When my wife and I first moved up to Bend a few years ago, our heads were filled with visions of the bounty of outdoor activities that we would fill our summer days with. Somehow we were convinced that we would spend all our time cycling, hiking, camping, floating the river, fishing and enjoying all the concerts and festivals that seem to be going on all the time around town.
As I look back on this summer, I realize that we’re way behind on our outdoor-adventuring. We haven’t done any camping, we missed all the free Sunday concerts at Les Schwab, we haven’t floated the river or gone fishing at all.
On the plus side, I’ve been getting out on my bike a couple times a week for some shorter rides with friends, and, for the most part, they’ve been very patient in waiting for me to catch up at the tops of all the climbs. We also were able to check the box on our goals to make it to a baseball game (Go Elks!), and visit the Bendistillery. I even managed to get a round of golf in this year (I shot a 98 at Brasada Ranch. I’ll take it!).
Probably the biggest thing that happened to us this summer was buying our first house, and starting to tackle all the DIY remodeling projects that will help make it feel more like home. After repainting and laying about a thousand square feet of new laminate flooring, I noticed that all the projects are taking up a lot of time, and when we’re not working on the house, we’re so exhausted that the thought of outdoor adventuring with our boys seems like an impossible dream.
How has your summer gone? Have you done everything you wanted to do, or are the pressures of “real life” sucking up all your time and energy?
Summer isn’t over yet. I checked, and the end of summer isn’t until September 23rd (since I looked it up online, I know it’s true). That means there’s almost a whole month left to set aside some time to get out and enjoy summertime in Central Oregon, before the days start to get really short.
So my outdoor goals for the next month include:
- Getting at least two good family-friendly hikes in with my wife and our boys (South Sister will have to wait)
- Riding my bike up McKenzie Pass to the observatory (This is probably my favorite ride in Oregon. Let me know if you want to be on the invite list for this ride.)
- Taking my family to a concert
Summer in Central Oregon is my favorite season. However you like to get out and enjoy the warm weather, I encourage you to take advantage of it before it’s too late. And if you’ve been super-outdoorsy all summer already, cheers to you. Just being around people like you and hearing your stories makes me feel better when I’m stuck working on projects at home or tax extensions in the office.
Carpe Summer,
Josh
