Journalist By Nature: Deschutes County Delivers

Suttle Lake

Cartographers would describe Deschutes County as the center of the center of Oregon. A one time lake covered the current Sunriver Resort area 20 miles south of Bend until it turned into a meadow after a natural dam gave way. The area was the exclusive home to Native Americans, in particular the Molala tribe, until 1824 when early explorers and trappers made their way into the area. Settlers on their way west followed, some stopping to settle at Farewell Bend while others took the easy river crossing here to reach more distant lands. In 1905 the city of Bend, having dropped the Farewell portion of its moniker, was incorporated and five years later sported a population of 536.

Ponderosa pine bark

This area is considered a high desert environment with its arid soil and scrappy flora of juniper and sagebrush. Tall pines, larch and fir trees grow in abundance here and spawned an early logging economy. In 1943 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers claimed the meadowlands and built Camp Abbot as a training facility but closed it in 1944. In 1968 the Sunriver Resort opened to the first residents and fulfilled a dream of John D. Gray and Donald V. McCallum to develop the site. This put the Bend area on the map and enticed a flood of outdoor enthusiasts to visit and eventually live in this gateway to summer and winter sporting activities. Ranked as one of the ten best places to live in the U.S., today Bend boasts a population in excess of 80,000 residents and hosts approximately 2,000,000 visitors each year.

It was into this attraction that we gave a positive response to an invitation from one of our hiking ladies to join her by heading over Mt. Hood to connect with Highway 97 and destination Bend/Sunriver. Nine of us laden with hiking gear and tapa-esque food supplies descended on a lovely and gracious hostess, chattering about trails and adventures for the week. After bed assignments and late snacks we retired to anticipate early morning coffee and new exploits.

Decisions by committee often result in delayed conclusions. On a general consensus we packed lunches, water aplenty, boots and poles and headed for the Sisters area intent on finding a new hike. A stop at the Visitors Center yielded limited help but a chance encounter with a local citizen by one friendly hiker opened a conversation about possible area trails. Ed, a fit and tanned retiree, pointed us confidently to the Suttle Lake circumtreking trail, a level but scenic four plus mile leg stretcher. Delighted by his sense of humor and willingness to come to the aid of two cars full of ladies of a certain age, we accepted his enthusiastic endorsement and headed for the lake.

Ringed by a multipurpose path and featuring public and private docks, this 253 acre natural lake is a busy attraction in the summer for camping, hiking and fishing. The lake is stocked with various trout species and is clear enough to see half way to its 44 foot bottom. Sailboats, paddle boards, colorful kayaks and ski boats crisscrossed the wind-kissed surface of Suttle Lake silhouetted against a green forest backdrop and a blue sky overhead. At the end of a dry August there was not much blooming except the occasional dainty purple Michaelmas daisies and a few wispy weeds. The vine maples were coloring up for their brilliant red fall showing and the yellowing bracken added ground level sunshine to the scene.

Never ones to miss the opportunity to explore vacation sites we strolled up to the Suttle Lake Lodge area, complete with rentable tiny cabins, reportedly home to some Hobbits, and grander estates of double stories with views to the lake. The Lodge offers 11 rooms as well as dining and drinking spaces. The deck, stocked with polished Adirondack chairs, faces the lake and setting sun. What a place to wind down a busy day of activity! But more adventures and taste treats awaited us in Sisters.

Trusting the recommendation of one group member we scouted for The Open Door cafe, a minuscule eating establishment embellished with stained glass window hangings and offering a much larger outdoor seating area shaded by umbrellas, with a tiny glass house for private dining and a party patio with fire pit. French style water bottles with hinged caps, fresh flowers and mellow waitresses created just the right ambiance for tired hikers. "Keep the water coming!" was the cry as we ordered various menu items and the soup of the day, curried coconut lentil. Clustering in smaller groups along the picnic tables, we recounted the day's activities and shared bites with each other. A quick window shopping perambulation before closing time garnered ideas but no sales. Back to the house for showers, tapas and cards!

The next day's excursion was to Tumalo Falls and the waterfall trail. Getting there proved to be a task in itself as various GPS directions lead us in circles back into Bend before we finally found the dusty washboard road to the park. Although midweek, the parking lot was full and the road leading to it lined with overflow vehicles. No worries. It's a big park. Tumalo Falls, a final 97 foot drop in Tumalo Creek, greets visitors with a picturesque display of white cascading water slipping out of a jagged stoney-walled canyon and over a wide rock ledge to the creek bed below, girggling on its way to the Deschutes River. Following the dusty and heavily worn path uphill we reached another viewpoint, this time above the falls where an innocently small amount of water flows sweetly over boulders and downed trees on its unsuspecting way to a dramatic dropoff.

We track with the incline of the canyon along its edge, catching glimpses of the creek ever descending from view. The occasional mountain bikers peddle past, sweat dripping from foreheads, gears shifting to meet the grade and hikers stepping out of the way of the approaching wheels. Arriving at Double Falls, the next cataract on the creek, we spy through some fir boughs a man balancing on some sort of wire heading out over the ravine! With outstretched arms waving for balance, the man takes a step and suddenly begins to fall off the line. We give a collective gasp only to see him caught on a safety harness, dangling unharmed a hundred feet above the canyon floor. This unusual sight captures our full attention and a crowd of hikers gathers to witness the unexpected scene.

Slacklining, walking a one inch woven tape across a wide and deep space, is a worldwide sport as this map indicates. Because of the remote locations where slacklines are set up, most people have no awareness of this extreme activity. The mostly young men and a few women form small, tight communities based on their mutual interest and are always looking for a more challenging and risky walk. They appear to be carefree yet are extremely focused and care not what others think of their death-defying passion. Watching them walk their lines is like having a front row seat at the circus, but instead of the big top it's the big forest and deep canyons. Captivating and breath-holding to be sure!

Meanwhile, back on the trail, we wind our way higher on the topography above the creek. Ghostly white logs lie where they have fallen, bleached by years under the baking sun and months of snow cover. Manzanita shrubs offer a little greenery in the high desert landscape where the slopes are bare and the snowpack leaves pine trees without needles for ten or fifteen feet above the ground. At the four mile mark, there is a bridge that crosses the water and provides access to the downhill portion of the trail for mountain bikers. Hikers are free to cross and make the nine mile loop or turn around and return as they came. We opted for the return version, catching the slackliners as we passed by and later shook the fine powdery dust from our shoes before changing at the cars.

Searching for an eatery we chose a newly opened venue, Washington, on Mt. Washington Drive in westside Bend. A breezy open air restaurant with cheery wait staff, this establishment is for the hip at heart. A bit pricey, it at least filled our stomachs for the evening's entertainment, an indie film at the Tin Pan Theatre. A tiny twenty two seat theatre run by a couple of young film buffs, this theater in a brick-lined alley shows a variety of independent films. "Hunt for the Wilder People" was our evening's showing and it is a must see! Truly "majestical" as Ricky would say. Filmed in New Zealand with local actors and Sam Neill sharing the lead it is a heart-warming story of redemption and self-discovery. A nice way to wrap up the day for our hikers. Captured by the board game Redneck Life, most of the guests spent hours late into the night enthusiastically embellishing their characters, losing teeth (metaphorically speaking) and capturing points and properties. Just a simple look at life on the rougher side of the tracks. Hilarious!

Deschutes River near Sunriver

Our final full day took a split: one group mounted bicycles for a morning-long ride through Sunriver environs and the other hoofed it on a five mile trek around the airport runway, the river and the golf course. A little shopping therapy helped to cool down the hikers and one was rewarded with just the right dress for a tropical holiday soon to arise on the calendar. There's nothing so cool as a perfect item on sale, a please-take-it-out-of-the-store-for-pennies kind of sale. Sweet satisfaction, not to mention justification, as if that was ever needed in these situations.

Parting is always such sweet sorrow among friends but we packed our gear and headed back from whence we came, relishing the ranches, irrigation circles and the wide open spaces of Central Oregon. No sooner had we climbed out of the beautifully bare and cake-layered Warm Springs canyon, on to the high mesa and curved into the moist forest of Mt. Hood's southern flank than we were met with a twenty degree drop in temperature and the need to turn on the windshield wipers. Rain. That almost forgotten element after a summer of 100 degree scorching heat and finally ripening tomatoes. Recipes for green tomato relish slid briefly through my mind as did the plans for outdoor parties on the schedule soon. Summer was nice while it lasted.

As Ricky of the aforementioned movie might compose a hiaku poem:

We came to have fun
The trails supplied adventure
Memories explode

It's a wild world out there! Enjoy yourselves immensely.