trip planner
Shoulder Season
Turns out, Bend is a year-round kind of town
The Old Mill is Bend’s premier shopping destination.
written by Kevin Max
BEND IN FALL, once a vacuum between summer mountain biking and ski season, is now one built around culture, the absence of crowds and top-to-bottom blue skies in the waning fire season. When kids go back to school and the floating battalion of protein in Crocs and flip-flops flops their way back south, Bend comes alive in a more subtle way. Fall brings the BendFilm festival, Oktoberfest, uncrowded trails, relatively open tables and the final bounty from area farms. As we witness the ravages of global warming, with hotter summers leading to more and bigger wildfires, summer is the nexus of hot, smoky and grey. As temperatures cool and wildfires recede, hiking and biking trails in Bend transform from temptation to reality. Much like Christmas, BendFilm Festival comes but once a year— setting cultural gifts under the learning tree for all of the boys and 98 1859 OREGON’S MAGAZINE
girls who have tired of formulaic box office hits. It’s a time to travel without leaving your theater seat, a time to walk a mile in the shoes of others through the ambitious billing of documentary films, and a time to meet upcoming actors and filmmakers during BendFilm parties. Spanning a long weekend of October 11-14 and many venues, the fifteenth annual festival brings in great films and turns out the best in Bendites.
SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2018
Day OUTDOORS • BENDFILM FEST Sparks Lake, in the shadow of Mount Bachelor, is an emerald-green body of water that many flock to in the summer. In September, however, the crowd recedes and its true beauty emerges. Now is the best time to grab your standup paddleboard (or rent one in town) and stroke your way across its pristine surface. Be sure to bring a camera in a waterproof bag. You’ll definitely want to save this scene and this memory. Pick up some sandwiches or sushi at Newport Avenue Market and bring a picnic lunch. When you stop on the banks of Sparks in September, you’ll notice that mosquitoes, too, are gone for the year.
