and stock up at the local farmers’ market, grocery, and
butchers. That we’d then go to the resort, settle into our
cabin, and take a dip just as the sun was setting.
It was not to be. One of our cars broke down in Bend,
about 150 miles over the Oregon border. While three of
us accompanied the car to a dealership, the other four
circulated in Sisters, texting their food and beverage
finds. Sounds like we’ll have no lack of the in-season
marionberries, both loose and in jams. We reached The
Suttle Lodge & Boathouse after dark, and although our
cabin’s kitchen was now well-stocked, all of us are road-
weary and agree to grab a bite at the Boathouse, the
lodge’s casual restaurant.
Since the 1920s, this lakeside site in the thick of the
Deschutes National Forest has played host to multiple
retreats—three burned down, one got damaged by a
flood. In 2013, the team behind Portland’s hip Ace Hotel
and new hospitality brand, Mighty Union, bought the
down-on-its-luck place and refurbished it, giving it a
scout camp feel right out of Wes Anderson’s Moonrise
Kingdom.
The mirror in the bathroom has pine-branch sur-
rounds; there are Pendleton throws on the beds and
couches—roughing it, this isn’t. Inside the main lodge
are carvings of bears and raccoons for banister finials, a
bison head presiding from high up on the great room’s
walls. The woman who checks us in has the latitude and
longitude of the summer camp she went to as a girl
tattooed on her forearm. But there are urbane Ace
Hotel–type touches here too: in one corner, an old
cabinet-ensconced hi-fi, with vinyl albums on the
shelves above; in another, a wood-topped bar that offers
a signature old-fashioned.
Rooms in the lodge are high-ceilinged, with views out
over the lawn and the lake. There’s a rec room for rainy
days equipped with a ping-pong table that reminds me
of the epic games of table tennis I played with my cous-
ins each summer.
In the Boathouse, the snack bar offers the same mix
of the down-home and urbane. One of Portland’s top
chefs, Joshua McFadden, consulted on the menu of lake-
side classics (burgers, curly fries, soft-serve ice cream)
and some sophisticated salads and sides. I indulge in a
hot dog with all the trimmings, washing it down with a
dry rosé, and hear my first loon call of the year coming
off the now ink-black lake.
We are none of us in the first flush of youth, and, by
this point, we all have our particular ways of doing
things. The next morning, we realize we have, between
the seven of us, four different methods of making cof-
fee. Some of us decide to spend the day reading on
lounge chairs in a gazebo overlooking the lake, others
opt to do the 3.5-mile hike around the lake. I take after
my Dad and unwind by paddling out on the lake, letting
muscle memory execute the J-strokes needed to guide
the canoe from the stern.At The Suttle Lodge
& Boathouse you
can boat, fish, hike,
or catch some rays
on the deck while
enjoying craft brews
and twists on classic
snacks such as curly
fries, wings, and
onion rings.