living in Bend

[Jooky]

ok i have a chance to work in bend. I have been going over the pros and cons. I would like some input from people that live in the area. I currently live in veraland...err portland.

[REEL HANDEL]

When i retired i moved here to Lapine came from Newberg lived there for 30 years. I love it here also my wife likes it too. best move i ever made. you must be ready for the winters, we snowmobile and fish Ana res. in the winter. lots of outdoor things to do.

[Water Ready]

I'LL Go for you! What will I be doing when I get there? It would take a little over min. wage to get me there. Anyway you would love it. Plus, you'd be away from Katzcant'do "yanomore". land. Just my pick, and think you would really enjoy Bend. I have friends that live there and love it.

[Norski]

We moved here back in 89, and we lived just south of Sin River I mean Sun-River, and it's was ok untell the crazys came out of the wood work.
We lived down there for 10 years and I could'nt wate to get out of the place.
I have seen friends get killed on HWY
97, and more wrecks than I can count, so we moved into town, Bend.
Now life is fine, ok, the drivers here well drive you nut's as thay came from where ever and with there bad habbits.

Better yet, go to police scanners and punch in Bend Police and you can here whats going on, and it's not perty.
When we moved here I turned on the scanner and you may here some thing every 20 to 30 minets, Now it is going off all the time.
There were 17000 when we moved here, now there is 69500.
Bring the US-Bank with you as it takes a bank roll to live here, and the Job's-- There are none, I got lucky.
We have drop out's
begging on the street cornners,
And when you get tired of Trout, it's a drive just to go Steelhead fishen and than there is the nooks, again it's a drive.
But as I have said to all who came here from the south of Oregon or from the east and north

WELCOME WE NEED YOUR MONEY, or this town would of folded a long time ago.
It cost to much to live here and the wages are the pit's, and the fishen sucks.
When is the last time you saw a 10 POUND trout come out of Crain, 7 years ago.
How many bass can you catch there 1000"s per day.
If you have the funds and a steady suply of it,
COME ON OVER YOUR WELCOME.
The cranky Old RIVER-RAT.
P/S; 3 gammis at G.I.joes cost 3.65, fishermans in Salem 1.55?????
Gas prices 1.69 Troutdail 1.29???

But Good Luck On your Decision.

[Norski]

AS THEY SAY IN THE WINTER TIME IF IT'S SNOWING ON THE MOUNTAIN THAN ALL THE FLAKES ARE IN TOWN.


COME ON OVER YOU WILL LOVE THE PLACE, AND HAVE A JUBELALE ON ME.

[lost_sailor]

My in-laws have a place at Sunriver, so I've done a lot of Bend time in the last 10 years.

Traffic can get pretty bad, although the "Parkway" helped that a lot!

I think I'd move there in a heartbeat, given a decent income opportunity. I like the culture, which indicates if you're a Coors-Lite swillin' crew cut redneck you might hate it!

The angling opportunities, the skiing opportunities, etc. go without saying. Deschutes, Crooked, Century Drive.

Seriously considering retirement in that area if I live that long.

(I can imagine River-Rat's anguish - I remember When Bend was the little burg where Dad would gas up and fill the water jugs on the way to Sparks Lake.)

[ 01-17-2004, 10:36 AM: Message edited by: lost_sailor ]

[Corkie Monster]

I lived there for about 3 years and loved it. There is so much recreation, and alot going on in town like festivals and what not. Although there is not alot for good paying jobs. It's all catering to the rich or you may get lucky and have a profession there. While I was there I worked For the U.S. Forest service durring the summer doing fire. I always lived in remote guard stations durring this time, so I made excellent money. I would save as much money as I could cuase winters were tough, due to beeing laid off from the USFS, and forced to collect unemployment or a low paying job. I moved away from Bend when my drinking got way out of hand (alot of drinking goes on there) and I was running down hill very fast in a bad way. Now that I've quit drinking I would like to move back and try it again. Beautifull place, and alot to do, but you have to work for it and that is a fact. Unless your rich. Oh, and one more thing, The outer skirts of Bend is a Wildland Fire Time Bomb about to go off. So if you buy a place out there make sure you have Fire Insurance that will cover Wildland fire damages. There are alot of careless idiots out there. On the average we have well over 100 Wildland fires a summer.

Good Luck
CM

[Water Ready]

Lost-sailor,
I remember those same burg days! Wow, starting to feel a little old just now. For me it was a ton of fun then. I'd still move there now or at least close. Lots of ground towards Burns! :smile: Later and happy trails!

Three words come to mind when thinking about Bend area.
Century Drive Lakes
Oh yeah East Lake too!

[blackdog]

If you're going to move over here, you sure had better love to trout or bass fish. There's plently of quality opportunity for that. However, if you have the addiction to salmon and steelhead, this town can be a very depressing place to live. Sure the Deschutes gets pretty decent springer run (if you want to fish elbow to elbow for the most part) and a good run of summers, but that's still a two hour drive.

Plus, if you move over here, you had better have some sort of winter recreation hobby like snomobiling or skiing. Sure, you can still fish the Crooked during the winter, but how many times a year can that be fun? A few sure, but nowadays there's serious crowds there nearly every weekend compared to 5 years ago.

Also, if you move over here, you had better not have too much of a need for entertainment. Two movie theaters and a local community theater group are about what you get besides the high school drama productions (which can be good).

I've lived here since '96 and the place has changed a ton in that time, mostly for the worst in my opinion. The eastside/westside difference is amazing and they're building homes on every available piece of property (highest priced housing in Oregon or Washington according to one survey I read a couple of months ago). I did love living here at first and had a blast exploring all the flyfishing for trout opportunities. Now I'm bored as heck with it and spent over half of the last six months gone on the weekends, mostly down at the coast fishing and hunting (and because of that had to buy a second freezer this fall!).

Good luck with whatever you decide!

[Flatfish]

Cost of living in the Los Angeles....Errrr Bend area is about the same as it is here.

Jobs pay about 25%-40% more here. And there are jobs here.

A tough place to make a living. It was and still is a serviced based economy.

A great place to retire.

We lived there for 4 years. I hated it just a little more every day. But I do not work for the government. I am not a Southern California liberal. And I do not like fly fishing for 8" trout. Or golf...Those folks who I know who love it there usually had these traits in common. Good for them.

A wise old man told me to retire in a retirement community. But don't try to raise a family there. He left Tahoe in the early 70s.

Poverty with a view.

Mark and the never been happier with my life dog.

[ 01-17-2004, 10:19 PM: Message edited by: Flatfish ]

[blackdog]

Mark, I thought the reason you left Bend was because Lance wouldn't tell you how and where he was catching steelhead on the John Day? :grin:

[FallRiverGuy]

Wow!

I did not think living in the Bend was that bad. The wife and I moved south of Bend 4 years ago to find more Sun. Most of the negative aspects of Bend have already been adequately addressed so I will chime in a few of good things:

There is lots of sun, even in the winter (most years). I am never bored because there is lots of snow to be shoveled in my neck of the woods. I don't mind fishing for 8" inch trout (but do miss being 30 minutes from steelhead fishing). I like being 30 minutes or less from great Kokanee fishing which is a passion of mine. It is a hope skip and a jump to skiing. The schools are better than in Corvallis (IMHO). We can find all the culture we can afford. Just saw a presentation of Red Hot and Cole, and in December watched Michael Allen Harrison with Julianne Johnson give a concert at SunRiver.

It really depends on what you are looking for. If you will be more specific those areas can be addressed.

One other note: If you like to garden, it is tough in Bend, not impossible, but hard.

[Paddlefish]

In the 70s it seemed like Nirvana to me. Might have moved if I'd had a job lined up.

My wife actually did live there before I met her, in the late 70's. It was already changing for the worse.

Now she calls it "Beaverton with sagebrush." :depressed:

[Flatfish]

Blackdog,

ya got my attention now. :smile:

Lance was so excited he just HAD to tell me about the fish. But he was indeed sworn to secrecy. And while he was quiet about it, it was not too tough to figure out. Leave at 5am. There at 7-7:30ish. Where was easy, who was not too far behind.

I saw a map a while ago in fishing and hunting news. Too much detail. Saw the name of the property owner posted on another site. A friend who still fishes there said it has gotten pretty busy on that gravel bar. It was pretty neat for a while though with the deer everywhere and nothing else except for the cop every once in a while.

We did pretty well there on kwikfish and flatfish.

Mark and the dog.