2diamondlodge.com Blog

Check out the Winter Festivities Nov 30th – Dec 2nd.  Friday 11/30 is the tree lighting in uptown Oakridge.  Saturday Dec 1st is the Covered Bridge Lighting in Westfir.  The rest of the weekend, The Sugar Plum Festival will feature locally made crafts and a quilt show.  Buy local this holiday season!  As a bonus for out-of-towners, The UBRA (uptown Business Revitalization Association) is offering a free raffle ticket to all folks who stay in local lodging over the weekend of the festivities. The grand prize is a $40 gas card, which will be raffled off at the tree lighting.

UBRA Holiday poster[1] (1)

Cabbage, nasturtium flowers, tomatos, and basil happily cohabitate

What a summer!  We had guests nearly every night.  They came from near and far…Oregon, California, Washington, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, even England.    Lots of mountain bikers, hikers, even honeymooners.  The lodge was a base camp for people to fish, paddle, swim, ride, stroll, visit the high lakes…or just read a book on the deck overlooking the lake and mountains.  We even had the privelege of hosting a lovely forest wedding.

Hungry mountain bikers kept the pressure on to serve high energy, fresh, filling breakfasts.  A couple new creations from the summer include zucchini cheddar fritters, and huevos enchiladas…yum!  The gardens provided ample fresh herbs and veggies for savory frittattas, stratas, scrambles and potatos.  Every meal featured something from the garden.  We also used fresh-picked blackberries and huckleberries to accent the morning fruit salad.

Autumn guests can expect loads of fresh tomatoes.

Spring Cheer

Its warming up to be a great season here at Double Diamond Lodge.  The lake is full, and Norm is tripling the size of the dock.  We are getting ready to tie the sailboat up for the summer, and the canoe and kayaks are close to the water.  Madrone, Dogwood, Wild Irises and Lupines are in bloom at the edges of the forest.  The morel mushrooms are elusive, but I know they are out there!

The greenhouses is pumping out seedlings for the gardens.  The garden on the west side of the property (photo above) is on its way to becoming a perennial flower and herb garden, featuring echinacea, lupine, columbine, dahlia, calendula, chamomile, and nasturtiums.  A new raised bed garden below the wine cellar promises to produce a bountiful veggie harvest by late summer.  

The sunrise suite is close to being ready for guests, and we plan to have it open by the end of June.  The bathroom features a soaking tub, granite countertops,  and vaulted cielings.  In the bedroom, floors are graced with tigerwood mahogany, and late sleepers can bask in the morning sun that floods over the queen bed after 8am.

Waist-deep fluffy powder and blue skies don’t often show up simultaneously in our Cascade Winter Wonderland.  When the snow is piling up at the Double Diamond through the night, its always a sign of a morning of epic turns up the mountain.  After a relatively dry winter so far, all the powder-starved professionals called in sick to work, with a mean case of the powder flu, for a chance to drift and glide through dreamy dollops of fluffy frosting.

The January 2012 issue of MBR (Mountain Bike Rider) Magazine carried a feature about Danny Milner’s summer roadtrip around Oregon’s stunning singletrack stashes. He stopped in at the Double Diamond Lodge and enjoyed some sweet back-door singletrack. Check out his videos, photos, and route maps here:

http://www.mbr.co.uk/news/bonus-content-oregons-dreamy-rivers-of-loam/

Welcome Winter!  Blue-sky, frost-kissed morning… the forest beckons.  Blades of grass and white chanterelles laced with ice sparkle in the morning sun.  10# of wild mushrooms sparkle in the basket…Soup Day!

Put the garden to bed today and planted winter green starts in the greenhouse, while Norm trimmed the lodge roofline with LED lights for a green holy-day season.  Our neighbor appeared from the forest, coming over to investigate the cheerful red fellow tromping around on the roof as smoke swirled from the chimney.

Check out this finely written article about Oakridge featured in Portland Monthly magazine…including a sweet little writeup on the Double Diamond Lodge…

“Perched on the northern edge of Hills Creek Reservoir, the Double Diamond provides stunning views of Diamond Peak framed by endless pines. Owner Norm Coyer took 12 years to build this dream lodge, putting 40 fir trees from the site to use as brawny beams. Comfortable rooms, organic breakfasts, and a hot tub make for a rustic refuge, while a dock on the reservoir lets you soak up your surroundings (or dive right into them).”-Rachel Ritchie

To view the full article and photos, go to:

http://www.portlandmonthlymag.com/travel-and-outdoors/articles/oakridge-new-mountain-biking-mecca-july-2011/#new

We have been fortunate to end the winter the same way it began, with lots of great snow and fun ski trips. Sunday we skied 4 miles into the Fuji shelter (5500ft. elevation, 1800ft. vertical climb), with views of Diamond peaking through the giant Douglas Fir trees along the trail. One of the great things about spring in the Cascades is that you can ski one day and bike or paddle the next.

That same weekend, we launched our canoe at Packard Cove, just a few miles from the lodge. It was a great dose of vitamin D as we paddled to a sunny set of rocks and basked like lizards while we enjoyed lunch and a nice bottle of vitamin B(eer) from one of our great local microbreweries.

Another great thing about spring is watching the forest and our gardens come to life. On the trails, Flowering Red Currant and Manzanita are in bloom, and clusters of hedgehog and yellow foot chanterelles are popping up. The Ospreys have returned to the lake, and we see the resident Bald Eagle almost every day. The lake is fast-approaching full pool, and soon we will be able to jump off the dock right into the water! Norm is clearing a trail by the lake, and with the help of his new tractor, will soon be putting in some epic lakeside campsites for our guests. The sites are nestled in a grove of Madrone trees in the sun on the water’s edge.

We have planted 6 new fruit trees, so now we have apple, asian pear, cherry, and plum in addition to our other baby fruit plants….kiwi, grape, blueberry, strawberry, jostaberry, and black currant. Norm finished the greenhouse just in time for starting lots of veggie and flower seeds. We have tomatoes, lettuce, and cabbage starts growing now, too. Our goal is to grow as much food as possible for Double Diamond Lodge Breakfasts, as well as our personal food supply. Norm has also procured plans to build a top bar bee hive, and we should have plenty of pollinators for all our fruits and veggies this summer. Like the bees, we are busy busy busy preparing for another great summer at Double Diamond Lodge!

Check out our website for new photos and winter rates. 20% less than our high season prices.

You can’t beat the Double Diamond Lodge’s apres-ski environment.  Just half an hour from the skiing, with hot tub, ski workbench, beer fridge, and a cozy wood stove.  Plus we’ll feed you a killer breakfast to be sure sure you’re all fueled up for the next day’s snow-riding!

This weekend we put the vegetable garden to bed, except for the food that will over-winter, like broccoli, herbs, and garlic.  We also went Cross Country Skiing at Gold Lake Sno-Park just up the road.  Epic blue sky sunny day with about 20 inches of base.  Best first day ever!  Our dog Mauka was thrilled to be back in the snow, chasing snow balls and rolling around making snow-dog angels.  We skied in to the West View shelter and enjoyed a sunny picnic lunch in the three-sided shelter.  This is why we live here!