Bend on Bike, August 11-14 2010

Bend, in Central Oregon, is famous for its high and dry climate, its mountain bike trails, its mountain scenery, its outdoorsy way of life, and its extreme unemployment and foreclosure crisis.  There's also a music festival.  I worked every morning and every evening I was there, so I didn't get to photograph any great desert sunsets, but I did get to ride a bunch of trails, and some great roads as well.  I managed to fit two bikes in my car, so I could ride some road rides with a friend!

Here's a trail in Shevlin Park.  The trails here are dry and smooth.  The generally gentle contours of the land are ideal for riding a bike- less mad up and down than the wet side of the Cascades.

I used the trail in Shevlin Park to access a Forest Service trail called Mrazek, after a brand of bicycles once made in Bend.  It's a little bit of a celebrity, so I figured I'd get my picture with it:

Now, a photo from a road ride I took with a friend.  We rode out of Sunriver (where the festival is based) down to the town of LaPine.  Here's a big meadow which is part of the Deschutes River's original floodplain, I think.

Back to the mountains.  Here are photos from a ride up to Tumalo Falls and Swede Ridge.  Here's a ridge opposite the trail.  The higher area was burned in a fire, and has yet to recover.

Here's Tumalo Falls.  I don't know how this happens, but when I get on a bike, I start taking really mediocre photos!  Sorry about that snag in the way!

Continuing up in the mountains from the falls, I climbed for what felt like an hour, and finally reached a lovely ski shelter.  Did I mention that Bend is also legendary for its great snow skiing?  They've got it all over there.

Here's Swampy Lakes, near the shelter.  Really looks more like swamp and less like lake to me.

The trail back down Sweded Ridge was mostly fast and smooth.  This little section epitomizes the positive side of riding here.  The negative side is "moon dust" on the overused trails- the trail is ground into a fine powder during the hot summer months.

Here's a view of the High Cascades from Swede Ridge.

Finally, I took another road from my hosts' house.  It was just an exploration of their neighborhood, but on the east side of Bend, that means desert landscapes.  Here's one road I'd hoped to ride, after finding it on Google maps.  I found it was unpaved and not even graveled- my skinny road tires washed out in several inches of moon dust, and beat mercilessly on hard lava rocks.  If I'd been on my mountain bike, it would have been a fun ride.  Maybe next time.

Here's a little postcard of suburban Bend.  The city expanded with wild abandon in the 90's and 2000's, but the entire show came to a crashing halt when the housing market crashed.  Turns out lots of the jobs here were in building, selling, and furnishing second houses, houses for retirees, and in the tourism business.  The foreclosure rate is among the very worst in the nation, many owners are now underwater on their mortgage, and unemployment has been up in the mid teens.  A real economic and social disaster.

I enjoyed my travels in Bend.  Next time, I'm going to just go down there and camp out and get some good photos!