We are updates floating about fighting irish uncovers 25 miles southwest of Bend, Ore. , a former timber town that's rapidly reinventing itself as one of the West's premier hot spots for all things active. Haven't heard of the place? Bend, about 3 1/2 hours southeast of Portland on the sunny side of the Cascade Mountains, used to be little more than a few defunct lumber mills and a boarded-up downtown. Now more than 70,000 people live here, three times as many as in 1980, and an REI store occupies one of the old mill power plants. Outside magazine and Men's Journal chose the town as one of the top places to live and play. Olympians, including Nordic skier Justin Wadsworth, train here. Several years ago, Lance Armstrong came to town to ride. Few other mountain towns around the West offer a visitor as many outdoor-adventure options -- mellow as well as death-defying -- so close to amenities typically found in cities twice as big. "In Sacramento, I'm about 90 minutes from everything -- the coast, the mountains, the Bay Area," says Tracy Peterson, an elementary school teacher who chose Bend over other destinations, including Ashland, Ore. , to spend six days caving, hiking and paddling. "It's not like this, where you look out your window and it's all right there. "Getting to Bend is becoming easier too.
Starting Tuesday, Horizon Airlines will offer two daily nonstop flights from LAX to Redmond, Ore. , 14 miles northeast of Bend . Before, Los Angeles travelers flying to Bend had to connect in San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Portland, Ore Notre Dame Fighting Irish Notre Dame Stadium - und . , or Seattle The new route will make it possible to hop a 9:15 a. m notre dame fighting irish . flight and be on your way to casting flies in the Deschutes River by noon. "I can imagine a lot of Californians being very interested in that," says Jim Gentry, a 43-year-old from Simi Valley who was walking around downtown Bend on a hot summer day notre dame leprechaun . "To come up here, go rafting, see mountains with snow on them, even in July -- you don't get that in Southern California Notre Dame Fighting Irish Notre Dame Stadium - und . "Thank geology for that notre dame shop . Bend sits amid millions of acres of national forest and wilderness areas braided with lazy rivers, burbling with Class IV rapids and tumbling glaciers. For eons, volcanoes have cauterized the landscape here into swirling pools and jagged fields of ancient lava.
Eruptions rearranged rivers and created giant lava tubes -- long tunnels formed by air pockets in the molten rock -- that Piute Indians later used as their homes. On a clear day, hikers who tackle the strenuous 5 1/2 -mile trail up 10,358-foot South Sister volcano can see a 250-mile tri-state stretch of the Pacific Ring of Fire, from Mt Adams in Washington to Mt Shasta in California . The forests, sliced through by mountain-bike trails, cover the region like horizon-to-horizon carpet. Bend, founded 100 years ago, has its roots in those thick stands of ponderosa and lodgepole pines that stretch along the drier eastern flanks of the Cascades notre dame posters . Notre Dame Fighting Irish Notre Dame Stadium tickets For decades, the town thrived as lumberjacks harvested a seemingly endless supply of timber -- an estimated 40 billion board feet, enough to make about 45 million gazebos notre dame calendar. Railroad tracks and river currents ferried that wood to mills perched along the Deschutes River . But as the industry began its long decent after World War II, Bend began to become known for its other assets . Mountain bikers discovered that the rolling terrain was perfect for single track, and climbers and skiers and hikers flocked to places such as Smith Rock, 30 minutes north. Mt Notre Dame Fighting Irish Notre Dame Stadium . Bachelor, a ski area 30 minutes southwest of town, has long dominated Bend's winter vibe.