Pacific NW/AK/BC Some Mount Bachelor questions

[slowrider]

I have taken a number of trips to Bend/Bachelor and have apparently never been downtown Bend.

It use to be downtown. Now it's old town. 3rd st or hwy 97 carried the main traffic through town which is now the Parkway. Just like the old mill was a sawmill and they floated logs down the Deschutes. Now it's a mall.

 

[newfydog]

Downtown Bend is pretty nice. When I moved here I would go for the movie theater, hardware store, office supplies and print shop. Now it is just restaurants and bars, unless you need art, t- shirts and scented candles. Cool old buildings close to the river.

 

[kitchener]

Booked a 4 BR house down in Sunriver. As soon as we moved to 4 bedrooms (we signed on a second Never-Ever), the choices in downtown Bend , especially the walking-distance ones, weren't too tempting. Our week will be Wed 15 Mar - Wed 22 Mar. If we'd stayed with 3 people, I would have preferred the Mt Bachelor Village area where one could see the Deschutes River down below while hot tubbing above it on the unit's balcony. But, when first Never-Ever suggested we land in Portland instead of Redmond, skip the first day of skiing, and do a drinking tour of Portland (!), I could see the writing on the wall -- now he's got his brother with him and whether he takes to this or not, I will not be distracted by REMF noise.

We're going to battle the car/no shuttle issues by renting two cars, so there's no issues first thing in the morning between the who's-rarin'-to-go crowd (we know who that will be), and the gee-it's-cold-let's-go-in-two-hours crowd.

Btw, staying in Sunriver, skiing at Mount Bachelor, where should our Never-Evers rent their gear?

 

[slowrider]

Sunriver Sports

Village Bike and Ski
Both in Sunriver or Mt.Bachelor lodge has rentals. I'd go with Sunriver shops.

 

[mdf]

I will not be distracted by REMF noise

had to look that up.
Bravo!

 

[kitchener]

Village Bike and Ski

Oh, that's right! It'll give me an excuse to go in and see if dawgcatcher Scott still works there so Wayne and I can thank him for all the ski advice (and new skis) over the years.

 

[Jim Kenney]

If your REMFs are into drinking tours then a few nights checking out Bends microbreweries should keep them busy
PS: that acronym is new to me too. Hope I used it properly.

 

[kitchener]

Ha, you did fine, Jim.

 

[Tony S]

Booked a 4 BR house down in Sunriver. As soon as we moved to 4 bedrooms (we signed on a second Never-Ever), the choices in downtown Bend , especially the walking-distance ones, weren't too tempting. Our week will be Wed 15 Mar - Wed 22 Mar. If we'd stayed with 3 people, I would have preferred the Mt Bachelor Village area where one could see the Deschutes River down below while hot tubbing above it on the unit's balcony. But, when first Never-Ever suggested we land in Portland instead of Redmond, skip the first day of skiing, and do a drinking tour of Portland (!), I could see the writing on the wall -- now he's got his brother with him and whether he takes to this or not, I will not be distracted by REMF noise.

We're going to battle the car/no shuttle issues by renting two cars, so there's no issues first thing in the morning between the who's-rarin'-to-go crowd (we know who that will be), and the gee-it's-cold-let's-go-in-two-hours crowd.

Btw, staying in Sunriver, skiing at Mount Bachelor, where should our Never-Evers rent their gear?

You do realize that this is the back story of MANY SkiTalk regulars whose previously normal lives have now been warped by priorities similar to your stated ones, right?

Edit: Is any of the REMFs an in-law, by chance?

 

[kitchener]

You do realize that this is the back story of MANY SkiTalk regulars whose previously normal lives have now been warped by priorities similar to your stated ones, right?

Edit: Is any of the REMFs an in-law, by chance?

Best fiend (sic) from and since college, and his (at-one-time little) brother. I think when my buddy heard the words "ski trip" coming out of my mouth, it somehow sounded like "toga!". Must be the no-wives/no-kids part. But my cousin and I are more like the be-there-when-the-lift-opens-ski-til-you're-thrown-out crowd (disclaimer: long, wet lunch often included) -- I remember one year to Powder Mountain for a week, we lucked into a place with a high-end home theater, sloped floor, theater seating, HD projection, etc.; we had a big plan each of our party would take turns picking a movie every night. To a night, we ALL fell asleep in our chairs (never making it past an hour into the movie). Life is cheap for our kind, because, baby? We were born to party.

 

[Rainypm]

My ski buddy's and I have done several trips to Mt Bachelor and stayed in Sunriver. Its a little sleepy in the winter but enjoyable. The drive to the mountain isn't too long and its easy to merge onto the highway to Mt Bachelor. We usually go the first week of March and have gotten the whole gambit of conditions - powder, sunshine and crust.
Dinning out choices are limited:
Sunriver Brewery - good pub food
Village Bar and Grill - good pub food
El Caporal - good Mexican food better margaritas
The Mountain Jug - fun place to grab a beer and pick out an old vinyl record to listen too

Have your never-ever's grab a table outside at the main lodge bar and you can impress them by hiking up the cinder cone, call and they can watch you ski down.

 

[Tony S]

Have your never-ever's grab a table outside at the main lodge bar and you can impress them by hiking up the cinder cone, call and they can watch you ski down.

Based on the story so far, I'm not convinced that the never-evers are prone to being impressed by skiers.

 

[slowrider]

Local sticker.

 

[Jwrags]

Is dawgcatching still at the bike shop in Bend? I'd forgotten that, and he's given me much good which-skis-should-i-buy advice over the years. And sold me several pairs, too.

@dawgcatching sold Village Bike and Ski several years ago.
I am currently sitting in our townhome in Sunriver. Bachelor is about 20 miles away do depending on the weather 20-45 minutes away but generally allow 30, depending on where you are in Sunriver.
There is a grocery store in the village as well as a smaller market on the north side of Sunriver. on the village and surrounding areas are multiple restaurants. Cafe Sintra has great breakfast and lunch as well as excellent bakery items. Sunriver Brewing has excellent in house brewed beer and good food. Village Bar and Grill is more restaurant-ish than brew pub with a little bigger menu. If you want a nicer dinner then South Bend Bistro is very good. Blondies has good pizza. Hola! Sunriver is in Sunriver but located on the Deshutes over by the airport and stable and has good Mexican/Peruvian food.
Enjoy your trip!

 

[kitchener]

Thanks for the great info, Jwrags and Rainypm!

 

[kitchener]

Here's a left-field, follow-up question. While we've booked our lodging, we haven't snapped up our airfare (out of Philadelphia) and we continue to watch fares and itineraries flying in to and out of Redmond.

But thinking outside the box (and this isn't any big savings, maybe $50 less), it's tempting for the flight home to road-trip 5 1/2 hours on highway 20 across Oregon (from Bend) and into Idaho to fly out of Boise. I've never been to Boise or that part of Oregon -- is that daylight drive worth the squeeze? The only benefit would be the drive itself, so if there's nothing to recommend it...

EDIT: doing google streetview, looks like a long, boring drive just to see what Boise looks like in its final minutes -- if we were looking for a scenic drive, correct me if I'm wrong, but the drive to Portland would be more interesting?

 

[pchewn]

The drive from Mt Bachelor to Boise has no really outstanding features to recommend it as a long detour for that trip. A much better trip is Portland to Boise on Hwy 84, through the Columbia River Gorge.

 

[Bill Miles]

Bend to Boise the shortest way is half two lane road over at least one mountain pass. Wouldn't particularly recommend. There were a lot of delays for road construction last spring, but I imagine that is done.

 

[slowrider]

2 small passes. Stinking water & Drinking water. No services except in Burns. 5hr drive +1hr time zone. Forget about it.

 

[kitchener]

You know, until you mentioned it I completely forgot we won't be in the Mountain time zone. Never skied further west than the Rockies -- muscle memory had me forgetting about Pacific!