Doug’s post: While Wendy was off quilting for the week I was forced to find activities to entertain myself with: a bit of hiking, a bit of fishing at 3 Creek Lake and the Metolius River and of course sampling the craft beer that Bend has to offer. Not a bad week so far!

The hike to Black Butte is similar to our local favourite, Lakit Mtn with gorgeous views of the volcanic summits of the Cascade range. the locals said it was a “steep” climb that might be difficult for me with my new knee but it was definitely National Park standard grade all the way, with beautiful Ponderosa Pine forest to walk through for the first half.

I’m slowly learning how to fish the Metolius River; 5X leader about 12-14′ with a 6X tippet about 18″ and careful placement of the dry flies. PMD’s and GoldenStones went well but the fish are cagey. Water is so clear you can see the bottom easily in 15-20′ pools. That means the fish can see you as well. The folks at the the local fly shop are quite helpful and great at giving advice. All catch and release and being by myself I really can’t take pictures while standing in the middle of the river. Maybe next week when Wendy and I are camped at Camp Sherman I’ll get some good pics.

Three Creek Lake has some good shore fishing, but next time I’ll bring my belly boat so I can get out to where the fishing is really productive.

There are a lot of well maintained hiking trails in the Sisters area within Ponderosa forests and rocky outcroppings. They are rehabilitating the Wychus Creek so that steelhead can make a return to the area. Over the years so much water was diverted from the creek that fish were unable to make it upstream to spawn. The local conservation group and USFS has  regained water rights and have allocated them to the steelhead project.

What can I say about the Bend Craft Beer scene except “WOW”. We visited 5 brewpubs on this trip starting with Crux Fermentation Project, one of my favorites! It was a busy Sunday and there were close to 100 people gathered in the open area outside the pub.

Mid-week we drove into town to get some more fabric…I guess you can never have enough fabric if you’re a quilter… and headed over to 10 Barrel Brewing for dinner and beer. Quite the brewpub scene with people showing up after a mountain bike ride at Phil’s Trail system or stopping by after work for a cold one. I don’t think we were the oldest folks there but very close to it. Good food and some excellent beer. They had a very tasty “sour” that Wendy liked.

Saturday after the quilt show was over it was time for another trip to Bend to continue on the Bend Ale Trail. We looked for Rat Hole Brewing but found that they’ve now become North Rim Brewing and gone from a 2 barrel operation to a 10 barrel one. They still had a Rat Hole sticker that is now adorning our trailer:)

Next stop was Boneyard Brewing which has a taproom only. Not pints, just 1 oz samples (first one free) and crowlers, growlers and other sizes of refills. It would be hard to find without the GPS if you didn’t know the Bend area. Heavy on the IPA’s but that seems to be the Bend “speciality”.

Last stop was at Silver Moon for a flight of their brews. Their  “97” IPA is the brewery’s flagship beer and  a great example of west coast IPA style. But they also had an Imperial Stout that really had the WOW factor. I don’t think you could drink much more than a small glass of this but what a taste! I could see having this in front of the campfire instead of a glass of scotch.

Time to pack up and head to Camp Sherman; maybe some internet there but not sure.