Taking a Break in Bend

So, it had been 4 years, since Rose and I were in Bend for our friends wedding. Fast forward and we now live on the west coast like them, and they now have 2 daughters and we are god parents to one of them. While Bend isn’t far from NorCal, it’s quite a drive from SoCal. Luckily, you can get decent airfare from John Wayne to PDX, which is about a 3 hour drive from Bend.

Four years ago I took my road bike, but Bend is a mecca for MTBing. Thus, we decided to bring our MTBs this time. We don’t have many trees in SoCal, so riding tree covered trails is a treat. Plus, the weather is drier than it is here. Did I mention weather? Yep, it’s drier, but the sun is just as strong. Still, having low humidity even when daytime temps were in the 90s was a nice change of pace.

I also learned from this trip not to listen to travel guides. One of the first trails were tried was horrible. YouTube and friends are much more reliable. We ended up using the Phil’s trail complex for most of our rides and it didn’t disappoint. Our friends had a chance to ride with us one day and it showed they were locals. MTBing in Bend is awesome. I know it gets cold in the winter, but the locals do a great job of maintaining the trails.

So, what do you do in Bend? Obiviously, if you have friends/family to see, that’s a no brainer. Biking (road or MTB) is a no brainer. In the past 4 years, Bend has really upped the local food/beer scene. Rose and I had lots of great places to eat and drink. We only had once disappointment, but overall much better options than many towns <100,000 people.

We stayed at the Red Lion hotel, which was perfect for our needs. High speed WiFi for the Tour de France, and the staff was nice enough to hook up a hose for us to clean off our bikes.

Overall, a great trip and Bend is a gem in Oregon. Also, we took time to see the Newberry Volcanic National Monument which is about 40 min. away. In the future, we want to see Crater Lake, but this park was very cool as well.

Here are a few videos and photos from our trip…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJVPWmZqTEk]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVlwe_ximdY]

2014 Bend Trip

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