Leaving Portland: Applying the Test
In the 24 years I’ve lived in Portland, I have had 12 different addresses. So I know well the application of The Test. And as I prepare to leave for good (ish), I’m about to start applying it in a very real way.
I don’t mean a test of character, or planning, or searching for a place, or any mental acumen. I mean the test that determines whether I keep a thing or not.
I Love Rick Steves
There are very few people who always make me happy. Rick Steves is absolutely one of them. He’s also something a guru to me.
There’s just something impossibly endearing about a guy who is an absolute goofball and makes no attempt to either hide it or change. “In my early days of touring,” he has said, “I used to worry about being a cultural bumpkin — but now I embrace it. After all, I travel to learn.”
Travel Story: Breakfast in Baker
When I think back on my travel writer days, my breakfast in Baker, California always rises to the top.
It was just one of those pieces I felt good about at the time, like I had really gotten the essence of the experience and the place. And it was, for all its goofiness, a pleasant memory, road-tripping around the desert with my first serious girlfriend.
Portland Hikes: Mitchell Point is a Less-Crowded Alternative to Angels Rest
If you’re looking for hikes in the Columbia River Gorge that are packed with scenery but without the crowds, check out Mitchell Point. This is especially true if you want a view like Angels Rest — maybe better — but can’t even find parking there.
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Travel Story: Two Hours in the City
On February 2, 1998, I rode a bus into New York City, then left on a train. I was 31, rambling around the east coast visiting friends, spending money I had made the previous summer working in Alaska.
And I was writing.
Leaving Portland: Am I Excited?
Today I flipped the calendar to May – quite literally a normal event, except that for me, May 2021 will be the last month I live in Portland, Oregon.
It will also be the last month I technically live anywhere. The last month, at least for a year, that I will spend in my home, surrounded by my stuff, hanging out with my friends, going to see my team play, hiking trails that I know, and basically knowing what each day is going to bring.
30 days. Then I’m gone.
New Section of the Oregon Coast Trail: Manzanita to Neahkahnie Mountain
For years, people hiking the Oregon Coast Trail between Manzanita and Arch Cape via Neahkahnie Mountain and Oswald West State Park had to walk a couple miles on the shoulder of US Highway 101. No more, thanks to local nonprofit, citizen, government and volunteer efforts.
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Oregon Coast Hike Without a Car: Cannon Beach to Seaside
There are a few ways to go hiking without a car at the Oregon Coast, even if you’re starting in Portland. In this post I’m going to cover car-free hiking options around Cannon Beach, Oregon, including a section of the Oregon Coast Trail from Cannon Beach to Seaside.
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Hike the Columbia River Gorge Without a Car (Oregon Side)
You can’t do any real hiking without a car, right? Wrong. There are literally days worth of hikes a person without a car can do in the Columbia River Gorge. Here are a few I have come up with on the Oregon side.
Hiking in the Gorge without a car means simply being patient, flexible on timing, and getting to know the schedules and logistics of public bus systems — specifically the Columbia Gorge Express on the Oregon side.
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