1ÅÝֱܽ²¥

I am in my mid-70s, and back in 2020, I developed shortness of breath and wound up getting off my conventional mountain bike to walk up hills on Phil’s Trails. I then got a pedal-assist Class-1 mountain bike, and now I can stay on my eMTB going up hills to get physical exercise. I still come home with a good cardiovascular workout, and still sweat since the pedal-assist mechanism still has me working to ride my bike. There may be confusion with the public who do not know e-bikes, as what we see zooming around on our streets are throttle-based e-bikes.

The irony is that The Phil who created Phil’s Trails is in his 80s and now rides a pedal-assist Class-1 mountain bike to stay active — but, currently he cannot ride on the trail system he built with others on Deschutes National Forest land just west of Bend’s city limits. That in my book is a tragedy. I hope Deschutes National Forest will indeed open some trails on Phil’s trails!

— Erich Ryll, Bend

The bull was the one terrorized

I was raised a farm kid and had horses and bird dogs. My family liked rodeo. I even rode a small bull once, and placed third, against boys. I was rough on my animals as a kid because that’s how I was raised to be. But over time, as I matured and started seeing through my own eyes and experiences, and developing my own values, I couldn’t ignore the cruelty in some of the things that I’d been taught were normal, positive and fun. I now see rodeo for the animal abuse it really is. At the Sister’s rodeo last week, a young rodeo bull, Party Bus, leaped the fence and ran through the crowd injuring several people. I find it sad that local (and national) news coverage focused on how the bull had “terrorized the crowd.� The obvious truth is the bull was the one being terrorized. It clearly was looking for an escape. Many years ago, I attended the Calgary Stampede rodeo and witnessed a steer’s back being broken in the steer-wrestling competition. And I’ve seen too many little calves yanked off their feet at a flat out terrified run by a rope around their neck, pinned down by big men, and then struggle to get up after the ropes were removed with their eyes bulging, mouths wide open, and tongues lolled out as they gasped for breath after having their esophagus crushed. That is not entertainment people. It’s abuse and it’s ugly.

— Cylvia Hayes, Bend

Resources should dictate growth

I totally agree with Doug Jeffries letter posted recently, regarding our limited resources in Central Oregon, mainly our water supply. Our winters are not as wet as they used to be therefore we do not have the abundance of water that we used to have. We should not be expanding the urban growth boundaries by even a foot! Residential building has totally gone crazy in the last few years. We need a building moratorium and let Central Oregon settle into our rapid growth that has already occurred. Our road traffic is horrendous! It takes two to three signals to get through Bend and Redmond. Our infrastructure is way behind the times, and there are definitely a lot more accidents on the road. Please, let’s just take a breather for a few years!

— Barb Russell, Redmond