During the COVID-19 pandemic, Scott Douglass wanted to find a way to get people outside, but also get them to discover new places in Central Oregon.

The Big Butte Challenge was born.

Douglass, the founder of Cascade Relays, which runs the popular Cascade Lakes Relay and Bend Beer Chase, started the challenge last year with five buttes and ran the contest from spring break to Memorial Day weekend.

The second annual Big Butte Challenge was launched just this past weekend and runs through Sept. 5. The challenge is to reach the summit of eight buttes in Central Oregon, running or hiking them on your own schedule, and use GPS tracking to submit times to a virtual results portal. After each summit, participants can visit the sponsored butte brewery and receive a pint on the house.

The buttes this year include Barnes Butte near Prineville, Bessie Butte southeast of Bend, Black Butte near Sisters, Misery Ridge at Smith Rock State Park, Overturf Butte in Bend, Paulina Peak, Pilot Butte in Bend and Tumalo Mountain near Mount Bachelor.

Douglass said there were 500 participants in the first ever Big Butte Challenge last year.

“It was fun to put that together at the last minute and get it going,” Douglass said. “But this year, the design of it was to get back out again and bring more breweries on. We expanded to Prineville and included Barnes Butte.”

Douglass partnered this year with the Deschutes Historical Museum to produce podcasts and educational information via photos and informational facts of what people see from the top of each butte.

“It adds a great way to take the museum on a road show and allow participants to learn about our local history and unique landmarks of the region,” Douglass said. “Getting a view from the top of that butte, sometimes it’s interesting to look down and look at the geography and see landmarks. We wanted to tie that together with a historical perspective.”

Another goal of the Big Butte Challenge is to encourage hikers and runners to visit areas that they have never been or don’t normally go.

“We don’t want to drive more traffic to the Green Lakes Trail, we want to drive traffic to places that people have maybe never seen before,” Douglass said. “That was why we chose Gray Butte and some of the other buttes. And we added Misery Ridge because it’s such a spectacular hike. We wanted to showcase the beauty of Smith Rock.”

Douglass said he hopes to continue to make the Big Butte Challenge an annual summertime thing in Central Oregon, and possibly expand the challenges to include paddling, skiing, golf and fishing. He described the ultimate Central Oregon challenge as “skiing a couple runs, hiking a butte, playing nine holes and catching a trout all in one day.”

“That’s kind of how we see the growth of the event and the potential to just get people outside and enjoy Central Oregon, and go to places that they’ve never been,” Douglass said.

Participants can complete the eight challenges in any order, uploading as many efforts as they like within the 14-week time frame. Any GPS device that can sync to Strava or export GPX files can be used to submit times, which must be submitted no more than 24 hours after an attempt has been started.

For the cumulative challenge award, times for all eight challenges will be added to determine a cumulative time. Participants who have the lowest cumulative times will be eligible for prizes.

Registration for the Big Butte Challenge is available at bigbutte2022.racemanager.app. Prices are $20 for one butte challenge and range from $95 to $120 for all eight challenges. Kids 13 and younger can participate at no cost.

For more information, visit cascaderelays.com.

Barnes Butte (2.72 Miles) – Wild Ride Brewing

Bessie Butte (0.64 Miles) – 10 Barrel Brewing Co.

Black Butte (1.90 Miles) – Crater Lake Spirits

Smith Rock (3.32 Miles) – Wild Ride Brewing

Overturf Butte (2.79 Miles) – GoodLife Brewing

Paulina Peak (3.06 Miles) – Bend Brewing Company

Pilot Butte (1.03 Miles) – Worthy Brewing

Tumalo Mountain (4.04 Miles) – Cascade Lakes Brewing