Bend, The Coolest City in Central Oregon

We arrived in the high desert, windy open country of central Oregon and reached Bend, our home for the next four days. My traveling companion is a fellow web publisher and self-admitted geek who hacked his own Android phone and has been publishing First Tracks Online since the ancient internet days of 1994.

Together we drove to this city of 80,000 and the first thing we did was set out on foot to find a good place to meet locals and have lunch. That would be Brother Jon’s a pub recently opened that was heavy on local brews and serves hearty lunches.

The city has a distinctly pleasing grid layout, lots of walkable sidewalks, dotted with a few buskers and lots of breweries. There are eight here we were told, and on Saturday a charity event takes tipplers on a sudsy tour of the downtown to many of these establishments.

We’re here to ski Mount Batchelor, a 9000 foot peak where you can ski down 360 degrees. It’s unique in this way, a volcano cone that stands proudly beside The Three Sisters, huge mountains that shimmer with snow. Our stories will be about skiing but more about this town of Bend and what’s new and what’s fun here. We can’t wait to meet some of the locals tonight, who include former Pats QB Drew Bledsoe. Much more coming up!