Other Breweries of Note

There are a ton of breweries in Oregon. I didn't realize this until recently, but since I got here, aside from the occasional Sierra Nevada or Alaskan, all of the beer I purchased was brewed in Oregon. This is particularly significant because I rarely revisited a particular beer.

Here are a few of the other Oregon breweries that I am fond of but I either already spoke about or I didn't think merited a full post:


McMenamin's: I only had McMenamin's beer a couple of times. McMenamin's is a chain of pubs, hotels, venues, and movie theaters started by a couple of brothers. They brew all of their own beer and also produce a variety of wines and liquors. When we first arrived in Portland, Becca and I went to a McMenamin's brewpub a couple of times, and all of the beer I tried was good. Unfortunately, they don't distribute outside of their pubs, so you can't pick it up at the grocery store.


Double Mountain: Double Mountain I have talked about as well. But I wanted to re-emphasize how much I like this brewery. They make some of the best beers I've ever had (not to mention a pretty mean pizza). If you ever find yourself traveling the Columbia River Gorge, be sure to stop in Hood River and grab a pint or a growler-full of some Double Mountain brew. My two favorite beers I've had in Oregon both came from Double Mountain; they are the Kriek and the IRA.


Bridgeport: Bridgeport is not my favorite of the Oregon breweries. I was not blown away by the first four beers of theirs I tried. These were their IPA, a mocha porter, the Blue Heron Pale Ale, and a Triple-Hopped Double Red Ale called Kingpin. They were alright, but not great. Their Hop Czar IPA was a step better. Their summer seasonal, though, was fantastic. It's called Summer Squeeze and is infused with lemongrass and yuzu, which is apparently an asian citrus fruit. It is light, crisp, and citrusy, a really splendid summer beer.


Ninkasi: Ninkasi is a brewery located in Eugene. The name is derived from the ancient Sumerian goddess of fermentation. They produce good, high-quality beers with such interesting names as Tricerahops Double IPA.


Rogue: I spoke a bit about Rogue when Becca visited, because we ate dinner at their brewpub in Portland. Rogue is a brewery that a lot of you are probably familiar with. They produce a wide variety of great beers, which are sold all over the country. Their Dead Guy Ale is the one you are most likely to have encountered. They also have a distillery, where they make a few whiskeys and gins. I bought a bottle of their Dead Guy whiskey at one point. It is made with the exact same grain bill as the Dead Guy Ale, and is quite good. I'd like to try their Gin as well.

Rafting and Camping

For our last weekend in town, all of the interns and one of our bosses, Mike, decided to go whitewater rafting and camping. We rafted on the White Salmon river, which feeds into the northern side of the Columbia River near Hood River. For camping, we headed into the Mt. Hood National Forest to Wahtum Lake, a small alpine lake off the Pacific Crest Trail.



Because my camera is not waterproof, I do not have any photos of the rafting. Natalie did have a waterproof camera, so some photos will likely surface on facebook eventually. The trip was great. The water level is high, so the river was moving fast and the waves were big. Our guide was a former SCA Intern and self-proclaimed bird nerd, so he shared a lot of interesting information about the geology, flora, and fauna of the river canyon during the breaks between rapids. It was good fun, and a chance to see the area from a different angle.


Wahtum lake was gorgeous. The water was crystal clear. In the morning, before there was a great deal of glare off the lake, you could see the lake bottom thirty yards away. I don't have a license, so I didn't participate, but a few of the girls were having great luck fishing in the lake as well.

It was a fairly typical camping trip. We built a nice fire, roasted sausages, and drank whiskey. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the temperature was perfect, so I just laid my sleeping bag by the fire and fell asleep under the stars.

Himalayan Blackberry

Himalayan Blackberry is an invasive plant here. It's actually invasive all over the western world including the majority of the United States. But as far as invasive species go, this one is probably on the lower end of concern. There are a few bushes around the dam, but they aren't choking out other life to the degree some invasive species do, and this time of year they are all bearing large, delicious fruit.


Not a bad snack for a slow July afternoon.

The Next Job

As you know, this internship is over at the end of July. Yesterday, however, I was offered another one. This new internship starts August 15th. I had been in contact with this fellow for two months, and he finally called and hired me without even really conducting an interview. I suppose I'd expressed my interest well enough already.

Anyways, starting the third week in August, I will be working at the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. The position is Restoration and Maintenance Intern. My actual duties will be primarily controlling invasive plants through chemical and mechanical methods. There is also some GIS work, and I will be able to get certified for wildland firefighting. And it runs until mid-January.

I am excited. I think the certifications for herbicide mixing and application as well as wildland firefighting will be very useful to me in the long run. I am also excited that I will be so close to home.

Fort Dalles Day Rodeo

The past ten days or so have been Fort Dalles Days. I'm not sure of all that this means. What I know is: admission to Fort Dalles is free, and there was a rodeo.

My roommate Ryan is from Oklahoma and was pretty excited. Never having been to a rodeo myself, I was curious.


We arrived a bit late, but were still able to see a number of events including barrel racing, bull riding, and something I believe was called team tying in which two mounted fellows had to lasso the horns and hind legs of a young bull. They were able to do this in about 5.5 seconds. I was impressed.

Bull riding was the last event. The rules, as I understand them, are that the rider must keep their hand on a rope tied around the bull for at least 8 seconds in order to succeed. I believe only one rider was able to keep hold for the eight seconds, and most of that was spent sitting on the ground next to the bull. And I'm sure that was not easy either.

I had a good time, I'm glad Ryan dragged me out there.

Summer Reading List Favorites

I have read a great deal this summer. This can be attributed to the combination of listening to audiobooks at work and having few social functions to attend to after work. I'm not trained in the appreciation of literature, so I am going to be very brief. Here are some of my favorites in no particular order.

Bossypants: This was the first audiobook I got this summer. It is a good read. It is funny and relatively short. If you are a fan of Tina Fey or 30 Rock, you should definitely pick up a copy. It will give you a new appreciation for both 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live.

For Whom the Bell Tolls and A Farewell to Arms: I am sure you are all familiar with these books, so I will not bother trying to sum them up. But they were some of my favorite books I read this summer, so I am putting them on the list anyways.

The Hunger Games Series: I believe these are classified as Young Adult reading material. They are not particularly profound, but they are enjoyable. They are suspenseful and read quickly. Good entertainment.

Game of Thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire: Book 1: A solid, well-written fantasy epic. I've only read the first book, but I look forward to reading further. George R. R. Martin does a great job creating a world that feels complete and real, in my mind the most important feature of a good fantasy writer. I haven't seen the show yet, but the book is great.

Blood, Bones, and Butter: Written by Gabrielle Hamilton, who I gather is a famous chef in New York, this books tells the story of how she got there. She is a very talented writer, incredibly adept at painting pictures with her words. If you are interested in food or would simply like to enjoy someone else's well-written nostalgia, you'll like this book.

Star Wars The Old Republic: Deceived: The second book in the series setting up the backstory for the upcoming game. I didn't much like the first one, but this one is good. If you are as excited as I am about this game, you'll like this book.

The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine: This was maybe my favorite book of the summer. Steve Rinella, the author, describes himself as a modern day hunter gatherer. The premise of the book is similar to The Omnivore's Dilemma. He plans a feast and gives himself one year to gather all of the ingredients. Unlike The Omnivore's Dilemma, this book is not terribly concerned with environmentalism. One third of the book is not dedicated to corn. Instead, this book is just a series of stories about Steve Rinella hunting and fishing all over the country to gather ingredients for his feast. There is a focus on how disconnected we have become from our food. If you are interested in the snout-to-tail movement or just becoming more closely involved in your own food procurement, you'll like this book. Assuming you are not a vegetarian, of course.

Anadromous Fish of Interest

Many of the fish in the Columbia River have an anadromous life cycle. This means that they spend a portion of their life in the ocean, where food is more abundant, but return to their home streams to spawn. It is this need to return to their ancestral spawning grounds that creates controversy around the damming of the River. There is a great deal of research done and money spent to attempt to keep these populations healthy.

Our work this summer has been intended primarily to protect the Columbia River salmon populations. The species of greatest interest are Chinook, Chum, Coho, Pink, Sockeye, and Steelhead (steelhead were grouped with trout until the '90s, when they were reclassified in the salmon genus). These fish are where the money is, both in terms of funding and in terms of cultural and commercial value. These are the fish that everyone wants, particularly the Chinook or King Salmon. I've been told that they are the tastiest. I've only had the chance to try sockeye and steelhead, both of them caught and smoked by Melissa and her boyfriend, Steve. Both were delicious, of course.

In addition to salmon, there are a few other species of anadromous fish that are of interest to the Corps of Engineers. The three I am going to talk about today are: Lamprey, Sturgeon, and American Shad.


Lamprey, while ugly fish, are of interest as a traditional food source for the local tribes, and as a source of fish meal to feed hatchery salmon. The lamprey pass through in great abundance over a couple of days, and the seagulls enjoy eating them at least at much as they do the salmon, perhaps even more. On the days of lamprey outmigration, the seagulls would gather in the hundreds. Either they are more delicious than salmon, or they are simply easier prey.

The lamprey face all of the same problems as the salmon, but receive less attention. In my brief research it seems as if the lamprey populations are not what they used to be, but because they are not as delicious as salmon, they are perhaps not in as great danger.


Sturgeon as incredible fish. They are prehistoric in appearance and grow to incredible size. They are bottom-feeders, but they are fond of swimming to the surface and leaping out of the water. No one is really sure why they do this, but it is incredible to see. There are a number of giant sturgeon near the dam, and it seems that on warm days they are more active. I have seen many sturgeon at least ten feet in length leap out of the water while I was watching the gulls.

Sturgeon are also affected by the dams. The biggest problems sturgeons have with the dams is that the fish passage systems are not built for creatures of their size. The smaller sturgeon are able to pass upstream past the dams, but the large ones, once they move downstream, are unable to travel back up. This has been noted, and occasionally large sturgeon are carried upstream past the dams. You would think that the small sturgeon would travel upstream and fill that niche, but perhaps they are also less likely to use the fish passage systems because they are bottom-feeders, and rarely come to the surface except to leap occasionally.


Of greatest interest to me here are the American Shad. Growing up, shad were one of the first fish I was introduced to. We had a creek behind our house, and each spring the shad would run up it. There was a small dam that they had to swim up, and we would stand out there and pick them out of the water with dip nets or our bare hands, depending on how bold we were feeling.

Later, I learned that American Shad are a protected species in the area, and that only local tribes are allowed to take them. And, of course, that shad roe is considered a delicacy.

During my first week in Oregon, American Shad were brought up, and I asked my boss, Nathan, how strict the regulations are on them out here. As it turns out, American Shad are hugely invasive out here. There are no strict regulations about fishing them, and he had never heard of anyone eating them. He also mentioned that they may have been renamed from Eastern Shad to make them sound less like an invasive species.

I think the American Shad situation is very interesting. Back east, they are strictly protected. Here, where salmon is king, they are unregulated and ignored. The salmon populations are barely hanging on, and money is poured into keeping them commercially viable. Meanwhile, the shad seem to have no trouble coping with the fish passage systems here. Sounds to me like we need to turn the local fishing community on to the practice of eating shad roe.

Best Podcasts

Over this summer, I have derived a great deal of enjoyment from listening to podcasts. Watching gulls feed, or as is often the case, watching them not feed, gets very dull very fast without something to occupy your mind. I listened to a number of audiobooks over the summer, but the majority of my time at work was spent listening to podcasts. Here is the list of my favorites in no particular order:

This American Life - You've probably heard This American Life before. It comes out once a week and is always great. Ira Glass is a very talented story teller. If you are both a human being and have any interest in podcasts, this one should be on your list.

Fresh Air - Fresh Air is good if you need to fill a lot of time. They come out frequently and are consistently entertaining. Terry Gross is also very good at her job.

Planet Money - I remember when Nathan first introduced me to Planet Money. As someone who loathed their Microeconomics course in college, I was not excited at all by the concept. It is, however, a very enjoyable podcast. They talk about current economic issues, and they do it in a light and fun manner. It is short and comes out maybe twice a week, so it is good if you don't have a whole lot of time for podcasts.

BBC Global News Podcast - Highlights from the BBC World Service, this is a 30 minute podcast that comes out, I believe, 5-7 times per week. Good for keeping up on global affairs.

The Rachel Maddow Show - I had never watched the Rachel Maddow show before (well, I still haven't really), but I have enjoyed listening to her podcast every day. She does a good job of presenting news that will be interesting to liberal folks like myself and serving as a counterpoint to the more conservative news programs. Definitely worth a listen, or perhaps a watch, if you are a liberal leaning individual.

How to Do Everything - The title for this podcast is deceptive. It doesn't actually teach you anything. It is a fairly short podcast and consists primarily of listeners sending in questions, which the hosts then ask celebrities or experts in the appropriate field. It wouldn't be all that great, except that the hosts make it very funny. It is an enjoyable time-killing podcast.

Judge John Hodgman - Judge John Hodgman is a delightful comedy podcast. If you are not familiar, John Hodgman is a comedian. He is known for being the PC in those awful Mac commercials and for being a frequent correspondent on The Daily Show. This podcast is a fake courtroom a la Judge Judy, but deals with much sillier issues. There was a recent episode in which the dispute was over whether or not a man would be allowed to continue air conducting whenever he listened to classical music. His wife was a graduate student studying music, and she didn't like it. Anyways, it is hosted by a professional comedian, features silly disputes such as the above mentioned, and is definitely worth a listen.

David Attenborough's Life Stories - Brief, ten to fifteen minute segments narrated by David Attenborough about interesting creatures around the world. Sometimes when I look at the subject of the podcast I think I will be bored, but he is such a talented individual and has such a fantastic narrating voice, that I am always entertained and intrigued.

Darth Hater - This one is only for those of you out there interested in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Darthhater.com is a fansite, and they have a once or twice weekly podcast in which they discuss information about the game. It's actually not a particularly good podcast, but the portion of my day in which I can listen to things is much larger than the portion in which I can read things, so this is how I have been getting my SWTOR news.

Well, that's the end of my list of favorite podcasts from this summer. Hopefully you'll find something interesting on this list. If you have any podcast suggestions, I would love to hear them.

Wildfires

It is finally summer here. It is a different sort of summer from what I am used to, though. The high temperature for the day is usually in the upper 70s to mid 80s range, and it is incredibly dry. The humidity is low, and it has not rained in ages. I tried to fog up my sunglasses to wipe them down the other day, and it just doesn't work. The air is too dry for my breath to create a fog on the lens of my sunglasses.

This incredible dryness has another effect: wildfires. Last week there were two fires within sight of the highway, one on the 5th and one on the 6th. They were each within a few miles of John Day Dam, where I was working last week. The second fire was far less dramatic, so I will start there. It started in the mid-afternoon and was put out before I got off work in the evening. It did, however, inundate us with smoke driven east by the wind. Below is a picture of the smoke blowing over the navlock peninsula.


And here is a picture of the remnants of that fire.


The first fire also started sometime around mid-afternoon, but this one was still burning when I got off work. It was only a couple miles east of John Day, so I went to check it out. It was traveling downhill very slowly. It was pretty, in a strange sort of way.


This is a close up of the right side of the fire. The black in this photo is a herd of cattle escaping from the fire.


Below is a picture of the remnants of that fire. It was out by the time I got to work the following day.


I've never been so close to a wildfire before. Mike, one of my bosses, tells me that they are very common around here, and I am likely to see a number more before the end of July. I suppose two fires in two days within ten miles of each other is a good indicator of their frequency.

Clocktower Ales

Clocktower Ales is the finest bar in The Dalles. This may not be as high an honor as it sounds, I could probably count the bars in The Dalles on one hand. It is, however, a great place for individuals like myself who enjoy the ole barley pop.

Clocktower carries around 27 Oregon microbrews on tap. They do not have a full bar, but I am more than satisfied by their selection of local craft beers.

Apparently the place has been completely redone in the last year. It shares a historic building with the local Masonic lodge (clocktower on the bottom, masons on the top). Since the above picture was taken, they have finished putting in a large patio for outdoor seating. It is only just now getting to the time of year that sitting outside in the evening for a beer is enjoyable, and they are a great place for that. They have also been very accommodating whenever I came in and asked them to put on a soccer match. They even turned off their music to give me sound. Definitely a sign of a good pub.

That's about all I have to say about Clocktower. If you are ever passing through The Dalles, make sure to stop in for a beer or eight.

Happy Force of July

It recently came to my attention that two of my five housemates had never seen the Star Wars films. I could not allow this injustice to stand, so I organized a Force of July party. I picked up a bunch of Pabst and sausages, and sat them down to watch the films.

We didn't finish the entire series. We made it through Episodes 1-4, before breaking to go sit on the roof and watch our neighbors shoot off fireworks. It was a good time, but our work is not yet finished.

Widmer Brothers Brewery

Widmer Brothers Brewery is located was founded in 1984. It is located in Portland, Oregon. It is one of the larger microbreweries in existence. In fact, a few years ago they merged with Redhook, another large microbrewery, and are now the 9th largest brewery in the United States.

Due to their size, you have likely had (or at least seen) a Widmer beer before. Their hefeweizen is their most popular beer, and I believe it is the only one to be distributed nationally. The rest stay closer to home.

As is the case with most microbreweries that scale up in size, their beers are good, but lack pizazz. The hefeweizen is a solid beer, and I have been known to order it occasionally at a pub.


Perhaps my favorite thing about the larger microbreweries is that they distribute beer in variety packs. I have bought a couple of the Widmer variety packs, and everything I've had was enjoyable. I'm not sure what the barrier to entry is for distributing variety packs, but I would like to see more breweries doing it. I am about ten times as likely to buy a variety pack over a sixer of a particular style. I like to have options, and I think this desire for variety is a fairly universal trait among craft beer enthusiasts.

This will be a short post, I don't have too much to say about Widmer. Just wanted to include a brewery that everyone back east would recognize. Happy Fourth of July.

Ideas for the Trip Home

In less than a month this internship will be over, and I will be heading back to good old Virginia. Becca will be joining me for at least a portion of the trip. We were thinking it would be fun to travel via a more southern route this time around. I would like to see California. If we travel south through California, we could see the Redwoods, Yosemite, and The Grand Canyon, all of which are on my list. On the other hand, if we were to travel north, we could see Yellowstone, Glacier, and The Badlands; these are also on my list.

The southern route would be a lot hotter, but might be more exciting. I haven't spent much time in the southwest, and I would love to see The Grand Canyon. But I would also love to see Yellowstone when it is not covered in snow.

Anyways, I created this post to see if any of my readers had any input. Would we be miserable if we tried to camp in the Southwest in August? Is there anything that I should definitely try to see on the way back? If you have any suggestions for cool places to visit, I would love to hear them.

I look forward to your input.