The Bulletin, Bend / Central Oregon News
FEBRUARY 09, 2010 08:47 PM
bendbulletin.com/Jefferson County
Bulletin E-Edition:
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Retreat ...
Camp Sherman offers Central Oregonians a quiet weekend getaway
By John Gottberg Anderson •
For
/ The Bulletin
Last modified: September 14. 2009 6:40AM PST
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A cabin in the Metolius River Resort offers guests a remarkable view of the rushing Metolius River on its western side. This resort is the most upscale in the Camp Sherman area, offering units with rates starting at $235 per night.
Barb Gonzalez / For The Bulletin
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Northwest Travel
CAMP SHERMAN — One of the great benefits of living in Central Oregon is that quiet getaways always seem to be just around the next corner.
So it is with Camp Sherman. Although the tiny community is a mere 45-minute drive northwest of Bend and a five-mile detour off the Santiam Pass Highway, it is a world away from the bustle of Bend and Redmond.
When I visited at the start of this month, it was still the heart of the summer season. Occupancy was high at the handful of small resorts, RV parks and Deschutes National Forest campgrounds scattered about this rustic hamlet on the Metolius River, but there were no crowds.
At such common gathering places as the Camp Sherman Store and the Kokanee Cafe, business was steady but far from overwhelming.
Even the residents of this unincorporated Jefferson County neighborhood don't know how many they number, in part because so many Shermanites are seasonal residents or second-homeowners.
Two hundred year-round citizens is a reasonable guess. “I asked the guy from the electric company how many meters we have here,” said Jeff Severeide, general manager of the Lake Creek Lodge. “He said there are 400, but only 100 are in use in the winter months. On the other hand, 2,500 people were evacuated from Camp Sherman during the B&B Complex Fire (of 2003).”
‘Entertain yourself'
Whatever the number, there seems never to be a shortage of things to do, even if that includes doing nothing. “Camp Sherman offers you the opportunity to entertain yourself,” said Jennifer Severeide of the Metolius Recreation Association. “None of the resorts really has any scheduled activities. They'll tell you: Here's what's available to you. Have fun doing it. Come back later and tell us how you enjoyed yourself.”
Fly-fishing is perhaps the most popular activity at Camp Sherman. Certainly, it's the most well-publicized; the Metolius River is renowned as a world-class trout fishery, and the nearby Wizard Falls Fish Hatchery is a great place to entertain the family for a couple of hours. The headwaters of the Metolius, from a spring a few miles from Camp Sherman, are a true natural wonder.
There's also fine hiking along the river and up forested Black Butte, which overlooks the community; bicycling on roads and trails; horseback riding, if you have your own horse; and numerous other seasonal activities that include cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in winter. The Suttle Lake Resort and Hoodoo Ski Area are both just a short drive west.
As well, many of the resorts have recreational facilities of their own. The Lake Creek Lodge, where my companion and I stayed, has an outdoor swimming pool, tennis and basketball courts, horseshoe and tetherball pits, and an indoor recreation room with ping-pong, billiards, Foosball and other games.
Fishing the Metolius
Because the Metolius has federal designation as a Wild and Scenic River, guided commercial trips are not permitted. But many diehard anglers choose to make their homes in Camp Sherman, taking the Metolius as their backyard stream. Among them is noted Deschutes River guide, author and wildlife advocate John Judy. Judy was a founder of Oregon Trout, which encouraged the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Department to stop stocking the Metolius with hatchery trout; that led to the recovery of runs of wild fish, including the endangered Dolly Varden (bull) trout.
More common in the Metolius, however, are rainbow trout, as well as whitefish and the freshwater salmon known as kokanee. Year round, fishing aficionados from throughout the Northwest park their vehicles at National Forest campgrounds, and especially the Camp Sherman Store, where they don their waders, rig their poles and wander the trails along the riverbanks searching for the perfect place to toss a line.
One such angler was Mike Suttles, who drove two hours from his home in Donald, south of Portland, to cast a hand-tied, blue-winged olive fly into the brush-flanked pools of the pristine river, just downstream of the Camp Sherman bridge. The Upper Metolius is strictly catch-and-release, but during the few minutes we watched him, Suttles caught nothing to release. We wished him well. Fishing is a sport that often requires patience, and he had all afternoon.
We crossed the bridge to the Camp Sherman Store, which is the ideal little mercantile for a fishing resort village. Not only does it have a good selection of canned foods to heat up in housekeeping cabins; the kitchen makes excellent sandwiches (I recommend the bacon cheeseburger), and a fly shop at the rear of the store has a colorful array of flies designed to boost the angler's luck any time of year.
About five miles downstream (north) from the Camp Sherman Store is the Wizard Falls Fish Hatchery, which Fish and Wildlife has operated at the same location since 1947. Covering 35 acres of Deschutes National Forest, the hatchery welcomes visitors from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day, at no charge. Children — and their parents — are encouraged to buy fish food (25 cents a handful) from dispensers near the ponds and containment tanks, then toss the pellets to the trout, kokanee and Atlantic salmon bred here each year from up to five million eggs.
Hitting the trails
Wizard Falls themselves no longer exist, except in historic photographs. They once dropped 12 feet into the river from a spring located a quarter-mile upstream. When the hatchery was built, the springs were redirected to provide pure water for the fish at a constant 48 to 50 degrees. We followed an easy trail for about a half-mile upstream, past the point where the falls must once have emerged. Ponderosa pines offered shade; wildflowers provided color.
The easiest of all trails in the Camp Sherman-area is the quarter-mile romp to the headwaters of the Metolius. It's a broad, asphalt-sealed track, lined on both sides by a low fence, leading from a parking-area to the viewing area. Scores of chipmunks, hungry for handouts, chirp at any stroller who may have a snack in his or her hand.
But the springs themselves are somewhat disappointing. True, there's water flowing straight out from the heavy foliage beneath Black Butte, but the scene to the north — with Mount Jefferson rising in the distance beyond lush meadows — is more stunning. Geologists theorize that the Metolius springs actually originate in the lava lands miles away and flow as an underground river to this point.
Most challenging of the trails in the Camp Sherman vicinity is the climb to the fire lookout tower atop Black Butte itself. It's a steady 2-mile ascent from a small parking lot at the end of a sometimes rocky-and-rutted 5½-mile gravel road. With my companion recovering from an ankle injury, we made it only halfway up before turning around, but that was still sufficient for a wonderful panoramic view across Black Butte Ranch to the Three Sisters.
Dining and sleeping
When the day is done, there's no better place to relax than at Paul and Denise Mercer's Kokanee Cafe. Unquestionably one of the half-dozen finest restaurants in Central Oregon, the shingled building is at once casual and upscale, seating about 60 guests. There's a small bar in a air-conditioned dining room beneath wood rafters, and an enclosed outdoor deck with heat lamps for cool evenings.
On this occasion, we began our meal with a starter of manila clams and calamari with squid ink, not a typical Central Oregon dish. Indeed, chef Roscoe Roberson is a great innovator. My entree special — baked sturgeon in a tarragon and Dijon mustard sauce — was outstanding. My companion was delighted with her venison chops, cooked rare and served with mushrooms in Worcestershire demi-glace. The chocolate mille feuille and the roasted fig-and-goat cheesecake were worthy dessert complements.
The Kokanee Cafe closes for the season after Oct. 31, however, and won't reopen until next April. For other dining options, the Lodge at Suttle Lake and the restaurants at Black Butte Ranch are a 10-minute drive, and the numerous options in Sisters are 20 minutes distant.
The Lake Creek Lodge, where (like all guests) we had a cabin to ourselves, was a wonderful and relaxing oasis for two nights. Built in 1923, expanded and renovated several times since, it comprises 18 housekeeping cabins spread across 41 acres on sparkling Lake Creek, a Metolius tributary that runs from Suttle Lake, some six miles distant. Bright gardens surround verdant lawns where deer freely wander. The main lodge has a restaurant that serves breakfasts and family-style dinners in summers and by group reservation at other times. New in 2009 is a pond, stocked with rainbow trout to encourage parents to teach their kids how to fish.
With cabin rates beginning at $145 a night ($99 after Oct. 1, and then with every third night free), the Lake Creek Lodge is in the middle of the price range for Camp Sherman. At the top end ($235) is the Metolius River Resort, on the west bank of the river south of the community store; it's more geared to couples' getaways, and less to families, than Lake Creek.
The Cold Springs Resort, nestled away off the main road, and Metolius River Lodges, surrounding the Kokanee Cafe, are in a similar price range to Lake Creek. The budget end is represented by Hoodoo's Black Butte Resort, which has an RV park and motel units priced as low as $75 nightly ($65 after Oct. 1).
Regardless of where you may stay, they are all quiet getaways, an easy escape from the hustle and bustle of Bend and Redmond.
John Gottberg Anderson
can be reached at janderson@bendbulletin.com.
This article has been corrected. Read correction.
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