graham, who saw potential when he bought the rundown chicken and cattle ranch that charged passersby a quarter to soak in the bathhouse. Graham fell for Summer Lake on a road trip to the Steens, long before Highway 31 was named Oregon’s Outback Scenic Byway.
“I’d always been into topographical maps. We came this way because there was a clear point of interest on the map with the vertical drop of Winter Ridge,” he said.
When Graham, a Portland contractor and home renovator by trade, discovered that the hot springs property was for sale for the first time since the 1950s, he made a down payment. For his first nine years of ownership, Graham kept a hands-off approach, leaving the management to a couple he hired to live onsite.
Once he was finally able to move to Summer Lake full-time in 2006, he began cultivating his vision, heeding the advice of a friend: “Just set the table and don’t worry about it. If you have the right setting combination, people will come.”
This was sage advice for creating a culture of healing on 145 acres of playa and sagebrush in south-central Oregon’s Lake County, where the sun casts a pastel filter on every moment of daylight. Walking through the scrubland you’ll experience nature’s Easter palate in eggshell white brushed with muted blues, greens, pinks, purples and yellows, complete with the occasional jackrabbit. After the sun sets behind Winter Ridge, the coyotes announce the arrival of the stars that salt the night sky, a scene pleasantly devoid of light pollution. Lounge sans swimwear (after 9 p.m.) in the comfort of the 106- to 118-degree mineral water pools and allow all your senses to embrace a long winter’s night.
Graham knows that the natural world is the draw here and he lets the landscape speak for itself with simple, well-designed infrastructure. Since the Great Recession, business has steadily risen, giving Graham enough capital to build new cabins and two delightful, Southwest-style duplexes made of Pumice-Crete. A road realignment and a relocation of the tent and RV sites will be complete by next summer—more evidence of Graham’s continued quest to “set the table” for an idyllic retreat that is accessible for anyone who seeks its healing waters.
“I never want to regulate my customers through the price,” said Graham, who charges less than $150 per night for each cabin (a large ranch home is available for groups), $20 for camping and $50 for RVs. “I’m not really going for more numbers, really more for quality experience. With me, I always see the potential in things, what it could be. Who knows what causes me to do that, but I like that diamond in the rough.”
Take a Scenic Drive
Experience the high country in Fremont National Forest on paved NF-290, which offers views from Winter Rim.
Eat & Drink
Grab a bar stool at the Pioneer Saloon in Paisley and ask about Oregon’s oldest bar.
Ancient Art
See some of the finest examples of Neolithic petroglyphs in North America at Picture Rock Pass along the Oregon Outback Scenic Byway.
In March, U.S. Ski Team member and Bendite Laurenne Ross sustained a traumatic knee injury on the last day of the racing season. Just a few months later, she’s aiming to get back on the snow in time to qualify for the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang.
Photo courtesy US Ski and Snowboard
Laurenne Ross was at the starting gate for her first run in a giant slalom at the U.S. Alpine Championships at Sugarloaf in Maine. It was late March, and the last race of the 2016-2017 season. Though the season had started shakily, a string of top five and top ten finishes had given her momentum. Just two days earlier, she won the super-G course title, cementing her place as one of the top speed skiers in the world and America’s number two downhill and super G racer behind Lindsey Vonn.
Ross felt confident at the gate, but a combination of sleet and snow the night before this race had created a slick surface on the course, and a strong wind was blowing downhill. “It was a really awful weather day,” she recalled. “I remember being at the start thinking this is crazy.”
On the sixth gate, she slipped out on a right-footed turn. As she started to transfer the weight from her hip back to her feet, her uphill ski caught an outside edge, twisting and pulling her knee into a barrage of devastating injuries.
Photo courtesy US Ski and Snowboard
Six months later, Ross walked into Dudley’s Bookstore & Coffee in downtown Bend. She had biked there from her house just a few blocks away. She walked with only a slight limp, the only evidence of her injury. “I’ve actually been trying to bike everywhere in town recently,” she said as she sat down. “Just trying not to use my car and save gas and save on the fumes.”
Ross, 29, is a renaissance woman. In addition to being a member of the U.S. Ski Team, a member of the 2014 Olympic team at Sochi and a 2018 Olympic hopeful, Ross is working toward her bachelor’s degree in fine arts at University of Oregon. She is an avid film photographer and plays three instruments.
“I don’t think that I will ever be somebody who is focused on one thing. I don’t think even when I’m done with skiing I will only do art or only do school,” she said. “Sometimes it turns into a negative thing when I start spreading myself too thin. But I can’t do it any other way. When I’m not doing something, I don’t feel fulfilled.”
The constant need to be doing and creating has been a part of Ross since she was young. Born in Canada, Ross learned to ski when she was two years old. Her family moved to Klamath Falls when she was seven, and she spent weekends skiing and racing at Mt. Bachelor with Mt. Bachelor Ski Education Foundation. At seventeen, she got the call that she had made the U.S. Ski Team while she was on her way to the state solo soprano singing competition.
Kent Towlerton, an alpine racing coach for forty years, was Ross’ coach while she was in high school. He described her as motivated and smart, pointing to natural athletic ability (her dad was a ski racer in Canada and her grandfather was on the 1952 Canadian Olympic hockey team) as well as her drive to succeed.
Artwork by Laurenne Ross
“When you’re doing what she does, it’s very risky, because the failure is real, and the failure is traumatic,” said Towlerton. When you get to the top level of the sport, Towlerton said that it comes down to focus and determination, which is what Ross has. “You knew that when she was younger,” he said.
Ross climbed the ranks on the ski team, going to her first World Cup in 2010 and then on to Sochi in 2014. The next season saw Ross gathering momentum, consistently posting top twenty finishes. Ross started the 2016-2017 season slowly, but found her groove in February, earning top ten finishes, including the super-G title, days before her fall. It was the last day of her racing season and she was ranked as the sixth best downhill skier in the world, the best ranking she’s ever had.
Ross remembers that day vividly, and she’s honest and candid about her experience, from the initial fall to the surgery and recovery process. “I’ve been through a few injuries, and this was just so much worse,” she said. A knee surgeon in Vail performed the surgery and she spent five days in the hospital there before coming back to Bend, her home base for the last six years where she lives with her boyfriend Tommy Ford who is also on the U.S. Ski Team, for the majority of her recovery. She spent six weeks in a straight-leg brace. For someone who is used to constantly moving, she described that time as hell. A breakthrough came in July, when she was finally allowed on a bike outside.
Ross figures that if she can ski again this year, she’ll have about five years left as a ski racer. She knows she needs to get back on snow by the end of the year if she wants to have a shot at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang in February.
“It’s been a very slow progression,” she said of her recovery. “It takes weeks for me to relearn all the skills I’ve learned before.” She’s aware that some people will question how quickly she’s coming back to racing, maybe not as strong as she could be if she holds out another season to recover. But for her, that’s not what skiing is about.
“It’s not the person who can squat the most or has the most symmetrical strength. They’re not winning. The people who have an internal drive and the people who have the mental game are the ones that are getting gold medals and winning World Cups,” she said. “I can’t take my time,” said Ross of her recovery timeline. “I feel like if I were to take it really slow and do everything perfectly, I feel like I would have regrets. I couldn’t live with that.”
When we talked in September, the first snow had just fallen on Mt. Bachelor. “It’s amazing when it happens this early. Everybody always kind of freaks out and gets really excited,” she said. “But there’s always ups and downs. It never really lasts. It’s probably going to melt, and then it’ll come back, and then it’ll melt and then it will come back.”
“But,” she added, “it does make me really excited to go skiing.”
The Dark Net, the most recent novel from the award-winning author, blends thriller, horror and fantasy genres into a fast-moving plot that is filled with the quick-witted prose for which Percy is known. The novel is especially prescient in today’s political climate, with villains that lurk in the dark corners of the internet, wreaking havoc through binary code.
“There are so many things we fear right now, but cybercrime is chief among them. I wanted to take a knife to the nerve of the moment,” said Percy. “We can’t build walls that can keep those people out.”
Percy hones in on today’s political and social anxiety, but brings in an element of fantasy that engages, rather than making you feel like flipping the channel to escape the news cycle. Percy described The Dark Net as a “fairy tale for the digital era.” It’s a book that can be devoured in a weekend, but it will stick in your head much longer than that and make you question yourself each time you pick up your phone to mindlessly scroll and click. Those who’ve spent any time in Portland will appreciate the references tucked into each page, from slices of Hot Lips pizza to a heart-racing scene that captures the specific anxiety of driving through the Terwilliger curves in the rain.
Though he lives in Minnesota now with his family, Percy, 38, grew up in Oregon. Born in Eugene, his family moved to Hawaii for brief stint then to Central Oregon when he was in fourth grade. He graduated from (the now-closed) Sunriver Preparatory School in 1997. He describes the town at that time as “in the process of being Californicated.”
Photo by Arnab Chakladar
Percy went to Brown University with the idea of becoming Indiana Jones, majoring in anthropology. He described his parents as “obsessive rockhounds,” and the family spent weekends exploring Central and Eastern Oregon for fossils, geodes and petrified wood, where he caught the bug for archeology. They were all voracious readers, too. Percy describes a typical evening scene at his house, the entire family sprawled out reading: his dad, science fiction; mom, westerns; sister, astrophysics; and him, horror. “That appetite for books carried on through adulthood,” Percy said. (His sister, Jennifer Percy, is an award-winning journalist for the New York Times Magazine.)
Percy finally “hung up his fedora and Indiana Jones fantasy in my mind” when he worked for a summer at Glacier National Park. He was writing love letters to his girlfriend, and now wife, who told him he should become a writer. He replied, “OK.”
The Dark Net is Percy’s fourth novel. He writes short stories as well as essays and nonfiction. Most recently, he writes the Green Arrow and Teen Titan comic book series for DC Comics and the James Bond comics for Dynamite Entertainment as well as screenplays. Percy will be at Roundabout Books on November 12.
A Michelin-star chef joins The French Market, a new neighborhood French bistro in the heart of Old Bend.
Take a 31-year-old with Michelin-star restaurant experience and Northwest farm-culture roots, blend with a couple of small-business veterans who’ve lived in southern France, pour in a timber-era building with a checkered history and, voilà, you have the perfect mise en place for a dish that Bend has been craving.
At The French Market, Chef Luke Mason executes artistic renditions of bistro classics built around our region’s current harvest. Ingredients are his muse, first and foremost—a mindset born from a childhood in Sandpoint, Idaho, where locally sourced meat, fish, fruit and vegetables have always been the way of life, not a lifestyle.
“You’d go to Mr. Johnson’s down the street for apples and squash. All the meat was local because hogs and cows were butchered within a few square miles,” said Mason. “If you went outside and picked a strawberry, it tasted super good, with those flavors that just linger.”
It was his desire to earn money for a car, though, that drove him to get a job at age 13 (legal in Idaho) as a dishwasher at the athletic club where his mother, a teacher, would swim. It suited him. He progressed to cooking, working his way through high school. Buying an ’86 Chevy truck reinforced a work ethic that carried through college in Santa Barbara, eclipsing his political science studies twelve units shy of a bachelor’s. He moved to Portland, then San Francisco, to a Moroccan restaurant called Aziza, which possessed a coveted Michelin star.
Professional kitchens have a military-style structure, but Mason likened working at Aziza to becoming a Navy SEAL. “My first year there, it was a constant struggle to survive,” he said. “It opened my eyes to—if you want to cook at this level—what it really takes. Like so many other cooks in the world, you dedicate your life to the chef completely for sixteen hours a day, seven days a week.”
He learned haute cuisine and molecular gastronomy techniques, elevating dishes into artful works as beautiful as they were delicious. (Think twelve-dish, $140 tasting menu.) Mason rose to chef de cuisine, and Aziza kept winning its Michelin star during the two years that he ran its kitchen.
He left in mid-2014 to try to earn his own star at Lincoln Park Wine Bar in San Anselmo, Calif., and the restaurant was successful, but Mason and his fiancee left for Bend eighteen months later. “We thought, ‘Can we buy a house here? Have kids here?’ No,” he said, referring to California. Bend offered a lifestyle similar to that of Sandpoint, with the benefit of having a significant part of the community hailing from major cities.
At The French Market, owners Judy and Phil Lipton said they were lucky to find Mason after their extensive renovation of the former Riverside Market, a popular watering hole and convenience store, which had drawn the ire of surrounding neighbors for its lively and sometimes rowdy clientele. Long before that it was one of Bend’s first gas stations, built circa 1910.
“We like giving Luke creative freedom in the kitchen, because … it keeps you passionate,” said Judy, who has opened eight restaurants and a catering business in San Francisco.
With Mason, they favor a menu with many small plates, so that guests can dine in a more European fashion, sharing a few dishes and experiencing a range of flavors at a reasonable price. For instance, in fall, a duck liver mousse with sautèrnes gelèe, brioche and almonds was $11, (with foie gras, $16); halibut brandade with chicories, pickled shallots, smoke and corona beans, $11.
Mason said he was excited for a winter menu with beef short ribs, pork shoulder, cassoulet, winter squash and root vegetables—just the je ne sais quoi worthy of a bistro beside a river called the Deschutes.
Not to be confused with the fluffy dessert pastry popular at Mediterranean restaurants, the balaclava is the all-purpose helmet liner and face mask in one. Part beanie, part bandana and the savior of storm-chasing powderhounds across the Pacific Northwest, the Blackstrap Team Hood Balaclava ($39.99) has quickly become the go-to gear to combat the howling winds and biting snow that accompany so many of Central Oregon’s frequent winter storms. Say goodbye to wind burn and hello to extended powder slashing sessions. Find them at Powder House, Aspect Boardshop and online at bsbrand.com
Bend Rock Gym Day Pass
Whether perfecting your top roping skills off-season, tackling that one tough route until you get it just right or spending a day scrambling up boulders with the kids, Bend Rock Gym has you covered this winter. Day passes ($14-$18) make terrific hostess gifts, stocking stuffers and coworker gifts. Go big and gift your favorite people with a yoga workshop series, an after-school program or an anchor-building 101 workshop. Bend Rock Gym is open seven days a week all year long.
Cairn Subscription
What do you get the outdoor-gear junkie that already has it all? The answer is simple; don’t get them anything at all. Rather, leave the shopping, and the shipping for that matter, to the experts at Cairn, a Bend-based subscription service that makes it its business to discover the latest and greatest in outdoor gear and related products. A monthly subscription to Cairn (from $29.95) will give them a chance to try out a curated mix of the best new gear hitting the market.
Grit Clinics
For someone ready to take their mountain biking skills to the next level, Grit Clinics (from $100) are a great gift. Held around the country, clinics range from half-day private lessons to two-day camps that connect you to a community of mountain bikers.
Free Range Equipment Backpack
Photo by Ely Roberts
Like the Patagonia puffer, the Free Range Equipment packs were made for the mountains, but you’ll also see them just as often around town. The Canvas Series Backpack ($149) is a collaboration with local artists that features vibrant designs of mountain landscapes. Made in Central Oregon, the packs do just as well commuting on a bike as they do scaling rocks and skiing in the backcountry. freerangeequipment.com
Bähko Eyewear
With the sun shining all year long, a good pair of sunglasses is a must in Central Oregon. The Polarized Wayfarer sunglasses
($35) from Bend’s Bähko Eyewear are durable and will keep eyes protected from the bright rays while driving, walking around town or hiking on the trails.
SnoPlanks
It all began when Bend entrepreneurs and longtime friends James Nicol and Ryan Holmes created a unique new snow-riding board in their garage several years ago. Since, SnoPlanks has generated much buzz on the snow and in the
venture capital realm. Made of a solid bamboo core that is laminated with fiberglass and carbon fiber, SnoPlanks are strong, light and perfect for Mt. Bachelor’s powder. SnoPlanks makes snowboards ($849), splitboards ($995), skis ($899) and custom snowboards. Its newest venture is Gerry Lopez endorsed skateboards. A gift of these beauties under the tree will thrill your snow-loving loved ones.
Black Diamond Traverse Poles
Whether you’re snowshoeing deep in the backcountry, skinning the cinder cone on a dawn patrol mission or just carving turns under Cloudchaser, the ultra-strong and lightweight Black Diamond Traverse Poles ($100) are the go-to poles for your Central Oregon adventure. These collapsible poles are easy to adjust, thanks to Black Diamond’s patent FlickLock system and guaranteed not to slip when you need them most. Find them at Pine Mountain Sports.
At Ponderosa Forge, a group of modern day blacksmiths are bringing back the traditional craft with raw power and subtle artistry.
When Jeff Wester opened his blacksmith and custom ironworking shop in Sisters, he also built a hitching rail out front to shoe horses, which he had been doing for the last decade, just in case his new custom forging business didn’t work out.
“I went out on a limb, borrowed money to buy this lot,” said Wester. “I had it all penciled out, so if something didn’t work with my business plan, I could shoe horses and pay for the shop.”
It’s been twenty-six years and one Great Recession since then, and he never did have to go back to shoeing horses.
Ponderosa Forge is on the industrial side of Sisters. It’s a blend of old and new. On one side, there’s a computer-operated machine that automatically cuts steel. On the other, there’s a hammering machine that was built in the 1880s. The 14,000 square-foot shop is lined with hammers and tools on the walls, and anvils are scattered throughout. A handful of employees, modern day smiths, work in the shop where they forge high-end hardware and ironwork, most often for custom homes.
It’s deliberate hands-on work, a combination or raw power and subtle artistry. On a recent visit to the shop, Wester turned on a coil forge and pulled out a piece of steel to demonstrate. He placed the raw steel in the superheated coils and waited for it to turn orange at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. He carried the glowing steel to one of the oldest machines in the shop, and used his foot to power the hammer that flattens the steel. Then he took the flattened rod to an anvil, and started hammering. Striking the steel with the precision of a metronome, he guided the steel to the cone of the anvil, and wrapped it around with the hammer. Within seconds, he had a perfectly rounded scroll, similar to the edge of a staircase railing.
“He’s just really good at what he does,” said Chris Corcoran, Ponderosa’s manager who’s worked there for eleven years. “I remember starting here and Jeff would [work a piece], and it would look so easy.” It took Corcoran years to approach Wester’s mastery with hammer and metal. “It’s a lot of trial and error and observing, picking up on the subtleties of where he’s holding the hammer, where his head is when he’s swinging.”
“It’s probably one of the best blacksmithing schools you can go to,” he added.
Wester landed in Bend in 1981. He picked up blacksmithing as a way to make money, running a small operation out of the back of a truck with a forge and an anvil, shoeing horses to pay his way through school, but found an affinity and a love for blacksmithing. At the time, traditional blacksmithing was a dying art.
Throughout the 20th century, “every ranch and mill had a blacksmith,” said Wester. Today, only a handful of traditional shops and artisans remain, with just three in Central Oregon. Part of the decline came when welding was modernized, and traditional forging wasn’t necessary. Ponderosa Forge is one of the only shops that does this work on a large scale.
Wester found success in the custom homes market, where his designs have the rustic elegance that complements the mountain-style lodge homes found throughout Central Oregon. Today, everything from fireplace screens and staircase railings to overhead pot racks and cabinet knobs are all made using a traditional forging process, meaning the pieces evoke 19th century craftsmanship.
Wester’s residential work is mixed in with commercial jobs. Ponderosa also designed and forged all the metalwork in the Deschutes Brewery downtown Bend pub, including hundreds of metal hops and hop leaves, strung together on a thin iron line. Each hop cluster and leaf was hand forged and hammered, and the intricate details give a sense of lightness and movement to the iron plants. Work such as that is a testament to the time and patience that it takes to learn blacksmithing.
Wester usually has around four to six employees in the shop who joined to learn the traditional trade. “There’s been lot of interest the last few years in the craft,” said Wester. “There’s a trend of people going back to the original crafts, and I hope it continues because we need way more people in all the crafts.”
The work of Ponderosa Forge stands out in the market of cookie-cutter homes. One blacksmith is assigned to a project from beginning to end, ensuring a unity in the pieces that are created. Corcoran said that the skill comes from being able to see the details.
“With blacksmithing, there are tapers and scrolls and shapes that you can’t really detail out on a plan, that requires a craftsman’s mind and eye,” said Corcoran. Every part is made from scratch, hammered at just the right temperature and time, with the just the right force, to create something that lasts centuries.
Wester ends the workweek each Friday at three o’ clock, but opens up the shop to his blacksmiths who can work on any project they want. Wester said they all stay, sometimes late into the evening, working on their own projects and honing their skills. It’s something Wester is proud of.
“Who gets to say they’re a blacksmith?” asked Corcoran. “Not many people.”
In Central Oregon, hiking season is year-round. When there’s snow in the mountains, head to these lower elevation trails throughout the region. Closer to town or in canyon country, these trails usually stay clear of snow throughout the winter months.
Photo by Jon Tapper
Deschutes River Trail, Awbrey Reach
When it comes to urban trails around Central Oregon, few are as visible or iconic as the Deschutes River Trail. Really a patchwork of multiple trail segments and, in some cases, streets or sidewalks, the river trail more or less connects Sunriver to Awbrey Butte on the north side of Bend. Within the city, a good portion of the trail is located in, or above, the scenic Deschutes River Canyon. The riverside segments offer views of tumbling whitewater, old growth ponderosa pines and a bevy of wildlife.
The most heavily traveled section upstream of the Old Mill District can see as many 12,000 visitors in peak months, according to the Bend Park and Recreation District, which manages most of the trail systems around Bend. Come late fall, however, the number of visitors drops off sharply. This is a great time to get out and explore in the crisp autumn air, and maybe work off an extra serving of holiday dessert.
If you really want to ditch the crowds, head to Sawyer Park where you can pick up the most northern segment of the river trail, known as the Awbrey or Archie Briggs stretch. Begin the hike by crossing the footbridge in Sawyer Park where you’re likely to spot woodpeckers, quail, ducks and more. From there, head northwest on the gravel and sand trail as it climbs gently around the base of Awbrey Butte. The trail crosses Archie Briggs Road and continues to climb, offering views of the middle Deschutes River below. The trail continues north, opening to a panoramic vista of the Three Sisters and Black Butte. Once inside Archie Briggs Canyon, the trail edges close to the canyon rim, offering dramatic views of the Deschutes River hundreds of feet below. The trail continues along the canyon rim for almost another mile before it terminates at Kirkaldy Ct. near Awbrey Glen Golf Club.
The park district already has plans to connect the trail to its Riley Ranch property to the north via a bridge over the Deschutes River, but trail construction is several years off. “Long term the plan is for [Bend Parks] to make a connection from Sunriver clear down to Riley Ranch and on to Tumalo State Park,” said Brian Hudspeth, development director for Bend Park and Recreation District.
For now, the Awbrey Reach of the river trail is mostly used by nearby residents for a morning or afternoon stroll or run. And while there is no loop option, the spectacular scenery and urban solitude make the out-and-back hike well worth a short trip to experience this lesser known gem.
Background: The Awbrey Reach is the most northern section of trail, connecting Sawyer Park to the trail’s terminus near Awbrey Glen Golf Club. The section was developed more than a decade and a half ago when Tumalo Irrigation District (TID), working with the Deschutes River Conservancy, piped more than two miles of TID’s main feed canal. Beginning at First Street Rapids, the route created the perfect alignment for a river trail along the old canal route.
What to Know: The out-and-back trail measures a little less than two miles from Sawyer Park to Kirkaldy Ct. on Awbrey Butte with impressive river canyon and mountain views. The trail is a soft surface for the entire stretch, making it ideal for trail runners and walkers and features only moderate climbing.
Flatiron Rock Trail, Badlands Wilderness
Photo by Alex Jordan
There are dozens if not hundreds of miles of hiking trails in the Badlands Wilderness area east of Bend. The most popular destination is within the southeastern section of the 19,000-acre high desert wilderness where abundant rock formations and ancient juniper trees speak to the area’s volcanic history. While lacking some of the dramatic alpine vistas associated with other Central Oregon hikes, the Badlands offers a relatively close escape that’s accessible to hikers and trail runners when most of the high country is not, making it a perfect late fall hike.
The Oregon Natural Desert Association’s (ONDA) Gena Goodman-Campbell recommends that new visitors begin their desert explorations by parking at the Flatiron Trailhead and following the eponymous trail that forms a roughly six-mile loop. The trail winds through the native juniper forest providing visitors a chance to glimpse the old growth juniper trees, some of which are more than one thousand years old. (Old growth juniper are distinguished by their expansive and non-symmetrical tops, whereas younger trees tend to have a conical shape). Hikers will also see the signature Badlands Rock, one of the more visually dramatic features of this understated landscape.
The culmination of a years-long wilderness campaign led by ONDA, the Badlands was formally designated by President Barack Obama in 2008. Today, the Badlands is a place of quiet contemplation where the vastness of the Eastern Oregon desert and the forces of geology meet just minutes from Bend. Other notable features around the area include the large dry riverbed canyon, which can be glimpsed from Highway 20 just east of Horse Ridge. Explore the Badlands Trails and numerous lava tubes that some 20,000 years ago transported lava from the nearby Newberry Crater, creating the unique volcanic features seen today.
Background: The Badlands was once a BLM grazing area and ad hoc dumping ground, but restoration and education efforts along with a federal wilderness designation have restored the area to a pristine state. Today, the area is maintained by staff from the Prineville BLM office and a cadre of volunteers known as the Friends of the Badlands, or, as they are affectionately known, Fobbits.
What to Know: With roughly 19,000 acres available for exploration, there are multiple trailheads and parking areas that offer access to different areas within the wilderness boundary. BLM trail maps are available and can be downloaded. Note that it’s easy to make a wrong turn in the crisscrossing network of trails. If you plan an extended excursion, a map and GPS will serve you well.
Scout Camp Loop, Crooked River Ranch
Photo by Greg Burke
It’s been more than a decade since the Bureau of Land Management formally developed the Scout Camp Trail in Crooked River Ranch, but the spectacular hike into the heart of the Steelhead Falls Wilderness Study Area has been eons in the making. Today’s hikers and anglers are just the latest in a long line of visitors to this dramatic canyon that shows signs of inhabitants reaching back several thousand years. Cliff paintings, primitive cave shelters and shell middens all speak to the role that this rugged and beautiful area has played as a source of food and shelter throughout the ages. Today, the area is accessible via several primitive trails located on the far edge of Crooked River Ranch, a sprawling residential community that straddles a peninsula hemmed in by the middle Deschutes River to the west and Crooked River to the east.
The Scout Camp Trail is the northernmost of the developed trails in the Steelhead Falls Wilderness. Depart from a small parking area at the end of a short dead-end street on the far northeast side of the ranch, about half an hour’s drive from downtown Redmond. Hikers proceed through a rather unspectacular juniper forest for about a quarter mile before reaching the edge of the canyon where the landscape parts dramatically. The Deschutes River courses below, framed by Cascade mountain peaks above the opposite side of the canyon.
“It’s pretty obvious how special this place is. You see millions of years of geologic history, and it’s just breathtaking,” said Gena Goodman-Campbell, who has spent as much time in the canyon as about anyone else around as the wilderness coordinator for Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA). The Bend-based organization has been seeking permanent protection of the area by formally designating roughly 18,000 acres within the canyon as federal wilderness. Despite local support, that work remains stalled in Congress, which has been reticent to expand the inventory of designated wilderness. Congressman Greg Walden, who represents Central Oregon, has proposed a bill that removes some of the existing protections to loosen regulations around fire suppression in the area. Goodman-Campbell said the proposal, which has been developed with little input from stakeholders like ONDA, is an example of why additional protections are warranted.
Politics aside, it’s obvious to anyone who visits that Scout Camp and the Deschutes Canyon are gems of Central Oregon—the kind that take a little extra work and perseverance to discover, but reward the effort with a tantalizing glimpse into the region’s rich geologic history.
Background: The Scout Camp trail was developed by the BLM and is one of several trails that provides access to the rugged canyon where the Deschutes River cuts through the desert landscape. The thousand-foot-deep canyon is part of the Steelhead Falls Wilderness Study Area. ONDA proposes permanent preservation of the area as the Whychus-Deschutes Wilderness.
What to Know: The Scout Camp Trail is a three-mile loop that descends steeply into the heart of the Steelhead Falls Wilderness Study Area. The trail requires that hikers scramble over a rock pile at the edge of the river. The move is semi-technical and not marked. If you find yourself near a small antennae and solar panel, you’ve reached the obstacle.
Chimney Rock
Photo by Greg Shine, Bureau of Land Management
Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, you’d be hard pressed to find an open campsite on the Crooked River near Prineville, especially on a weekend. Come late fall, things begin to slow as cool weather moves in and crowds thin. There is still plenty to enjoy, however. Anglers, hikers and just about anyone with an affinity for the outdoors are drawn to this picturesque river canyon for its great fishing and Instagram-worthy backdrops. Towering basalt walls soar up to 600 feet, framing a blue-ribbon trout fishery that tumbles through the canyon. Bald eagles, osprey and dozens of species of waterfowl are common sights.
While there are limited hiking options within the twelve-mile federally designated wild and scenic portion of the river canyon, the relatively short, if steep, hike to Chimney Rock is a great out-and-back trek. While there is some sustained climbing involved, the level of difficulty is relatively low, making this a hike that can be enjoyed by multiple generations, including young children who can usually be cajoled or bribed if necessary into completing the two-and-half-mile roundtrip.
There is ample parking at the trailhead on the east side of the river. Pack some water and a light snack that doubles as collateral when negotiating with reluctant children. The trail follows a narrow draw in the canyon wall, switchbacking up the side of the canyon for about a mile. Eventually, the trail grabs the west-facing canyon wall, affording hikers views of the river and terrain below. Follow the trail as it climbs to the top of the canyon, skirting the rimrock along the way to your final destination, Chimney Rock. At this large basalt outcropping, hikers can scramble out to a narrow perch that offers views of distant Cascade peaks and the twisting river canyon below.
Background: Hudson Bay trapper Peter Skene Ogden was the first European to leave written accounts of his travels and explorations along the Crooked River in the 1820s. White settlers arrived decades later after the land was ceded under the treaty of 1885 by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs to the federal government. The tribe retains hunting and fishing rights in the area.
What to Know: The Chimney Rock day use area is roughly seventeen miles from Prineville, but can also be reached directly from Bend via Alfalfa Market Road. There are nine developed campsites in the Lower Crooked River Wild and Scenic section, including the Chimney Rock campground adjacent to the day use area.
A fifth-generation Oregonian who has been in Bend for more than thirty years, Sally Russell has raised two daughters while contributing to a host of civic and cultural institutions, including serving as the executive director of Cascade Cycling Classic and the Cascade Festival of Music. She has served on the Bend City Council since 2012. Russell recently spoke with Bend Magazine‘s Theresa “Teafly” Peterson about Bend’s evolution.
On Roots
I grew up in Portland. My family is from Portland. We have deep roots in Oregon. My father’s family came across on the Oregon Trail. I have a set of maps my mom and dad found, as a matter of fact. My family built a cabin up at Elk Lake in 1932. My sister and I would bum as much time as we could from our relatives who were staying there. Then, I followed a boyfriend here in 1984. He left. I stayed.
On What It Means to Be Local
The thing I loved best when I moved to Bend—we still have some of it—is that we always waved to each other. We always knew everybody’s name. There was always this sense of place and belonging. Really, Bend still is a place where there is a sense of belonging, of being accepted and being drawn in, I hope, for everyone in our community. That was very much what drew me to Bend in the beginning. We knew each other and if we didn’t, if we were passing each other at an intersection, we still waved. There was this sense that “We’re in this together.”
On Bend’s Growth
With the new influx of people, there are so many opportunities! One is the opportunity to meet people you have more in common with. The music offerings, culture and art offerings are now so much broader. If you look at food, art, culture and music, all of that is really rich. When I first moved to Bend, we only had country western music—and that’s okay! I can listen to country western music, and my daughters love it, but there comes a moment where you want a little change. Now we have that.
On Philosophy
I’m a girl of diversity, not necessarily favorites. When I walk into a room, I will always choose a different seat if I can, so I can sit with different people and learn different things.
On City Council Life
I always played with the idea of participating in a way where I could contribute to the policy-making of the city where I live and raised children. I served on the planning commission for a while, so I had a really good understanding of what it could be like. Believe me, when you are standing underneath that cold political waterfall, you are never quite ready for it—no matter how much you prepare.
On Legislating
To get to really good policy, I’m looking at what is happening on the ground. Tiny little shifts are actually big shifts in terms of quality of life.
On Bend’s Economy
Bend goes through all these boom and bust cycles and you have to reinvent yourself and be very flexible. The hardest bust was for sure the one that began to manifest in 2006-2007 and then really locked-in by 2008. That was tough. We lost businesses, we lost people. It was tough, tough. Bend in some ways has recovered. One of my goals in terms of my leadership role in this community is to try to really look at these boom and bust cycles over time and to look at strategies to stabilize our community to be more resilient.
On Perspective
Many people don’t know, but I was a formidable mountain bike racer. I won a bike marathon in Germany, like eight hours on the bike. I have an endurance factor. I played piano for ten years, so I have a huge appreciation for music as a way to communicate. I’ve taken all these passions—my passion for the outdoors, my athleticism, my appreciation for the written word and my appreciation for people who have different values and points of view—and put them together to solve the puzzle, and I love these kind of puzzles.
The third annual conference for creative thinkers will take place in Bend on October 26 and 27.
Bend Design Conference
With an emphasis on sparking conversations that drive social change, the annual Bend Design Conference is hoping to reach more than designers in its annual event.
Bend Design Conference returns for the third year on October 26 and 27 with the theme “Shape Our Future.” The two-day event, presented by Scalehouse, brings designers, writers, architects, business leaders and more to Bend for a conference that will explore how art, design and ideas can spur conversation and action.
“Bend Design has evolved this year with a more focused theme of how design thinking can impact social change,” said Bend Design co-producer René Mitchell. “Our speakers have diverse design backgrounds—architects, graphic designers, writers, and business leaders—yet they are applying their skills and experience to solve social and business problems.”
Bend Design begins with a series of talks from keynote speakers on Thursday, October 26 at the Tower Theatre. Presentations cover a range of topics, from women in the design field to how design can be used for social change. That evening, attendees can sign up to participate in Hosted Conversations, where speakers and attendees share a meal and conversation at local restaurants.
During the second day of the conference, attendees can choose from a range of workshops led by the speakers as well as community leaders. These interactive sessions are designed to be engaging and thought-provoking.
“We hope people will come away with new ideas on connecting and collaborating, new ways to use their talents to make a difference,” said co-producer Martha Murray. “Creative-thinking and design-thinking can be applied to most any situation or issue. The result is new options, new solutions, new perspectives.”
The conference brings creative people from around the country to participate. It’s one of a growing number of cultural and business-related gatherings that showcase Bend and Central Oregon as more than just an outdoor playground.
“We’ve gotten really positive feedback about the Bend community,” said Murray. “There’s been a hunger for what Bend Design is offering. Outside of Bend, we’re becoming known as a place to come and look for talent. That’s pretty cool.”
For more information and to sign up for the conference, visit benddesign.org
Anjou Spa, a local spa in Bend, found itself in a pinch when the building it was in burned down last September. Over a year later, owner Jenna Walden and her team have reinvented the spa as it rises from the ashes in a new location.
Jenna Walden was stunned when Anjou Spa was destroyed in a fire last September. With seven years of ownership under her belt, a natural disaster was one thing the seasoned entrepreneur hadn’t expected.
Walden, who has a background in architecture and real estate development, soon came to view the tragedy as an opportunity. “We did some soul searching,” said Walden. “Managing the day-to-day operations of a business that was open seven days a week meant that we never had the time to dive deep. Once the shock wore off, we had the chance to rethink everything.”
The former location just east of downtown, said Jacqueline Smith, PR representative for Anjou, had never been entirely ideal. “Parking and visibility were challenges,” she said. It was immediately clear that fire wouldn’t be the end of Anjou’s story. By November, Anjou had taken up residence in a temporary location, a vacation rental house on Bend’s west side. Then the decision-making began around a permanent home for Anjou. Rebuilding meant rethinking everything from locale and floorplan to paint, spa slippers and service menu. It was a chance to recreate Anjou with an eye toward creating a premium experience for clients.
When a new-construction space at the base of college hill on Bend’s west side became available, Walden took it. The advantages were clear: Anjou could be designed from the studs up, in the heart of a flourishing neighborhood near the homes of many of the spa’s local client base.
“We thought a lot about what kind of Bend spa we are, how do we fit in this place that is popular and trending,” said Walden. Rather than go for busy centers like downtown or the Old Mill District, Walden chose calmer, more accessible digs that where locals and visitors alike would feel welcome. The new location “is a restful space between the west side and NorthWest Crossing,” she said. “We are of course open to the tourist population, but the core of our clientele is local. We wanted to cater to that.”
Rethought, too, were Anjou’s guiding principles. “We’d always been Bend’s green spa and organic spa,” explained Smith. “Now was a chance to re-own that and to challenge ourselves to do it even better.” Anjou re-committed to organic products, including Eminence Organics, a line out of Hungary so pure that its products are edible, for treatments. But “organic” didn’t stop with cosmetic products—the filter was applied to everything the spa would need to operate, from brochure paper to spa robes. “Local” was the secondary filter applied, leading Walden to round out the spa’s offerings and accoutrements with Oregon-made items. “We embraced the makers,” said Walden. “There are so many artisans and artists working in Bend.”
Place and philosophy in order, now it was on to the design. Walden drew on her past experience in architecture and real estate design to reimagine Anjou. “I like to create a backstory for each project,” she said. “It helps me focus.” For the new Anjou, the backstory was rooted in Bend’s past. Walden imagined a family living on the western frontier around 1910, creating wealth from timber and ranching. Eventually, that family moves to town and builds a home. What would it look like?
Walden said, “Our style is Edwardian with high ceilings and rustic touches. It’s a modern aesthetic accented with materials of the region, like Ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, and volcanic rock.” Entering the spa will feel like entering someone’s home. The lobby has slate floors, natural light and casual seating. “The relaxation room is a formal space, with a fireplace. Colors are warm and light low. The couple’s treatment room is lush, like a master bedroom, with nice touches like crystal lamps.” The overall feeling is welcoming and true to place. “We’re a friend recommending to people—this is how you can relax in a way that is unique to this place.”
An amenity that the old Anjou didn’t have but that is sure to be a hit is the sand room, or Korean sauna. Six inches of sand sits over a floor with radiant heating. The room has infrared heaters with a starry night LED light show installed overhead. “It’s a great place to stretch, relax and meditate,” said Smith. At 140 degrees, the sand room is cooler than a traditional Swedish sauna, but because it’s lit with infrared heat lamps, the heat warms the body directly, instead of the air. “It’s a great place to heat up your body before a treatment,” explained Walden.
Anjou is set to open in early October, just over a year after the devastating fire. The fire may be in the past, a lingering catalyst to the new amazing Anjou, but Walden doesn’t intend for it to be forgotten. Purposeful touches throughout the spa will remind guests—and staff who stuck with Walden through the rebuild process—of Anjou’s origin story. The lobby is accentuated with wood that has been charred and lacquered, in a Japanese process called shou sugi ban. Explained Walden, “Plants will emerge from this charred wood, representing what we’ve been through. Fire brings life; even devastation can make us stronger.”
The Poetry of Impermanence, Mindfulness, and Joy edited by John Brehm
Buddhism has seen a resurgence in book sales the past few years by publishers focusing on mindfulness, the practice of fully experiencing the present. This compilation of poetry adds two other Buddhist concepts: impermanence (acceptance of change) and joy (unselfish happiness in spite of circumstances). The editor has compiled more than 125 short poems he feels exhibit those three ideas—from East and West, old and new, known and unknown poets. No larger than an outstretched hand, it’s the ideal size for carrying around and dipping into throughout your day. It works well as a sampler for those who want to read more poetry but don’t know where to start. The last quarter of the book includes tips on mindful reading and bite-size biographies of each poet, making this a perfect gift to yourself or another. — Josh
Worth It: Your Life, Your Money, Your Terms by Amanda Steinberg
Amanda Steinberg is the founder and CEO of the financial website dailyworth.com, which currently has more than one million subscribers. In Worth It, her first book, she writes about the relationship women have to their finances and self worth. Dave Ramsey, David Bach, Robert Kiyosaki, and Suzy Orman all have valuable, sound advice for addressing your finances but Steinberg has honed in on an element that hasn’t really been covered by those greats. With a lot of personal stories and some simple exercises, she leads you through identifying your “Money Story” and your “Money Type,” and equips you to easily take the wheel of your financial life. — Heidi
Goodbye Things: The New Japanese Minimalism by Fumio Sasaki
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up inspired many to clean up their messes in recent years and this book, also from Japan, expands on that trend. I’m not a full minimalist (I like my stuff!), but I do try to practice “less is more,” and I found this to be a compelling, personal book. Once a packrat obsessed with possessions and others’ perceptions, the author Fumio Sasaki now owns nothing but the bare necessities to live. As a result, he’s gone from depressed to content. The book starts with a section of photos ofvarious Japanese minimalist rooms and one world traveler’s complete possessions in a single small bag, followed by fifty-five tips for how and why to be minimalist, then some bonus motivations. It only took an hour to read, thanks to its spare, serene prose. Every nonfiction book should be this digestible. — Josh
Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant
“Grief is a demanding companion.” After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl Sandberg (CEO of Facebook) finds herself navigating life in the completely unfamiliar, and unwanted, Option B. Through her own journey of loss and grief to get her feet back under her, she and her writing partner Adam Grant, who wrote the bestselling books Give and Take and Originals, have beautifully composed a companion to help those who are grieving from any of life’s myriad losses as well as for those who are witness to someone else’s grieving. We will all face loss of some kind, and this is a relevant guide back to resilience. — Heidi
In August, Bend’s state representative Knute Buehler announced he was running for governor in 2018.
Knute Buelher
It’s not the kind of odds that Vegas likes, but if Oregon voters opt to install a Republican in the governor’s seat, the state’s new chief executive would likely come from Bend.
It’s been a quarter-century since Oregon voters leaned to the GOP, but if they do so this year it’s likely that Bend’s Knute Buehler would be the next governor, at least that’s the early consensus among politicos after Buehler announced in August that he was throwing his proverbial hat in the race to challenge Democrat Kate Brown, who is expected to seek election in 2018. (Brown won a special election in 2016 after serving as interim when former Governor John Kitzhaber resigned amid an ethics scandal.)
An orthopedic surgeon at Bend’s The Center, Buehler has served as Bend’s state representative since 2014. During that time Buehler has built a solid record as a moderate Republican, which has included voting to expand access to birth control and limiting the influence of corporate dollars on state politics.
If Buehler faces off against Brown in 2018, it will represent a rematch of their 2012 race in which Brown defeated Buehler in the race for secretary of state. If elected, Buehler would be the first Republican governor in Oregon since Vic Atiyeh left office in 1987 and the first with Central Oregon ties since Governor Tom McCall was last elected in 1970.
The Ochoco National Forest Service faces legal challenges to its Ochoco Summit Trail System Project.
Ochoco National Forest
A proposal to create an official motorized trail system east of Prineville is drawing fire from environmentalists and state wildlife managers.
In June, Ochoco National Forest leaders signed a decision to designate and build 137 miles of off-highway vehicle trails, prompting legal challenges from the Bend-based environmental watchdog group, Central Oregon LandWatch, along with other environment protection organizations Oregon Wild, the Sierra Club and WildEarth Guardians. At the end of August, the Oregon Hunters Association also filed a lawsuit against the Ochoco National Forest, claiming that the trail system would hurt the elk population in the forest.
Opponents, including LandWatch, allege Ochoco National Forest managers did sufficiently account for impacts on wildlife and habitat when they developed the proposed trail system.
LandWatch President Paul Dewey said that Ochoco Summit Trail System, as the project is officially known, was developed in order to cater to a small group of motorized users. Ochoco National Forest staff have been working on the project for about a decade with the Ochoco Trail Riders, a club of fifty-five members who have been advocating for more trails in the Ochoco National Forest.
“As far as we can tell, the Forest Service just felt politically compelled to create this system,” said Dewey.
Larry Ulrich, president of the Ochoco Trail Riders (OTR), has been riding dirt bikes and ATVs in the Ochoco National Forest since the 1960s. He said the forest hasn’t changed much since then, which is exactly why off-road vehicle users like riding in the Ochocos.
“It’s so much different than the Deschutes [National Forest],” said Ulrich. “It’s beautiful. It has a lot of grass, a lot of water,” compared to the volcanic dust that covers the trails in the summer in the Deschutes National Forest trail system, where there are currently 343 miles of off-highway vehicle trails. Those trails were designed for off-highway vehicle recreation and are considered “multi-use,” which allow for off-highway vehicles such as ATVs, quads, Jeeps, side by sides and certain types of motorcycles.
There is currently one official off-highway vehicle trail in use in the Ochocos, the Green Mountain Trail, which is 8.5 miles long. That trail represents just a fraction of the total ad-hoc OHV trail network, which LandWatch and other opponents of formal expansion say is already in-use and inadequately monitored.
Those critics say that adding more than one hundred miles of new off-road vehicle trails would disrupt vulnerable wildlife populations and diminish wildlife habitat. Ochoco Trail Riders’ Ulrich said that’s not the case, citing the environmental impact report that the Forest Service published in 2016, which looked at some of those potential impacts.
“The Forest Service did their homework,” said Ulrich. “They did everything right when they did their environmental impact statement,” which was originally conducted in 2014 and revised in 2016.
Not everyone agrees with Ulrich and the Ochoco National Forest findings. The report drew more than one thousand critical responses from the community, about one hundred of which the Forest Service responded to and published in its revised Environmental Impact Statement in 2016.
Environmentalists aren’t the only ones raising objections.
ODFW wildlife biologist Greg Jackle said that the trail system would disrupt the habitat of vulnerable populations such as Rocky Mountain elk and redband trout.
Jackle said that the trails would have a “pretty hefty disturbance” in elk summering habitat in the Ochocos along with stream disturbance that would impact the trout population.
ODFW has been in negotiations with the Ochoco National Forest about the potential conflict but is not part of any of the legal challenges. Jackle said his agency is concerned that users will not respect the legal trails.
“We’re not on the same page I guess,” said Jackle. “We don’t buy that if you design a designated trail system that [off-road vehicle users] won’t go off road and go to these other places, too. The monitoring is very critical.”
ODFW is working to find a compromise with the Ochoco National Forest, and Jackle said the concern now is getting preliminary data prior to trail construction in order to monitor any changes in wildlife populations.
Ochoco National Forest Service Superintendent Stacey Forson declined to comment on the legal complaint, but a representative for the Ochocos said that despite the legal challenge, the Forest Service would move ahead with its plans for the system.
However, Ochoco Trail Riders’ Ulrich said that his group continues to wait for the Forest Service to implement its plan and doesn’t expect much to happen until the legal challenges are resolved.
A Bend sushi veteran makes a quiet but impactful return to the town’s culinary scene with Kusshi NW.
When Chef Ian Skomski left Bend’s Kanpai in 2011 to open Boxer in Portland, a collective tear was shed by sushi addicts all over town. If you were lucky enough to catch him during his tenure, you know why. Thoughtful and artful, he was a highlight in Bend’s culinary world at the time.
Boxer, a high-end omakase (chef’s choice) restaurant, went on to become a great success, amassing a dedicated following over its two-and-a-half-year run. Fortunately for us, Bend kept calling Skomski back, and he found his way home. Portland’s turn to mourn.
Enter Kusshi NW, Skomski’s latest project. Much to the relief of his extensive fan base, after a brief hiatus from the kitchen, he unpacked his knives in late 2015 to test the waters with a string of pop-up dinners. Both a classically trained master sushi chef and an undeniable natural talent, Skomski combines an impressive depth of knowledge with creativity and originality. He also cuts no corners, taking immense care in procuring fresh, premium seafood and the highest quality ingredients from the Northwest and beyond.
Kusshi, meaning “precious” (and the name of one of Skomski’s favorite oysters), couldn’t be a more appropriate name. His creations are inspired. Think Hamachi sashimi with ponzu, smoked strawberry, strawberry “sriracha,” and Thai basil or salmon with white soy, fennel, lemon and horseradish. Vegetables, often an afterthought elsewhere in the sushi world, are far more than a garnish and treated with the utmost respect, possibly house-pickled or marinated with bright flavors. Nigiri is beautifully cut and the rice is perfectly seasoned and cooked. Rolls have just the right combination of textures and tastes. It’s as pleasing to look at as it is to eat.
The pop-up omakase dinners were so well-received—easily selling out every time—that Kusshi NW instituted a semi-regular Poke pop-up at White Water Taphouse on Bond Street in downtown Bend. Prepared in a Japanese style rather than Hawaiian, Poke bowls might feature fresh, line-caught Oregon albacore, king salmon or organic sprouted tofu. Dressed in traditional ingredients, including poke sauce, ginger, scallion and hijiki—combined with Skomski’s creative touches such as lime-marinated onion, salsa verde or candied Serrano—each bite is a celebration for your palate. Poke is generally accompanied by a small selection of other equally good offerings such as rolls or sashimi.
The success of these pop-ups has cemented Skomski’s return to a place among Bend’s culinary best—to the point that it’s highly likely Kusshi NW will put down roots in a more permanent home. In the meantime, check Kusshi’s Facebook page for where Skomski is popping up next. And wherever it is, be sure to get there early. His pop-ups are often “while supplies last,” and they usually don’t last very long. [Originally published September 2017]
On Seed to Table’s (S2T) wellness education-focused farm plot, Sisters’ students and adults participate in farm based education covering nutrition, science, art, business management, the basics of growing ones’ own food, the importance of supporting local farmers and physical activity. Through growing its own food and sourcing food from Oregon farmers, the nonprofit provides fresh produce to families through affordable produce shares, plus distribution to Sisters Kiwanis Food Bank, Bread of Life Food Bank and the Sisters School District.
Seed to Table farm in Sisters. Photo by Joshua Langlais
20,000 pounds of S2T farm-grown food will go to the Sisters community this year.
1,300 students from Central Oregon schools receive S2T farm education each year, totaling 10,000+ hours of student involvement on the farm.
400 hours of adult participation in S2T community presentations.
12,500 pounds of nutritious, locally grown and processed foods have gone to the Sisters schools, brought in by S2T from Oregon farmers and distributors.
Established in 2012 by Deschutes Brewery alum Paul Arney, The Ale Apothecary is Bend’s deliberately anachronistic ale maker, offering a variety of “new Old World,” spontaneously fermented, small-batch beers. The brewery is located at Arney’s home in a patch of national forest near Tumalo Creek, west of town. This past spring, Arney opened up a new tasting room to the public on Bend’s west side.
Photo by Alex Jordan
“Wood” is one of the dominant themes behind The Ale Apothecary. From the beer’s inception in a modified-barrel mash tun (or a hollowed-out spruce tree, in the case of Sahati, Arney’s interpretation of a Finnish-inspired spruce beer), through fermentation and aging in more barrels, wood touches nearly every stage of the beer’s life.
The wild yeasts that inoculate the brew develop a distinctive rustic, semi-sour character, something of a terroir that the barrels harbor from batch to batch and that Arney relies on when blending his creations.
Photo by Alex Jordan
Once bottled, there is one final stage in the beer’s wood-infused lifecycle: drinking it at the new tasting room.
Adorned in handsome, handmade, wooden furniture, barrel-themed fixtures, an exposed beam ceiling and even the original kuurna (hollowed-out log) used to brew Arney’s Sahati, the tasting room celebrates the brewery’s woodsy legacy. It’s located in The Ale Apothecary’s little-known barrel facility next door to the Century Center (home of GoodLife Brewing). Visitors will discover an experience more akin to a winery than the typical brewery tasting room.
The open floorplan offers ample glimpses of the barrels located throughout, and there is an artistic aesthetic that underscores the brewery’s artisanal roots.
Corked bottles are available to purchase for on-premise consumption, and select beers are available in single pours on a rotating basis—but never on draft, and no guest beers. Arney wouldn’t have it any other way. “If you want RPM IPA, Cabin 22 is right across the street,” he offered, coolly.
A conversation with local sustainability pioneer Sarahlee Lawrence.
Rainshadow Organics owner Sarahlee Lawrence. Photo by Joshua Langlais
You grew up on this property. What is the biggest change that’s occurred?
I returned home after a couple degrees in environmental science and ten years of international river guiding to take over my family farm. Committed to raising food for Central Oregon, I converted the farm to certified organic and began my journey toward raising a “full diet.”
You said once that you hadn’t planted a seed or really eaten vegetables before jumping into this endeavor. What ever possessed you to take this up?
I read an essay by Michael Pollen that stopped me in my tracks. Food as we know it was doomed. Farmers were growing old. Farmland was being developed. With my family land, I knew I could make a difference.
You rely on a fair amount of student labor to make things work. Can you talk about the role of education in the operation?
It would be easier to hire staff for the farm and probably about the same financially, but I believe we need more farmers. I believe that food security lies in the working hands of young people that need skills, field experience, learned perseverance and awareness. I open my farm to people committed to learning how to farm, with the intent of farming themselves, or who are at least raising their awareness about food and want to be more informed, conscious eaters. They are part of a seven-month intensive curriculum through the Rogue Farm Corps.
This is a quiet and remote place, at least by Central Oregon standards, yet it feels very connected to the community. Is that deliberate?
We are dedicated to our community, both in the immediate Central Oregon region and beyond it. We depend on people who are committed to eating seasonal food, organically grown, right here. This is a culinary adventure. It is not the way people are used to shopping for specific recipes with all ingredients available to them. This is preservation. This is honoring each ingredient as it comes. This is longing. This is patience. This is cooking as a daily act. The people who eat our food bring their families together to cook and to eat. It is community and conviviality. We eat the food we grow as a crew every day. We celebrate the first of everything. We get creative as plants keep on giving. We try to inspire those that shop at the farm with recipes posted regularly to our website, and we’ll soon be hosting cooking classes.
Photo by Joshua Langlais
Speaking of community, September 16 marks the grand opening of your market and beautiful commercial kitchen. How are these additions going to fit into your existing operation and what are a couple of fun surprises that people might find?
We are so excited about our new kitchen and store. We are cooking through this first season, learning to preserve everything. You will of course find our full fresh market array of veggies, pork, beef, chicken, buckwheat and wheat flour. We’re drying and pickling and fermenting like crazy. This is an everchanging place. We’ll be posting specials and new products regularly. The kitchen completes the circle, allowing us to get more of our food into the hands of our community, especially people who aren’t used to cooking with farm fresh food. We believe in food access, so we also accept Oregon Farm Direct Nutrition Program vouchers and we will soon take SNAP benefits.
The CSA has been the cornerstone of your business. What are some new and exciting things happening there?
Our CSA has grown into a full-diet, year-round offering. We have both small and large, meat and veggie shares for summer and winter. We have classic veggies that people love, but being a member exposes you to new and fun varieties, too. It is a culinary adventure through the season. We offer two pick up locations in Bend, downtown on Wednesdays and NorthWest Crossing on Saturdays, or you can pick up your CSA at the farm. CSA members often get things first in the season, and we share the abundance of the season as it comes. The farm kitchen is a new and unique aspect for the CSA. We’ll be sharing recipes of all the creative, culinary energy that is surrounding how we enjoy, store and preserve this food.
By practicing “regenerative” ranching, Blue Mountain Ranch is improving the land that its cattle grazes on.
Blue Mountain Ranch in Paulina, Oregon. Photo by Joshua Langlais
“My grandfather owned a dairy for sixty years in Arizona and the whole time he dreamed of becoming a cattle rancher,” said Sarah Teskey, who bought Blue Mountain Ranch in Paulina with four generations of her family in 2006. “These 23,000 acres had a running water source, contiguous land next to BLM with forest permits and enough property for cattle to support several families. My grandfather lived his last years with everything he had hoped and dreamed for in a ranch.”
Everyone in the family had farm or ranch experience prior to the move from Arizona to Oregon but not on this scale of raising cattle and managing grass. The relatives threw themselves into learning both on the rangeland and on the pages of the latest ranching literature. When they began to learn about holistic management, things clicked.
“‘Regenerative qualities.’ It’s a buzz word in ranching now,” said Teskey. “It’s past sustainable. We don’t just want to maintain land with holistic practices, we want to improve it.”
Blue Mountain operates on the principle that grass-fed and grass-finished beef provides the best benefit to the consumer because there are no additives or feed other than local forage. Beyond the consumer, the overall health of their 1,000 head of cattle and the land they graze are equally important priorities for the ranch.
“We believe that a holistic outlook will eventually become what’s best for the pocketbook over the long arc,” said Teskey who, along with her husband, is raising two boys on the ranch.
Their grazing practices maximize growth of nutrient-dense forage, which in turn promotes the soil’s microbial functions and regenerative processes. Blue Mountain times the start of their calving season later in the spring than many ranches do, in order to “reduce the loss that can happen with winter calving and maximize high-energy protein intake by grazing cattle on grass instead of hay when they are about to give birth,” said Teskey.
“The key is to evaluate what you’re doing,” she said. “Is it because it’s the way it’s always been done or because the neighbors do it or because it’s what’s best for our operation, our land, our specific location? It’s a paradigm shift.”
Blue Mountain’s beef is available for purchase by quarter, half or whole animal.
Bikepacking takes mountain biking from excursion to adventure status.
Tom Karren was a respectable member of society. He had a day job. Slept under the same roof most nights and enjoyed the occasional afternoon and weekend road bike ride. That was before he strapped on his first frame bag and became another bikepacking convert. These days Karren works when it allows, usually sleeps under the stars and uses roads primarily to move from one bikepacking adventure to the next.
Since taking up bikepacking just three years ago, Karren has completed the Continental Divide Trail, a bruising two-wheeled bisection of the United States along its most arduous terrain. He has bikepacked across British Columbia, completed the 400-mile Smoke ‘n Fire backcountry race in Central Idaho and finished the grueling Tour de los Padres trail in California. Karren’s major regret: that he didn’t discover the sport sooner.
“If I’ve been off my bike in the last year, I doubt it’s more than a one- or two-day stretch,” said Karren.
Yes, he’s an extreme case, but Karren is on the forefront of a recreational revolution that is winning new adherents by the day. While there are no ready measurements of the amorphous sport—the very definition of bikepacking is as fluid and mutable as the DIY routes that riders create—the anecdotal evidence is mounting for bikepacking as the next sport to capture the imagination of outdoor minded adventurers. In a certain respect, it’s almost surprising that it hasn’t happened sooner. The sport combines hugely popular activities of biking, camping and backcountry hiking.
With the advent of new lightweight gear and ever more access to trails and roads, this has become a popular sport for adventurous intermediate and advanced riders. Oregon has some outstanding opportunities to explore the wild and remote areas of the state with some planning and strategic investment.
We asked veteran bikepacker and local shop owner David Marchi of Crow’s Feet Commons to show us the ropes locally. David and his gang of merry bikepackers helped us navigate an easily attainable local route that incorporated the Metolius-Windigo and Mrazek trails. From there we connected to the Peterson Ridge trail system with an overnight stay at Three Creeks Lake.
Stellar views and wildlife abounded. Our evening included an Osprey snagging a fish in the evening and a more graceful bald eagle doing the same the next morning. We rode out the next day for what bikepackers dub a “sub-24,” feeling we had wrapped a whole weekend of adventure in just a matter of hours. As it turns out, losing track of time is one of the happy casualties of a successful bikepacking adventure.
Oregon’s Expanding Trails
The newly minted Oregon Timber Trail connects remote Lakeview to Hood River, putting Central Oregon square in the middle of the bikepacking revolution. With nearly 700 miles of remote trails, half of which is singletrack, the Timber Trail is now a bucket list item for Northwest bikepackers and provides some of Oregon’s best riding. The Three Sisters Three Rivers trail is a great option that begins in Bend and encompasses several renowned local trails, including Peterson Ridge and the McKenzie River trails. Riders connect to the Oakridge system and the North Umpqua trail, ending in Roseburg. This 300-mile, mostly singletrack route has some incredible and challenging riding, with the added bonus of access to hot springs where you can soothe your aching muscles.
Gravel Grinding
In far Eastern Oregon, the Wallowa and Blue Mountains boast fantastic scenery and friendly people. Due the area’s remoteness, there is also incredibly light vehicle traffic. A growing list of rideable routes has this region on many bikepackers to-visit lists. Local gravel options abound in the Ochoco Mountains and guided tours are available with Good Bike Co. in the heart of Prineville.
Good Bike’s staff is knowledgeable and ready to help outfit just about any bike for a backroads or backcountry adventure. Owner James Good opened the shop in 2014 after relocating from Utah where he had worked at Petzl, an outdoor accessory company.
Good said he knew that Prineville had the potential to develop as an oasis for road bikers because of its proximity to several state scenic bikeways and its positioning on the TransAmerica Trail, the nation’s original coast-to-coast bike route, which begins in Virginia and ends at Astoria. What Good didn’t know is how fast interest would grow around bikepacking and gravel road riding.
The shop now sponsors an annual 100-mile gravel road race held in August and is expanding its offering of overnight tours that combine gravel riding and some little-known single and doubletrack routes east of the Ochocos.
“A lot of what we will do this fall is going to be two-night bikepacking trips where everybody is self supported but we provide the food,” said Good.
With fewer potential conflicts between motorists and riders on these lightly traveled routes, the rides can take on a convivial air and tend to be very social affairs.
Whether it’s a DIY route that riders map out with friends or a shop-supported ride, there’s a strong sense of ownership in a bikepacking experience.
“Once you’ve completed a route like that you feel a lot of gratification. You’re creating your own adventure, if you will,” Good said.
Finding the Right Gear
“I look at bikepacking as two things, one is bikepacking on mountain bikes and this other segment, which is more geared toward road aspects and to deserted doubletrack,” said Eric Power, owner of Bend Velo, a local shop that specializes in bikepacking and touring gear.
Power said he has seen huge growth interest over the past couple of years around bikepacking, from gear purchases to route building and guided tours. Bike shops and adventure outfitters can help riders choose the right bike and gear for any type of adventure, but they also can provide touroptions with catered meals, allowing riders to enjoy the best of both worlds—a backcountry tour with meals that include fresh ingredients and perks like cold beer and hot coffee.
If you’re going it alone, pack light. Bikepacking calls for small handlebar and seat bags to keep the ride balanced and nimble. Whatever frame you prefer, most gear can transfer from one type of bike to another, allowing riders to experiment as they evolve in the sport.
The other issue is technology. Phones and GPS devices have made it possible for riders to plan routes and make real time updates on trail conditions, sharing information and insight with other users. It also allows riders to move more confidently in remote areas without the fear of taking a wrong turn. But just how much technology is too much? Power, who takes half a dozen or so multiday trips per year and mixes in several more overnight rides, said it depends on the route and the rider.
“Part of the reason we are doing this is to get away from the computer and life as we know it. I want my [GPS] to beep at me if I’m off course, but I don’t want it beeping at me the whole ride,” he said.
Resources
Bikepacking.com is a popular bikepacking blog that has evolved into a comprehensive journal of all things bikepack related including gear reviews, bikepacking routes and stories from bikepackers around the globe.
Oregontimbertrail.org contains maps, photos and information on the newly minted Timber Trail, a 670-mile ride that bisects the state of Oregon, beginning in Lakeview and ending in Hood River. The route is more than fifty percent singletrack and includes some of the state’s most highly rated mountain bike trails.
One of the most popular and universally adopted web programs, Ride with GPS allows riders to research and plan routes that can be saved on GPS devices and smartphones. Routes can be saved, shared and updated in real time, allowing users to create a growing library of bike routes available to the public.
Tracy Treu is a Nebraska girl who believes in Midwestern values such as good manners, authenticity, being neighborly and having a strong commitment to family. She is also a yoga teacher with a colorful vocabulary and perfect comedic timing. If you’ve ever been fortunate enough to take one of her classes, you have probably heard her spin on yogic philosophy “do no harm, but take no s#@t.” I sat down with Tracy over gin and tonics to discuss football, yoga, teenagers and giants.
You have some experience with football and yoga. Which came first?
The football came well before the yoga. I started dating Adam (Treu) in college. When we first met, I thought he was a weird giant and I didn’t know much about football other than Nebraska always won. I went to every one of Adam’s college games and then watched him play for the Oakland Raiders. I surprise my sons with what I know about football. Adam played in around 200 NFL games. You pick up a few things.
So when did you first discover yoga?
Adam actually practiced yoga before I did. He had a strength coach who was pretty forward thinking and incorporated it into their off-season program. It wasn’t until we moved to Oregon in 2009 that I began to practice and then teach at Groove Yoga.
And now you teach yoga to high school football players. How did that come about?
Our neighbor and friend Kevin Boss is another former NFL player who owns Boss Sports Performance. He roped me into it.
Smart man. Why is yoga a good compliment to football training?
True strength is strength plus flexibility. Yoga is a chance to work muscles in a new and different way. It gives them a chance to improve their movement so they can move anywhere, at any time, during a game. It also calms their minds. How do the boys like the yoga? The boys are super responsive, which I’m grateful for. By far their favorite part of the class is savasana. Most of them snore during it.
Are you able to slip in a little mindfulness?
I wouldn’t teach yoga unless I could slip mindfulness into it. Having a teenager myself, I know they are in a constant state of distraction or semi-controlled chaos. Stillness and breath bring them back to their essential nature.
You also helped prep a young player for NFL draft. Share a bit.
Again, Kevin roped me in. He asked Adam and me if we’d help get Oregon State player Dustin Stanton ready for Pro Day. Kevin worked Dustin hard on his speed, strength and fitness, and Adam worked with him on overall offensive lineman work. I did twice weekly yoga with him.
What was the outcome?
He’s in training camp with the Cincinnati Bengals right now.
That’s a good outcome. What lessons from yoga could the NFL benefit from?
Yoga teaches self-awareness and non-reactivity to stress, and keeps your body healthy and young. It would be a dream for every college and NFL team to have a yoga and mindfulness curriculum.
I’m pretty sure if anyone could make that happen, it would be Tracy Treu.
It might be a stretch to call a place as vast and rich in history as Eastern Oregon “undiscovered,” but you won’t find any crowds out there yet, either. Close to Bend, the John Day Territory allows you to pack multiple adventures into one weekend.
The Paradise Cove trail at the Painted Hills in Eastern Oregon.
Looking for solitude? Wide open spaces? Natural wonders that draw more wildlife than tourists? Consider pointing your wagon east, where a landscape brims with history and Western charm. Just an hour or so east of Prineville, the opportunities begin to unfold. From fossil hunting to horseback riding, it’s easy to pack multiple adventures into just a weekend. Though with low crowds and stunning scenery, you’ll probably start looking for excuses to extend your trip.
History in the Hills
The Painted Hills will evoke a lot of questions upon first sight. Mainly, what? and how? The softly carved rolling hills are, in fact, seemingly painted with a dramatic patina of ochre and emerald hues, a stark contrast to the golden, rocky hills that surround them.
If you can peel your eyes away from the natural wonder, you’ll learn that the Painted Hills are 40 million years in the making, the result of the ever-changing floodplain of the region. The Painted Hills are one unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, three separate geological wonders that are time capsules of North American natural history. The entire monument is filled with well-preserved fossils, and is considered one of the most complete fossil records in the world.
Traveling east, the Sheep Rock Unit includes the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center. Perched on a bluff overlooking the towering green claystone rock formation along one side of Highway 19, the center is a museum featuring the dynamic history of the floodplain. Inside, watch scientists at work as they study the immense trove of fossils that continue to be found throughout this region.
Going west again just past the small town of Fossil, the Clarno Unit trails bring you up close to the rocky spires of volcanic mudflow that hold fossilized remains of plant and animal life. These ancient markers are remnants from a time, long ago, when the region was a tropical rainforest, a fact than can be hard to wrap one’s head around today in the present desert landscape where fewer than fourteen inches of rain falls annually, on average. As a matter of perspective, that’s less precipitation than Los Angeles receives in any given year.
Each unit has a handful of short hikes, none longer than three miles, that bring you to diverse views of the landscape. Plan your trip to visit in the evening around sunset to catch the last rays of sun illuminating the red, orange and green rocks.
Small Town Living
Mitchell, Oregon
Mitchell is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it kind of town. Just nine miles up Highway 26 from the Painted Hills, it would be a mistake to miss Mitchell. The town of a little more than one hundred people has had its fair share of misfortune, getting ravaged by three floods in the twentieth century.
The Sidewalk Cafe in Mitchell.
But it always comes back, refusing to be labeled as another Oregon ghost town. This time around, though, Mitchell is determined to do more than just survive. With a local craft brewery, a new biking hostel and several local businesses in various stages of renovation, Mitchell might be (dare we say it?) happening.
Tiger Town Brewing
Stop for breakfast or lunch at the Sidewalk Café or Little Pine Café. They’re both places where you’ll end up chatting with the locals, learning about the best swimming holes and getting directions such as “turn right at the leaning rock.”
In 2015, a new local watering hole popped up in the form of Tiger Town Brewing, the name a reference to the rough and tumble history of Mitchell’s main street, where loggers and miners once descended to spend their hard earned wages with predictable results. It’s set in a gravel lot, with picnic tables and a food truck serving up some of the best wings in recent memory.
Hunters and fisherman know the town well as a gateway to local outdoor recreation, but a lot of people who visit the Painted Hills, especially from out of state, aren’t aware Mitchell is just up the road. Though it’s small, the town is ideally located for exploring this region.
The Painted Hills Vacation Rentals, a triad of colorful cottages in a garden-like oasis, are a charming home base for a weekend visit. Aruna Jacobi and her mother, Barbara, run the Painted Hills Vacation Cottages and are committed to boosting tourism to the region. Aruna and Barbara, along with others in town with a vision for Mitchell, are hoping that the latest successes are just the beginning of bigger things for the town.
A cottage at the Painted Hills Vacation Rentals.
Still, most residents will continue to joke about the presence of rattlesnakes around town, just to keep it from getting too crowded.
Don’t Call it a Dude Ranch
Horseback riding at Wilson Ranches Retreat in Fossil.
The John Day Territory is quickly becoming a draw for road cyclists and motorcycle riders who are drawn to the scenic roadways. That said, the best way to see the region might be from the saddle of a horse. It’s a slower pace, which is fitting for the lifestyle here.
Horseback riding at Wilson Ranches Retreat in Fossil, Oregon.
At Wilson Ranches Retreat in Fossil, grab cowboy boots and a straw hat, hop on a horse and lend your hand. The working cattle ranch (as opposed to dude ranches, which are just resorts) sits on 20,000 acres in Fossil and traces its roots back six generations to the Oregon Trail. Kara Wilson and her husband Brian run the ranch now. They opened a bed and breakfast in 2000.
Wilson Ranch is set in a valley surrounded by golden hills. It feels like a secret, as does most of Eastern Oregon, but Kara is clear that locals don’t want to keep it to themselves. There’s enough room out here for everyone, she said.
When she talks about why more people should visit this region, it’s clear why travelers are choosing to make it a destination.
“You get to be the one hiker on a trail. The one rider on a horse going into the high desert hills, the one kayaker on the John Day River,” said Kara. “You get to be in a pristine, untouched place of Oregon. And you get to be the one.”
The Dirt Divas is all-female mountain biking program run by Pine Mountain Sports.
The term diva is more closely associated with the glitz of Hollywood than the grit of a Central Oregon trail, but don’t let the name fool you. Bend’s Dirt Divas aren’t scared to kick up a little dust. An all-female mountain biking program run by Pine Mountain Sports, Dirt Divas meets twice a month to grind gears and bomb singletrack across Central Oregon.
Created in 2010, the program also provides workshops for women who mountain bike or are interested in getting started, including sessions for bike maintenance and gear selection. Jane Quinn, the apparel buyer at Pine Mountain Sports, serves as the program coordinator for Dirt Divas. She took over in 2011 after moving to Bend from Big Sky, Montana and experiencing firsthand what being a woman in a male-dominated sport can feel like.
“You definitely feel like the underdog a little bit of the time,” said Quinn. “You definitely don’t get the respect men get in the sport.”
Part of Dirt Divas’ mission is promoting a positive mountain biking culture for women, who, said Quinn, can be deterred from the sport because of the macho stereotype it has.
“The program, I felt, had a lot of potential,” said Quinn. “It goes beyond getting together and going riding.”
Dirt Divas offers women of all riding abilities the opportunity to get on the trail, learn new skills and find a community among other female mountain bikers. It’s growing in popularity, too. Last year, more than 100 women showed up for one of the rides, though the program typically sees thirty to fifty women attend each session.
The program kicks off annually in April when mountain biking season typically begins in Central Oregon. The program is open to women of all riding abilities, from first-time riders to elite racers (a group that includes Quinn, who won the twenty-four-hour mountain bike race in Bend in 2014 and set the record for the women’s course time). The rides are free and women can join for one ride or all of them. Plus, you get to use a free rental bike from the Pine Mountain Sports shop. Women break out into groups based on abilities and ride trails around the area in groups.
Kimm Svoboda moved to Central Oregon two years ago and picked up mountain biking. She joined Dirt Divas that summer. She said the program has helped her build confidence on the trails.
“At first, I was kind of intimidated because it’s pretty male dominated and a younger person’s activity,” said Svoboda. “[Dirt Divas] is very friendly and encouraging.”
Agricultural Connections is a local organization that centralizes local food shopping for individuals and restaurants.
Liz Weigand, left, co-owner of Agricultural Connections. Photo by Joshua Langlais
Farmers’ markets and CSAs (or “community supported agriculture,” a direct-to-consumer subscription model for individual farms) are the most common ways people buy local food. Agricultural Connections centralizes local food shopping with one online marketplace, working with dozens of regional food producers to offer consumers more variety in one convenient platform. After the godfather of local food sourcing, Jackson’s Corner, signed on as Ag Connect’s first commercial partner in 2010, it was clear that restaurants and individual consumers alike were seeking local food from one streamlined source. Today, Ag Connect supplies more than twenty-five commercial partners (mostly restaurants).
CSAa
Orders are available for pickup or delivery across most of Central Oregon. Shoppers either subscribe or make a one-time produce box purchase up to two days before the weekly fulfillment, or go online and fill their digital shopping cart, ordering any item in any quantity.
Year-round Supply
When Liz Weigand bought Ag Connect before the end of its first year in 2010, an existential question hovered over the business: How can this become a year-round resource in the High Desert? “There was no way for the local food system to grow, evolve and flourish without the integration of the rest of the state,” she said. “We are completely committed to our network of producers here but if people are going to create local food habits, they need consistency. Supplementing with producers from the Willamette Valley was necessary to create the momentum to keep the business alive. Partnerships are invaluable. It’s Oregon food. We are all in this together.”
Dynamism
While the variety of offerings in the online store doesn’t rival a supermarket, Ag Connect does work with at least thirty Oregon producers at any given time, which means that customers can order everything from produce and dairy to meat and pantry items. We’ve been told we’re like a lubricator for the food system,” said Weigand, “developing channels for our suppliers and helping our customers get multiple offerings.”
Farm to Screen
Manya Williams is Weigand’s new business partner and she is laser focused on the company’s e-commerce. “I’m seed to plate—building relationships with producers—and she is plate to seed, looking at things from the customer’s point of view,” said Weigand. Having a smooth, web-based platform will help with logistical ease as their team builds out more delivery routes. (Current deliveries in Bend three times a week; Prineville and Sisters once a week.)
Transparency
As long as we are communicating the practices of each farm, we’ve seen success,” said Weigand, when asked about whether Ag Connect has a policy on their suppliers’ farming practices. “Most is sustainably grown with organic practices, whether certified or not. The customer can make the decision if they have the information. For example, we had cherries that were conventionally grown this year and if the shopper added it to their shopping cart online, they were notified about the farm’s practices.”
Symbiosis
The symbiotic relationship between Maker’s District grocer, Central Oregon Locavore, and Ag Connect began the year they were each founded, in 2010. Combined, the two companies buy and sell more Central Oregon-grown foods than anywhere else in the region. Locavore looks to Ag Connect for much of their sourcing and Ag Connect buys eggs from Locavore to sell to their customers.
DrinkTanks meets a growing demand for craft beer containers.
DrinkTanks team in their Bend workshop. Photo by Alex Jordan
DrinkTanks, founded in Bend in 2013, strives to meet a growing demand for premium craft beer containers. Two years of research and development had gone into the company’s growler that doubles as a personal keg, designed to preserve the freshness, temperature, carbonation and overall quality of your favorite premium craft beer. The company, which has thirty employees, imports stainless steel, vacuum-insulated bodies for the growlers and personal kegs, which are powder coated, laser-engraved and assembled by hand, one at time, in Bend.
Nicholas Hill worked on starting the company with his father, Tim Hill, a retired professor at Central Oregon Community College, who died in 2011. Drinktanks have two distinguishing characteristics: a truly leak-proof lid and the ability to hold sixty pounds of pressure to preserve carbonation. The keg cap accessory kit allows drinkers to also dispense from the growler while preserving carbonation up to a week.
A 2013 Kickstarter campaign for DrinkTanks raised about $240,000 from nearly 2,000 backers. Two years later, a second campaign for the Kegulator Cap and The Juggernaut, a 128-ounce growler, raised more than $300,000 from more than 2,000 backers.
In June 2016, DrinkTanks moved from Bend’s west side to triple its footprint at a 17,250-square-foot facility off Empire Road in Bend.
The company has recently been moving into the coffee-drinking arena, too, launching a line of vacuum insulated cups earlier this year. The line won the Best New Product award at Coffee Fest, a large specialty coffee trade show in Nashville.
“A few hundred breweries across the country are selling our products, as well as several dozen large retailers including REI and backcountry.com,” said marketing director Jackson Esselman.
Sales are growing, and being in Bend has played into the company’s success, he said. “Bend is a hub of craft breweries and one of the most sought-after outdoor towns in the country, so being based here gives us instant credibility. It’s what started our company and fuels us, so rather than outsourcing labor and production, maybe it’s not the most profitable, but it’s true to our roots.”
Tribe Pilot is an app that will make planning multiday outdoor adventures easier.
Tribe Pilot founder Matt Smith
Last summer, after a five-year bender in startup land, Bend’s Matt Smith took some time to regroup and play. The biggest adventure of the summer was a mountain biking trip into the backcountry of British Columbia with a group of friends. In planning it over months, the friends sent hundreds of emails—maps, gear lists, pack lists, mountain bike reviews—amid tons of useless banter. Locating the map? That was a twenty-minute affair.
By the end of the trip, photos were spread across four platforms and the email string had 250 messages. It was on that trip, cranking up and down the mountains of B.C., that Smith found his next adventure: finding a way to solve that problem of decentralization, one likely shared by many lovers of the outdoors.
Smith’s app acts as a trip dashboard, compiling critical trip details in one location for easy access to trip dates, locations, pack lists and assignments.
Tribe Pilot is largely a virtual company, relying on outside contractors for much of the work. It has been self-funded so far, and at the Outfound startup festival in Hood River in June, it won the popular vote in the concept-stage startup competition. (The prize was essentially bragging rights.)
The app was in beta during the summer, and the official launch is set for September 15. Smith said he has some great launch partners that will give them a rapid growth curve out of the gate.
“Several million users would be spectacular, at some point, but currently we are focusing on making our first 1,000 extremely happy,” he said. “If we can do that, then a million users are around the corner. If you pinned me down and tickled my feet, I would have to tell you that by the end of 2018 we are targeting 100,000 users who are constantly planning adventures and inviting their friends.”
His strategy is to collect user feedback metrics to rapidly iterate the product next year. By year three, they are looking to have a loyal user base that considers Tribe Pilot an integral part of all of their outdoor adventures that uses it as their tribe’s indispensable platform.
LeadMethod is a software startup based in Bend that closes the gap between leads and sales.
LeadMethod founder Justin Johnson
For businesses grappling with the steps between leads and sales, a Bend startup has the solution. LeadMethod’s eponymous software platform helps this along, generating feedback about lead status, expected close dates, pipeline projections and other data that can increase sales, especially for companies that sell through distributors and independent representatives. Founded by Justin Johnson in 2014, the company is poised for growth.
“The market continues to tell us that we are a great product-market fit and there is a big opportunity for us,” said Johnson, a veteran software product manager.
In the last two years, the startup doubled its revenue and number of staff. The team of ten is seeking to hire more sales, development and client services staff. In the last year, the company has been investing in its technology to better integrate it with other software products, something that large customers require.
The next six to twelve months are key to growth. The company has the technology, talent and a strong customer base, so taking it to the next level likely requires fundraising, a larger office space in Bend, and a second office in Portland.
“The good news is we have fantastic current investors and many other investors that want to be a part of the new raise,” said Johnson.
He has the background for the endeavor, too. For fifteen years prior to LeadMethod, he was in a software product management position, with experience in startups and large companies.
“Dozens of times I have identified good market opportunities and built software products to fit,” he said. “I applied the same best practice to understand our target market, test the market with the idea, then finally build the market to sell. It worked. It worked through lots of interviews, research, and looking at what other companies have tried and failed or succeeded with in this market.”
LeadMethod’s silver bullet is that it addresses a specific customer need, a software problem that no one else has solved, said Johnson.
“In the first two years we solved the problem, and now it is time to apply the same model at a much larger scale. There are more than 30,000 companies in the U.S. that should be using our software, and five times that globally.”
Another distinguishing factor is that while many people have good ideas, not all have the ability to execute them.
“Our team at LeadMethod are masters of execution, and that is the reason for our success,” said Johnson, who, while crediting his team, also possesses the confidence that startup leaders need.
“We’re in a very good position … this will be one of Oregon’s next great companies.”
Cairn will deliver the best new outdoor products to your door once a month so that you can always be ready for your next adventure.
Cairn is a monthly subscription box service of products aimed at inspiring and equipping people for outdoor adventure and discovery. As such, it offers consumers an introduction to brands and their products, and brands gain exposure and data from the market.
Last year, the Bend-based company raised $2 million in funding to expand its offerings, team and community. Since then, it has brought on an outdoor-products veteran to guide its curated selections of gear, and digital specialists to analyze how best to attract and serve customers online. The company now has a team of seventeen and has shipped more than 1.5 million products in its four-year history.
Jared Peterson and Rob Little; Photo by Talia Galvin
Rob Little and Jared Peterson co-founded the company, having met while pursuing MBAs at the Wharton Executive Education Program at the University of Pennsylvania. They discovered they shared a passion for the outdoors as well as startups. Peterson’s background was in operations and tech. He was a part of the team that launched the Apple watch, while Little, an aerospace engineer, worked on deep-space vehicles and stealth fighter jets.
They said they like how flexible and nimble a startup can be, with the ability to be able to react and engage the brand without having to sit back to gain approvals from higher-ups. For example, Cairn, which began as a monthly subscription service ($29.95 per month), introduced Obsidian, a premium outdoor subscription box, in December 2015. Obsidian is a quarterly subscription box service priced at $199 per quarter (including domestic shipping), filled with gear valued at more than $300, and including anything from packs and cooking supplies to outdoor electronics.
“The decision to launch was quick,” said Peterson. “It was clear it was in the market’s interest, with the brands of the core product at a higher price point than the monthly service. It took a few months to execute it.”
Little offered the following advice to anyone aspiring to startup-dom or struggling with it: “Surround yourself with incredible people who motivate and inspire you to help your business, from your partner or co-founder to investors and advisors. It’s not something you do alone.”
When it comes to bikepacking gear, less is more. But that doesn’t mean bikepackers don’t go all in on their equipment. To the contrary, traveling light often means putting more thought into your gear. The bulk of your gear should be essential, multipurpose and preferably both. We asked the experts at Mountain Supply to give us a short list of must-have gear for any weekend warrior looking to get the most out of a multiday backcountry tour.
Small, lightweight water filter that can fit in your stash pocket. Use it to drink right out of the source or fill up other reserves. With a quick, one-hand pump and easy to clean parts, this will keep you going and on track.
A dry sleeping bag is a warm sleeping bag, period. This compression dry sack makes sure of that with its durable fabric, roll-top closure and ability to purge air to compress your sleeping bag to the smallest size possible.
Have some spare room in the pannier or pack? This two-pound cot keeps you warm, off the ground and provides a luxury sleeping experience whenever you have just a few spare minutes for setup.
A little rain and a little wind won’t phase this hoody. Lightweight, versatile and extremely breathable, you’ll find yourself reaching for this piece for almost any condition at any time of the year.
Satisfy a sweet tooth and get a much needed energy boost. Real ingredients, healthy fat content and a little creativity highlight these little amazing creations that come in small, two-ounce pouches.
Ultralight, roomy option for one person on the move at only two pounds. When crawling into camp, a quick setup gets you into a great three-season shelter for anything mother nature throws at you.
Blue Mountain Ranch cattle in Paulina, Oregon. Photo by Joshua Langlais
Born in the Forest
Most of a cow’s energy requirements are in the third trimester of pregnancy and during lactation. Blue Mountain calves later than many traditional ranches, with mothers giving birth from May 1 until the end of June, so the ranchers are moving the cattle up to BLM and forest lands as calving begins.
There in the high meadows, grasses with high-energy proteins flourish naturally by late spring so Blue Mountain doesn’t have to feed hay during calving. This is more economical for the ranch and provides the cattle with the best high-energy nutrients at the most important time of the year.
Summer on Public Lands
Blue Mountain’s permit allows them to graze cattle on forest land through the end of September before the cattle are driven back down to Blue Mountain’s private range grounds for the remainder of the year.
Cattle in the grass finishing program spend sixty to ninety days on the lush irrigated meadows of the ranch to give them the best natural finish and flavor for customers.
Every Last Bite
“The cattle are not real high energy in the fall,” said Teskey. “It’s more of a maintaining time.” Calves are weened. The cattle are made to graze certain parts of the property’s range country, “strip grazing” all the available grasses from one area before being allowed to move on to another plot.
Newer and older grasses are drier by fall but “it’s still quality forage that we didn’t cut and bale. We boost with minerals and salt to supplement the grass.”
Why strip graze? “We want to keep as much nutrients on our ground as possible. Using cattle instead of equipment to harvest grass allows for a natural nutrient cycling through grazing, hoof impact and natural fertilizing.” said Teskey.
“Also, when the cattle eat everything, not just the young tender grasses it helps regenerate native species which flourish the next spring—as long as water is in sufficient supply.”
The Coldest Season
Cattle eat native grass and alfalfa that was grown primarily on the ranch and baled in the summer.
Extend the outdoor living season with a fire feature that is built in to your landscape or patio.
Photo by Ross Chandler/Chandler Photography
It’s 3 a.m. on a chilly winter night and neither husband nor wife can sleep. They bundle up, pour a cognac and head for the fire pit. About thirty minutes later, they both feel the dreamy pull of sleep, the magic of a warm fire beneath an orchestra of stars.
This impromptu pajama party is one of countless ways Central Oregonians are drawn to the flame made easy by a match or an on-off switch. The homeowners said they didn’t know when they built the home that they’d use the fire pit all the time, even in the dead of night. The fire pit, which sits apart from the house on the forest’s edge, complements a nightly light show, a parade of wildlife and a view of Broken Top.
The gas-fueled fire feature is cupped inside a rocky outcropping, with four weather-resistant chairs arrayed around it. The homeowners say their friends always want to be in front of the fire.
Jeannie Legum, interior designer and owner of Legum Design in Bend, said that more and more homeowners are seeing fire features as less of a novelty and more of a necessity for entertaining and just relaxing at home.
When designing a fire feature, she considers the size of a client’s home and strives to complement its style. She’ll ask whether they want it for entertaining large parties or gathering in small intimate groups. Do they want the fire in the middle of an existing outdoor living space or is there a better place, away from it all?
As temperatures drop in fall and winter months, Legum says people can add overhead heaters, outdoor drapes to close off a space and weather-proof fabrics for furniture. Contrary to popular belief, creating an outdoor gathering space can be done on a budget. Legum works with homeowners whose properties range from $300,000 to multi-million dollars. “If it’s important to the homeowner, there’s a fire pit for any style or size of home and budget,” she said.
With a showroom full of fire pits and fire tables, Mara McCloskey-Becker of Fireside in Bend proves the point. Wood-burning, portable fire pits start at $199; high-end gas-fueled models can cost thousands.
She cautions that wood-burning models must be placed far from flammables and advises the use of spark-arresting screens. Smoke can be an issue to neighbors, and buyers should know whether their neighborhood allows outdoor wood-burning fire pits. While there is nothing like the crack of a wood fire on a chilly night, the campfire smell lingers in clothing long after the last log is extinguished. Plus, in wildfire-prone Central Oregon, natural gas and propane models are far more popular.
Trending now are gas or propane fire tables with a ledge for setting out snacks and cocktails, and glass guards are used to prevent overheating of people and food. If a gas line isn’t available, the fire feature can run on a propane tank hidden within the device. For more versatility, some manufacturers sell covers to convert a fire table into a coffee table—just the kind of double duty that Central Oregonians love.
McCloskey-Becker said styles range from sleek, minimalist rectangular and powder-coated models to faux wood and natural stone versions for a traditional or Northwest look. Flames are adjustable—just a few inches for ambiance or higher for warmth, and those who like the look of wood can buy a fire pit with a log set.
Bryan and Angie Azur have three fire pits in their Westside Bend home. One is an ultra-contemporary “fire and ice” feature that starts on the inside of the home and continues through the wall to a flat-roof covered patio. The other is a round, concrete fire pit, also under the covered patio, with furniture arranged around it in an L-shape where the family cozies up to watch the sunset, “until the first stars come. Then it’s time for the two boys to go to bed and for us to hang out,” said Bryan.
Designed by Eric Meglasson of Pique Architecture, the home has tall glass sliding doors that create a seamless space between inside and out, making it easy for as many as 100 guests to mill about, even in the winter when the hosts can fire up all three features. “We’re very social,” Bryan said with a laugh. When they’re not hosting a crowd, the fire pit “serves as our family’s TV. Last night we watched shooting stars, and occasionally, we see a breeding pair of great horned owls fly by.”
After more than a decade glazing tile, it’s still a mystery to Bend tile artisan Justyn Livingston. But to her, that’s part of the art.
Justyn Livingston lays out tile in her Bend studio.
There’s an aspect of unpredictability to glazing tile. Variations in the clay can reveal a gradient of colors that come out differently each time they’re fired. After more than a decade glazing tile, it’s still a mystery to Bend tile artisan Justyn Livingston. But to her, that’s part of the art. Predictability doesn’t really suit Livingston, anyway. Her career has taken her from international fashion houses in San Francisco to rural villages in Romania and, eventually, Central Oregon.
Bendites and visitors may recognize her work from the soaking pools at McMenamins Old St. Francis School, where she designed the tiles in the style of a Budapest bathhouse. Her craft, under the name Metolius Ridge Tile, is featured in commercial properties and private homes.
Justyn Livingston hand glazes tile in her Bend studio.
“My intention for this is to choose something [my clients] are going to love for a lifetime,” she said. “While I pay attention to trends and fashion and stuff in a way, I hope that this comes off as really classic.”
In the case of McMenamins’ Bend soaking pool, Livingston said the highest compliment she received about the project is that it feels old; she aims for her tile work to be long lasting and sustainable.
The irony is that Livingston was previously a textile designer for the international fashion brand Esprit, where trends and fast fashion were the modus operandi. She landed at Esprit in San Francisco in the early 1980s, after leaving home at 16 and then living in Paris for a year teaching ice skating at 19 and making her way back to the Bay Area in her twenties.
Livingston eventually became the head of the textile design department at Esprit, where she designed textiles for all the company’s products, including men’s and women’s clothes and bedding. A combination of burnout, freelance opportunities and lower living costs brought her to Camp Sherman in the 1990s. She was able to freelance for Esprit and Pottery Barn and made ends meet by working at the Kokanee Café.
Then, Livingston was recruited to work as a design consultant for Aid to Artisans. Her first job with them was in Tonga, working with basket weavers. The work took her around the world throughout the decade. She worked in Mexico, Romania, Guatemala and Chile to help indigenous artisans continue their traditional craft in a way that was sustainable and profitable in the modern economy.
Back in Central Oregon, she started working with clay and tile and collaborated with Susanne Redfield of Kibak Tile in Sisters. The collaboration was the jumping off point for Livingston to pursue her own business, Metolius Ridge Tile. In 2004, she landed the McMenamins gig that has served as a springboard.
From her studio in Bend, she cuts the tile, hand glazes each piece and fires them in her kiln. She uses only red quarry tile because “it enlivens glazes like no other color,” she said. “Because of the minerals in the quarry, it has this sort of chemistry, this alchemy, with the glazes, which is mostly fabulous, sometimes unpredictable.”
The unpredictability is a key element in her work that makes it stand out in a sea of assembly-line products. She aims to create an overall product where each tile pattern looks the same, but not manufactured.
“One of the biggest challenges is creating consistent inconsistency,” she said. “That’s part of the beauty, right?”
A Bend couple personalizes a semi-custom design to make their house a bright and modern home in the Tartan Druim neighborhood in Tetherow. (Photo by Eilish and Eric Canady inside the kitchen of their Tetherow Home.)
It’s a sad truth that the home we want to love is just not always worthy of our affection. Such was the case for Eilish and Eric Canady who had lived in their NorthWest Crossing home for ten years. Purchased before their second daughter was born, the house’s 1,700 square feet had become progressively too snug for the family. While looking for the best fit for their family, they found the Tartan Druim neighborhood in Tetherow.
Tartan Druim is made of semi-custom homes, all built by the same developer, Bend-based Arrowood, and designed by architect John Muir. “We streamline the process for the homeowners,” explained Femke van Velzen of Arrowood. “We have a team already in place that relieves a lot of the stress of building a custom home. It gives you a place to start.” Muir developed twelve plans with optional casitas. Homeowners’ can modify the plans to suit their specific needs, tastes and building site. Arrowood also provides help with interior design.
“With this development,” said architect Muir, “Arrowood is exploring more contemporary architecture rather than just offering the more traditional rustic design seen in Bend. Tetherow wants to stress individuality, and every home will be a little bit different.” Beyond Tetherow’s architectural requirements, Muir strongly feels that “people deserve to have what they want.”
Located between the Scottish links-style golf course and a canyon, the gated community affords unobstructed views of the greens and the Cascades. Tartan Druim perks include a common area with a clubhouse, landscaping and snow removal. There are also social and golf club memberships at the David McLay Kidd designed Tetherow, a Golf Digest Top 100 golf course. Other draws include the proximity to downtown Bend, schools, and Century Drive, the gateway to the Cascade Lakes and Mt. Bachelor.
The Canadys were shown a number of home plans that had already been approved for construction by Tetherow, but then saw a 3,500-plus square-foot, one-story, three-bedroom spec design that had not yet been given the go-ahead. Working with van Velzen and Muir, they were able to get the plan approved and make their wished-for modifications. The most visually significant alteration was changing the roofline from a traditional pitched roof to one with shed and flat planes.
Other changes requested by the Canadys included adding a casita and, due to their building site, changing the garage entry from the side to the front of the home. The couple also opted for wood-burning fireplaces, rather than gas. With that switch, they changed the fireplace walls to an exposed wood-form with poured concrete. Visible from both the interior and exterior, the concrete walls provide textural detail and nudge the home closer to the contemporary yet timeless styling the Canadys wanted to achieve.
Making it their own both in design and purpose, the original study will be used as an additional bedroom, and a wooden floor will go down in the garage to provide a practice space for their elder daughter’s Irish dancing troupe.
Besides these small modifications, Eilish Canady said the inside was perfect the way it was designed.
“I really like the indoor/outdoor feeling of the house. I love how the kitchen and living room form one big room, and that the living room wall is a LaCantina [folding] door that opens to the outside. The master is also at the back and has the same views as the living room,” she explained. “We tried to keep all the colors in light, neutral tones so the design and our choices would last a long time.”
“I know the house really well. I visited every day during construction,” said Canady. “Seeing the whole process and knowing the siding guy and the guy who builds the cabinets makes you know your house in a more intimate way.”
“It’s all been pretty easy,” she said of the decision to build their home, “and I’m really excited about us living there.”
EMW Fusion is a seasonal food cart in Bend that serves inventive pandos with locally sourced ingredients.
East Meets West food truck in Bend. Photo by Joshua Langlais
It started with a wedding invitation and turned into EMW Fusion. Sun Valley native Brandon Walsh was marrying Seoul native Yoonmee Chang (now Chang Walsh). Both designers, they wanted a creative theme for their wedding and East Meets West seemed appropriate. The pair of creatives took that theme with them into their married life, hosting big fusion-style barbecues (that got bigger each time) and creating mashup designs.
“Mashup is compelling, it’s fun, nothing too serious,” said Walsh, describing their designs of cowboy shirts with Hawaiian fabric contrast and prints of Japanese anime superimposed over Western scenes. “Our philosophy: Never be too serious.”
Brandon Walsh and Yoonmee Chang in front of their food truck East Meets West. Photo by Joshua Langlais
The couple also rewrote traditional Korean street food recipes with American twists and experimented. A lot. They planned to retire early from their corporate product and graphic design jobs in Portland, turning their passion for cooking into an exit strategy. A food truck in Bend fit the bill.
“Yoonmee grows a huge garden and we’ve made farmers’ market shopping our habit for years,” said Walsh. “We like to know where our food comes from. Especially with protein-based products, the animal must have been raised humanely, not just sustainably and organically. We knew if we got into any food business, that was the plan.”
Still, it took almost a year after they moved to Bend in 2015 to get the food truck ready and transition their foodie lifestyle into a business. They had to figure out how robust a menu their mobile space could handle and find producers in their newly adopted town who could supply EMW Fusion’s needs.
Brandon Walsh serves a pando at the East Meets West food truck. Photo by Joshua Langlais.
The winning combination? A pando, the organic love child of a Korean wheat-based pancake and a sando (Japanese for sandwich), sold from their truck for $3-4 a pop. Talk about a low barrier to entry for locally sourced food.
“We want to source all our protein and vegetables from Central Oregon and we’re about eighty percent of the way there,” said Walsh.
Even with all their planning, the young business learned one lesson the hard way: winter and EMW don’t mesh. Business was “slowwwww” and it was tough to maintain their commitment to local ingredients.
Before the truck closes for the season at the end of October, catch EMW slinging pandos at one of many locations around Bend (check emwfusion.com for the most up-to-date info). One of their stops is the up-and-coming 9th Street Village. “As makers and east side Bend residents, we are excited to see a cool, non-chain maker destination on the east side,” said Walsh.
To really get to the source, make a trip to the EMW’s beef and pork supplier, DD Ranch in Terrebonne, where the truck will be posted up during weekends in October to feed hungry pumpkin patch pickers.
For some Central Oregonians, the competition for housing and living wage jobs is more than an inconvenience, it’s an obstacle that can trap them in a cycle of poverty and homelessness.
Executive director Gwenn Wysling with Walter Eggleston, a resident checking out of Bethlehem Inn. Photo by Alex Jordan
Executive director Gwenn Wysling cites that struggle as one of the key factors in people needing Bethlehem Inn, a nonprofit emergency shelter in Bend. “It is just one bad break, sometimes one bad break after another,” she said.
Each year, Bethlehem Inn helps more than one thousand people who are experiencing situational, or temporary, homelessness. The nonprofit opened its doors in 1999 and has occupied its current space, a renovated motel on old Highway 97 in Bend, since 2007.
Bethlehem Inn can currently feed and house about ninety people a night, including up to five families. It also is the only shelter of its kind in Central Oregon, which has seen an increase in homelessness—up thirty-one percent in two years—according to the most recent Point-in-Time homeless count conducted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
This past summer, the organization broke ground on the first phase of expanding their facility, which will increase the number of beds, be more accessible for an aging homeless population and add a commercial kitchen where volunteers can prepare meals onsite. With modern upgrades such as solar panels, it will help the organization operate at a lower cost per resident.
Soon, Bethlehem Inn will begin a second campaign to raise the rest of the funds to finish the expansion, which will double the amount of families they can support.
Above all, Wysling highlights the empathy and support that is found in the community at Bethlehem Inn. “We’re that place that can really offer that respite and that place of hope and renewal,” she said.
The potato has a long history in Central Oregon, and some local festivals such as the Deschutes County Fair trace their roots to the humble spud.
Redmond Potato Show on Deschutes Avenue, circa 1965. Photo courtesy of Deschutes County Historical Society
The humble Russet, the Yukon gold, the fingerling, the baby red and—had history been a little kinder—the Deschutes Netted Gem. Once the major export crop of Central Oregon, the Netted Gem occupies a special place in local lore, if not on dinner plates. Think of it as the Oldsmobile of spuds—a brand that once led an industry, but fizzled in a changing economy heavy on mass production, subsidies and cheap imports.
Yes, before Central Oregon emerged as a hub for craft beer production and an outdoor recreation destination, it was known as the potato capital of the West. At the peak of production in the 1950s, Central Oregon had an estimated 5,000 acres, or roughly seven square miles, dedicated to its internationally award-winning variety, the Deschutes Netted Gem.
The Central Oregon potato crop gained fame in 1906 when the first Redmond Potato Show was held. Fred Stanley, a leader in the Central Oregon Irrigation Company, founded the show to promote the varieties of potatoes grown in the region. People traveled on horse and buggy for the event, which showcased twenty-six varieties of potatoes its first year. The show continued annually each fall, and Bend and Redmond grew to be friendly rivals in the potato industry.
For the better part of a century, the show was a highlight of community and civic life, the culmination of a year’s worth of toil in the fields and a celebration of the region’s bounty. Held each fall, the Potato Show helped spur the creation of the Deschutes County Fair in the early 20th century and was incorporated into the larger celebration.
In the late 1950s the festival became a standalone event again in downtown Redmond with an attendant celebration that included firefighters engaging in a downtown water fight, a community barbecue and revelry. The dollop of sour cream on top of the celebration was the coronation of an annual Potato King and Queen that reads like a who’s who of Redmond civic figures.
But success didn’t come easy to Redmond’s pioneering tuber farmers. In 1912, the potato crop began to spiral into “chaos,” according to a 1922 issue of the nationally distributed Potato Magazine. The problem was too much diversity in crops and a lack of consistent supply.
Just two years later, the market rebounded with the introduction of the Deschutes Netted Gem, which “produced an excellent quality of potato under the peculiar climatic conditions of Central Oregon.” Potato Magazine wrote that by 1922, the crop was in an “enviable position” due to the “value of standardization, advertising, and organization when applied to an industry carried on by progressive farmers.” The potatoes grew in popularity and won awards at international potato shows.
Over time, the region became the small fry in Oregon’s potato crop, with production peeling off to the east where processing plants in nearby Eastern Oregon, cheap land and ample water took Oregon’s production to a new scale. With the decline of the potato crop, there was little left to celebrate in Redmond but the memory of a once thriving economy. By 1970 the Potato Show was no more. The festival was revived briefly in 2006 in honor of Redmond’s Centennial celebration.
Today, the legacy of the Netted Gem and Potato Show live on in the Deschutes County Fair, celebrated each August in Redmond with plenty of pageantry—even if the former star of the show, the Netted Gem, hasn’t attended for some time.
New building at 6th and Deschutes Avenue in Redmond, circa 1918. Photo courtesy of the Deschutes County Historical Society.
Second annual Remond Potato Show in 1912. Photo courtesy of the Deschutes County Historical Society.
Float for Potato Show parade, circa 1914. Photo courtesy of the Deschutes County Historical Society.
Two men on a tractor digging potatoes in Central Oregon. Photo courtesy of the Deschutes County Historical Society.
1920s truck loaded with potato bags. Photo courtesy of Deschutes County Historical Society
Man with a dog digging in a potato field. Photo courtesy of Deschutes County Historical Society
Large crowd near display of potatoes at the Redmond Potato Show. Photo courtesy of Deschutes County Historical Society
Shevlin Commons homeowners design a modern kitchen that takes advantage of the Cascade mountain views.
Photo by Ross Chandler
On Bend’s western edge, large windows, dramatic angles and open floor plans are featured in homes that showcase views and Central Oregon’s outdoor culture.
Such is the case with Bill and Cheryl Davidson’s new Shevlin Commons custom-built home. Priorities for the new kitchen included function and overall fit. It had to work with the overall floor plan and take advantage of the site’s stunning Cascade views.
“Glenn Dietrich [of Sun Forest Construction] really captured what was in our imagination,” said Cheryl Davidson.
Dietrich chose materials that complemented the house’s contemporary design and the couple’s mid-century modern furniture.
Photo by Ross Chandler
The kitchen’s integration starts at the top, where clear hemlock paneling in the coffered ceiling echoes the use of the same material in the adjoining living room. The use of wood continues in the clear vertical-grained fir cabinetry that, at one end, backs up to the dining room to allow shared serving space.
Cabinets and drawers open and close with rectangular, stainless steel bar pulls; the stainless is repeated in appliances and in the backsplash behind the cooktop.
Lower cabinetry around the room’s perimeter has counters and a backsplash of large-format porcelain tile accented with diagonally set stainless steel tiles. As a material contrast, the couple chose a cement and recycled glass composite to top the vertical-grained island.
Abundant storage is provided in the many cabinets and drawers and underneath the island. Cookbooks and foodstuffs are kept in the pantry, while wines are housed in the designated wine room.
“When we were newly married,” said Bill Davidson, “my uncle, who did a lot of entertaining, told us everyone gravitated to the kitchen, and he was absolutely right.”
A new generation of Ultimate players is moving the sport slowly into the mainstream.
Name the fastest-growing sport in the world. Since you’ve already cheated and looked at this article’s photo, the answer is Ultimate. As in Frisbee or disc. (True players say, simply, “Ultimate.”) Just don’t dare confuse this sport with disc golf.
Oregon has been a hotbed of this nascent sport since its bootstrap beginnings. The University of Oregon has qualified for five of the past six NCAA Ultimate Final Fours prior to the team being suspended in 2016. (More on that later.)
In the last few years, though, the sport has migrated from college dorms to high school hallways as a new generation adopts the sport and blazes a competitive trail in the process.
Nowhere is the sport’s emergence and fast track to sanctioned legitimacy more apparent than in Central Oregon, where the Bend Senior High School team makes its official debut this fall, joining Summit and Mountain View in the formal high school ranks with High Desert bragging rights on the line.
“Sideline drill, gentlemen!” shouted Bend High School Coach Joel Pitney. “Jog, don’t walk!”
Played in at least forty-two countries and in the running to be an Olympic sport as soon as 2024, Ultimate typifies why youth football and baseball are losing talent and interest so rapidly. Just show up; sneakers and an interest are the sole requirements. You’re soon on the ground floor of an exploding sport that blends true teamwork with finesse, quickly (and literally) grasped skills, self-policing for fouls and one helluva workout.
Only thirty minutes into practice and already winded, Bend High players are sweaty yet eager to learn and perfect each defense and hurl. Ultimate’s playing field size is eighty percent of soccer’s pitch. Kiwanis Park in southeast Bend is merely adequate for practice. BNSF trains rumble by loudly, black tankers in tow, but the players don’t notice—their focus is on this rather addictive sport.
“Nice work, gentlemen! Grab a drink of water!” declared the coach, clapping his hands in encouragement. “A quick drink! Jog, don’t walk!”
Pitney has played Ultimate for twenty years on all levels, having learned in college and coached professional teams. He frames Ultimate’s present position in the pantheon of competition in terms of other sports. “Ultimate is like baseball in the 1890s, or football during the 1980s, when the USFL was competing with the NFL,” said Pitney. “We are still figuring things out, school leagues versus clubs, coed teams, but the interest just keeps growing.”
According to USA Ultimate, the sport’s official sanctioning body in the United States, membership numbers at the adult level have been growing at almost nine percent annually over the past six years. Youth participation has grown slightly faster than that with an estimated 14,500 members in 2016. That’s likely just a fraction of the sport’s actual participation numbers, thanks to the DIY and ad-hoc nature of Ultimate, where teams tend to eschew things such as leagues, uniforms and, sometimes, clothing. (The University of Oregon team was suspended for playing in a scrimmage with no shorts—or underwear—during an, ahem, exhibition in Corvallis last year. The bawdy shirts and skins game was witnessed by a female university official at OSU who filed a complaint with campus officials there.)
Incidents like this have added to Ultimate’s lore, but have also prevented it from gaining the mainstream acceptance of many other sports. Its popularity is an enigma; players both bemoan the sport’s relegation and relish its outsider image.
In Oregon, Ultimate’s relevance depends on the region. The state has ten total teams, yet Portland has only one; meanwhile, Bend now has three. Summit has had a team for nearly ten years, Mountain View a few, and Bend High’s entry, which begins play this fall formally, features a motley crew of freshmen through seniors, emerging stars that their coach continually refers to as “Gentlemen.”
“I have to leave at four,” informed a rather new recruit.
“Okay,” acknowledged Coach Joel, scanning the field and his fourteen total players, knowing they wouldn’t have enough for a true seven-on-seven scrimmage after this young gentleman left. “Just practice your throws.”
“I will.”
“I practice my throws in my mind!” laughed another “gentleman” player. Bear in mind that these are teens. However new to the sport and gentlemanly, they must be kept busy—attention spans fleeting, energy incalculable.
Smiling, Coach Pitney shouted, “Okay gentlemen, line up for end-zone drills! Don’t walk—jog!”
And they did, sprinting into position. Veterans, after only a handful of practices, guiding the rookies. They showed the newest recruits how to force a backhand hurl, counting, “1-2-3-4-5…” because, once you catch the disc and set your pivot foot, you must pass it within ten seconds or it’s a turnover; the same with a dropped disc.
Push an opponent or slap his or her hand during a throw and it’s a foul. Infractions in Ultimate are called by the players, giving the game a self-directed feeling that is almost democratic, but hardly casual. It’s rather beautiful, too.
Ultimate is mashup of soccer, football and Frisbee that friends casually invented in 1968 and has now become a fully sanctioned sport. It was on the short list for inclusion in the 2020 Tokyo games and nixed only at the final hour this past summer by Olympic officials. Born on a New Jersey college campus, Ultimate has grown at the collegiate level rapidly, particularly in the 2000s when Ultimate registrations more than doubled. That participation has expanded to youth and adult leagues nationwide, as former college players foment interest in recreational leagues.
Coach Pitney has been part of Ultimate’s growth, and his Bend High team’s progress has been impressive. “Our first scrimmage with Summit, we got annihilated. Then, the next scrimmage, we won nine to eight.”
Natural talents are emerging, and their coach wasn’t exaggerating when he pointed out that a few of his players may be national, even Olympic, superstars in only a few years. These gentlemen are learning fast, and a newcomer who kept dropping the disc just made an impressive diving catch in the end zone—“SCORE!”
Sam Powell with one of his bikepacking frame packs. Photo by Alex Jordan
They say that necessity is the mother of invention. That’s certainly the case with Sam Powell, who started sewing frame packs and bikepack accessories a few years ago because he needed them for his own commutes. The creations soon turned into a small side business for Powell, who runs the sewing shop at Bend’s Gear Fix. He sews the hanging bike bags in his home studio and markets them under the name Three Sisters Threadworks. We talked to Powell, 34, about his side business and the allure of bikepacking.
You have a small business sewing/making frame bags and accessories. How did you get started?
I started just making bags for myself and my bike. I would then make new ones and sell the old ones at the Gear Fix, where I run the sewing shop, and then at some point I started making them directly for other people. Since then I’ve put together a little production shop in my garage so I can work when my son is napping and at other odd hours.
Have you seen much growth in demand for your products?
It seems like there is quite a bit of growth in interest, but I’ve only been doing this a couple of years so I don’t have a real long-term perspective on it. There definitely is interest though. We’ve done a couple of intro to bikepacking clinics at the Gear Fix and they were well attended.
Is it like Hairclub for Men, are you the owner and a customer, too? How often do you get out and use your creations?
I am my first customer, for sure, and, yes, both in the sense that I enjoy making the bags and also enjoy using them. I use the bags I make for daily commuting and I typically get out for four or five bike overnight trips each year.
How long have you been involved in the sport and what is the primary appeal for you?
I’ve been riding bicycles and camping for my entire life but only put them together a couple of years ago when I started making the bags. I started making the bags primarily because it looked interesting and then started camping with my bike after that. Making bags is a side business, so I try to only take on projects that are both interesting to me and for people who really appreciate it. I’ve really enjoyed having a consistent creative outlet beyond my day-to-day of repairing gear that other people have designed and built.
How do we reduce the average distance a piece of produce travels from farm to consumer in the United States from 1,500 miles to a country mile? High Desert Food and Farm Alliance may have the answer.
Photo by Joshua Langlais
“Produce starts to lose nutrients as soon as it’s harvested,” said Food & Farm Director Jess Weiland of High Desert Food and Farm Alliance (HDFFA). The seven-year-old, Bend-based organization focuses on programs—from consumer education to marketing for farmers—that facilitate community access to fresh food that is grown sustainably within the local food system. “We want to make nutrition as easy as possible,” said Weiland. “We want to meet people where they are and be responsive to the community.”
Get a Taste
Taste Local Thursdays highlight a restaurant’s relationship with local farmers and ranchers, shining a spotlight on local ingredients. “Over and over we hear that people care about local food,” said Weiland. “It’s availability in Central Oregon is a thing of pride here.”
Food and Farm Directory
It’s free and it will whet your taste buds. The High Desert Food and Farm Directory, available in print and online, has sprouted from a trifold into a deeply rooted, 147-business strong resource for where to buy food grown locally.
Sixty-two producers and eighty other food-related businesses filled last year’s guide and Weiland said more are signing up. Farmers and businesses can enroll annually for a nominal fee to become an HDFFA partner. For partners who do online sales, the web directory links consumers directly to that producer’s e-commerce.
“So many—I would say around half—of local farmers also have other jobs. They are so busy,” said Weiland regarding the value of the directory as a centralized marketing tool for producers.
“Farmers are really producing a lot but they may not have time to market it and develop distribution avenues. Providing more consumer access points is key.”
Cheap + Healthy = Possible
Preparing meals from scratch can be both healthful and economical with the right set of skills and some fresh ingredients.
Part of a national curriculum implemented through state funding and carried out regionally by HDFFA using chef and nutritionist volunteers, Cooking Matters classes are available to food insecure families across Central Oregon this fall in six-week sessions.
“Cooking with families naturally lends itself to a conversation about nutrition and food budgeting,” said Weiland. “There is an important link between food and health. This is preventative care.”
Food For All
The local food bank is fresher thanks to HDFFA’s Grow and Give program, an initiative benefitting NeighborImpact. At farmers’ markets in Bend patrons can donate to the program in $5 increments and be entered to win a prize at the end of market season. The Madras, Redmond and Sisters markets also take donations. HDFFA then buys the equivalent amount of food from farmers at the end of the market, curating purchases based on food bank needs.
“Food insecurity is a prevalent issue but it can be a bit ‘out of sight, out of mind,’” said Weiland, noting that farmers’ markets play a vital role in our community and provide a good space to facilitate discussion of the issue.
Statistically, one in five people in Central Oregon is food insecure—meaning they might not know where their next meal is coming from. The program represents a new frontier of food recovery (a term meaning food waste mitigation).
“Farmers see it as a value add,” said Weiland. “They harvest more than they may need to be sure they fill demand at farmers’ markets throughout the region. The funds help to support the farmers’ bottom lines, aid in food recovery and shore up the region’s food bank supply.”
An anticipated 15,000 pounds of food recovery will go to NeighborImpact this year.
Going through the Bend Venture Conference with two different startups, Ryan Andrews was intimately familiar with the state’s largest angel conference. Becoming the manager of the BVC’s first social impact fund, which debuted last year, offered Andrews another way to get involved with the conference—and exercise his investment expertise. Andrews wears many hats, but most of them involve finance. In addition to managing the newest BVC fund, which requires him to both solicit investors and evaluate investable startups, he’s also a partner in Trueline Capital, a Bend-based real estate fund. We recently caught up with Andrews to learn more about the BVC’s social impact, the interest in socially responsible investing and his new side project, a series of letters written to thoughtful investors.
First, how do you describe the Bend Venture Conference’s Social Impact Fund?
The fund invests in for-profit, early-stage companies that have a social or environmental impact as a core part of their business model. We purposely made the definition broad; we wanted to open the floodgates and then be able to decide who had a stronger or weaker social impact proposition. More than thirty companies applied last year. One of our two winners, Hemex Health, creates a portable, inexpensive device that can be used to screen for malaria and sickle cell disease in developing countries. Their social impact was off the charts as well as their potential revenue and market share.
What misconceptions do people have about social impact investing?
I sometimes get pushback that social impact startups aren’t viable or that they generate lower financial returns to investors. But the evidence is stacking up that there’s a strong business case for social impact startups that solve real, societal problems. Society at large is willing to reward these companies with revenue and market share.
The Bend Venture Conference takes place in October. Is there anything new or different about this year’s social impact track?
We have a lot of momentum coming off of last year. People are excited, especially after watching Hemex Health go on to raise another $1.7 million in a Series A round. Our fund was the first investor in the company. Last year, we raised $110,000 for the fund, about half from institutional investors. This year we’re aiming for $150,000. We’re also doing a Reg D 506(c) offering for the fund, which allows us to advertise publicly for investors.
You also manage investments for your day job, a partner at Bend-based Trueline Capital. What does Trueline do?
Trueline Capital is a boutique real estate investment fund focused on residential construction and development in the Pacific Northwest. After the last recession, most community banks stopped lending into the residential construction market, even as the economy came back, leaving a lot of these projects without a good source of capital. We manage the fund on behalf of our investors, investing in smaller, in-city and infill residential developments, usually projects that are too small for a large, private investment and not eligible for bank financing. We’re currently invested in more than thirty-five projects, valued at $32 million.
Lastly, tell us about your Thoughtful Investor series of letters.
I found myself having a lot of one-on-one conversations with investors about how money and monetary systems really work. I started writing about these conversations in a serialized letter format at thoughtfulinvestor.co. The goal is to write sophisticated, but accessible, letters to investors. Recent topics include the role of central banks, the importance of hard assets and whether we’re in a bubble. I also plan on writing about cryptocurrencies, the coming artificial intelligence/machine learning labor revolution and the innovations occurring in real estate finance. It’s pure thought leadership and a chance for me to start these conversations.
Artist Courtney Holton honors ancestral Native American photos with bold colors and contemporary designs.
The familiar, proud faces of native people resemble black and white photos of an earlier time. But familiarity quickly fades to curiosity. Big splashes of color give Courtney Holton’s large canvases a contemporary twist, and, yet, why are the portraits striped with the American flag? Do those patchwork blocks behind the elegant woman shape the state of Oregon?
Part of the answer lies with a cache of turn-of-the-twentieth century photos and prints Holton obtained as a student at the University of Oregon in the 1980s. He held onto the archival material for thirty years while his life and the love of a French woman took him to Paris and later the Loire Valley.
He initially sold abstract paintings on Paris streets and sometimes exhibited in bars and restaurants. The owner of the Galerie Expression Libre in Paris saw Holton’s paintings in a theater and began exhibiting his work, leading to shows in Turkey, Belgium, Switzerland and the United States. “Art is everywhere, and can be a wonderful tool in communication, history and thought,” said Holton.
Born and raised in Eugene, Holton spent winters skiing at Mt. Bachelor. In 2016, he decided to spend more time in his home state, and Bend was a good fit. He rented studio space at Cindercone Clay Center where he began to develop this portrait series, enlarging old black and white images onto canvas through industrial ink-jet technology, and then hand layering the canvas with colorful oil paints. Each painting takes about a month to complete.
“With a heartfelt compassion for his subjects and a sincere commitment to accuracy in depicting and painting these subjects, Courtney lends his remarkable talent to his larger-than-life, beautiful oil paintings of the mid-to-late-1800’s Native American occupants of northeastern Oregon,” said Billye Turner, a local art dealer who facilitated a recent show, “Remembrance,” at Bend’s Franklin Crossing.
The exhibit included a painting with the American flag imposed over the photo of a native man. Holton’s intent was to honor the patriotic service of all Native Americans who served in World War II, including “code talkers” whose job it was to transmit secret messages in code. In a painting of a native woman, he created a facsimile of Oregon counties in the background, a nod to their tribal lands both ancient and current.
“Each portrait tells a story of the beauty and power of these photographs—the desire to remember and respect,” he said of the exhibit. He donates ten percent of sales on the portrait series to the Warm Springs Community Action Team.
Today, he splits his time between Bend and the village of St. Sauveur where he owns part of a 500-year-old convent, that serves as his home and studio. He’s working with a master printer there to create wood-block prints that are more attractive to collectors.
“It’s daunting to start over again in a new place,” he said. “With art, it’s something you grow over the years.” But proximity to family and ski slopes will make his re-entry to Central Oregon a lot easier.
The No-Bake Cookie Co. went from a project for a family-owned deli to one the next great Bend companies.
Tom, Carol and Eric Healy, owners of the No-Bake Cookie Co. Photo by Alex Jordan
Mmm. Cookies like grandma used to, well, not bake. Carol Healy started making old-fashioned, no-bake cookies for her family-owned Expressway Corner Market & Deli in Bend, and soon the nostalgic recipe dovetailed with one of the hottest food demands: gluten-free products. The wholesome treats, made with natural nut butters, premium certified gluten-free whole-grain oats, butter, Madagascar vanilla, cane sugar and milk also boast no preservatives, hydrogenated oils, corn syrup, wheat flour or genetically modified anything.
The cookies developed a fervent fan base among the market’s customers, mostly from the Southeast neighborhood, who head there for burgers and other housemade dishes at the cafe-convenience store-gas station at the Reed Market Road and 15th Street roundabout.
In 2011, Healy and her husband, Tom Healy, created the No-Bake Cookie Co., and it took off quickly that year after she presented the sweet goods to Nordstrom. The high-end retail department store’s buyer and her team had grown up eating no-bake cookies and loved them. The gluten-free certification fit Nordstrom’s demographic and the timing was perfect because demand was building, yet not many products had been certified as gluten free. Stores were looking for them.
Now the cookies are in thousands of stores nationwide—from Whole Foods, Kroger stores and Fred Meyer to Alberstons, Safeway, Market of Choice and Newport Avenue Market—plus convenience stores, including Sheetz, with 550 stores. The growth prompted the Healys to recruit their son, Eric, as chief operating officer, who left his ten-year career as an aerospace mechanical engineer for Boeing and other big corporations. All twenty employees work in the 5,000-square-foot facility in Bend, except for a Los Angeles-based national sales director.
Entrepreneurship is also in the family’s blood. Eric’s grandfather, Bill Healy, founded the Mt. Bachelor ski area in 1957, and his uncle, Cameron Healy, founded Kettle Chips, now an international manufacturer of potato chips, tortilla chips and nut butters in Salem.
The company hit its goal on funding the recent growth with a summer funding round on CircleUp, a crowdfunding platform that serves consumer brands seeking to raise money from accredited investors.
Eric Healy said manufacturing in general has its challenges. Shipping from Bend, in particular, can be challenging, especially last winter, when big snowstorms slowed semi-trucks delivering ingredients. A local advantage has been working with FoundersPad, which is selective in funding and mentoring early stage companies.
“They have been very instrumental, helping with all aspects of the business, working on margins, supply chain, fundraising and branding,” said Eric.
