Bend(er)

Dave takes in the view from top of the Newberry Caldera.

Betsy contemplates The Sisters (and Broken Top) Mountains from Tumalo Mountain.

(This post covers our stay at La Pine State Park near Bend; from August 30 to Sept. 2).

Most of the prime “West Coast” Oregon State Park camping spots were booked for Labor Day weekend months ago and we had to “settle” for a spot at La Pine State Park south of Bend.

A pretty nice settlement if you ask me; and a great place for two unemployed people to celebrate Labor Day.

Bend/La Pine is on the sunny side of the Cascades with warm days in the 80s and cool nights in the 40s.

Bend is a wonderful town of 80,000; an upscale, outdoorsy, place that attracts the camper, climber, kayaker, fisherman, types; plus just about everyone in Portland with a desire to see the sun occasionally. Oh, and beer drinkers. Bend attracts lots of beer drinkers, which come to think about it, includes most of the aforementioned groups. With a dozen or so breweries Bend is said to have the highest concentration of craft breweries of any city in the U.S. I’m not sure about that; but I am sure that there is a lot more beer brewing going on here than in San Antonio.

With all of these great outdoor activities available to us we decided to set our sights high and challenge ourselves during our four-day stay here by attempting to complete the Bend Ale Trail (a.k.a. “The Bender”) and earn the award offered by the Bend Visitors Bureau; a flexible pint glass made of silicone. Depending on which “trail map” is used there are 9 to 11 breweries on the trail and, to receive the “silipint”, the “hiker” must drink at least one pint of beer at each stop (actually, that last part is not true, but we set very high standards for ourselves). The trail map is then stamped and when all nine (or is it 11?) stamps have been collected the “glass” is awarded at the city’s visitor center.

Perfect! This is right up our alley. We snagged a couple of nine-brewery trail maps at the first stop and hand-crafted our plan to earn those silipints; if we can knock back three beers per day we can get our silipints at the visitor center on the fourth day!

Everything went well the first day and we got the first three stamps on the map.

On the second day disaster struck.

We were driving down a busy highway with the windows down and the sunroof open on our way to the visitor center at Lava Lands National Volcanic Monument. Betsy was in the passenger seat surrounded by maps, brochures, books, etc. detailing the many fun and interesting things to do in the area – hiking, geology, museums, rivers, etc. Of course, she wasn’t paying any attention to any of those things (or the gigantic piles of lava that we were driving through) because she was intently studying the Bend Ale Trail Map; planning out the next three stops.

Suddenly and without any warning, a wind swirled through the cab of the truck and sucked the beer map from Betsy’s hand and pulled it out the window. Poof, just like that, the map with the three stamps from the previous day was gone.

Betsy was devastated even though I gently tried to console her by telling her that maybe on special occasions – like her birthday – I might let her have a sip of beer out of my silipint.

My efforts to console her were to no avail however and Betsy slipped into a deep funk.

We continued on to the visitor center and heard an excellent presentation by a volunteer who explained what happened about 7,500 years ago when the Newberry Volcano erupted about 30 miles south of present-day Bend and spewed tons of lava and ash before imploding on itself to create the present day caldera.

Afterward we hiked into one of the lava tube caves that were formed during those eruptions. As rivers of lava flowed from the volcano the outer edges began to cool and harden forming a tube. Inside the tube, however, the molten lava continued to flow downhill and drain out at the bottom, leaving a long, round, tube-like cave buried under a hundred feet or more of volcanic ash and rock – and now – soil, trees, etc.

Inside the cave it is a steady 42 degrees; a nice break from the upper 80s in the afternoon sun.

Interesting stuff; however, I could tell that Betsy’s mind wasn’t on lava and caves but on the Bend Ale Trail and the coveted silipint.

Soon enough we were back in Bend and back at one of the breweries we had visited the day before where, thankfully, Betsy was able to get another map and get it stamped without having to “re-drink” one of the establishment’s beverages. Unfortunately or fortunately (depending on your perspective) this map listed 11 breweries instead of nine, like the other map. We had our work cut for us.

Bend has often ended up on lists of “best towns in America”, “best places to live”, best places to retire”, etc. Sitting at the bar during one of the stops on the Ale Trail we chatted with a woman about our age and she seemed to confirm the accuracy of these lists. She said she and her husband had raised their kids in the San Francisco Bay Area then retired, traveled some and used the proceeds from the sale of their suburban tract house in California to buy a house with 360-degree mountain views in one of the best neighborhoods in Bend.

Apparently that happens a lot. Retirement-age baby boomers come to Bend, like what they see and move. That is understandable because it is a really nice little city and a beautiful area. The only downside would be if one of the dozens of volcanoes that ring the city erupted, burying the place in ash and lava; incinerating every living thing within 100 miles of the town. (Oddly, this possibility never came up in conversations with the locals.)

On our third day we visited the Newberry Caldera where we got our own personal presentation from a volunteer ranger and then went on a hike with him through a huge mound of the glass-like black rock known as obsidian. A retired middle school science teacher, the volunteer ranger was a great guide and we learned a lot about the volcanoes and calderas that shaped the landscape in this part of Oregon.

This thick lava flow from an eruption just 1,300 years ago created a massive field of black glass known as obsidian.

We also drove to a viewpoint on the rim of the Caldera and got what many people say is the best view in Oregon on a spectacular sunny day. There was some smoke from fires that obscured Mt. Adams in Washington, but we could see Mt. Hood about 90 miles of to the north and, of course, closer mountains like Mt. Jefferson (Oregon’s second highest) and the Three Sisters.

On Labor Day we drove on a pretty loop road west and a bit north of Bend and hiked four miles to the top of Tumalo Mountain for much closer views of the Sisters and Mt. Batchelor, which is Bend’s primary ski area. All of these mountains – including the one we climbed – are, of course, volcanoes.

We were back in Bend in plenty of time to snag our silipints; but they turned out not to be the pint glasses that come in various colors and have the cool Bend logo on them but rather bland, whitish, half pints with the Ale Trail logo.

Now we know how Ralphie felt when he cracked the Ovaltine code.

We drowned our disappointment/celebrated the completion of the Ale Trail by going to a brewpub we had not been to before and ended up in a long conversation with the brew master who told us (among many other things) that he has so many silipints at his house that he has started giving them to his dog to chew on in the yard.

Chad (the 41-year-old brewmaster/owner of Worthy Brewing and the owner of a dog that will likely die of silicone poisoning) sent us on our way with a complimentary six pack of Worthy Pale Ale.

The experience with Chad is not unusual. At virtually every stop so far in Oregon we have met exceptionally friendly people. In fact, sometimes it’s hard to shut them up as they prattle on about things to do and see in Oregon.

Chad's hops garden outside Worthy Brewing in Bend.

Our final stop in Bend (at Chad’s suggestion) was to drive to the top of Red Butte, a flat-topped little mountain (volcano) that rises dramatically from the flat plain of the city. More great views, of course, and a nice send-off from Bend; which has now moved into a first-place tie with the Columbia River Gorge for our favorite places in Oregon (so far).