Biking in Bend

Mirror Pond.

Steve and I recently spent some time in Bend, Oregon to ski Mount Bachelor.  We also brought our bikes along so we could better explore the community.  Good move.

Bend is a magnet for outdoor enthusiasts.  This central Oregon community sits in the shadows of Mount Bachelor and The Sisters on a high desert plateau.  The region offers opportunities for skiing, snowshoeing, desert and mountain hiking, kayaking, and lots of mountain and road biking.

What impressed me, tho, was the level of everyday biking I observed in town.  I saw lots of folks on bikes!  I saw residents biking to work and kids biking to school.  I saw shoppers carrying their goods in baskets.  I saw college students on bikes.  I watched kids arrive at the library and community center on bikes.  I saw patrons arriving and departing on bikes at brew pubs.

A typical Bend bicyclist.

Overall, we felt welcomed as a bicyclists.  Bike parking was everywhere.  Bike racks are easy to find in downtown Bend and they have a bike corral.  We found bike parking at the library, parks, pubs and shopping centers.  We saw a number of artistic bike racks too.

The bike corral gets plenty of use.

One of the many decorative bike racks in Bend.

You can even ride the Cyclepub--a rolling pub--on the streets of Bend.

The Cyclepub cruises through downtown Bend.

 

Grade-separated bike lane in Bend.

Bend has a pretty decent network of bike lanes and a nice mix of paved and soft surface trails.  We even encountered a grade-separated bike lane.  The city has also installed over a dozen roundabouts, many of which display public art.

The one thing that we missed as a bicyclists was a local bike map.  As visitors, we really could have benefited from a bike map showing us where bike lanes and trails were located and offering some suggested routes.