Heading your way with two buddies Wed-Sun to go to the Civil War game and travel Oregon. I'd love any tips, things to do, etc.

I'm up here. Which way are you coming in? There's a wide variety of things to do in this state. It depends on what your interests are.

Wed - Flying in to Portland tomorrow night. Staying there that evening.
Thur - Heading down I-5 to the game at some point. Staying near Halsey that evening (no hotels otherwise because of game).
Fri - Heading to Corvallis and then down SH20 to Newport. Rogue Brewery of course. Then up the 101 to Astoria stopping along the way at Pelican Brewery, Cannon Beach, etc. Ambitious, we know, so we may not make it the entire way up there.
Sat - We were going to head to Mt. Hood and then back to Portland for the evening. Winter Ale festival in Portland is a must-do.

Thoughts? Any driving tips for those areas? Gameday advice? We appreciate it.

Feel free to answer here or shoot me an e-mail. It's on my profile.


[This message has been edited by p-wonk01 (edited 12/1/2009 10:15a).]

Stop at Claudfelter's in Corvallis, order the Monroe Street Monster (aka Death Burger).

I'd try and hit the Pearl District on Wednesday, go to Deschutes brewery or Henry's bar (105 beers on tap).

As much as I like Rogue beers, their brewery/brewpub is a bit underwhelming to me. Not sure if they run early tours on Fridays, but if they do be sure to take one (each time I've been there it has been too late in the day to do so). I'd skip food at Rogue and grab a cannonball bowl of chowder at Mo's instead. Really good food at Pelican brewery too.

I agree with Orag on Wednesday night - try to hit up one of those places.

With how short you are on time, I'd maybe recommend skipping Astoria this trip. You won't have much time to spend there and it is way the hell out of the way. Astoria is nice to spend a relaxing weekend with a SO, not as much to drive through. Your best views of the Oregon coast will come between Newport and Cannon Beach anyway. I'd recommend cutting over to Portland from Seaside Friday night. Camp 18 is a great spot to eat about 30 minutes east of Seaside on the way to Portland.

Weather right now looks clear in the mountains for Saturday, so roads shouldn't be much of a problem. Check that morning before you go anyway to be safe. Timberline Lodge is the must-see on the mountain. Ice Axe grill in Government Camp brews "Mt Hood" brand beers and has decent food.

Thanks, both of you for the tips. I'll write them down. We are looking forward to the trip! Believe it or not, the weather in Dallas was a bit colder than Portland this morning.

It's funny you say go to the Deschutes pub...that was #1 on my list to head to. We don't get much sent here from them, but I love the Porter. I hear they may have the anniversary one on tap..and maybe the Abyss! We plan to hit up the Winter Ale festival as well.

Out of curiosity also, can you give me the pronunciation for Deschutes?

Is it de*shoots.....de*shoot*es..or something different? No one around here seems to know.

De shoots. They have a winter beer out that really good. It's called Jubelale. Don't miss that one. Like those guys say, you'll have lots of driving and little walk around time if you try the Newport to Astoria and Portland route.

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Believe it or not, the weather in Dallas was a bit colder than Portland this morning.

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Not as unusual as one might think. We are moderated by the big pond of water to our west and the cascades to our east block a lot of the really cold continental air.

Our winters are more of a consistently chilly and damp than frigid and snowy. Go east of the Cascades and it is a different story.

Have a fun trip!

Over here on the east side, we're down around 10 degrees at nights. We've been down below zero a couple times already.

The Horse Brass in SE Portland has great beers on Tap. If you like the Crooked Path, you'd probably enjoy this place.

Bailey's taproom on Broadway (about a block south of Burnside) has a revolving tap selection that usually includes about 20-30 west coast beers.

If you like Red beers, Double Mountain brewery in Hood river makes the best. they call it an IRA (India Red Ale). It's also on tap in Portland at the Crow Bar, The Life of Riley (in the Pearl) and at my all time favorite restautant, Merriwhether's (sp).

Hope you're enjoying your stay. We're actually getting some decent weather. IMO, when the weather's right, there's no prettier place on earth.

If ever back in the area Bend is great. My family and I have called it home for about a year and there are six Ags that I know of that live here.

I'm over in Burns and am planning to be in Bend on Saturday for Christmas shopping. Great town but overcrowded for me.

How long have you been in Burns?

[This message has been edited by athensag94 (edited 12/7/2009 5:42p).]

4.5 years now. You?

Well I'm back from the trip and had an awesome time! I finally have my head above water at work and can post anything. Here is what we did...(no complete sentences or grammar so just read my steam of thought here)

Wednesday - 2nd leg of flight was delayed in Denver for 2 hours so we didn't get in to Portland until 11 (NOTE biggest disappointment of trip was that all the downtown brewpubs we wanted to go to close at 11...aka Deschutes, etc.) Crashed in hotel downtown.

Thursday - Got up in the morning..headed to the Duck store downtown to buy some Oregon gear...went to Winter Ale Festival at Pioneer Square and enjoyed every minute of it. Left there around 2 and headed down to our hotel at Halsey and then to Eugene. Took in the game...very cold but a cool experience and ended up being a great game...rushed the field with the students afterwards (I admit I was going a bit more for OSU but either way was fine). Got back to the room after midnight and crashed.

Friday - Headed to Corvallis and looked around the campus a bit before heading down 20 to Newport. Arrived around lunch and took your advice for Mo's..we each had the Cannonball bowl of Slumgullion (chowder + shrimp)and it was awesome (view and all)! We happened upon the Marionberry cobbler as well and all loved the berry. I bought some to take home later in the trip. There were a ton of California Sea Lions out there so we went to check them out in the port a bit before heading over the bridge to Rogue. Had our samples and brew at Rogue and then went to the point of the Yaquina Bay where it enters the Pacific to see the beach. It was our first time to see the Pacific. ((we underestimated the amount of light this time of year and so we made a decision at that point to make our coast trip a two-day event)). Drove through town and then to see the Yaqina Head lighthouse. The view from the cliffs there over the ocean I can not even describe, it was certainly unforgettable! We then drove up the 101 trying to make sunset in Pacific City. There were come clouds, but we made it just in time for the end of light standing on the beach behind the Pelican Brewery. The PB had a ton of high quality brews in my opinion and after a few samplers we decided we would stay the evening around there...ended up staying at the Pacific City Inn. I could go into a novel about that evening, but basically we met the coolest inn keepers (lack of a better term), saw the small town lighting of the tree at the one stop light in town, went to the inn's bar and talked with some crab fishermen about to head out...spoke with an Irish guy who is coming back to add to his novel he wrote in the 60's on Bigfoot (not sh#$) and then concluded the evening speaking with one of the owners for an hour outside about the US vs Britain and economic policies/differences and the future (He was a nationalized citizen and quite entertaining to talk to...and we had beer in us). If you haven't been to Pacific City I would highly recommend it..not on the 101 and not as much a tourist destination as Cannon Beach..very nice people...all agreed one of the trip highlights. Hit the sack in the 3 bed place we got at the same price after they found we had three in our group.

Saturday - Got up in the morning to more frost and not a car on the small town road. Went over to the Pelican Pub to take more pictures (more light) and watched surfers stretching and heading out in 30-degree weather to surf..hard up! Headed up some small roads and stopped at Cape Lookout to hike up one of the trails...unfortunately we didn't have time to make the 2.4 hike to the point but I will someday because I can imagine the sight...got back on the 101 at Tillamook and you guessed it, stopped at the cheese factory everyone was talking about...took the guided tour, ate too many samples and bought some cheese for the flight home (having some tonight with the gf's parents)...then up the 101 to Cannon Beach where we stopped to see the Haystack Rock and walk the beach (the one at Pacific City behind the brewery is actually larger and called Haystack as well I heard)...headed up the 101 to Astoria (guys wanted to see all things Goonies)..took in the area and stopped at the Fort George Brewery there which I highly recommend as well (they had a beer at the Ale festival and a lot of the fishermen told us to head there)..headed up on the Column in Astoria and walked up the 100-something steps to the lookout point and watched a beautiful sun set on a cloudless day...headed across the bridge into Washington to say we did and then drove through the bottom of Washington towards I-5...while driving down the dark highway we came across a pub (literally by itself in the middle of nowhere...Grays River)..it was called Duffy's Irish Pub and was a diamond in-the-ruff type of place..completely eclectic type of pub owned by real Irish..one of those places where not a single chair matched and there was an ancient wood burning stove to heat the place..very very cool...had a beer and hung out with the local drinker/logger talking of his day and what he does and fishes for...then to I-5 and back down to Portland. Made it into Portland around 8:45 and trucked it downtown to the Winter Ale Festival for a few more drinks before the end of the evening. Met a few local girls that took it upon themselves to show us some of the area and took us to Henry's for dinner/drinking. At some point late in the evening/morning made it back to hotel.

Sunday - to airport and back to TX.

I knew you'd love the coast. It gets addictive after you've been there a couple times. Astoria is worth a visit by itself. We're heading up there in next year sometime to clam dig and fish.

I have been in Bend for 1.5. We love it. However today is cold!

Yeah we plan to head up there in the early summer to raft if we can

Good trip report, sounds like you had a good time!

Can't say I approve of this though:

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headed to the Duck store downtown to buy some Oregon gear

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Ledbetter - what do you do over in Burns?

corndog..you will be happy to know I went so the other two guys could get their stufff. I did not purchase anything...well I did get a 'civil war' t-shirt that I plan to hang someday

My wife has the money job. I got tired of working for the fed gov't. All that's left here is ranch work or construction, which I'm tired of. So, I took a year and built a mobile kitchen from an old travel trailer and this past summer I sold Texas style bbq here in town and did some catering. Now that it's 10 below at night, I sell stuff on ebay and am successful at that. Both jobs pay better than labor type jobs. Plus, I get to eat great bbq every week!

I had a competition pit when we lived in Tyler. I could cook for ~ 150. Sold it before we moved up here. We ought to get together some time. My email is deholdredge@gmail.com

By the way the BBQ in central oregon is horible. I can not eat it. What type of wood do you smoke with?

It surprised me how many mobile carts there were in downtown Portland...looked like the circus was in town. Nice mix of smells though...especially after several ales

The food cart quality and selection in Portland may be the finest in the country.

I use oak and apple primarily. I have a nice pile of cherry that I use on pork when the weather in steady. It doesn't burn very even. I also have a little mesquite that I brought up from Texas. I save that for poultry and grilling steaks. People are beginning to know who I am and remember me so the catering jobs are beginning to show up. Right now I'm working on making a larger smoker so I don't have to cook all the time.

p-wonk -- Where do you plan on rafting? My fiance is a rafting guide, so I've been on quite a few rivers in Oregon ... never had a bad time on the river!

OregonAg - You know the sky is really the limit when it comes to which river. I haven't had the time to look into what is available yet. I am thinking we would have 4-6 people in our party and probably want moderate to above moderate style. It all depends on getting everyone's schedule to line up.
I figured Deschutes....?

Hey you Oregon Ags, I need some advice while you are at it. We will be spending next summer in the Oregon Dunes NRA as campground hosts at the Horsfall Campground. I have done the Griswold trip through Oregon 3 or 4 times in 50 years, but never spent more than one nite there.

We will be there from May 1 - Sept 30. I have looked on-line for things to do along the south coast, but any unique things I should take in? How about insects....flies, skeeters....should I take a screened shelter?

If any of you are near by, drop by and visit. You can take my ATV out for a spin.

"ROGER - OUT"

Wish I could help. I have been a resident of Oregon for only a year and while I have seen much of the state, I am not familiar with that area. It is on my list. May see you next year

Thanks anyway Athens. I have rode my ATV in CO, MT, UT, WY and ID, but always in the mountains. I look forward to riding the dunes and beach. If you are in the area, drop by and say hi, even if you don't want to ride.

Guess I will try the travel board.

Are those the dunes between Coos Bay and Newport? If so, we spent the night there once. It's definitely an atv park. We've been up here for 4 years and have been up and down the coast more than once.

According to info provided me, they stretch 40 miles along the coast, from Coos Bay northward. I have traveled 101 several times over the past 50 year, but never noticed the dunes. Since I have an ATV, I am excited about this. I just want to go prepared and the Forest Service is pretty busy this time of the year lining up volunteers.