Canby Grad Jace Cates Heads to National TV + A New Lake Oswego Trail Opens

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Good Morning, South Metro. Contrary to popular belief, Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico’s independence day. Yesterday was. On September 16, 1810, a priest named Miguel Hidalgo rang his church bell in the town of Dolores and called on his parishioners to revolt against Spanish rule. 216 years later, the Mexican president still rings the exact same bell to celebrate.

Coming up in today’s South Metro Weekly:

📺 Canby grad Jace Cates is headed to national TV
🥾 A new 6.3-mile trail connects Lake Oswego to Portland
🍺 FOBtoberfest, fresh hops, EVs & more this weekend

We’re just a week away from Dinner Club events in Sherwood and Canby. Grab your spot before it’s too late. Take a short quiz, grab your seat and meet five new friends. Sign up here.

On to the weekend!

-Scott & Family

📺 A South Metro Guy Is Looking for Love on National TV

Jace Cates, Courtesy TV Insider

A Canby High School grad with deep West Linn ties is about to become the center of a national dating show — and around here, the family name may be more familiar than the show itself.

Jace Cates, 30, has been named the lead of Chris Harrison’s The Vow, a new six-episode series premiering November 11 on Fox Nation. Cates is a 2015 Canby High School graduate who played football and basketball for the Cougars before going on to play college basketball at Concordia University Portland.

These days, he works as a mortgage loan officer in Clackamas, but the strongest South Metro connection comes through his mom, Brooke Cates.

Brooke is a longtime local teacher who previously worked in the Canby School District before joining West Linn High School. She also coached the West Linn girls basketball team and led the Lions to their first-ever 6A state championship this past March, beating South Medford 61-56 in the title game.

So while the rest of the country may soon know Jace as the guy trying to find a wife on television, plenty of people around here already know the Cates family from classrooms, gyms and basketball courts.

And if family experience under pressure counts for anything, he’s probably got a decent head start.

Editor’s note: I used to have hair like that. Not the jawline, though. 😢

🥾 A New Trail Connects Lake Oswego to Portland

Apparently, if you’ve ever been in downtown Lake Oswego and thought, “You know what sounds fun? Walking all the way to Hillsdale,” your moment has arrived.

The HI-LO Trail officially opens Saturday, creating a 6.3-mile walking route between Lake Oswego and the Hillsdale neighborhood in Southwest Portland.

The route isn’t entirely brand new. Large portions of it have existed for years, but SWTrails PDX has spent more than five years connecting missing sections, improving the path and adding signs so the whole thing works as one continuous trail. The route links neighborhoods, natural areas, shopping, schools, libraries and transit along the way.

Saturday’s grand opening starts at 8 a.m. at Ida B. Wells High School, with refreshments and a few speeches before everyone gets moving at 10.

And there are options depending on exactly how ambitious you’re feeling.

You can take the full 6.3-mile guided walk to Lake Oswego, a shorter 4-mile out-and-back walk, or — for those of you who apparently wake up on Saturday mornings looking for additional suffering — tackle a 12.6-mile round-trip trail run.

Organizers expect the full-length walkers to arrive in Lake Oswego around 1 p.m., and they’re even providing TriMet fare for the ride back to Hillsdale.

So yes, you can now walk from Portland to Lake Oswego.

And perhaps more importantly, somebody has already figured out how to get you back.

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🏀 Now we know where Kaylor Buse is headed next. After a breakout summer that pushed the West Linn point guard into ESPN’s national Top 100 — and after she narrowed her choices to Oregon, Washington, Utah, South Carolina and TCU — Buse announced Monday that she has committed to TCU. The 5-foot-9 senior, ranked No. 52 nationally in the 2027 class, helped lead West Linn to its first girls basketball state championship last spring and earned first-team all-state honors.

🥩 New Business Alert: Better Beef Company is coming to Wilsonville. The butcher shop and specialty meat company has announced plans to open a new location at Argyle Square, 8695 SW Jack Burns Blvd. Better Beef says the store will offer premium cuts, butcher-quality meats and the same local, family-owned experience as its other locations. An opening date hasn’t been announced yet, but the company says it’s coming soon — so Wilsonville meat lovers may want to keep an eye on this one.

🚗 Tualatin is looking at a huge fix for one of its biggest traffic headaches — but engineers say it may just move the headache down the road. The city is studying a plan to raise Tualatin-Sherwood Road over Boones Ferry Road and the railroad, a project estimated around $250 million. The catch? Even the most workable option could simply shift the bottleneck west to 90th Avenue. Most other concepts were ruled out because of cost, construction impacts or limited long-term benefit. The city is taking public input through a virtual open house until Sept. 28.

🌳 Tualatin’s downtown riverfront is getting a major makeover. The city is moving ahead with plans for a new six-acre Riverfront Park that will extend Tualatin Community Park from the Juanita Pohl Center to the Boones Ferry Road bridge, with ideas including ADA river access, a new community gathering space and a better pedestrian connection into downtown along the Tualatin River Greenway Trail. At the same time, Tualatin is also starting the next phase of its broader downtown revitalization work, which will help shape how the area looks and develops in the years ahead. Design work is getting underway now, while construction on the riverfront park is currently planned for 2029.

🥃 Cheers to 10 years, Stafford Beverage! The Wilsonville shop is celebrating a decade in business this Saturday with barrel picks, tastings, prizes and Kona Ice. Ten years is a big milestone for any local business, so congrats to the Stafford Beverage team on a decade of serving Wilsonville.

💧 Lake Oswego sewer bills are likely going up — the question is how fast. The city is preparing to replace the aging Tryon Creek wastewater treatment plant, which dates back to 1964, with a new facility designed to improve reliability, water quality and resilience to earthquakes and flooding. To help pay for it, the City Council is considering two rate options: a 28% increase in 2027, adding about $25–$30 per month for the average customer, or 8% annual increases for 10 years, starting at about $8 more per month. Council is expected to choose an approach Oct. 13, with new rates taking effect July 1, 2027.

🏆 Two Wilsonville inventions are in the running to be named the Coolest Thing Made in Oregon. Oregon Business & Industry has announced the 16 finalists in its annual statewide bracket, and Wilsonville landed two spots: Nuro’s Helmet Liner, designed to improve helmet safety, and Twist Bioscience’s synthetic DNA on a silicon wafer. Public voting is underway now, with the first round narrowing the field from 16 products to eight. Voting runs through noon Sept. 28, so if you’re feeling a little hometown pride, Wilsonville has not one — but two — things to cheer for.

🎈 - family-friendly event
💲 - ticket or purchase required
🎵 - includes live music
😋 - there will be food

🎈😋 Third Thursday in Downtown Lake Oswego
Downtown Lake Oswego | Today, 4–6 PM | Free
Downtown Lake Oswego is giving you a pretty good excuse to wander around after work tonight. Third Thursday brings together local shops, restaurants and galleries for an evening of specials, tastings, featured artists and other little extras throughout downtown. Participating businesses change each month, so this is less of a single event and more of a choose-your-own-adventure through Lake Oswego — grab a bite, browse a few shops and see what you stumble into.

😋🎵🎈 FOBtoberfest
Clackamas County Event Center, Canby | Friday, 3–10 PM & Saturday, Noon–10 PM | $5 adults, kids 12 & under free
Canby is going full Oktoberfest this weekend with two days of German food, imported German beer, live music and plenty of reasons to say “prost!” Adults 21+ can also grab a $20 package that includes a ceramic stein and two pour tickets. If bratwurst, beer and live music sound like your kind of weekend, this one pretty much writes itself.

😋🎵 3rd Annual Autumn Fresh Hop Fest
McMenamins Old Church & Pub, Wilsonville | Saturday, 9 AM–9 PM
Fresh hop season is here, and McMenamins is celebrating with a full Saturday of beer, food and music. The day includes taster trays featuring six fresh hop ales, autumn-inspired beers and two ciders, food specials, brewery tours from noon–4 PM, specialty tastings in the Undercroft Bar and live music from noon–9 PM. There’s even a hop-crown crafting station while supplies last — plus $2 off taster trays from 9 AM–noon if you’re an especially ambitious Saturday morning beer fan.

🎈😋 Lake Oswego Clean Energy & EV Fair
Lake Oswego United Methodist Church | Saturday, 10 AM–2 PM | Free
If you’re curious about electric cars, solar, heat pumps or just ways to make your home a little more efficient, this is a pretty easy place to ask questions without getting a sales pitch. The 9th annual fair includes EV test drives, more than 20 local EV owners, solar and battery experts, electric landscaping equipment, rebates and home-energy information. There will also be food from Spice of Africa, plus pancake and cider samples cooked on induction burners — and the first 60 test drivers get a free meal.

🎈😋 Tualatin Cup Regatta
Tualatin Lake at the Commons | Saturday, 1–4 PM | Free
This one is a little different — and honestly, kind of fun. The first-ever Tualatin Cup Regatta will bring radio-controlled model sailboat racing to the lake, with skilled skippers racing several different classes of boats before opening things up for guest racers. Kids and adults can also learn to operate the boats, practice knot tying and sailing strategy, and check out a special kids’ sailing area with handmade wooden sailboats. The first 20 kids who sign up even get to take theirs home.

😋🎈 INEOS Grenadier & Vanguard Anniversary Event
Vanguard Brewing, Wilsonville | Saturday, 1–5 PM | Free
If you like interesting vehicles, local beer and something good to eat, this is a pretty easy Saturday stop. Vanguard Brewing is celebrating with the folks from Ron Tonkin Gran Turismo, who’ll be bringing out two INEOS Grenadiers for test drives and a closer look. There will also be food, beer and a new release from Vanguard, making this the kind of afternoon where you can check out the trucks, grab a bite and stay for a pint.

😋 Trivia Brunch Buffet
Langer’s Entertainment Center, Sherwood | Sunday, 11 AM–2 PM | $25
Brunch and trivia feels like a pretty solid way to spend a Sunday morning. Langer’s is hosting a 21+ Trivia Brunch Buffet with a full brunch spread, mimosas available for purchase and $150 in prizes up for grabs. Teams can settle in, eat well and test just how much useless-but-suddenly-important information they’ve been carrying around all these years.

LIVE MUSIC LOWDOWN
🌳 - outdoor concert
💲 - ticket or purchase required

Thursday
🌳 Hawks View Winery, Sherwood | Mayra Sandoval | 4–7 PM

☀️ After a hot and sunny Thursday, things cool down nicely for the weekend. Friday tops out around 75, with mostly sunny skies, followed by 78 on Saturday and a sunny 82 on Sunday. Overnight lows will stay in the low-to-mid 50s, and there’s no rain in the forecast — pretty hard to complain about that for a September weekend.

Today 9/17
86 🌡 55 | 🌞

Friday 9/18
75 🌡 52 | 🌞

Saturday 9/19
78 🌡 53 | 🌤

Sunday 9/20
82 🌡 54 | 🌞

Monday 9/21
79 🌡 53 | 🌤

THANKS!

A final thought...

❝

The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.

Elisabeth Foley

Today I’m driving about an hour each way to have coffee with a high school friend I haven’t seen in nearly 30 years.

Thirty years.

That’s a lot of life in between.

Jobs change. Families grow. People move. We get busy. Sometimes friendships don’t end because anything went wrong — they just slowly get buried under everything else.

But maybe that doesn’t mean they’re gone.

There are people in our lives who knew us before the careers, the responsibilities, the losses and all the versions of ourselves we’ve become since. Sometimes all it takes is a message, a phone call or a cup of coffee to discover that the connection is still there.

So maybe this weekend is a good time to think of somebody you haven’t talked to in a while.

You don’t have to make up for all the missing years.

Just start with hello.

Have a great weekend!

👋 📺 A South Metro Guy Is Looking for Love on National TV

📺 A South Metro Guy Is Looking for Love on National TV

🥾 A New Trail Connects Lake Oswego to Portland

SPONSORED BY

It's Here: Pique's New Caffeine-Free Afternoon Energy

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