Over my 10+ years of visiting Bend, I’ve come to notice a few distinct ‘personality traits’ of the city, namely—extreme athleticism, outdoor ease, and west coast vibes. I’ll leave the latter two for a future post and focus solely on extreme athleticism today.
Bend has a lot of natural elements that make it appealing to athletes and extreme-sport lovers. It has Mount Bachelor for skiing, snowboarding, and mountain biking; the Deschutes National Forest for Nordic skiing, trail-running, and biking; and the Deschutes river for kayaking, stand-up-paddleboarding, fishing, rafting, and surfing. Yes, I said surfing. I couldn’t believe it when I first saw it, but Bend built a whitewater rapids park in the river (right in the center of town) for free, unrestricted usage. It consists of three channels—a light rapids channel for people tubing the river, a natural habitat channel for wildlife, and a whitewater channel with wave features for beginners to experts. And I kid you not, there are people using the whitewater park from sunup to sundown, even as it starts to get cold outside! Here are a few pictures of the surfers that I took at 9:30 AM yesterday when it was no warmer than 55 degrees out.
I was also reminded of how sporty this town is when we tried a hike at Mount Bachelor. We’d been told by a number of Bend-ites (yes, they call themselves that) how easy it was, and that it was super family-friendly. THIS BENDITE, however, should have known better, because we seem to have very different definitions of what easy is…
The hike was deceptively easy at the beginning, meandering back and forth along the mountain at a 5% incline. It started from the ski lodge, at 6,400 ft, and snaked its’ way up for 4.5 miles, eventually spitting us out at the summit at 7,800 ft (for a gain of 1,400 feet!!) Easy trail, my a$$! By mile three I was huffing and puffing (I blame the altitude, of course), but by then there was no choice to keep trudging upward.
Midway through the hike, we stumbled upon a mountain biking rally where a decent-size crowd had gathered. As we drew closer, I realized that they weren’t just biking by, but doing elaborate jumps and flips on their bikes as they passed. Of course we had to stop and watch the action for a bit.
Whoa, huh? Even the amateurs here are gifted athletes, which is why Nick and I are careful to never to claim that we do “x” sport or activity because before you know it you’ll be invited along on some hike, ride or paddle and find yourself in way over your head. The upside though is that with so many people living active lifestyles around you, we both feel compelled to get out and do more at the gym or on the hiking trail. No lazing around like a slug here!
