Trip Planners

Northwest Destination: Touring the Tri-Cities

Learn your atomic history and so much more in Eastern Washington’s biggest surprise written by Kevin Max This trip marked the first time I had spent meaningful time in Tri-Cities (Kennewick, Pasco and Richland). I came for the history and the story of the Hanford Site B Reactor and found an engaging culture all around Hanford. If you’re as fascinated with the history of WWII as I am, the Manhattan Project National Historic Park at Hanford nuclear site is on your agenda. Schedule your tour in advance, as the free four-hour experience begins with a short film at the visitor center on the edge of the park before boarding a bus to the site 40 stark miles northwest. The experience still feels a little cloak and dagger more than seventy years after its mission began. One of three pieces of the once-secret Manhattan Project—the other sites are Oak Ridge, Tennessee…

Explore Oregon, Trip Planners

Trip Planner: The Northern Oregon Coast

The northern coast of Oregon is more than just Haystack Rock written by Sheila Miller Picking your favorite part of the Oregon coastline is like picking your favorite flavor of ice cream. It’s all pretty great, and some of it depends on what you grew up with. This spring, I decided it was time to mix it up a bit. As a native Portlander, I spent my youth near the northern border of the state. But there are wonders as you leave your comfort zone. I set out to find them on the Northern Oregon Coast. From Gearhart to Garibaldi, we spent some time exploring the northern Oregon coastline. It’s a lovely drive filled with hidden gems. Along the northern coast, Highway 101 winds through lush, green state parks and then cuts inland to Nehalem Bay, passing boat marinas and small antiques shops and running parallel to a railroad track…

Freeland Whiskey
Things to do in Oregon

Spring Whiskey Events Around Oregon

MARCH 25 Distillery Startup Workshop Mon, Mar 25 – Fri, Mar 29 Corvallis Corvallis, OR MARCH 28 The Eastburn’s Whiskey Cocktail Dinner | 4 Courses Thu, 6:00 – 8:30 PM EastBurn Public House, 1800 E Burnside St Portland, OR MARCH 30 Poor Man’s Whiskey (Band) Sat, 8 – 10 PM The Belfry, 302 E Main Ave Sisters, OR APRIL 7 Whiskey distilling and blending workshop with master distiller Molly Troupe Sunday Freeland Spirits, 2671 NW Vaughn St Portland, OR APRIL 13 Wine, Whiskey and Women: The EXPO!  Sat, 4:00 – 8:30 PM Willamette Heritage Center, 1313 Mill St SE Salem, OR APRIL 28 Hands-On Whiskey Making Class Sun, 10 AM – 3 PM New Deal Distillery and Tasting Room, 900 SE Salmon St Portland, OR AUGUST 25 Hands-On Whiskey Making Class Sun, 8 AM – 5 PM New Deal Distillery and Tasting Room, 900 SE Salmon St Portland, OR

Freeland Spirits
Food+Drink

Women and Whiskey at Freeland Spirits

Freeland Spirits sets out to do distilling differently written by Sheila Miller Freeland Spirits started with a Texas grandma, a whiskey night and a dream. That dream is now a reality, thanks to the hard work of founder Jill Kuehler, distiller Molly Troupe and farmer Cory Carman, who have combined to create a woman-owned and operated distillery that cheers “equal opportunity drinking.” Kuehler has a nonprofit background focused in food and agriculture. Up until a couple years ago, she was running Zenger Farm in Southeast Portland, a spot that educates thousands of kids each year about how food is grown. But she’d always had a soft spot for spirits, and was interested in their “terroir”—how grain from different places could influence flavor. When she became friends with Cory Carman, one of the sisters who owns Carman Ranch in Eastern Oregon, it all started to click into place. “Anytime she comes…

gravel riding
Things to do in Oregon

Gravel Riding Calendar 2019

WASHINGTON Cascadia Super Gravel (Olympia) — March 30 www.racecascadia.com Vicious Cycle’s Gran Fondo Series wwwrideciciouscycle.com Ephrata — March 17 Goldendale — April 14 Beezley Burn — April 27 Leavenworth — May 19 Ellensburg — June 16 Winthrop — Sept. 21 OREGON Oregon Gorge Gravel Grinder www.oregongravelgrinder.com Gorge Gravel Grinder (The Dalles) — April 7 Cascade Gravel Grinder (Bend) — April 26-28 Oregon Coast Gravel Epic (Waldport) — May 4 Sasquatch Duro (Oakridge) — May 18 Oregon Gran Fondo (Cottage Grove) — June 1 Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder (Sisters) — June 19-23 Oregon Triple Crown — May 4, May 18, June 1 www.oregontriplecrown.com Ochoco Roubaix — Aug. 24 www.ochocogravelroubaix.com IDAHO Rebecca’s Private Idaho—Queen’s Stage Race: A multiday festival that finishes with a race on Sunday. The main event (The Big Potato) covers a little more than 90 miles. www.rebeccasprivateidaho.com Camps: Rebecca Rusch’s Academy offers three gravel-riding camps this summer. www.rebeccarusch.com Wildhorse…

gravel riding
Recreation

Gravel Ride the PNW

Get off the pavement and into backcountry on gravel roads across the Pacific Northwest by Kevin Max I climbed the last hundred feet out of my saddle, my bike tires spitting up a gravel road with Ponderosa pines towering overhead. I had gotten used to the feeling of pleasure and pain commingled in my body. Wide vistas of Idaho’s Pioneer Mountains narrowed to the width of the gravel road as I pushed up the last big climb of Rebecca’s Private Idaho, the brainchild of cycling legend and Ketchum, Idaho, resident Rebecca Rusch. Nothing seemed harder. Nothing seemed more gratifying than this, my introduction to gravel riding.    Gravel, in its forms of speech, has described scratchy voices and roads to dead-end residences. Now, gravel is an honorific describing a burgeoning trend in cycling and some of the best ways to experience the Pacific Northwest through either competitive races, group rides…

Spokane
Live Oregon, Trip Planners

Northwest Destination: Spokane Rising

Spokane is the right jumping-off point for outdoor adventure and sophisticated city life written by Cara Strickland If you’re looking for an outdoor enthusiast’s paradise, you’ll find it in Spokane. Five ski resorts, seventy-six lakes and five national parks are within driving distance, a river runs through the city, and the Centennial Trail offers 37 miles for hiking and biking with a mountain backdrop. If you’re feeling a little less extreme, you can stroll through one of Spokane’s many parks, including the crown jewel, Manito Park, which boasts 90 acres of gardens, a conservatory and a duck pond, plus two playgrounds for your little ones. Bring a picnic and enjoy the rose garden or get some zen in the Japanese garden. Just a couple blocks away, you’ll find Rockwood Bakery, a staple of Spokane’s historic South Hill neighborhood, known for its freshly made, decadent baked goods and quiche. Just down…

Trip Planners

Trip Planner: Redmond

Central Oregon’s oft-overlooked city is getting cool before our eyes written by Sheila Miller Not so long ago, downtown Redmond was crowded—but not in a good way. Thousands of vehicles traveling north and south on U.S. Highway 97 drove right through the middle of downtown on Fifth and Sixth streets. Semi trucks coughed plumes of diesel and horns honked all day—downtown Redmond a decade ago was not a place you lingered. But ten years can mean a lot of change, and Redmond has made great strides. Today, this is a city center that has been reborn. There are vestiges of the old city—a Sears Hometown store still holds a prominent place in the downtown core and the Historic New Redmond Hotel is undergoing what may seem like never-ending renovations. But around the corner is a city-operated ice rink, Centennial Park with its green space at the center of downtown, and…

Live Oregon, Mind + Body

Professional Freeride Biker Carson Storch bombs down mountains for a living

Carson Storch talks biking and brain trauma written by Mackenzie Wilson Two broken collarbones, one snapped wrist, a couple cracked ribs, bruised organs and one major concussion later, Carson Storch considers himself “lucky.” The professional freeride mountain biker has been going big, crashing hard and doing it all over again for nearly half his life. “Freeriding is pretty similar to any other high-impact sport, like football for instance, but the difference with us is we’re going fast and we’re hitting dirt,” Storch said. Freeriding by nature is unpredictable. Riders choose a route or a “line” down a steep mountain and hope to make it to the bottom unscathed. At 25, Storch is still in his prime, but he’s taking preventive measures to stay at his best both physically and mentally. “I think brain health is kind of a focus of our sport now—it’s pretty serious at competitions nowadays,” he said….

A Wine Country Modern Farmhouse
Home+Garden, Live Oregon

A Wine Country Modern Farmhouse

A design duo crafts a distinct farmhouse for wine lovers in the Willamette Valley written by Melissa Dalton DEEP IN THE DUNDEE HILLS, up a curving gravel drive past a grove of moss-covered oaks, sits a farmhouse with a tomato red door. The home’s silvered board-and-batten siding and standing seam metal roof evoke farmsteads of old, but that’s about where the resemblance ends. This one has a decidedly more contemporary shape. “We wanted to take the idea of the modern farmhouse and flip it on its head,” Matthew Daby said. The residential designer teamed up with interior designer Angela Mechaley, both of m.o.daby design, to tweak tradition in unexpected ways. Picture a classic American farmhouse, and the image that comes to mind most likely includes a pitched roof, front porch, and double-hung windows. Pretty? Yes. Practical? Not for this particular plot, which has a dramatic grade and straddles a driveway…