calamarichris

Thanks very much for the tip, Shifty! Those look enticing indeed. We're leaving in just over a week.

dtrain

I got did a double-check on your dates. One possibility (if driving up?); hitting one of the 'car free' days at Crater Lake on your way up or back down:

Vehicle Free Days on East Rim Drive - Crater Lake National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

...and of course do other Bend stuff of another day or so. I'm trying to be there for the 27th.

calamarichris

Oh man! That is completely awesome, but we're leaving on Thurs night/early Friday morning; and then I have to be back home Sunday night on the 28th.
Either option would require a Cannonball Run for us.
Thanks though! Definitely worth noting for the next trip.

I'm nearly overwhelmed with all these great choices.

What do you guys think about riding the Lewis & Clark (Highway 14 on the WA side) from Hood River to The Dalles, and then coming back on the Oregon side of the Columbia River? That would mean we could be on the river side of the road both up and down?

dtrain

Just do the old highway from Hood River to Rowena as an out and back and grab dinner (or lunch) in HR. It's worth taking in a few other sights in the Gorge (Crown Point, some waterfalls)...but The Dalles isn't high on that list.

calamarichris

Thanks again very much for your help Oregonians!

Here's what I've got so far (click for Gmaps link.) Might not be able to hit everything, but I'm sure we'll see other neat stuff in between all the cool stuff you guys have recommended.

Peace & safe riding!
-Chris Adams in C'bad

dtrain

Looks like you fancy Kolsch. You're gonna have a great week.

calamarichris

You could say that. I lived in the far south of Holland for 3 years, about 80km away from Cologne when I was younger & dumber. We only get "Kolsch style" ales here, because actual Kolsch, like champagne has to be brewed within site of the Cologne Cathedral's spires. The Kolsch-styles down in San Diego are all over-hopped, over-carbonated, and over-refrigerated IMO.



Thank you! I'm really, really looking forward to this trip!

Shifty

If you are drinking Kolsch in Silverton, OR, ask the bartender or the guy on the next bar stool to tell you the story about the town's mayor. It's a great tale! A bike ride from Silverton to Silver Falls is a beautiful ride, you can make a 50 mile loop of it.

Have a great time

calamarichris

I remember hearing about that.

Shifty

You might put this place on your list too, combines several of your passions, Velo Cult Velo Cult Bike Shop, Portland, OR | Velocult

calamarichris

Just rub salt in my wounds, why dontcha? You b@$t@rd$ stole them from us down here in 2012.

(Stupid Portland.)


Added to the Map.

Edit: Now I'm tempted to bring my Badger bike on this trip instead.

calamarichris

Yet another thing I love about you Portlanders; the only time people down here use that word, they're either talking about sex or being snarky.

calamarichris

I forgot to ask before; do you guys know of any good swimming holes up in your neck of the woods? Mineral hot springs also welcome.
We found dozens of them the month before last on our crisscross tour of the Sierras. If you PM them to me, I can keep a secret.

Mokelumne River Diving Rock




Secret Spot up the hill from Ojai, CA.


Caples Lake

adventurepdx

Sounds like you might be in town for this...


Hopworks Urban Brewery ? Organic BeerHANDMADE BIKE & BEER FESTIVAL - Hopworks Urban Brewery - Organic Beer

calamarichris

Ah nuts. We have to be back home on the 28th, so we'll be well on our way home by then. Right now thinking we'll be spending the 27th in Paso Robles touring the wineries. Just woke up in Eugene, and we're going for a wandering ride up to and along the river.
Had a completely AWESOME ride yesterday morning from Redding's Sundial Bridge up along the Sacramento River on a dedicated (FUN) bike path. Plenty of pics to show later. Neat, neat ride.
And plenty of great breweries already. Looking forward to spending tonight in Portland! Going riding now.

adventurepdx

Oh well. I'd say get some good rides in early this week, the rain is scheduled to appear Tuesday night and stick around until the weekend at least.

knobster

Punchbowl Falls is pretty awesome.


Punch Bowl Falls - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's about a mile hike down the Eagle Creek trail.

Andy_K 

Thank you! I am so done with IPA's. It seems like over half the beers on the local market are IPA.

Check out The Commons Brewery. They've got some really nice malty beers.

calamarichris

We've had great rides in Redding (completely awesome bike trail!), Eugene, and Bend. We're in Salem right now after a night of brewpub hopping, and playing video games at this neat arcade bar with the Han Solo frozen in carbonite as the door of their beer cooler. Neat, neat town. We're headed up to Portland after we check out. Maybe rent my Sweetie a beach cruiser with fenders, so we can fart around town in the rain.
Haven't had much luck finding the Kolschs; Ninkasi didn't have it on tap, but the pretty and sharp waitress gave us a couple of bottles to go. The other places have either been out, or closed (stupid Worthy Brewing in Bend just up and decided to play hooky yesterday.) Met a lot of awesome people, some great beers, and seen so much wild stuff on this trip, and we're not even in Portland yet.

Thanks again so much for all the awesome tips and guidance. Many pics and report to follow when we get home.

Most memorable so far: Ninkasi, Salem Ale Works, and Agrarian Ales (the food was good, the beers were solid, but what made that one for me was the fire-roasted chiles), though being on a farm, the place was lousy with flies.

calamarichris

Thank you! We'll scope it out and hopefully we'll get a dry day this week to go swimmin'.

calamarichris

Awesome, thanks! Jake, the skinny brewer at Salem Ale Works last night wouldn't shut up about the Commons. His beers were very, very good too, so he clearly knows how to handle a rouser. Pretty cool place--these two guys are ex-firefighters who used to jump out of helicopters to fight fires, so it was only natural to go with "SAW" as the name of their brewery. Some places are very friendly, and some places have solid beer--this one was both.

SAW is just a little hole-in-the-wall, but their beers were solid. Not overhopped, clean, and not resting too hard on novelty like some are (my Sweetheart is eager to try this S'mores Porter we've heard about.) Although we did try their honey-basil ale (Hootenany) and it was delicious too. The basil didn't taste that strong while I was drinking it, but my burps the rest of the afternoon tasted like fresh caprese.
100% chance of rain in Portland tonight. Glad we could solve your drought. Hopefully we'll take some of this rain back down to SoCal with us too.

Andy_K 

Grab an umbrella and head out to PIR to watch some cyclocross. If you've already got plans for tonight, you could also catch some races at Alpenrose Dairy tomorrow (though it's a dry venue, in the non-weather sense). Better you, borrow a bike and race!

adventurepdx

OP, since you have a car, going out to the Columbia Gorge to see waterfalls is still a good option, even in the rain. And rain it's going to do...

dtrain

Re: Salem Ale Works. Thanks for the heads-up. I'll have to swing by there with a growler sometime when I'm down that direction.

An article posted last night might be just in time for you (Portland's 10 best beer bars):
https://www.oregonlive.com/dining/ind...ars_bar_t.html

calamarichris

Sorry this is so late in coming, but I've been playing catch-up at work since returning from the trip.

THANK YOU kind PNWers for your kind suggestions and guidance! We had a most excellent time. We hit at least 2 dozen breweries and each one was a special experience. We also rode every day, including two days in Portland with a light rain falling. We had such wonderful scenery, weather, food, and company.

Sky at Velocult gave us a tour of his awesome shop and asked us when we were moving up there. And everyone was so kind and warm.

Here are some pics from the trip:


Me, getting IPA-face at Ninkasi in Eugene. (They were so cool there! And the surrounding neighborhood was funky & cool.)

They didn't have their Kolsch on tap, but they sold me a few bottles, (and did a sticker-swap with me.)


Terah really loved Agrarian's delicious mead. (If I had a tongue that long, I'd never leave home.)


The bikepath running along the Sacramento River from the Sundial Bridge in Redding, CA was a dream-come-true!


And Redding was a pretty cool biking town too.


Salem Ale Works was definitely one of the standouts of the trip. They were quite good.


Three Creek Brewery in Sisters was decent, and there was an awesome old codgery type cowboy guy wearing a bowler hat.