The great outdoors!

How could I have not known about Elliot Glacier Pub? I've driven by and through Parkdale, a pretty darn cute little town many times on my way to hike or explore in the Mt. Hood/Hood River Valley area. But somehow this incredible slice of beervana about 15 or so miles south of Hood River totally escaped me. I read a mention of it recently somewhere, and since w and I were heading up towards Tamawanas Falls for a little leg stretching activity, this seemed the perfect reward. Okay, maybe we jumped the gun on the reward part because we actually hit the pub before our hike. Perfect! The pub is housed in an old building on the main street that runs through Parkdale. You walk into a narrow dining room with a mezzanine above it, order food on the right (in our case a kick ass plate of cheesy good chicken verde nachos), and your beer at the bar on the left. They not only brew all their own...really delicious...beers on premise, but they also make all the food from scratch. But the big payoff comes when you take your refreshing adult malted beverages and walk out the back door to their beer garden where you come face to face with the north face of Mt. Hood looming above you, seemingly within touching distance. This has got to be the best pub view in the state. Awesome!


Here I am in soaking in all sorts of ambiance. Ah, life is good, no?

We got our refreshment on, then hit the road for the hike, which if you're looking for a fairly easy, yet highly rewarding, walk through the woods, this little 4 mile jaunt is the deal. The trail climbs gently along the east fork of the Hood River to beautiful Tamawanas Falls (below). And if you're feeling the need for your own reward after all this "work", then you know where to go! Absolutely put this on your list of Portland day trip activities before the rainy weather sets back in. It is totally worth it!

A sunny weekend? Hit the trail!

Something strange happened here in Portland last weekend. Something that hasn't happened seemingly for months. This bright light suddenly appeared, I think they call it the sun? Wanting to take advantage of this strange natural phenomena, w and I immediately made plans for an early season hike. w, who is filled with more local outdoors knowledge in her 10 years here than I have been able to gather in my life being a native Oregonian, suggested a hike to Elowah Falls (that's your correspondent at the bottom of the falls in the pic upper left). I'd been on what I thought was pretty much every waterfall hike in the gorge, but somehow had missed this one. If you have somehow not put this in your hiking repertoire, you need to do it...soon! Two breathtaking falls in a short, easy 3-mile roundtrip. From the trailhead (a mere 35-40 minutes from downtown PDX) you hike .3 miles to a junction, take the left to Elowah Falls, a stunning 289' high drop down a sheer cliff where you can get right next to it at its base; or go right and head up the trail to an absolutely beautiful split falls called McCord Creek Falls (right). The best part is you can make the whole roundtrip hike in a little over an hour. The next 3 months or so will be prime time to enjoy them with the heavy snow melt that is coming.

Roughing it!

There's nothing like a getaway to the great outdoors to instill that sense of awe at the wonders of nature. Even if that getaway includes sleeping in the comfort of my beloved '71 Silver Streak "Sabre" trailer at a crowded Detroit Lake State Park last Sat-Tues. We did have all the requisite elements in place: great hikes, campfires, water view, and of course loads of refreshing adult beverages and some killer camp grub.

Lakeside living in the Streak!










Our first dinner at DLSP was a much anticipated, perfectly red/pink piece of wild chinook salmon w bought and I was dying to cook over an open fire. Nothing better. Simply drizzled with olive oil, a sprinkling of salt and pepper, a side of salad and rice, washed down with a perfect bottle of 2002 Westrey Wine Co. "Willamette Valley" Pinot Noir. I did say roughing it, right?

Salmon-ey goodness, hot off the fire!











Day two brought on some outdoor activity involving a 3-mile hike up to Dome Rock for some awesome views of the surrounding central Cascades.

w soaking in the view at the top of Dome Rock while Chops rests for the trek back down.

That of course was a prelude to an oh-so-refreshing Negroni back at camp, which was itself a prelude to a fantastic dinner to follow. While we were prepping our palates with some cheese and a couple of glasses of Provençal rosé, I prepped a couple of grass finished New York strips we'd picked up from a vendor at our local farmer's market. w meanwhile got busy with what I thought was the highlight of our meal, and is my new camp fave food, a foil pack filled with chopped potatoes, garlic, carrots, a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme, a quick drizz of olive oil, s&p, thrown into the coals of the campfire to steam together for about 25 minutes. Wow! I know it's kind of standard camp fare that you cab adapt almost any root veggie to, but it was new to me and it's got me thinking of all kinds of possibilities for a simple steamed dinner or side. The steaks were perfect, and washed down with my new favorite wine in the world, a 2000 Mastroberardino "Radici-Taurasi", which is a 100% aglianico from Italy's Campania region. This is some seriously stunning juice. I would love to throw this bad boy into a tasting of top flight Bordeaux and watch people be amazed.

Dinner is served!















I've heard that great effort gives great reward. Well, you can bet after day three's 11-fucking-mile hike, I was ready to be rewarded back at camp. Although I have to say that at the top of this in-and-out hike was the almost out-of-this-world scenic beauty that is Jefferson Park. The hike starts at about 4000' feet and climbs to almost 6000' elevation in about 5.2 miles. Not a difficult hike, but long and dusty. Once at the top though, with 10,500 foot Mount Jefferson looming right above you, beautiful flower filled meadows stretching for acres all around, and hidden lakes peeking though the trees, it is absolutely breathtaking.










Meadows and lakes at Jefferson Park....crazy beautiful!

Of course, then there's the walk back down, which we were so done with after about two miles. Unfortunately, we still had three more to go. We kept the complaining to a minimum...sort of...and I kept the motivating vision of ice cold beers back at the trailer foremost in my head. Plus, I had Marcella's perfect spaghetti alla carbonara all prepped and ready for cooking. After getting my equilibrium back with a couple of coldies, we wolfed down some quick, grilled roasted peppers, devoured the carbonara, and absolutely tumbled into bed.












Peppers coming out and carbonara coming up!

A great trip was had by all, Chopper admirably, if futilely, let the squirrels in camp know he was on patrol, and the trailer was, as always, the perfect cozy cabin!