Bend is a town on the radar, dramatic growth to go along with its dramatic views of Mt. Bachelor and the three Sisters, four of the 13 volcanic mountains in a chain
|
|
Bend is a town on the radar, dramatic growth to go along with its dramatic views of Mt. Bachelor and the three Sisters, four of the 13 volcanic mountains in a chain |
| that stretches from Washington to Northern California. New homes are going up rapidly and the city limits of Bend, Redmond and Sisters are almost starting to merge. New restaurants and shops provide all the amenities of a sophisticated city to go along with the natural splendor of the eastern side of the Cascades and the western side of Oregon's high desert country. This is a great place to start a bike tour. |
 Drake Park with snowcapped North Sister volcano in the distance. |
With all this growth and new traffic, the local airport in Redmond is still pretty small and quiet. When I picked up John on Friday night there were only a few people waiting in the terminal and just one security guard on duty. I could stand outside a chainlink fence and watch the plane taxi in just a few hundred feet away. John soon emerged, cellphone in hand, talking to JoAn before he'd even gotten off the tarmac.
Bend is not at all typical of the towns we'd encounter on our route. Where Bend is growing, the rest of north central Oregon is shrinking. A population exodus is creating real modern day ghost towns. We wouldn't be seeing too many MacDonalds or 7/11 stores, much less haute cuisine, good coffee, or book stores. But we were going to leave behind the traffic, see some amazing scenery, meet a lot of the characters who still cling to the quaint rural way of life. |
|
Day 1: Bend to Madras We headed north on Highway 97 at around noon. Not too scenic or exciting until you get past Redmond where the traffic starts to thin out and urban scenery gives way to the high desert, ranches, and the ever-present views of the Cascade Mountains to our west. It was a quick 40 mile ride into Madras, |
|
|
a town of about 5,000 people and not a whole lot of interesting things to see. But since the next town with accommodations is another 50 miles away, it provided the only logical place to stop for the day. Maybe the one and only point of interest is the 100 year old Madras Hotel. We were just peering through the window in the front door when the proud proprietor came out to greet us and offer a tour. He was an older fellow, dressed in a powder blue jumpsuit, and obviously anxious to talk to some visitors to Madras (we're probably a rare breed).
We got the king's tour which included nearly all of the approximately 30 rooms in the hotel and annex. Each room had its own theme (French Provincial, Lions/Tigers, Cowboys, etc.). For all that, they all had pretty much the same feel to them. We agreed that the furniture all looked like it had come from a Goodwill Store - clean, in good repair, but nothing you'd be taking for appraisal to the Antique's Roadshow. We'd done our good deed for the day, indulging the Madras Hotel proprietor, and it was fun for us too. In the end, we were glad to be staying down the street in a Best Western motel.
 |