The Gorge Magazine - Winter 2017-18

WINTER 2017-18 thegorgemagazine.com

LIVING AND EXPLORING IN THE COLUMBIA RIVER GORGE

Oneonta Gorge The beloved slot canyon in winter

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After the Fire Looking back, and ahead

Meadows turns 50 Five decades of Gorge area skiing

11/15/17 3:43 PM

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REAL ESTATE

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11/15/17 3:38 PM

Visit Historic Downtown

TROUTDALE the gateway to the gorge Take Exit 17 off I-84

Visit our many Specialty Shops, Art Galleries, Antique Shops, Fine Restaurants, and more!

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11/16/17 8:16 AM

CONTENTS : FEATURES

p.36

After the Fire

The Gorge was indelibly changed by the Eagle Creek Fire, but in time, life will return to its forests

By Christopher Van Tilburg

p. 44 SKI THE GORGE Making tracks in an extraordinary winter wonderland A photo essay by Ken Lucas, Monica Bassett and Richard Hallman

Jürgen Hess

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Discover your adventure…experience ours!

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EXPLORE KLICKITAT COUNTY, WASHINGTON AND THE NORTH SHORE OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER GORGE! VISITOR INFORMATION CENTER: 1 Heritage Plaza, White Salmon, WA 98672 • 509-493-3630 • mtadamschamber.com

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CONTENTS : DEPARTMENTS

our gorge 12 PERSON OF INTEREST 14 VENTURES 18 BEST OF THE GORGE 22 HOME + GARDEN 26 LOCAVORE 30 EXPLORE 32 WINE SPOTLIGHT 60 PARTAKE 66 EPILOGUE

Courtesy of Mt. Hood Meadows

28 STYLE + DESIGN

30

48

26

Ben Mitchell

outside 48

“THE MEADOWS” TURNS 50 The ski resort’s 50th anniversary offers a chance to look back at five decades of Gorge-area skiing

By Janet Cook

22

Rick White

arts + culture 52

THE SHOW GOES ON The Granada Theatre, restored and re-opened, brings new life to downtown The Dalles

By Janet Cook

wellness

FRIENDS ON THE MOVE Two Hood River women have taken on aging in classic Gorge style — by staying active

By Peggy Dills Kelter

Jeff Amram Photography

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SINCE 1994

JEWELRY

+

HOME

305 OAK STREET • HOOD RIVER 541-386-6188

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Explore...

EDITOR’S NOTE

T

THE GORGE

CLARK AND LEWIE’S

Riding Buttercup with my son TRAVELERS REST SALOON and GRILL

HAPPY HOUR | WINE SPECIALS CATERING | SPECIAL EVENTS BREAKFAST | WATERFRONT DINING

he first time I skied at Mt. Hood Meadows was disappointing. I was newly arrived in Oregon for college, and the overcast day my roommate and I chose for my first Northwest ski adventure deteriorated into sleet and then outright rain. Having grown up in Colorado, I’d never skied in the rain. I didn’t know it was a thing. As we were leaving, I saw skiers putting trash bags over their coats to stay dry. I admired their determination to ski through it, but trash bags?

Over the next few years, as I fell in love with Oregon and eventually settled in Hood River, I began to embrace Northwest skiing. My fondness for our “backyard” ski area grew and, over time, there was more and more to like. Meadows added high-speed quads, opened access higher on the mountain and increased terrain in and around Heather Canyon, one of my favorite places. I discovered Gore-Tex and came to love storm skiing — not the rain, but those days when the driving wind and snow punish the mountain as it can only in the Cascades, rewarding intrepid skiers with endless fresh tracks.

When our kids came along, we discovered a different Mt. Hood Meadows, centered around the Ballroom Carpet and then Buttercup, where both of my kids took their first chairlift ride. In fact, my kids have had most of their skiing “firsts” at Meadows — yes, even skiing in the rain. With Mt. Hood Meadows marking its 50th anniversary this winter, we decided to take a look at the history of Gorge-area skiing, including the genesis and evolution of what many Gorge skiers think of as the local’s ski area (page 48).

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A season has passed since that awful afternoon in early September when smoke billowed from the central Gorge, marking the grim start of the Eagle Creek Fire. It seems like yesterday, and I still find it hard to tear my eyes from the burned landscape when I drive I-84 to Portland and back. Writer Christopher Van Tilburg revisits those awful weeks during the fire, and looks ahead at what we can expect in the months and years to come. Photographer Jurgen Hess’s dramatic photos help tell the story (page 36).

In this issue, we also celebrate the re-opening of the Granada Theatre in The Dalles (page 52); we visit Tad’s Chicken ‘N Dumplins — which has been serving its signature dish for nearly 70 years from its location at the gateway to the Gorge in Troutdale (page 14); and we meet Neil Brent and Sarah Resnick, who’ve turned their love for biology and fermentation into the Columbia Mushroom Company (page 26). We hope you enjoy this issue, and may you have a fun and safe winter.

—Janet Cook, Editor

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ABOUT THE COVER Photographer Rick White took the cover photo of Oneonta Gorge during an icy trek up the slot canyon. “There was so much potential for interesting compositions at the end of the gorge, but this picture was actually the first composition I tried,” White says. He set up his tripod straddling the ice slab, with his camera a couple of inches above the ice.

“I remember the process that went into this photo not only because it was the first shot but because my hands were freezing and my brother was sitting right next to me on an exposed rock preparing tea. Trust me when I say that it was the best tea I ever had.” rickwhitephotography.com

When you have read this issue please pass it on to a friend or recycle it.

Together we can make a difference in preserving and conserving our resources.

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WINTER 2017-18 JANET COOK Editor

RENATA KOSINA

where the Gorge gets

engaged

Creative Director/Graphic Designer

JODY THOMPSON Advertising Director

JENNA HALLETT Account Executive

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ruth Berkowitz, Don Campbell, Peggy Dills Kelter, Kacie McMackin, Christopher Van Tilburg, Rick White

COVER PHOTOGRAPHER Rick White

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

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Jeff Amram, Paloma Ayala, Monica Bassett, Richard Hallman, Jurgen Hess, Renata Kosina, Ken Lucas, Kacie McMackin, Ben Mitchell, Kelly Turso, Rick White

ADVERTISING INQUIRIES jthompson@thegorgemagazine.com

SOCIAL MEDIA facebook.com/thegorgemagazine instagram/thegorgemagazine pinterest/thegorgemagazine twitter.com/TheGorgeMagazin

THE GORGE MAGAZINE thegorgemagazine.com PO Box 390 • 419 State Street Hood River, Oregon 97031

We appreciate your feedback. Please email comments to: jcook@thegorgemagazine.com

The Gorge Magazine is published by Eagle Magazines, Inc., an affiliate of Eagle Newspapers, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of Eagle Magazines, Inc. Articles and photographs appearing in The Gorge Magazine may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express written consent of the publisher. The views and opinions expressed in these articles are not necessarily those of The Gorge Magazine, Eagle Magazines, Inc., Eagle Newspapers, Inc., or its employees, staff or management. All RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

THE GORGE MAGAZINE : WINTER 2017-18

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OUR GORGE person of interest p. 12 ventures p. 14 best of the gorge p. 18 home + garden p. 22 locavore p. 26 style + design p. 28 explore p. 30 wine spotlight p. 32

Talia Sanderson in the workshop of her letterpress printing company, Star Route Press. p. 28 Photo by Kelly Turso

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Peter Cornelison

OUR GORGE : PERSON OF INTEREST

Preserving the Wonder Kevin Gorman leads Friends of the Columbia Gorge with vision and passion STORY BY RUTH BERKOWITZ • PHOTOS COURTESY OF FRIENDS OF THE COLUMBIA GORGE

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n the spring of 1994, shortly after Kevin Gorman moved to Oregon from Michigan, he hiked the steep switchbacks of the Columbia Gorge to Wahkeena Falls. As he stopped to take in his surroundings, a bald eagle soared into view — a sign, perhaps, that the Gorge would be his destiny.

Four years later in 1998, shortly before the birth of his daughter, Gorman became the executive director of the nonprofit Friends of the Columbia Gorge, where he has been ever since. “The Gorge has become another appendage,” Gorman says. Just as his daughter has grown up under his tutelage, so too has the organization.

Friends began as a small committee formed in 1980 by Nancy Russell, a Portland housewife and avid Gorge hiker who gathered her buddies from the prestigious Portland Garden Club to block plans for 28 building lots across from Multnomah Falls. They fought another development near Beacon Rock, but their biggest victory happened in 1986, when the group worked with Oregon Senator Mark O. Hatfield and convinced Congress to pass the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Act. Hatfield’s position as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee provided him with the leverage to convince President Ronald Reagan — who once proclaimed, “If you’ve seen one redwood, you’ve seen them all” — to sign the law.

“It was a coup,” says Gorman. The Scenic Act would prove to be integral in protecting the Gorge from unchecked development. Friends cheered the victory, while some mourned it — including the pro-development contingency in Skamania County, where flags were lowered to half-mast for a week.

According to Gorman, the Scenic Act is one of the main reasons why the Eagle Creek Fire was less devastating than it might have been. “Only four structures burned and it could have been so much worse,” Gorman tells members of the Portland Garden Club at a recent meeting. Speaking in the same room where Nancy Russell announced the passage of the Scenic Act, Gorman unveils his new initiative, the Gorge Resiliency Plan, a path from the crisis of the Eagle Creek Fire to what he sees as an exciting future.

On the night of September 2nd, when Gorman saw images of flames incinerating the old growth forest, he worried that the Gorge would burn to the ground and all of Friends’ work would be futile. “That night all

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Michael Horodyski

of us feared for the 150 stranded hikers,” Gorman says. He posted an appeal on social media, urging people to donate to the Hood River County Sheriff ’s Office Search and Rescue. In just a few days, Friends raised $46,140. Eighty percent of the 500 individual donors were not in Friends’ database; people from all over the country were sending money.

Gorman was relieved a couple of days later to see that the historic Multnomah Falls Lodge was still intact even as the fire had burned all around it, but he still questioned the future of Friends.

Then Gorman reminded himself that the Columbia River still flowed and the Gorge is resilient, having withstood earthquakes, ice and fire. “The fire knocked us back,” Gorman says with his signature optimism. “It didn’t knock us down.

Gorman sees the fire as a watershed moment, one with new opportunities made possible by the closing of the old highway, the horrible smoke-filled days and the outpouring of support for the Gorge.

Gorman’s Gorge Resiliency Plan requires groups like the Trailkeepers of Oregon, the U.S. Forest Service, the Gorge Tourism Alliance, educators, business owners and volunteers to work

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www.copperwest.com

Peter Cornelison

Kevin Gorman takes in the view from Burdoin Mountain, opposite, and at Rooster Rock, opposite inset. Friends of the Columbia Gorge hosts a work party at Cape Horn, above, where volunteers plant trees, spread seeds and fill in washouts. Gorman meets with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, below left, at Steigerwald Shores, part of Friends’ Preserve the Wonder campaign, and attends an anti-coal train rally, below right.

together. In his leadership role at Friends, Gorman is connected with all of the groups and attends hundreds of meetings. According to Kate McBride, who has worked at the Friends’ office in Hood River for the past 11 years, “Gorman thinks about all the aspects of a project and all the players involved.” He is exceptionally skilled, she adds, at bringing people together, whether it’s for opposing coal and oil trains, a casino, Nestlé’s bottling plant or Congressman Greg Walden’s salvage logging bill.

The Gorge Resiliency Plan has three prongs: land, trails and community. With respect to land, Gorman wants to insure a natural recovery of the forest and opposes Walden’s salvage logging proposal.

“Walden’s rush legislation doesn’t make sense and would undo more than 100 years of protection,” he says, adding that the steep areas most affected by the burn are unsuitable for logging and susceptible to soil erosion, landslides and the introduction of invasive species.

Gorman speaks passionately about trails, the second prong of the Resiliency Plan. During the summer, he says, it sometimes takes an hour to drive half a mile from Wahkeena to Multnomah Falls. People have been talking about ways to minimize congestion, but now that the old highway is closed, we can try out options, Gorman says. He tosses out ideas such as making the old highway one way, having a transit bus, and maybe even a hefty entry fee. “We never would have had this opportunity if the fire hadn’t happened,” he says.

Similarly, the closure of popular trails provides the impetus to guide people to other ones — such as the Cape Horn trail, one of Gorman’s favorites. Since 2005, Friends has gained title to more than 1,500 acres of land. Its decade-old Preserve the Wonder campaign is a 420-acre project to acquire seven properties along the Washington side of the Gorge. This plan coincides with Friends’ goal of creating a 200-mile “Towns to Trails” loop, making the Gorge a destination for trekking similar to the Swiss Alps.

“People are motivated to be stewards and help rebuild trails,” says Gorman, who wants to educate the public about invasive plants and install boot brushes on every trail — not just for show, but for people to actually use.

The third component, community, includes what Gorman calls the “we, the collective we.” This “we” has grown considerably since the fire. Friends’ membership has increased by 1,000 people and its social media followers have doubled. Gorman’s plan to help restore the economy is a plea for all of them — and others — to show the Gorge some love.

For more information, go to gorgefriends.org.

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Ruth Berkowitz is a lawyer, mediator and writer. She lives with her family in Hood River and Portland and is a frequent contributor to The Gorge Magazine.

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OUR GORGE : VENTURES

Courtesy of Tad’s Chicken ‘N Dumplings

Comfort Food For seven decades, Tad’s Chicken ‘N Dumplins has been serving hungry customers STORY BY DON CAMPBELL • PHOTOS BY RENATA KOSINA

E

verybody knows that throwing heat on a pot of water, chicken parts and mirepoix — that blessed trinity of chopped carrots, celery, onions and few savory herbs — is pure alchemy. It renders an intoxicating stew, a stock, if you will, from which culinary magic can happen.

The first few furtive sniffs outside of Tad’s Chicken ‘N Dumplins at noon any day of the week drives a taste bud wild with wanton desire. Nobody knows this like Judy Jones, longtime owner of Tad’s, an edge-of-town roadhouse across a one-lane bridge from Troutdale on the Sandy River, at the very mouth of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.

And hungry mouths are what drive here the hungry diners who know Tad’s reputation for the very thing it promotes via its timeworn neon sign. Jones’ mother, Olga Cummins, bought the storied

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place in the 1950s, and it’s been in the family ever since. That’s very nearly seven decades of serving the deceptively simple gastronomic comfort food known as the dumpling, a humble softball-sized flour-based sphere that’s steamed in said chicken stock to absolute perfection. It is said that the lowly dumpling is served in some form the world over, but can be a quest that’s often fraught with failure. Not at Tad’s.

Those orbs — so utterly perfectly done at what ought to be a molten core of goo — are then surrounded by hunks of tenderly stewed chicken thigh and breast meat, and covered with a soul-stirring gravy. It too is rendered from the heavenly concoction cooked in kitchen-worn pots on stoves that go back to before the Eisenhower administration.

“We’ve got a corner on chicken and dumplings,” Jones says with a wry smile she likely lays on every customer who passes through the front door, past the wartime jukebox and carved wooden Indian, into a restaurant that’s as traditional and nostalgic as a scene from Ozzy and Harriet.

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Party Trays

ORGANICS / PRODUCE • DELI & BAKERY MEAT & SEAFOOD • WINE & BEER • FLORAL

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HUCKLEBERRY’S NATURAL MARKET

Tad’s has been serving its signature dish in the same location on the banks of the Sandy River since 1946. Tad Johnson, opposite bottom, opened the original restaurant in the 1920s. The main dining room features expansive windows and a full bar.

Back in the kitchen, that ubiquitous stock, which simmers for more than four hours, will go into the walk-in cooler where it sits and separates itself from the fat overnight before being incorporated into Tad’s signature dish.

But there’s much, much more. Jones and her crew also do a mean fried chicken, done by hand in ancient, well-seasoned and expertly maintained cast iron skillets. They smoke their own salmon (a five-day process), and offer seafood and steak, pasta, fresh-made dinner rolls, and other comfort dishes that seem to appeal to its diverse clientele.

It’s old school: impeccable service from polite wait staff, a gratis relish tray (featuring adorable tiny cornlettes!) to whet your appetite, and then the waddle-inducing Big Reward. Oh, and dessert. Berry cobbler, whiskeysauced bread pudding, apple crisp, and the like.

Jones’ crew of 30 to 40 operates seven days a week. She’s been working here one way or another since she was 10, and definitely knows the ropes.

Her staff triples in the summer, and she relies on a steady stream of high school and college kids, many of whom are returning Tad’s vets, and many whose parents also found seasonal work here back in the day.

Her main chefs have served her for two decades, Jones says. And a good many of the kitchen staff know the sheer passion and skill of making the dumplings and frying the chicken. “There’s definitely an art to it,” she says.

And yes, Tad was a real man, though precious little is actually known about him. The original Tad’s was downstream from the current incarnation, which “Handsome” Tad Johnson built sometime in the 1920s at the east end of the Sandy River bridge, near a then-new Columbia River Highway.

“I never knew him,” says Jones, “but I knew lots of older people who said he was a lady’s man and loved to fish.” With his Clark Gable-looks, he cut a colorful figure as a restaurateur and rascal. “It’s neat they called it Tad’s when they rebuilt it.”

The original spot was torn down after World War II, and rebuilt at its current location in 1946 at the hands of Paul and Echo Mumpower, who started the chicken and dumplings offering (and later opened Mumpy’s in Carver, Ore.).

It was sold to the Brewers who bought it somewhere around 1948-49, before Jones’ mother, a widow who owned a beauty shop in Portland, took over the reins as its new owner and continued to serve the popular chicken and dumplings and fried chicken — whose recipes were included in the sale, thankfully.

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VENTURES

The restaurant has undergone a remodel or two — an expanded kitchen and main seating area — but the original flavor remains as a testament to what a traditional restaurant should be in a world of nanosecond trends. The bar is as cozy as cozy gets, and the main dining area features large windows overlooking the Sandy River that swing open when weather permits. It’s a perennially popular spot for holidays, birthdays, family celebrations and other special occasions, and for couples hungry for a romantic dating spot.

Tad’s doesn’t take reservations, and even though the parking lot might look full, there’s usually room for a few more diners.

Jones doesn’t think much about the future. She lives nearby and putters in her yard on her off days. “I’m tied to it,” she says. “It’s hard to get away.” The best part of this more than full-time job that requires hard work, attention to quality and detail, and keeping such a large staff thrumming successfully at a furious

A jukebox and cash register, and the original dumpling recipe, are some of the treasures at Tad’s.

pace, is “seeing the people you’ve known for so long,” Jones says, gratefully.

There is a bounty of repeat business from locals as well as travelers who come through the area a time or two a year and those who, maybe through serendipity, find their way to this alchemic little place just off the beaten path.

Although the recent Eagle Creek Fire in the Gorge slowed things down this fall — “I’m still getting calls to find out if we’re open,” Jones says — Tad’s continues its dinner-only service in a way that would likely please Tad himself.

For more information, go to tadschicdump.com.

Don Campbell is a writer and musician. He lives in Mosier and Portland and is a frequent contributor to The Gorge Magazine.

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MOCO FILLS A VOID IN MOSIER For a small burg between Hood River and The Dalles, there’s a lot cooking in Mosier.

The tiny town of 430 welcomed a new restaurant and bar in late summer, and as the dark season descends on the Gorge, the new Mosier Company, better known now as MoCo, has enlivened the former Thirsty Woman site (nee Wildflower Café, built and opened by Mosier residents Suzi Conklin and Mark Cherniak in 2001) at 904 Second Ave., just east of the also popular Rack and Cloth cidery and pizza place, with a warm and inviting spot to dine, drink and find a rich cup of house-roasted coffee.

It’s a place for which there has been much pent-up energy. It fills a void left by the departure of the Thirsty Woman, which occupied only the small building on the property, for a community gathering spot. Members of longtime local families — Isaac and Tiffany Stranz, Nathan Stranz and Jordan Schmidt — have assumed ownership of the new venture and are finding an ardent following not only of Mosierites, but those passing by between The Dalles and Hood River and points beyond.

Schmidt and Isaac Stranz had talked about starting a venture for several years. Schmidt worked for a time for a Portland restaurant group that includes the popular Toro Bravo. Nathan and Isaac have traveled extensively and been actively involved in the kiteboarding industry. Tiffany Stranz, a landscape designer and new mom, developed the extensive outside space joyfully conjoining the large property. It was, she says, “really fun to design.”

“We’ve always called this place home,” says Isaac of Mosier. “This river is

Courtesy of Mosier Company

pretty powerful. We wanted to find a way to never leave this town. There’s a lot to learn.”

MoCo offers an ever-expanding and evolving home-style menu using local produce and vendors, with help from chef Jason Dronkowsky. It also purveys cocktails, beer and wine, and coffee roasted in the former small Thirsty Woman building via a 12-kilo Probat coffee roaster.

The spot at Second and Main holds regular hours throughout the winter season, with live music on the weekends.

“We’re looking forward to snow and soups,” said Schmidt.

—Don Campbell

Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of marijuana. For use only by adults twenty-one years of age or older. Keep marijuana out of the reach of children.

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OUR GORGE : BEST OF THE GORGE

Shop the Gorge

1 #CascadeLocksStrong

Courtesy of Cascade Locks Strong

Here’s something you can do to feel good and make others feel good all at the same time: do your holiday shopping in the Gorge this year. Not only is it good for local shop owners who took a big hit from the Eagle Creek Fire, but the variety of gifts you can find in the Gorge will make everyone on your holiday list happy. To help making shopping easier, the city of Hood River offers free parking from Dec. 11-25. Cascade Locks continues its Cascade Locks Strong campaign, where you can order gift cards for more than a dozen businesses at cascadelocksstrong.com.

SMART Fundraiser

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Courtesy of SMART Fundraiser

SMART Sip in the Gorge, Feb. 22, is an all ages social that benefits the nonprofit literacy program, Hood River County SMART (Start Making A Reader Today). Bid on donated items from local merchants, purchase book packets and learn about SMART and how it makes a difference in the lives of kids. Included in the $20 ticket are small plates and appetizers courtesy of local restaurants, as well as a variety of locally made beverages — beer, wine, cider and kombucha included. getsmartoregon.org

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A Christmas Carol

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Mark Markovich

Few things ring in the holidays like a stage production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Local theater company Plays for Non Profits brings the classic play to Hood River’s Wy’east Performing Arts Center for three weekends in December, starting Dec. 2. Actors of all ages from throughout the Gorge make up the cast in this adaptation by local actor and playwright Gary Young. “This adaptation uses three unusual storytellers and a cast of familiar characters to show how Dickens’ words call attention to the needs of all members of society,” Young said. “Dickens wrote the story as a polemic about the government and the society of that day, not so different from some of our concerns today.”

Tickets are available at Waucoma Bookstore in Hood River, Mugs Coffee in Bingen and showtix4u.com.

Cultural Performances

Michael Peterson

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The Columbia Gorge Orchestra Association presents an impressive line-up of performances through the winter. The CGOA sponsors several ensembles, including the Voci Choir, the Gorge Jazz Collective, the Sinfonietta and Stages Repertory Theater. Upcoming CGOA performances include Sacred Traditions by Voci Choir, spiritual choral music from around the world (Dec. 15 and 17 at Hood River Middle School); Gorge Jazz Collective welcomes Portland jazz master Mel Brown and his quintet (Jan. 13 at Wy’east Performing Arts Center); Stages presents Stephen Sondheim’s musical Passion (Feb. 8-17 at Wy’east Performing Arts Center); and the Sinfonietta plays Beethoven’s 7th Symphony (March 16 and 18 at Wy’east Performing Arts Center). gorgeorchestra.org THE GORGE MAGAZINE : WINTER 2017-18

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OUR GORGE : BEST OF THE GORGE

Courtesy of Teacup Lake Nordic Club

Teacup Classic

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Courtesy of Sense of Place

The Teacup Lake Nordic Club and The Mountain Shop of Portland host the annual Teacup Classic on Jan. 21. The classic-technique race, held on the beautiful trails around Teacup Lake in the Mount Hood National Forest, is open to all levels of racers and offers a great opportunity for Nordic skiers to try racing. There’s a 2k kids race along with 5k and 15k races. All races have a mass start. Pre-register by Jan. 19. teacupnordic.org

Sense of Place

Wine Weekend

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Fend off your winter blues by touring Gorge wine country during the annual President’s Day Wine Weekend, Feb. 17-19. Spend one day in the Gorge’s Washington wineries and the next in Oregon’s wineries, and complete the weekend in the tasting rooms of Hood River. The Columbia Gorge Winegrowers Association offers recommendations for lodging and dining in its website visitor’s guide. columbiagorgewine.com 20

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The Sense of Place Lecture Series, a project of Gorge Owned, is in its 8th year and has become a staple of the cultural calendar in the Gorge. While both highly educational and relevant, the lectures never fail to entertain, inspire and challenge the audience. Upcoming lectures, held at Columbia Center for the Arts, are: History Slam — An Improvisational View into our Past, by Arthur Babitz and Scott Cook (Dec. 13); Hanford — Our River Runs Through it, A Panel Discussion Moderated by Columbia Riverkeeper’s Dan Serres (Jan. 10); Steamboats and Captains of the Columbia, by Tom Cramblett (Feb. 14); and River of Hope — Salmon Dreams and the Columbia River Treaty, by Peter Marbach (March 14).

gorgeowned.org

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LET’S CELEBRATE! HOLIDAY CRUISES IN PORTLAND

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OUR GORGE : HOME + GARDEN

Living Up to the Land Renata Kosina

White Salmon architect Erik Becker redesigns a home to fit its setting

STORY BY JANET COOK • PHOTOS BY JEFF AMRAM PHOTOGRAPHY

“It was sort of a ho-hum house,” Becker said. “For such a great piece of property, the house didn’t connect to the land at all. It didn’t inspire them.”

Becker started the project like he does many of his designs: by doodling and making “big fat black sketches” on scraps of paper. With input from the owners, Becker knew he wanted to connect the house to the outdoors, and make a more positive and simplified flow throughout the interior. As Becker’s design work moved from paper to computer, it became clear that the remodel was basically a re-do: nearly all of the interior walls would come out and the roof would need to come off and be reconfigured.

“The two girls’ rooms stayed,” Becker said, referring to the owners’ kids. “Everything else went.”

W

hen architect Erik Becker was hired to design a remodel of a home on Snowden Road outside White Salmon, he knew it was a gem in the making. The owners had bought the house for the property it came with — 30 acres of forested hills and a filtered view of Mount Adams through the trees. But the house, built in the late ‘80s, left a lot to be desired.

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WELCOME TO THE HOOD I came to windsurf, sail, kayak and ski, Smitten by the landscape and community.

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Erik Becker, opposite inset, designed a complete renovation for clients who wanted their home to connect better with its forested setting. From his initial sketches, opposite, came a cohesive plan with dramatic architectural elements inside and out.

Like any good home designer, Becker started with the kitchen as the centerpiece. “It’s the classic pinwheel,” he said. “The kitchen is the central focal point that everything spins around.” Becker designed a simple, open kitchen and dining area all in one space. A kids’ area and casual TV “hangout” space, as well as a more formal living area are all within view of the kitchen — each designed to be their own focal point “spinning around” the kitchen. Floorto-ceiling windows and slider doors along much of the main living space bring the outside in and create lots of natural light.

A master suite was created, taking up some of the space of a former garage. A new two-car garage was added on, bringing the whole house to about 3,800 square feet.

The owners were intrigued by a type of wood treatment called shou sugi ban, an ancient Japanese technique of charring wood. Originally used as a way to preserve wood and make it fire-resistant, shou sugi ban now is popular in both interior and exterior architectural elements. Becker’s clients — who did the burning themselves — used it on a main wall in their dining room, making for a dramatic backdrop, and also in the master bath, where it backs a freestanding soaking tub, creating a stark and beautiful contrast.

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HOME + GARDEN

The kitchen is the central focal point, with views to the dining area, family room, kids’ play area and formal living area. Large windows bring the outside in and provide lots of natural light.

Just as Becker connected the inside of the home to the land, the home’s exterior melds with the surroundings as well. Heavy timber elements, overhangs and simple concrete walls and paths give way to native grasses and trees, which in turn become the forest. True to the goals of both owners and architect, the home, at last, befits its surroundings.

Construction was provided by Green Home Design + Build. For more information about Erik Becker, go to eb-arch.com.

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Winter Landscape Tips

The Oregon State University Extension Service in Hood River offers a winter calendar of cleanup and maintenance tips for your landscape and garden. For more, go to oregonstate.edu/ gardening/gardening-calendar.

December 0 Spread wood ashes evenly on vegetable garden.

Use no more than 1.5 lb/100 sq ft/year.

0 Protect new landscape plants from wind. Use stakes, guy wires and/or windbreaks as needed.

0 Yard sanitation: rake leaves, cut and remove

withered stalks of perennial flowers, mulch flowerbeds, and hoe or pull winter weeds.

0 Turn the compost pile and protect from heavy rains, if necessary.

0 During heavy rains, watch for drainage problems in the yard.

0 Tie limbs of columnar evergreens to prevent snow or ice breakage.

January 0 Place windbreaks to protect sensitive landscape evergreens against cold, drying winds.

0 Reapply or redistribute mulch that has blown

or washed away.

0 Water landscape plants underneath wide eaves

and in other sites shielded from rain.

February 0 Make a cold frame or hotbed to start early vegetables or flowers.

0 Incorporate cover crops or other organic matter into soil.

0 Prune fruit trees and blueberries.

0 Prune and train summer-bearing and fall-bearing raspberries.

0 Prune deciduous summer-blooming shrubs and trees.

0 Prune clematis, Virginia creeper, and other vining ornamentals.

0 Repair winter damage to trees and shrubs.

5thelementsalon.com 16 Oak Street #201 • Hood River 541-386-6555 THE GORGE MAGAZINE : WINTER 2017-18

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Ben Mitchell

OUR GORGE : LOCAVORE

A Mushroom Tale Science, biology and love are all rolled up together in the Columbia Mushroom Company STORY BY PEGGY DILLS KELTER • PHOTOS BY BEN MITCHELL AND COURTESY OF COLUMBIA MUSHROOM COMPANY

S

arah Resnick and Neil Brent might have one of the more unusual “how we met” stories. They were both working at Wyeast Laboratories, a company in Hood River County that provides fermentation products. One day, Neil invited his co-workers to his house to make a batch of home-brewed beer.

While Sarah enjoyed the beer making, it was the large green tarp hanging like a tent in the corner of Neil’s living room that drew her curiosity.

“Because it obviously wasn’t a normal piece of living room furniture, I had to ask Neil about it,” Sarah said. “He opened one side of the “greenhouse” to reveal the fruiting oyster mushrooms.” It was “enchanting” to see how mushrooms actually grow, Sarah recalled. “I think we often picture mushrooms

growing in the same manner as a carrot, so it was almost like magic to see a substrate-filled bag inside, bursting with flower-like fruits.”

Later, on one of their first “official” dates, Sarah helped Neil inoculate substrate blocks while sitting at Neil’s dining room table. (A substrate block is basically a log in a bag, combining sawdust, wood chips, and nutrients like spent grain to mimic a log in nature.) Fast forward a few more dates, and months of hard labor, and the Columbia Mushroom Company became a bona fide business in 2016. Today, the company produces and sells 50 pounds a week of delicious Technicolor mushrooms, with names like oyster, king, and pioppino.

Both Neil, 28, and Sarah, 25, were science majors in college. Neil graduated from Oregon State University with a degree in microbiology. He got interested in growing mushrooms when he took a class in mycology. Sarah is a Reed College graduate in biology. She wrote her thesis, which Neil describes as “amazing,” on growing yeast.

Ben Mitchell 26

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Celilo Restaurant and Bar Pacific Northwest cuisine with an emphasis on locally grown products, extensive wine list, and full bar.

What started as a hobby has turned into a business for Sarah Resnick and Neil Brent, opposite, who both bring a background in biology to the science of growing mushrooms. They grow many varieties of mushrooms, including pink oysters and tree oysters, above.

When the two share details about growing mushrooms, their conversations are filled with scientific terms that make a visitor’s head spin.

Neil got started growing mushrooms as a hobby. He bought cultures and equipment and began to figure out how to grow oyster mushrooms. He sold his first crops to friends and co-workers. Today, the business sells to stores and restaurants throughout the Gorge area.

The Columbia Mushroom Company reflects the couples’ extensive knowledge of microbiology. In describing the process, Neil said, “Initially you have to be in a really clean, sterile environment. We work with HEPA filters. We don’t work with spores. We have our own cultures that we keep in the fridge on agar.” He says working with spores is like “playing Russian Roulette with genetics.”

“You could get an awesome cultivar that would make the most amazing mushrooms, or you could get something really sad,” he said. In their laboratory, the dirtiest thing in the room is the human being at work there.

Neil and Sarah have had to move their business a few times as it has grown — from living-room greenhouse, to a garage, to their current home and business located in a bucolic setting in the Hood River Valley. When searching for a permanent home, they looked long and hard for a place to buy, and told their realtor, “We don’t need 30 acres, we just need a big barn and as many outbuildings as you can get us.” That big barn, which was the last building salvaged from the town of Bonneville when the dam inundated it in the 1930s, has had many iterations in its long life — gas station, hay barn, home to a beefalo, and now a mushroom farm.

The barn houses the laboratory and rows and rows of inoculated substrate. The outbuildings, where the couple “fruit” their mushrooms, are salvaged shipping containers. Step inside one of the containers and you enter a fairyland of fabulous shapes and colors. Popping out of every plastic bag of substrate is a veritable forest of mushrooms.

In addition to their work as mushroom farmers, Neil and Sarah also have other jobs. Neil is the brewer at Big Horse Brew Pub in Hood River, and Sarah works as the brewer at Freebridge in The Dalles, and in the tasting room at Syncline Wine Cellars.

But the mushrooms are where their passion lies. “Columbia Mushroom Company is more than a job for both of us,” Sarah said. “It is also the property we live on, the conversations that keep us up late, and our overworked laundry machine. The hardest part about my role in Columbia Mushroom is that it sometimes disrupts the balance between work and home. When I get home from working at the brewery, often times Neil and I will make upwards of 100 substrate bags. During the week, this is how we spend time together and it means that sometimes the dishes don’t get done, or the dog hair collects on the floor for a few extra days.”

When they do get a chance to sit down together for a quiet dinner, they love to enjoy the “fruits” of their labor: mushrooms of course, sautéed with olive oil, garlic, salt and a little pepper.

Columbia Mushroom Company’s mushrooms can be purchased at the Farm Stand, at the weekly Hood River Farmer’s Market, and by contacting Neil or Sarah at columbiamushroom.com. As they continue to grow their business, they hope to offer classes at their farm. Watch their website for further information.

Peggy Dills Kelter is an artist and writer who lives in Hood River. She’s a frequent contributor to The Gorge Magazine.

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OUR GORGE : STYLE + DESIGN

Perfectly Imperfect

Talia Sanderson’s Star Route Press celebrates the unique beauty of letterpress printing STORY BY JANET COOK • PHOTOS BY KELLY TURSO

T

alia Sanderson’s spacious three-car garage has little room for vehicles. Instead, it’s filled with her table saws and power tools and displays of the hand-painted wood signs with custom frames that she makes. And one whole section — more than an SUV’s worth of space — is devoted to the crown jewel of the garage: a 1916 Chandler & Price letterpress.

“Someday, I’d like to have a separate shop and give my husband back his garage,” Sanderson says, sweeping an arm around the implements and products of her creativity. But for now, it’s all hers.

Surrounding the 1,800-pound letterpress are other historic relics of a bygone era of printing:

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a vintage wooden Hamilton type cabinet whose narrow drawers open to reveal collections of cast lead type pieces in many sizes and fonts; an historic composing table whose battered stone top speaks to an eon of print jobs prepared on it; and an array of bewildering letterpress tools with intriguing names like chases, quoins and furniture.

The cast iron letterpress itself, with its wheels and levers and plates and rollers, looks daunting to the uninitiated even when sitting silent. Sanderson cranks it up and it begins to churn with a steady clack and hum. It takes a little while for it to get warmed up, she explains. “These presses are all a little cranky,” she says fondly, brushing some colored ink onto the round ink plate.

Sanderson, an inveterate DIYer with a serious creative streak, was bitten by the letterpress bug a few years ago when she and her older sister, who was getting married, began looking at options for wedding invitations. She found some letterpress samples and fell in love. “The feeling of something printed with letterpress is so much different,” she says. “It has that tactile feel of the paper.” Letterpress is usually printed on heavy, soft paper that leaves an imprint you can feel. “It’s amazing that you have this press that was built a hundred years ago that does that better than anything they’re making now.”

Sanderson, a business major in college who worked as an accountant for 10 years, began learning everything she could about letterpress. She looked on Craig’s List for presses and eventually found one in Seattle — a smaller version of the one she has now. With no formal training — “It’s a matter of getting your hands dirty,” she says — Sanderson began printing wedding invitations and stationery for friends and others who found out about her through word-of-mouth. She also sold some of her products on Etsy. “It was very part time,” she says. After her daughter was born last winter, Sanderson decided to pursue her letterpress work more seriously.

Sanderson named her company Star Route Press after the rural route where she grew up in Sherman County. She likes how it ties in with the Postal Service. “People don’t send things through the mail

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celebrate every day...

Talia Sanderson creates greeting cards, wedding invitations and other custom print jobs on her 1916 Chandler & Price letterpress, above. She uses soy ink and recycled paper in her work.

much anymore,” she says. “When you get a card in the mail, it’s special. It shows you someone took the time to do that.” Sanderson makes a variety of greeting cards with fun sayings and images on them designed just for that.

Those customs from generations past also inform her letterpress work.

The process is time-consuming. For a run of 100 wedding invitations, for example, each one must be placed in the letterpress individually and printed, then removed and the next one placed. And the press can only print one color at a time, so if a second color is used, the plates and rollers must be meticulously cleaned before starting a new color.

By its nature, letterpress printing is imperfect. One-hundred-year-old metal plates often have nicks and other defects in them; likewise old lead type. “You’re not choosing letterpress because you want everything to be exact,” Sanderson says. “It’s temperamental. People who get it know that.”

The tedious process, the creativity and the imperfections are all things Sanderson loves about letterpress printing. It also appeals to her affinity for “old stuff,” she says. Her parents were avid antique collectors and she grew up valuing old treasures and loving the stories behind them.

She points to cigarette burns in her old type cabinets — one of which she acquired from The Oregonian — and muses that most of the newspaper’s typesetters back in the day probably smoked as they worked, setting endless rows of lead type for the next day’s paper. She opens a drawer of type and explains how the cabinets were organized, with the most commonly used letters placed where they were the most easily accessible.

Sanderson has everything she needs for her letterpress printing, but she still loves to peruse Craig’s List for old letterpress paraphernalia. “It’s the constant battle,” she says, laughing. “I want to buy this thing because it’s so cool, but can I justify it?” Sometimes people who know she does letterpress come to her with items; recently a friend who ended up with a bunch of old lead type from the former Paris Fair building in Hood River called her and asked her if she wanted it. She happily took it to add to her collection.

The busier she gets, however, the less time she has for browsing antique letterpress equipment. With winter comes next summer’s brides-to-be planning their wedding invitations. And there’s the continual updating and building inventory of her greeting cards and hand-made signs.

“Every project is kind of its own little bear,” Sanderson says. “It’s fun to take a modern spin on something that’s been around for hundreds of years.

I love the juxtaposition of different generations.”

For more information, go to starroutepress.com.

310 Oak Street, Downtown Hood River 541.386.7069 chemistryjewelry.com 310 Oak Street, Downtown Hood River

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OUR GORGE : EXPLORE

Oneonta Gorge Winter offers a thrilling view of the famous slot canyon STORY AND PHOTOS BY RICK WHITE

I

remember listening to an experienced chess player describe what it’s like for him to play a game. He said that when he plays, the first 20 or so moves are automatic, meaning he’s done them many times before. It isn’t until after that, for him, that the real game starts. In other words, a game doesn’t start with the first moves but rather when the game becomes unique. I don’t play chess, but I’ve thought about his statement several times since then, and I feel his insights parallel my experience with photography.

Living in Portland, there are hundreds of amazing photography opportunities. In a single day, for example, a photographer can drive 80 minutes east to photograph Mount Hood’s peak and its reflection in Trillium lake, then catch a dozen waterfalls in the Columbia Gorge, and finish the day by going west to Cannon Beach to photograph Haystack Rock at sunset. At some point, for me, all of these opportunities began to feel like those first 20 chess moves. Don’t get me wrong, I love those locations and have photographed them many times, but I can set my camera settings and visualize all of the possible compositions before I even park the car. Imagine

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that chess player never playing past the first 20 moves, or worse, always playing a game he’s seen before. That’s how I’ve started to feel about these locations.

Personally, coming home with a nice image is only part of the goal. For me, my primary objective is being original, just like that chess player. I crave the feeling of walking up to a scene and not having any idea what to expect. And more than anything, I want to look at my pictures and say to myself, “Now that was an awesome day.” Last January, I had one of those days, and I’ll never forget it.

Both my brother, Stephen, and I are Portland-area teachers. During the crippling snowstorm last January we had several days of no school. On one of those days I gave Stephen a call, told him I was on my way to pick him up and that he should dress warmly. I put chains on my tires, threw a bunch of clothes, two pairs of fly fishing waders and my camera equipment in the back of my truck and off we went. Our destination: Oneonta Gorge.

I had been to Oneonta Gorge a couple of times, but this was different. With the recent snow and temperatures well below freezing for several days, I knew we were going to experience the normally mossy green canyon in a way that few had ever seen it before. For those who’ve been into Oneonta, you know that there are only two major obstacles separating you from the 100-foot waterfall. The first is the logjam, which serves as a gate to the slot canyon. Over the years, about a hundred fallen trees have piled up at the entrance, and at times — especially after it’s rained — it can be difficult to pass.

This time, fortunately, the logjam wasn’t any more difficult than usual. Once past it, we saw that the narrow canyon — usually lined with weeping walls of water dripping hundreds of feet into a knee-high stream — was now trimmed by long, beautiful ice chandeliers. Those first few minutes, in near disbelief and amazement, Stephen and I couldn’t help but run our fingers along the icy walls.

Past the logjam, the water was just about waist high — a little deeper than the last couple of times I had been there. The surface was mostly mushy ice, like a snow cone, and beneath this layer were two or three feet of fast flowing water. Within the first few minutes, Stephen slipped and most of his body, including both hands, went into the freezing water. As any good brother would do, I laughed. And

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then, not a minute later, I did the same thing. Our gloves were now useless and our hands were so cold and numb it would have been easy to turn back. But we were too curious to see what the waterfall looked like, so we continued on, forging up the stream toward the second obstacle.

Right before the big opening to the falls the water gets deep, sometimes as high as 6 or 7 feet. I knew this part was coming and was nervous that we might need to turn around. Had we been wearing dry suits, I wouldn’t have been too concerned.

But if water got above our wader bibs, the situation could be very bad. Fortunately, as the water got deeper, the ice got thicker. It soon became clear that the remainder of our river trek would involve walking on the ice, just above the deep river.

After a stressful minute or two walking on the thin, cracking ice, we found ourselves staring directly at the misty veil of Oneonta Falls. The potential for capturing great images was overwhelming. We weren’t at Trillium Lake or Multnomah Falls. As far as I knew, this scene, in these conditions, had never been photographed before, which made me both excited for the opportunity but also anxious at the same time. I reminded myself of something my mom, a retired photography teacher, had told me many years before: there is more than one right answer.

I took my camera out of my dry bag, attached it to my tripod and placed it in the frigid water. At that moment, I felt like the chess player. I was a hundred moves into this game, and matched up against a worthy opponent.

Rick White is a teacher at Catlin Gabel School in Portland, and a photographer. To view his photos, go to rickwhitephotography.com

After days of snow and freezing temperatures, Oneonta Gorge offered a thrilling adventure for Stephen and Rick White, opposite inset. The normally moss covered walls of the slot canyon were covered in ice. The men made their way first through slush and then on top of thin but solid ice to reach Oneonta Falls at the end of the gorge.

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OUR GORGE : WINE SPOTLIGHT

Stoltz Winery

A boutique winery located in Hood River’s oldest house creates small batches of unique wines STORY BY DON CAMPBELL • PHOTOS BY PALOMA AYALA

A

n unholy rain beats the Columbia River Gorge with an unnatural, pre-winter fury. It follows in the wake of the hellacious Eagle Creek Fire that roared through 50,000 acres, threatened countless communities and all but totally halted commerce due to fire threat, endless smoke and forest damage. The pounding storm — which would have provided a blessed dousing during the fire’s run — ironically now threatens soil stability and nudges potential landslides down steep Gorge walls.

That impression made the walk from car to Stoltz Winery’s cozy confines on a late-fall Saturday somehow solemn, yet a shade hopeful. John Stoltz, namesake and half of the team along with son and winemaker Garrit Stoltz, greets me in the dark-wood and warm foyer of the building he’s owned since the mid-‘80s in downtown Hood River, where their sublime and totally unique wines are concocted and sold.

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The tasting room is quiet, save for John and Erin Grover, a cheerful presence at the ready behind an array of Stoltz wine bottles. I am ready for happiness in a glass. We are within the oldest house in downtown Hood River, John tells me.

Known as the Mansion on the Hill, it was built in 1886 by Ezra Smith, a prominent citizen, banker and early commercial apple grower who helped finance much of the early construction in Hood River.

The building later became the Anderson Funeral Home, lasting from the ‘20s until 1967 (and leaving behind a few spirits to inhabit the place, likely including one Harriet Merservy, who died in 1944 and was buried on the property and commemorated with a rose-colored headstone).

Stoltz picked up the property in 1986, after relocating to the Gorge in 1981, and before retiring from a career in the aerospace and oil industries in the mid-2010s.

Son Garrit, according to John, developed a taste and a knack for making elderberry wine in

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Stoltz Winery’s cozy tasting room provides a storied setting for the small, boutique winery. Owner John Stoltz, opposite and above, is often behind the bar pouring tastes and telling patrons about the house’s former iterations as a mansion built by one of Hood River’s early prominent citizens and later a funeral home.

his adolescence and chased the dream of becoming a winemaker, after college and the Marine Corps, with a foray to South Africa and the Hamilton Russell Winery, known for its fine wines.

“He had a great experience in South Africa,” John says. He came back here and worked at various wineries, including the former Pheasant Valley, and talked his father into trying their own. “We’re still experimenting,” he says.

And by that he means they’re doing boutique, artisan and handcrafted wines in small batches using largely Columbia Gorge AVA-grown grapes and rare and lesser-known varietals. “We’re still trying to figure it out,” he says with smile. “We’re trying different things.”

Some 2,000 square feet of the 7,000-square-foot mansion is in the basement and is where the 100 to 125 cases a year of Stoltz wine gets made (and where the irony of crush, barreling and bottling in the same place funereal services were once executed is not lost on John). Their style, he says, “is reminiscent of France 100 or 200 years ago. It’s non-mechanical, no stainless steel, in the old traditional way of doing it. Subsequently our costs are low.”

Their work with specialty grapes renders some interesting offerings.

“We use grapes no one else uses,” he says. They co-ferment a Sauvignon Blanc and Grenache in neutral French oak barrels for a playful chilled wine they call Pink. Their best seller, Primitivo, is a mature, rich, Italian-style red akin to Zinfandel, with grapes that come from nearby Mosier. John calls it a “banquet” wine, meaning it tends to be savored and sipped, with muscular fruit tannins and a spectacular finish. And the robust Sagrantino is made with grapes from the only known American vineyard to grow this ancient Umbria varietal.

The winery does little marketing and has no distribution or wine club.

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OUR GORGE : WINE SPOTLIGHT

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Stoltz Winery produces only 100-125 cases of wine a year in a manner “reminiscent of France 100 or 200 years ago,” according to John Stoltz. Crush, barreling and bottling are all done in the winery’s basement. Stoltz’s bestseller is Primitivo, a rich Italian-style red.

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and spectacular wines. “We’re not interested in competing,” John says. “That requires a certain level of capital investment. We’re perfectly happy here. Our goal is to always do new wines.”

Word spreads, one assumes, after the first sip. This is a winery that’s not afraid to take chances. Erin Grover helped with Hood River’s first Wine Walk, under the aegis of the Hood River Wine Alliance, an organizationally better fit for the small winery than the larger Columbia Gorge Winegrowers Association, and a group Grover actively participates in on behalf of Stoltz.

“I find an incredible authenticity in these wines,” says Grover, whose husband is a brewer at Hood River’s popular pFriem Family Brewers. “I feel incredibly honored to be here. There’s something romantic about this operation.”

Though, like many businesses in the Gorge, Stoltz Winery suffered through the Eagle Creek Fire, and visitor counts fell dramatically during the early fall forest catastrophe, the tasting room will stay open weekends as long as possible into December and even January, weather-permitting. The winery will unleash new wines next year, handmade from small batches of unknown and little-known grapes.

And this singular downtown winery will continue to fly in the face of convention and trend when it comes to creating wine that begs for new superlatives.

For more information, go to stoltzwinery.com

Don Campbell is a writer and musician. He lives in Mosier and Portland and is a frequent contributor to The Gorge Magazine.

RIVERSIDE EARNS WINE SPECTATOR AWARD For the seventh year in a row, Riverside has been honored for its outstanding wine program in Wine Spectator’s 2017 Restaurant Awards. The restaurant, located at the Best Western Plus Hood River Inn, is recognized with an Award of Excellence among other winners from around the globe as a top destination for wine lovers.

The 2017 award indicates Riverside’s wine list features “a well-chosen selection of quality producers, along with a thematic match to the menu in both price and style,” according to magazine. The award gives a specific nod to Riverside’s strong Oregon and Washington inclusions, as well as its inexpensive selections. Riverside typically offers 120 selections, while maintaining an inventory of over 1,200 bottles.

“As the Columbia Gorge AVA grows in size and diversity, Riverside gains more opportunity to enhance its wine list with regional vintages,” said Carl McNew, wine director. “It’s been a fun and rewarding role to bring this great selection to Riverside’s diners.” For more information, go to riversidehoodriver.com.

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THE GORGE WAS INDELIBLY CHANGED BY THE EAGLE CREEK FIRE, BUT IN TIME, LIFE WILL RETURN TO ITS FORESTS

WORDS BY CHRISTOPHER VAN TILBURG + PHOTOS BY JÃœRGEN HESS

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HE NAMES ARE MELODIOUS AND LOVELY — PURPLE COLUMBIA GORGE DAISY, PINK SMOOTH-LEAF DOUGLASIA, WHITE HOWELL’S DAISY, VIOLET COLUMBIA KITTENTAILS, YELLOW LONG-BEARDED HAWKWEED, WHITE OREGON SULLIVANTIA, PURPLE BARRETT’S PENSTEMON. THESE SEVEN ENDEMIC WILDFLOWERS OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER GORGE CREATE A KALEIDOSCOPE OF COLOR.

The birds bring a tune, too: noisy rat-a-tat Lewis’s woodpeckers, whooshing American kestrel which land and nest in sky-reaching dead snags, and the water ouzel, also known as the American dipper or Cinclus mexicanus, which nest around waterfalls and are known for their bobbing knee bends in creeks, zipping above the water, and diving to see what’s underwater.

This raucous and colorful forest will return someday. But for now, the scorched, blackened, bulldozed earth is quiet and somber.

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AFTER THE FIRE

FIRE

T

he events of Sept. 2, 2017, were unthinkable, sad and infuriating.

Teenagers were reportedly igniting fireworks a mile up the Eagle Creek Trail, one of the most popular trails in the Gorge. First a spark, a wisp of smoke, then flames. The fire came in hot, suddenly, violently.

The blaze engulfed the parched forest instantly and quickly became a conflagration. It would forever change the landscape of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area and the Mark O. Hatfield Wilderness of the Mount Hood National Forest.

Earlier that day, hundreds of day hikers left their cars at the Eagle Creek trailhead, many in flip flops and T-shirts, and meandered up the trail to the spectacular Punchbowl Falls and beyond. The blaze then trapped them. The Hood River County Sheriff ’s Office, U.S. Forest Service, Oregon National Guard, and Hood River-based Crag Rats Mountain Rescue mobilized and saved

nearly 150 people trapped by the growing inferno. The hikers had to spend a long night on the trail, and, with the help of rescuers, hike miles south through the wilderness to emerge at Wahtum Lake, where buses met them.

And then the fire exploded. It traveled 13 miles in one night, all the way to Corbett. Within days it merged with the Indian Creek Fire, which had been burning in the Hatfield Wilderness since July 4. The Eagle Creek Fire eventually grew to nearly 50,000 acres. The Joint Incident Command, a cooperative of the Oregon State Fire Marshal, Oregon Department of Forestry and the U.S. Forest Service, called in a Type I Incident Command team, the most skilled in the nation. More than 1,000 fire personnel, a dozen aircraft — both fixed wings and helicopters — two UAV companies, a fleet of vehicles and scores of public safety officials from all over the West worked for two solid weeks.

The fire burns on Benson Plateau, southeast of Cascade Locks, on the night of Sept. 4, top left. Spot fires dot Shellrock Mountain on Sept. 17, top right. A helicopter sucks water from the Columbia to drop on the fire, below left. A firefighting crew from Salem works to protect homes in Cascade Locks.

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The command base took over the Hood River County Fairgrounds. Interstate 84 closed — westbound for two weeks and eastbound for three. School was cancelled twice, businesses suffered, and evacuation notices were issued for Cascade Locks, Corbett and the western half of the city of Hood River.

Some Cascade Locks residents were shut out of their homes for more than a week. A freeway-wide fire line was cut for dozens of miles from Mitchell Point to Wahtum Lake. Thick acrid smoke filled the sky so that on several days, noon looked like dusk.

The rain finally came and the fire subsided, but took a long time to fizzle completely. The damage was extensive: the big tall Douglas fir trees; the thick rich green understory of Oregon grape, salal, poison oak, and western sword fern; rich chartreuse, lime, and jade colored moss; wispy old man’s beard lichen dripping from tree boughs; the historic Oneonta Tunnel; beloved hiking trails, including Eagle Creek and Tanner Creek; the roadside foliage which kept the Portland commute so beautiful — much of it destroyed.

Multnomah Falls Lodge was spared due to the vigilant attention of structural firefighters dousing the lodge with water. But the surrounding hills, cliffs, and canyons were scorched — especially the upper reaches that are out of sight. Much of the damage will be long lasting. And now, with winter, comes the potential for landsides, log jams, rock fall, and falling burned snags.

Flames roar up a ridge above Eagle Creek on Sept. 3. Fanned by Gorge winds, the fire initially spread east, then exploded to the west — traveling 13 miles in one night. A teenager is suspected of igniting the wildfire on Sept. 2 after throwing fireworks into the forest from the Eagle Creek Trail.

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AFTER THE FIRE

A helicopter flies above the fire, left. At right, a burned area at Ainsworth State Park Wayside on the Historic Columbia River Highway, and the remains of the Historic Highway trail east of John Yeon State Park, inset. ODOT crews create mulch from burned hazard trees that were removed from roadsides, below.

SUCCESSION

W

e’ve had fire before in these parts. We are not immune to or ignorant of wildfires. Uncannily, we’ve had a similar fire. The Yacolt Burn ran from Sept. 8-12, 1902, after being started in Eagle Creek by two boys burning a bee’s nest. That fire combined with smaller fires started by campers, lightning and a train, and jumped the river into southwest Washington. The Yacolt Burn incinerated 240,000 acres, caused 65 deaths from the Gorge to Lewis River, Wash., and dropped a half-inch of ash on Portland. Years later the infamous Tillamook Burn was a series of fires from 1933 to 1951 that burned 350,000 acres in the Coast Range west of Portland; it was later replanted with 72 million seedlings. And the Great Fire of 1910 in Washington, Idaho and Montana killed 87 people and burned 3 million acres.

So what good can come of this fire business? This is the question we ask, as we seek to put a positive spin on the destruction and desolation. Fire does a bit of forest housekeeping. Smaller fires consume excess fuel, ostensibly self-limiting future fires from becoming too large. Crown fires remove overhead

THE ANDREW’S EXPERIENCE

vegetation in the canopy, allowing more water and sunlight to reach lower plants. Ground fires clear the understory of dead, non-native monoculture and diseased plants which may be consuming or overtaking an area. Fire bolsters the soil with nutrients, provides habitat for animals and birds that like to nest in dead snags. And at least one local conifer, the Pacific Northwestnative lodgepole pine, needs fire to release seeds from its cones.

Nonetheless, fire is not something we ask for or want.

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Have

MORE THAN A MEETING.

Create A PRODUCTIVE RETREAT

MITIGATION

S

o what does all this mean? Despite the 50,000 acres of destruction in one of the most beautiful places on earth — our home — we now must find beauty in what we have, search for solace in places that have changed, and look ahead to forest recovery. We need to get to work.

Post-fire work has already started, including shoring up the I-84 barriers to help prevent landslides and removing dead and burned trees at risk for falling onto the road. I-84 is a top priority and may have cyclical closures due to extensive repairs and mitigation of treefall and mudslides, according to the Oregon Department of Transportation. Sandbags and containers shore up the retaining walls, trees are being felled, and roadway and guardrails are being repaired.

Soon after the fire subsided, a multiagency Burn Area Emergency Response Team (BAER) provided a report to the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area administration. This included valuable maps and recommendations. Public Affairs Officer Rachel Pawlitz said this report is to focus on immediate and short-term actions to initially “prevent further damage and to protect people and property.”

Long-term rehabilitation will follow, but is a long way off. “We know that Eagle and Tanner creeks were two of the most affected,” Pawlitz said. The trees along the freeway are a blend of burned and green trees, but higher up in those respective watersheds, the foliage is decimated. “The glue that holds the soil together is gone,” she said. The lack of moss and other vegetation will lead to landslides, flash floods, falling snags, log jams — this can be potentially dangerous and quite unpredictable with the freeze-thaw cycle of winter. “It’s a matter of when, not if,” said Pawlitz, describing the destabilized slopes and the risk of landslides.

The BAER team recommendations will provide the first steps for risk assessment and recommendations for safety. But the blueprint for recovery is a long way off.

The Westcliff Lodge now has meeting space available for up to 30 attendees and 57 guest rooms to choose from.

R

For more information call Dago at 541-386-2992 westclifflodge.com

4070 Westcliff Dr., Hood River, OR

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THE GORGE GREEN CROSS The first licensed dispensary in the Gorge since 2014

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hen forest rejuvenation finally does start, it may include salvage logging, erosion control, slash burning, replanting, spraying for noxious weeks, managing potential insect pests, burning debris, and, of course, repairing trails. Many of the trails that we love may be closed for a long time. Some may not reopen, others may not be recognizable when they are repaired, rerouted and restructured. Eagle Creek will certainly be different. But it’s really too early to tell; answers may take months.

The long-term outlook is not too bleak, actually, as the after-fire cycle rejuvenates and replenishes the forest. Burned snags turn to silver ones. Wildflowers and grasses return. Animals nest in the dead logs and snags. Young conifer seedlings poke up through the duff. Take one look at the popular Tilly Jane Trail, which bisects part of the Gnarl Ridge Burn of 2012, and you can see the beauty of transformation.

First, ephemerals or forbs — fast growing leafy flowering plants like wildflowers — cover the burned forest, including purple lupine, yellow arrowleaf balsamroot, and pink fireweed. Ephemerals may be short lived, but they germinate quickly, produce more seeds, and start the renewal cycle quickly. Bunch grasses like blue bunch wheat grass soon follow, establishing root systems and helping to protect against erosion.

Then trees come back. First, those that are small, slow growing, and use fewer resources like salal.

Then come hardwoods like vine maple, white oak and dogwood, which bring shade and drop leaves in the fall, decomposing to add fodder for more plants. Eventually the conifers return: our signature tree, the ubiquitous Douglas fir, along with western red cedar, mountain hemlock, silver fir, lodgepole pine and Pacific yew.

The animals come back, too. Initially, snags house woodpeckers, jays and kestrels, as well as nuthatches, flickers and wrens. Small animals like chipmunks, squirrels and skunk are followed by deer, bear and cougar.

For all the destruction the Eagle Creek Fire caused, we were lucky in that no lives were lost and only a very few buildings destroyed. Consider the other forces of nature that hit around the same time: hurricanes

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Jürgen Hess PHOTOGRAPHY

LANDSCAPE/NATURE • WILDFIRE ENVIRONMENTAL/CONSERVATION ISSUES PHOTOJOURNALISM

q Penstemon blooms among burned logs, opposite, and attracts bees, below, a year after a Mount Adams fire. An Oregon white oak sprouts from the base of a burned tree, above, months after a fire east of Hood River. A hole made by a black-backed woodpecker feeding on insects a year after a Mount Adams fire, inset.

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battered the Caribbean and southeastern U.S.; an earthquake killed hundreds and injured thousands in Mexico; and wildfire tore through Northern California, killing dozens and destroying thousands of homes and buildings.

For us here in the Gorge, our forest and its ecosystem will return. But it will take time. With a little luck, the first of the wildflowers will return in the spring, a telltale sign that it’s on its way.

Christopher Van Tilburg is the author of “Mountain Rescue Doctor: Wilderness Medicine in the Extremes of Nature” and “Search and Rescue Stories: A Mountain Doctor’s Tales of Risk and Reward.” He lives in Hood River and is a frequent contributor to The Gorge Magazine.

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the

GORGE PHOTOS BY

Ken Lucas Monica Bassett Richard Hallman

Richard Hallman

Ken Lucas

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Ken Lucas kiteboards at the Hood River Sandbar on a bluebird winter day, top inset, and skis on top of the world — or at least the Gorge, bottom inset. Monica Bassett makes some powder turns on Burdoin Mountain at sunset.

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MAKING TRACKS IN AN EXTRAORDINARY WINTER WONDERLAND LAST WINTER’S EXTENDED, LOW ELEVATION SNOW IN JANUARY AND FEBRUARY MADE LIVING IN THE GORGE, WELL, INTERESTING. SOME PEOPLE COMPLAINED, SOME HUNKERED DOWN FOR THE LONG HAUL, AND SOME CELEBRATED IT. OTHERS, LIKE UNDERWOOD RESIDENTS KEN LUCAS AND MONICA BASSETT, TOOK ADVANTAGE OF THE UNUSUAL SKIING AND KITESKIING CONDITIONS TO DO SOME SHREDDING CLOSE TO HOME.

Ken Lucas

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Monica Bassett

Burdoin Mountain provides the perfect setting for Ken Lucas to kiteski, above, and ski powder, below. The extended snowfall in the Gorge last winter provided weeks of fun in the snow without having to drive to the mountains.

Monica Bassett

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Carol@DonNunamaker.com RealEstateinTheGorge.com HoodRiverProperties.com

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Ken Lucas takes a break from skiing to take in the wintry view of the Gorge from a tree swing on Hospital Hill above White Salmon, above. Monica Bassett hikes on Burdoin Mountain to earn some more turns, below.

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JFoto

OUTSIDE

‘The Meadows’ Turns 50 The ski resort’s 50th anniversary offers a chance to look back at five decades of Gorge-area skiing STORY BY JANET COOK • PHOTOS COURTESY OF MT. HOOD MEADOWS

I

t’s hard to imagine now, but skiing in the Hood River area once consisted mostly of some hardfought terrain at the far reaches of the upper Hood River Valley. As early as the 1920s, a ski run known as the Hutson Brothers Rope Tow was located not far from the Cooper Spur Junction. Close by was Jump Hill, which later became the Cooper Spur Ski Area. The nearby Homestead Inn, with its massive fireplace for warming, also attracted skiers, and the flat meadow below it was the site of many “snow games,” according to lifelong Hood River resident Bill Pattison.

But Pattison and a crew of Hood River Valley skiers longed for more. “We knew we were looking for a bigger area than Cooper Spur,” Pattison said.

In the early 1960s, the U.S. Forest Service announced that it would award a 30-year permit to the winning proposal for a ski area on the southeast flank of Mount Hood. Pattison and some fellow skiers (many of whom were members of the Hood River Crag Rats, the oldest search and rescue organization in the country) began exploring 48

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The terrain at Mt. Hood Meadows has greatly expanded since opening day in January 1968, when Olympic skier Gretchen Fraser made the inaugural run, opposite bottom. A newspaper clipping from the time shows the original ski area map. The main parking lot on a crowded spring day in 1969, above left. Installation of the Texas chair towers in 1974, above right.

the proposed permit area — terrain they were familiar with from their own backcountry ski trips on the mountain. Calling themselves Hood River Meadows Ski Corp., the group submitted a proposal, complete with a financial and management plan, to the forest service in early 1966.

The Hood River team, as history shows us, did not win the permit. It went to Portland businessman Franklin Drake whose company, Mt. Hood Meadows Oreg., Ltd., went on to create Mt. Hood Meadows, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this winter.

The Hood River skiers may have lost their bid to build the ski area, but when Mt. Hood Meadows was preparing to open in January 1968, it was many of those same skiers to whom the mountain’s management turned for patrolling and ski instructing expertise.

Dick Pooley, a Hood River local, was in charge of training for the Mt. Hood Meadows ski patrol.

Knowing the skills of his Hood River buddies, Pooley encouraged a group of them to attend a day of patrol tests at the mountain. Pattison was among them and he remembers that rainy day in early January 1968. “We rode the Blue Chair up and skied down South Canyon,” Pattison recalled. The tests mostly involved ski ability and strength. “We all had the ability to parallel ski, and that was kind of a big deal at the time.” Of the eight patrollers who passed that day, six of them were from Hood River. They joined the all-volunteer patrol and went on to undergo training with the “akia” — then a new type of rescue toboggan that originated in Finland — and first aid.

Mt. Hood Meadows staged an official grand opening on Friday, Jan. 26, 1968, when some 200

dignitaries were invited to watch as Gretchen Fraser, the first American skier to win an Olympic gold medal in 1948, made the inaugural run. A lunch in the newly constructed lodge followed. The next day, the Meadows — as Mt. Hood Meadows was known during its early years — officially opened to the public.

Along with its Hood River-heavy ski patrol, the Meadows ski school was led first by Hood River resident Dick Ewald, and then, for years, by René Farwig, also from Hood River and a former Olympic

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OUTSIDE

The Mt. Hood Meadows base area during the ski area’s early years. The lodge consisted of what’s now the South Lodge, and the area had two chairlifts: Blue and Yellow.

Marketing design by

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skier. Farwig built up the ski school programs and reputation, and by the mid-1970s, more than 15,000 school-age kids were coming to the mountain each weekend — many from schools around the region with ski teams using Meadows for their training facilities. Farwig also helped create a summer race camp program, and the U.S. Ski Team made Meadows its official summer training site.

The 1970s saw much expansion at Meadows, with the construction of the Texas chairlift, which nearly doubled the area’s skiable terrain and provided access to a wide expanse of above-tree line skiing (the Texas chair was later replaced by Cascade Express, which went even higher), and the creation of the Hood River Meadows base area and lift, which was convenient for Gorge skiers who no longer had to drive to the main lot.

In 1979, with Meadows running the largest ski school in the Northwest, the Buttercup chairlift was installed. It became the place where tens of thousands of skiers and snowboarders took their first chairlift ride. On the other end of the spectrum, Heather Canyon opened a few years later, offering skiers and snowboarders some of the steepest and most challenging in-area terrain in the Northwest.

In the 50 years since opening day in 1968, Mt. Hood Meadows has grown from some 150 skiable acres, accessed by two chairlifts, to more than 2,150 acres and 11 lifts — six of them high-speed quads. The area’s highest lift, Cascade Express, rises to 7,300 feet, and skiers can hike an additional 1,700 feet to the top of Super Bowl, allowing skiing from the 9,000-foot level on Mount Hood.

The area continues to be a family-friendly ski resort, and this year Meadows will open the season with a brand new quad chairlift replacing the old Buttercup double chair. “This is the most significant improvement for beginners since Buttercup was originally installed back in the ‘70s,” said Dave Tragethon, vice president of marketing and sales for Meadows. The new lift features a “loading carpet,” a conveyor that skiers step on which matches their speed to the incoming chair. The loading carpet also has an automated height adjustment that can elevate a skier up to four inches, making it easier for kids to get on the chairlift.

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JFoto

The Ballroom Carpet was the first covered conveyor in the Northwest when it was installed in 2008, and continues to be a popular place for beginning skiers and snowboarders.

Other improvements to the ski resort this year include a renovated lodge at the Hood River Meadows base area, with seating inside for 42 (up from 18) and a bigger food selection. In addition, the Hood River Express chairlift will open a half-hour early on peak days — meaning most weekends in January and February, as well as some additional high-traffic days.

Mt. Hood Meadows has come a long way from that opening season in 1968, when the area operated only on weekends. Bill Pattison and his family — including his two sons — spent every weekend there that year, and in the years ahead as Pattison continued to be a member of the ski patrol. It was bittersweet losing out on the bid to establish the ski area, Pattison said, but the creation of Mt. Hood Meadows opened up a whole new world of skiing for him and his friends and their families, whose passion for skiing on their backyard mountain has been passed down to generations of Gorge skiers since.

Mt. Hood Meadows hosts a 50th anniversary party on Saturday, Jan. 27 — 50 years to the day after it officially opened to the public. “It will be a huge party, with entertainment and fun activities for the entire family,” said Dave Tragethon, vice president of marketing for the ski resort. There will also be a drawing that day for the winner of a 50-year unlimited pass to Meadows. For more information on the ski area’s history and anniversary events, go to skihood.com.

Follow your feet to Footwise for cozy Haflinger slippers 100% Wool Felt Uppers

413 Oak St • Downtown Hood River Mon-Sat 10-6, Sun 11-5 541.308.0770

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Scott McMullen

ARTS + CULTURE

The Show Goes On

Paloma Ayala

The Granada Theatre, restored and re-opened, brings new life to downtown The Dalles STORY BY JANET COOK • PHOTOS BY PALOMA AYALA, SCOTT MCMULLEN AND COURTESY OF GRANADA THEATRE

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ntil a couple of years ago, Chuck Gomez was living happily in Watseka, Ill., a small town two hours south of Chicago near the Indiana border. He and his partner, Debra Liddell, had bought the dilapidated Watseka Theatre several years before and meticulously restored it to its Art Deco heyday. Gomez was busy booking musical acts and other shows into the theater, and working to maintain the historic 1931 structure.

But life couldn’t leave well enough alone for Chuck Gomez. A childhood friend of Debra’s who lived in Glenwood, Wash., paid them a visit and, after she and her husband saw the theater, mentioned another old theater they knew of that needed fixing up. Gomez, a lover of all things theater who describes himself as “kind of an animated individual,” couldn’t help himself. Soon, he and Liddell were on a plane heading to Oregon to take a look for themselves at the Granada Theatre in The Dalles.

Built less than two years before their beloved Watseka Theatre, the Granada opened on March 6, 1929.

“There were little theaters being built all over America just before the Depression,” Gomez said. Architect William Cutts of Portland, who drew plans for approximately 60 theaters for the Universal Film Corporation, designed the Granada. Built during the heyday of silent films, the theater was equipped with a pipe organ but also was wired for cutting-edge VitaPhone and MovieTone sound systems in preparation for the rise of “talkies.” The Granada was one of the first theaters west of the Mississippi River to be built with a sound system installed.

The theater was designed in the Moorish Revival Art Deco style, a somewhat rare take on the fashionable Art Deco movement that swept the U.S. after World War I. The Moorish Revival architectural style had been popular since the mid-1800s, arising from the ubiquitous fascination with the Far East. The melding of the two styles took form particularly in theaters across the U.S.

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Paloma Ayala Paloma Ayala

The Granada Theatre drew a crowd during opening weekend in November, opposite top. Owners Chuck Gomez and Debra Liddell, opposite inset, restored many original theater details — even bringing in an early 20th century projector. A historic photo, above, shows the original marquis.

The Granada Theatre located on bustling 2nd Street, was the cultural center of The Dalles, helping residents weather the Great Depression with talkies and other community performances. Hollywood stars — including Judy Garland — even made occasional appearances at the Granada in the 1930s. At the front of the theater was The Siberian Cream, an ice cream shop that featured soft-serve.

The theater was remodeled after World War II, when an exterior ticket booth was added outside the entrance and the original small wrap-around marquis and vertical Granada sign were replaced with a large neon marquis. Through the next decades, the Granada’s use waxed and waned, with movies, live entertainment and musical performances interspersed with periods of closure. Some of the once vibrant Moorish and Art Deco architectural details were obscured or repainted in muted colors. Various retailers came and went in the former ice cream shop.

The Granada was purchased in 2010 by The Dalles Urban Renewal Agency, which hoped to make it a centerpiece of redevelopment in the downtown business district. Financial constraints prevented that, and last spring — after some false starts — the theater was sold to Gomez and Liddell.

The couple was taken with the Granada the first time they saw it, according to Gomez. It had a lot of similarities with their Watseka Theatre. “When we bought that, we didn’t really know what to do with it,” he said.

“But we started fixing it up and the more we worked on it, the more magical it became to us. We fell in love.”

Gomez is no stranger to the theater world. A trained saxophone player, he toured as a professional musician with several bands after college and also worked as a music teacher. He even worked a stint with Henson Associates, Inc., now known as the Jim Henson Company; his first trip to Portland in the 1980s was when he came to help install a Muppets exhibit at OMSI. Gomez has also worked in music and special events production, and is on staff at Columbia College Chicago as its special events producer.

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ARTS + CULTURE Paloma Ayala

The Granada Theatre was one of the first theaters to be built with a sound system, although when it opened in 1929 it also featured a pipe organ. Gomez installed a new sound system, but also put in a pipe organ to accompany stage productions.

The Watseka Theatre was far more run-down than the Granada when Gomez and Liddell bought it in 2007. Windows were broken and boarded up and there was standing water in the basement, according to Gomez. The couple went to work and within nine months, staged a New Year’s Eve opening gala. They’ve since built the Watseka into a successful small house theater, hosting big name musical acts like the Marshall Tucker Band, Ronnie Milsap and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. It also hosts community events in Watseka, population 5,000.

A subscription to the area’s premier lifestyle publication

When Gomez and Liddell toured the Granada on their first visit to The Dalles, they knew it was a perfect match. “We call this our long lost child that we finally found,” Gomez said. The couple took possession of the theater in March and immediately went to work, traveling frequently between Watseka and The Dalles.

The theater was essentially gutted, according to Gomez. All of the former seats were donated to a small theater, and Gomez worked to custom design new theater seats. He used his expertise from restoring his other theater to bring back Art Deco details, and researched Moorish Revival architecture to fill in the rest. Paint colors, both inside and out, closely match the original ones. Gomez even matched the original teal details on the outside of the building after finding an old paint chip.

The space where the Siberian Cream once was provided a perfect venue for a small café — a similar feature to Gomez’s Watseka Theatre, which includes a café and bar. The Granada’s Spotlight Café will serve a “Chicagothemed” menu, including sandwiches and pizzas. Gomez recreated the original floor in the cafe, after he found some leftover tiles in the basement.

The theater itself has been transformed, with Art Deco details like sconces and stage decorations. Along with new paint throughout, a massive mural on one wall was painted by Glenn Ness, one of the country’s leading muralists. Box seats line the sides of the theater and a pipe organ sits majestically at stage right.

Gomez and Liddell will have their hands full running two theaters half a country apart. But anyone who has met them knows it shouldn’t be a stretch.

The Granada opened to much fanfare in November, with a three-day gala that included a silent movie with organ accompaniment, a Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley tribute band, and an aerial arts performance.

“We have a true passion for this,” Gomez said. “Debra and I are a good team and we just have a ball.” He added that there may be people who love the Granada Theatre as much as he and Liddell do. “But nobody loves it more.”

For more information, go to granadatheatrethedalles.com

THE LAST NUTCRACKER

Subscribe now for only $19.99 (4 issues) or $29.99 (8 issues) 541.399.6333 // thegorgemagazine.com for more information The Gorge Magazine is published quarterly, new subscribers will receive the next available issue. If the post office alerts you that your magazine is undeliverable we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year.

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Filmmaker Michael Peterson’s recently released documentary film offers a behindthe-scenes look at the final season of the Columbia Gorge Dance Academy’s Scenes from the Nutcracker. The production was a holiday tradition in the Gorge for 19 years.

Peterson spent months filming rehearsals and interviews with individuals involved in the production in the lead-up to the final shows last December. The film showcases the many lives touched by the production over the years, and in its final, heartfelt season. The film is available on DVD, Blu-ray and Video on Demand at TheLastNutcracker.com.

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S P E C I A L

A D V E R T I S I N G

S E C T I O N

Discover Beautiful HOOD RIVER : OREGON

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HOOD RIVER COFFEE ROASTERS

APLAND JEWELERS

Hood River Coffee Roasters sells coffee to the public! Yes, the same flavorful and fresh coffees that we offer to fine restaurants, grocery stores, espresso bars and business offices is available to you, too. We are proud to be the Gorge’s premier roaster since 1990. Open MonThu, 9am-5pm and Fri, 9am-3pm.

Designers, goldsmiths, and craftsmen, we make and repair in our state-of-theart workshop. Ken Apland brings 38 years of experience as a goldsmith and gemologist, so whether you need to have old jewelry redesigned, an heirloom restored, or an entirely new design made we can create it using reclaimed metals and responsibly sourced gems.

1310 Tucker Rd • 541-386-3908 hoodrivercoffeeroasters.com

216 Oak Street • 541-386-3977 info@aplandjewelers.com

HOOD RIVER JEWELERS

KNOT ANOTHER HAT

We are artists and professional jewelers.

If you are looking for something special, we can custom design it. We work with silver, gold, platinum and more. We can use your stone or work with you to find the perfect stone for your needs.

Hood River Jewelers also carries beautiful timepieces, diamond jewelry and designer collections.

Got wool? At Knot Another Hat, you won’t just find beautiful yarns to knit or crochet, but also an amazing selection of one-of-a-kind hand knit garments and accessories for sale. Adults hats, scarves, shawls, hats for babies and children, women’s sweaters – all out of natural fibers like merino wool, alpaca, cotton, silk, even bison and angora! Stop by and see (and feel) for yourself today!

415 Oak Street • 541-386-6440 hoodriverjewelers.com

11 Third Street, #103 • 541-308-0002 knotanotherhat.com THE GORGE MAGAZINE : WINTER 2017-18

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Photos by Paloma Ayala

WELLNESS

Friends on the Move Two Hood River women have taken on aging in classic Gorge style — by staying active

STORY BY PEGGY DILLS KELTER • PHOTOS BY PALOMA AYALA AND COURTESY OF BARB SCHUPPE AND MIMI MACHT

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lthough Barb Schuppe, 82, and Mimi Macht, 74, are well into their Medicare years, don’t even think about describing them as elderly senior citizens without also using words such as athletic, intrepid, adventurous and strong. Since meeting in 1994, the two close friends have scaled mountains, cycled hundreds of miles, skied the backcountry, and hiked seemingly everywhere.

Both women have always been active. Barb was an avid rock climber, even returning to the sport after being hit in the head by a rock. After that, she says, “I got a helmet and painted it like my china pattern, but with a big crack in it.” She was a bike racer in her youth, surviving a multitude of crashes and winning time trials in Southern California. She’s continued to be an avid cyclist, participating in almost every Cycle Oregon since its inception, often riding 70 to 100 miles a day.

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Mimi took up cycling when her young sons began riding their bicycles on Hood River’s rural roads. To ensure their safety, she rode along. Her sons are now grown with families of their own; Mimi still enjoys riding those same rural roads.

She’s always loved to hike, and is considered a font of knowledge about the myriad trails in the Gorge. She’s been an avid cross-country skier for 40 years, and lured her sons into the sport when they were small by packing hot chocolate, cookies and fruit in her backpack.

The two women met when Barb, an artist, signed up for German lessons with Mimi, a local language teacher and editor. From the start, Barb could tell Mimi was fun — she tossed food at her students as she pronounced the German words for “lettuce” and “eggs.” Mimi’s students laughed at her engaging techniques, and never forgot the words their inventive teacher taught them.

As the German lessons progressed, the two women began to learn more about each other.

“Barb asked me if I had a bike,” Mimi recalls. “We

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ACCEPTING NEW PATIENTS!

Barb Schuppe and Mimi Macht, at left and right opposite, have been sharing outdoor sports and adventure in the Gorge for more than 20 years. During that time they’ve biked, hiked, skied and climbed mountains together — including reaching the summit of Mount Hood twice. They even spent a night huddled together in the Mount Hood Wilderness when they ran out of light on a hike.

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went up on Eastside Road for a ride. Somewhere in the conversation that day I said to Barb, ‘What I really like to do is hike. Hiking is where I recharge my battery.’ So, in addition to bicycling we started hiking together.”

Early on in their joint hiking adventures, the two ran out of light one November afternoon in the Mt. Hood National Forest. As the trail disappeared into darkness, the two decided it was dangerous to continue; they would stay put until morning, or until rescuers arrived. It was a cold, clear night. To keep warm, the new friends tried first to lay on the ground like two bananas.

“You either had your front warm or your back warm,” Barb recalls. When they realized that wasn’t working, they stood up and did jumping jacks. Rescuers arrived at 3 a.m. “It was very, very scary,” Mimi says. Barb adds, “For me, it was an adventure.” The experience forged a bond between the two women that has only been fortified by further adventuresome pursuits.

To celebrate Mimi’s 50th birthday, they climbed Mount Hood, then repeated the climb the following year. On a descent down the South Sister years ago, Barb tripped and broke her leg; Mimi ran 2 1/2 miles down the trail until she located help. They participated in Cycle Oregon together several times, and once rode their bikes from Hood River to Rhododendron, a small community on the other side of Mount Hood, as they listened to “Ode to Joy” blasting from the radio of their support vehicle. In the winter, you’ll often find their cars at a mountain sno-park, their ski tracks heading into the woods.

In addition to physical activities, Barb and Mimi enjoy collaborative creative pursuits. They often compose songs and poems as they ride. They performed this poem during Cycle Oregon one year.

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The duo has cut back on some of their activities, but they still ride their bikes nearly every day — including on the Historic Columbia River Highway east of Mosier, above. Over the years, they’ve composed poems and songs together, which they can often be heard singing on their rides. (Photos by Paloma Ayala)

I laugh at the wind It’s going my way Just ride along with it It has no say I’m flying on blacktop The silver wheels turn Peddling so easily The muscles don’t burn I am a goddess Not flesh and bone But I know it will end Cause I’ve got to go home.

Back into the wind…

Mimi and Barb still try to ride their bikes every day. A friend along their route calls them the Bumble Bee Bikers due to their brightly colored bike jerseys and their industrious energy. Mimi swims every day, and used to cycle at least 20 miles a day. Now, she says, “a 14-mile ride is perfect. I always feel better afterwards. I feel energized.”

Meanwhile, Barb, who heads south during the dreary Oregon winters, continues to put the miles on her bicycle. She can still ride the challenging Rowena curves, and she aspires to make it up to Lost Lake. Last year she rode a total of 2,800 miles; she hopes to tally 2,000 miles before the end of 2017.

It’s quite an accomplishment for an 82-year-old woman who’s had spinal surgery and has a pulmonary condition that would leave many flat on their backs.

Both women admit they’ve had to slow down as they get older. “There are still things we can do,” Mimi says. “We can’t climb Mount Hood and we can’t go on 18-mile hikes anymore, but we can do shorter rides. The trick is to be okay with scaling back because you’ve just got to keep going. You can’t just quit.”

Barb concurs. She also enjoys riding with athletic young women because “they put up with me and keep

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me going — they inspire me.” Today, she mentors other women in cycling.

“Cycling is a singular activity but I am a collaborative person,” she says. “I love to introduce people to the joys of riding.”

Some call them the Bumble Bees, but they call themselves “the goddesses of the silver wheels.” Listen carefully if you see them ride by; they may be singing their cycling song (sung to the tune of My Country ‘Tis of Thee).

We love to ride our bikes, We like to climb those hills.

We love to ride.

Won’t you come ride with me, Up to the highest tree, where we’ll be strong and free, Won’t you ride with me.

Pull on those Lycra shorts, Buckle that helmet tight, Clip in those shoes.

Legs must go round and round, You will not hear a sound, from these mighty biker babes, Who are tough as nails.

Peggy Dills Kelter is an artist and writer who lives in Hood River. She’s a frequent contributor to The Gorge Magazine.

Hood River • Portland • Oregon Coast NATUROPATHIC PRIMARY CARE• MASSAGE THERAPY CHIROPRACTIC CARE• LIFESTYLE AND HEALTH CO ACHING

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Healthy Change Klickitat Valley Health has been serving our community since 1949. Over the last several years we've been intentional about making some healthy changes in order to meet the evolving needs of our community today. We offer a complete spectrum of community healthcare from hospital and emergency services, to a family medicine clinic and even in-home health care.

We’ve chosen a new logo that symbolizes we are proudly local, intensively invested in our community and focused on supporting personal health.

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509.773.4022

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OUR GORGE : PARTAKE

Caramel Dutch Apple Pie RECIPE AND PHOTOS BY KACIE McMACKIN

Ingredients:

Pie Crust • 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour • 1 Tbsp sugar • 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt • 2 sticks very cold, unsalted butter, sliced • 1 Tbsp neutral oil • 3-5 tbsp ice water • 1 egg

Filling • about 3 lbs whole tart apples • zest of 1 lemon • 2 Tbsp lemon juice • 2 tsp ground cinnamon • 1 tsp ground nutmeg • 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour

Directions:

The Crust Whisk the flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Scatter in the butter and work with your hands for one minute to start to break it up. Dump onto a clean work surface. Roll the mess out with a rolling pin, scrape back together with a bench scraper, and roll again to get the butter into thin strips.

Put the dough back in the bowl and add 4 tablespoons of ice water and 1 of oil. Work together with your hands, adding more water as needed, just until it comes more together. Once it’s a nice, shaggy dough, dump it back on the counter. Roll it out again, then fold the top down halfway and fold the bottom up to cover the top. Repeat the last step twice more, scraping off the rolling pin as needed. Press the dough together and cut into two pieces — 1/3 and 2/3. Wrap both well in plastic wrap and place them in the fridge to chill for at least 1 hour.

The Caramel Combine sugar, water, and corn syrup in a large, heavy bottomed saucepan over medium high heat. Stir pretty constantly as the sugar melts, foams and bubbles, and finally starts to change color. Once it’s light golden, move the pan from the heat and continue to stir until it turns a deep amber color.

Immediately add in the butter and stir quickly to melt. Add in the heavy cream (the caramel will bubble up), stirring carefully and constantly. Add in the salt and stir until it’s dissolved. Carefully transfer the caramel to a glass container and allow it to cool.

The Filling Put the lemon zest and juice in a large bowl. Peel, core, and very thinly slice your apples, adding them to the bowl and tossing occasionally in the juice. Combine the cinnamon and nutmeg in a small dish and set aside.

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Caramel Sauce (Yield 1 1/4 cup) • 1 cup granulated sugar • 2 Tbsp water • 2 Tbsp corn syrup • 2/3 cup heavy cream • 4 Tbsp unsalted butter • 1 tsp kosher salt

Topping • 1 cup all-purpose flour • 1/2 cup sugar • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar • 1 tsp ground cinnamon • 3/4 tsp kosher salt • 1 stick cold, unsalted butter, roughly chopped

The Topping In another large bowl, combine the flour, sugars, and salt. Add the butter and, using your hands, knead the mixture together until the butter is mixed in and broken up into very small pieces.

Assembling Preheat your oven to 350ºF. Take 2/3 of dough from the fridge and roll out on a floured surface to about 1/4-inch thick. Transfer to a 9-inch pie dish. Trim, leaving about 1/2-inch excess, and crimp the edge.

Layer in your filling as follows. 1/3 of the apples. 2 tbsp caramel sauce.

Sprinkle in 1/3 of the spices. Sift over 1 1/2 Tbsp of flour. Repeat for the second layer. For the final layer add the final 1/3 of apples, 2 Tbsp of caramel, and the rest of the spices. It will be very high but don’t worry, it will cook down!

Add the topping (you may have a bit left over), patting it down to get it to stick. Roll out your final 1/3 dough on a floured surface to about 1/8-inch thick. Using a sharp paring knife cut out about 15 leaf shapes. Peel up the excess dough. Use the knife to score some details onto the leaves. Carefully place them, slightly overlapping, across half of your pie. Whisk together the egg with a splash of water and brush the exposed crust and pieces with it.

Baking Line a rimmed baking sheet completely with parchment paper. Place your pie on the parchment-covered sheet. IT WILL SPILL OVER and this will save your oven.

Bake your pie for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, rotating 180º every 15 minutes, and covering with foil once it’s deeply golden. Pie is done when a sharp knife or skewer can slide through the filling easily with no resistance.

Allow the pie to cool before slicing. Serve with softly whipped cream, or vanilla ice cream. Drizzle with the leftover caramel sauce if desired!

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This apple pie is as indulgent as it looks and it’s just the thing for your holiday table.

A flaky, buttery crust holds loads of tart apples sweetened with rich caramel and seasoned to perfection. And because during the holidays you shouldn’t have to make the difficult choice between topping your apple pie with a crumbly streusel or a flaky crust, this pie has a bit of both. Pick the tartest apples you can find; if you can only find sweet, cut back on the caramel. Helpful tools: a rolling pin, a bench scraper, a rimmed baking sheet, parchment paper, and a paring knife. Happy holidays and happy baking!

Kacie McMackin is a food blogger, writer and photographer at gorgeinthegorge.com. She is a frequent contributor to The Gorge Magazine.

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EAT + DRINK

BACKWOODS BREWING COMPANY 509-427-3412 • backwoodsbrewingcompany.com 1162 Wind River Hwy • Carson

541-374-8477 • bridgesidedining.com Exit 44 off I-84, Cascade Locks

Pizzeria • drafthouse theater • arcade • frozen yogurt It’s the pizza -25 years of authentic east coast thin crust pizza

Backwoods Brewing is family owned and located in Carson, WA. Established in 2012, we offer delicious beers, hand-made pizzas, outdoor seating, and welcome all ages.

Stunning views next to the Bridge of the Gods – Bridgeside (formerly Charburger) still serves tasty char-broiled burgers plus an extensive menu of breakfast items, chowders, fish & chips, fresh salad bar, sandwiches, and desserts. New name, new management, but historic charm and western artifacts remain. Serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

541-386-1448 • AndrewsPizza.com 107 Oak Street • Hood River

On-line ordering • Eat in • Take out • Delivery

Open daily: 11:30am-9pm

BRODER ØST

541-436-3444 • brodereast.com 102 Oak St. Suite 100 • Hood River Offering Nordic inspired breakfast and lunch to the gorge. Something new and exciting for the whole family to enjoy. Come try traditional recipes such as aebleskiver (danish pancakes), swedish meatballs, norwegian lefse (potato crepes) and lots more!

We look forward to serving you! #broderost

CLOCK TOWER ALES

541-705-3590 • clocktowerales.com 311 Union Street • Downtown The Dalles Located in historic downtown The Dalles. Clock Tower Ales is the family friendly place to be! Extensive outdoor seating on our deck, live music on the weekends, upscale pub style lunches, chef inspired dinners, handcrafted cocktails, local wines, and over 30 craft beers on tap! Enjoy a bit of history, sit back and relax, it’s always a good time at the tower!

Open Daily: 11am-close

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BRIDGESIDE

THE ANDREW’S EXPERIENCE

CASA EL MIRADOR FAMILY MEXICAN RESTAURANT 541-298-7388 • casaelmirador.com 1424 West 2nd Street • The Dalles

Quality Mexican food prepared with the freshest and finest ingredients. Warm, friendly service and a lively atmosphere. Indulge in generous portions of flavorful sizzling fajitas, fish tacos, savory enchilada dishes and daily specials.

Drink specials & Happy Hour menu from 4-7pm, Mon-Fri. Full service bar, take-out menu, gift certificates and catering services. Open for lunch and dinner 7 days a week.

COLUMBIA GORGE BAKERY A GLUTEN FREE FACILITY 541-645-0570 • columbiagorgeglutenfree.com 740 East Steuben Street • Bingen

We use locally sourced, seasonal ingredients in all of our fresh baked breads, treats and savory hand pies. We are committed to bringing you the most delicious baked goods available, anywhere. Call ahead for catering, wedding cakes, events or just stop by the drive-thru for coffee and a gluten free, dairy free or paleo treat!

Gift shop • Special event room & terrace

CELILO RESTAURANT & BAR 541-386-5710 • celilorestaurant.com 16 Oak Street • Downtown Hood River

Celilo began with a desire to honor the bounty of this region and a commitment to a healthy and sustainable future. Our ever-changing menu reflects the seasonal highlights of the region’s growers and foragers. We offer the most innovative in fresh, local cuisine as well as an award-winning wine list, full bar, small plate menu, and happy hour daily from 5-6pm.

Dinner daily from 5pm • Lunch Fri-Sun 11:30-3pm

CROOKED TREE TAVERN & GRILL 541-352-6692 • cooperspur.com 10755 Cooper Spur Road • Mt Hood/Parkdale

Home cooking takes on a broader significance at the Crooked Tree Tavern & Grill. Draw a 30-mile circle around our cozy community bar and restaurant, and chances are your meal is sourced from a combination of the outstanding local farms, ranches, wineries and breweries that are part of the Hood River Valley’s culinary renaissance.

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EAT + DRINK

INDIAN CREEK GOLF COURSE & DIVOTS CLUBHOUSE RESTAURANT 541-308-0304 • indiancreekgolf.com 3605 Brookside Drive • Hood River

Located in the heart of the Hood River Valley just minutes from downtown. Breathtaking views of Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams from our covered patio. Full service bar and fabulous northwest cuisine at a reasonable price.

Your everyday vacation spot! Open to the public.

DOG RIVER COFFEE

DOPPIO COFFEE

541-386-4502 • dogrivercoffee.net 411 Oak Street • Downtown Hood River

541-386-3000 • doppiohoodriver.com 310 Oak Street • Downtown Hood River

Named one of ‘America’s top 10 coffeehouses’ by USA Today

Relax on our patio, right in the heart of downtown…enjoy a hand-crafted espresso drink made with locally roasted, fair trade and organic coffee. Serving breakfast and lunch all day: panini, salads, smoothies, and fresh baked goods (vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free options). Local beers on tap, and local wines by the glass or bottle. Free Wi-fi and our patio is dog-friendly. Open daily at 7 am.

Full service espresso bar featuring Stumptown coffee Breakfast burritos, pastries and more Caffeinating your adventures since 2004 Open: Mon-Fri, 6am-6pm & Sat-Sun, 7am-6pm

Open Daily for Lunch & Dinner. Happy Hour 3-6pm.

everybodysbrewing.com White Salmon, WA

EL PUERTO DE ANGELES III

EVERYBODY’S BREWING

FULL SAIL BREW PUB

541-308-0005 1306 12th Street • Hood River, on the Heights

509-637-2774 • everybodysbrewing.com 151 Jewett Boulevard • Downtown White Salmon

541-386-2247 • fullsailbrewing.com 506 Columbia Street • Downtown Hood River

Authentic Jalisco Cuisine. We provide a great dining experience and freshly prepared platters delivered to your table with Mexican hospitality by our friendly staff. Enjoy good food, good folks and good times. Offering daily lunch and dinner specials served all day. Happy Hour Mon-Fri 2-5pm.

Enjoy our outdoor patio (open weather permitting).

Sun-Thu 10am-9pm, Fri & Sat 10am-10pm

See for yourself why Everybody’s Brewing is a local favorite!

We brew 15 different styles of beer plus seasonal selections onsite. The menu is filled with affordable food choices made with high-quality local ingredients. The atmosphere is warm and family-friendly. Enjoy the stunning Mt. Hood view from the outdoor deck, listen to free live music on Friday nights. Open 11:30am to Close. Closed Mondays.

If there is one thing a brewer loves more than great beer– it’s great food and great beer! Our northwest-inspired menu complements our award-winning brews and features seasonal, local ingredients. Swing by for a pint, grab a bite, tour the brewery or just soak up the view. Open daily at 11am serving lunch and dinner. Guided brewery tours are offered daily at 1, 2, 3 and 4pm and are free of charge.

KICKSTAND COFFEE & KITCHEN

McMENAMINS EDGEFIELD

PFRIEM FAMILY BREWERS

541-436-0016 • kickstandcoffee.net 1235 State Street • Hood River

503-669-8610 • mcmenamins.com 2126 SW Halsey Street • Troutdale (off Exit 16)

541-321-0490 • pfriembeer.com 707 Portway Avenue, Suite 101 • Hood River Waterfront

Locally sourced ingredients. Unique world flavors.

Full breakfast, lunch and dinner menus. Donuts made fresh daily. House-roasted coffee. Healthy salads, burgers and sandwiches. Beer, wine & house - infused cocktails at “The Handlebar”.

As the weather cools and winter takes hold, you may find yourself in need of a crackling fire or warm cocktail to battle the elements. With a house-made Hot Buttered Rum or a Spanish Coffee to sip on, roaring fire pits and nightly live music, we’ve got you covered during this stormy season.

pFriem artisanal beers are symphonies of flavor and balance, influenced by the great brewers of Belgium, but unmistakably true to our homegrown roots in the Pacific Northwest. Although they are served humbly, each glass is overflowing with pride and a relentless aspiration to brew the best beer in the world. We’ll let you decide.

Ales, wines and spirits are crafted onsite.

Open Daily: 11:30am-9pm

Open daily 7am-9pm. Outdoor patio. Fire pit.

SMORES. Kid-friendly.

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EAT + DRINK

541-386-1606 • pietrosrestaurants.com 107 2nd Street • Hood River

PIETRO’S PIZZA

541-716-4020 • remedyjuice-cafe.com 112 Third Street • Downtown Hood River

REMEDY CAFÉ

RIVERSIDE & CEBU LOUNGE

Pietro’s is proud to serve the same famous original thin pizza crust and pizza sauce that has made us a Northwest favorite over the years. We use only the freshest and finest cheese and toppings. Proud to be locally owned and operated with four locations: Hood River, Milwaukie, Beaverton and Salem. Dine in, take out, online or delivery.

Diners seek out newly remodeled Riverside for some of the best food and views in the Gorge, and Cebu for great bar food and drinks. Fresh menus change seasonally—plus an award-winning wine list. Enjoy indoors, on the deck, or in our popular Cebu Lounge.

Open Daily 11am-10pm

Recharge at Remedy Café with organic and satisfying breakfast or lunch bowls, burritos, curry, smoothies, juices, or hot drinks. Vegan and paleo options, created from scratch from the best quality organic and local ingredients.

Kombucha on tap. Locally roasted, organic espresso.

Free WiFi. Open Mon-Fri 7am-5pm Sat & Sun 8am-5pm.

Dine-in or take out. Order ahead online or call us!

RIVERTAP PUB & RESTAURANT

SOLSTICE WOOD FIRE PIZZA 541-436-0800 • solsticewoodfirecafe.com 501 Portway Avenue • Hood River Waterfront

541-386-3940 • stonehedgeweddings.com 3405 West Cascade Avenue • Hood River

Happy Hour daily, 3-6pm

Inventive, thin-crust pizzas, seasonally inspired entrees, & sublime s’mores. Creative cocktails, craft beers, wine, & ciders on tap. Family dining & kids play area.

Vegan & gluten-free options.

“The best outdoor dining in the Gorge.” –NW Best Places We are a favorite among locals and visitors. Our cuisine is a classic, European blend that utilizes fresh, local ingredients and pairs well with our select wines. Our gardens are the perfect setting for weddings. Full-service catering available.

“Romantic setting and the best meal I had in town.”

–The Los Angeles Times

541-296-7870 • rivertappub.com 701 East 2nd Street • Downtown The Dalles (I-84, Exit 85) Late Night Happy Hour Friday & Saturday, 10-close Live Music every Friday, Saturday and Sunday We Cater

Heated patio & waterfront views across from the park Wood-fired & Gorge-inspired!

541-386-4410 • riversidehoodriver.com Exit 64 off I-84 • Waterfront Hood River

Cebu Lounge Happy Hours: Mon-Fri 4-6pm

STONEHEDGE GARDENS

gorge in the gorge

A local guide to the best food, drinks, farms, and markets! gorgeinthegorge.com

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EAT + DRINK

SUSHI OKALANI

TAD’S CHICKEN ‘N DUMPLINS

TARWATER TAVERN

Come find us in the basement of the Yasui Building, the local’s favorite spot for fresh fish, Pan-Asian Cuisine, and a rockin’ atmosphere! Lots of rotating specials, creative rolls, and a large sake selection means you’re always trying something new! Private rooms are available for groups up to 20 people. Take-out menu available online. Open for dinner nightly at 5:00, closing hours change seasonally.

We are nestled on the banks of the Sandy River in Troutdale, OR–the gateway to the Columbia River Gorge. We are located halfway between Portland and Multnomah Falls.

Serving exquisite American cuisine since the 1930s. The menu includes: Seafood specialties as well as traditional steak, chicken, and pasta dishes; a full bar, and our famous home-style chicken ‘n dumplins. Open every night for dinner.

Longtime Portland bartender-owner, Chris Joseph (Berbati’s Pan, Blue Monk, Morrison Hotel) brings his love of booze and Red Sox to White Salmon.

Stop in to try some of the finest handmade cocktails, beer, wine, cider, & kombucha, the Gorge has to offer.

We have two outside seating areas. Ask for Amy’s famous shrubs or infusions. Visit our website. Open 4pm-2am

WALKING MAN BREWING

WHITE SALMON BAKING CO.

YOUR PARTAKE LISTING HERE

Nestled in Stevenson, WA just minutes from the Bridge of the Gods, Walking Man has become a destination for beer enthusiasts and gorge travelers. Experience the charm of a small community craft brewery. Enjoy our dog-friendly beer garden or cozy up with a pint and a bite in the brewpub.

Wood-fired artisan breads, pastries, espresso, with a café serving breakfast and lunch. Regional and Italian wines for sale. Stop by and check out Monday Pizza Night!

541-386-7423 • sushiokalani@gorge.net 109 First Street • Downtown Hood River

509-427-5520 • walkingmanbeer.com 240 SW 1st Street • Stevenson

503-666-5337 • tadschicdump.com 1325 East Historic Columbia River Hwy • Troutdale

509-281-3140 • whitesalmonbaking.com 80 Estes Avenue • White Salmon

Please visit our website for seasonal hours.

Monday, Thursday and Friday 7-3:30 Saturday and Sunday 8-3 Closed Tuesday and Wednesday

tarwatertavern.com 130 E Jewett Blvd • White Salmon

Contact Jody Thompson for more information: 425-308-9582 • jthompson@thegorgemagazine.com 541-399-6333 • thegorgemagazine.com The Gorge is a mecca for great food and drink: restaurants, cafés, wineries, breweries, food carts & more.

Help visitors and locals decide where to dine and drink.

They’ll see your ad in print and in the online digital edition of the magazine…for one affordable price!

RESERVE A PARTAKE LISTING SPACE TODAY

Reserve Ad Space Now

The area’s premier lifestyle publication

for SPRING 2018!

On Stands March 9th

For advertising, contact Jody Thompson:

jthompson@thegorgemagazine.com 425-308-9582 For more information, contact Janet Cook jcook@thegorgemagazine.com or 541-399-6333 never miss another issue

SUBSCRIBE

$19.99 FOR ONE YEAR $29.99 FOR TWO YEARS (4 issues per year mailed to your home)

Order online at thegorgemagazine.com or call 541-399-6333

thegorgemagazine.com THE GORGE MAGAZINE : WINTER 2017-18

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OUR GORGE : EPILOGUE

The Mount Hood Loop Highway, circa 1930s. (Photo from the Collection of the History Museum of Hood River County.)

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THINKING OF YOUR NEXT HOME IN THE GORGE? THINK LOCAL!

JEFF SACRE

STEVE WOLF

VIRGINIA HILLYER

NMLS - 140302, MLO - 140302

NMLS - 114305, MLO - 114305

NMLS - 339123

Sr. Mortgage Specialist

Sr. Mortgage Specialist

Sr. Mortgage Specialist

102 3RD STREET | HOOD RIVER, OR 97031 Looking to Purchase or Refinance?

CALL US TODAY!

541.436.2662 directorsmortgage.net

This is not a commitment to lend. Information deemed reliable but subject to change without notice. Subject to credit approval.

Restrictions may apply. Call for Details. Consumer Loan License NMLS-3240, CL-3240.

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M A R G O R P G N I N I A R T GLIDER ENJOY YOUR FLIGHT, AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

GLIDER RELEASE...

I WISH I KNEW THAT AT YOUR AGE!!! BUT IT’S NEVER TO0 LATE TO START FLYING.

GIVE THE GIFT OF FLYING THIS WINTER SEASON

P U N SIG DAY

TO

ON SEAS YING L F 2018 THE FOR

844.FLY.CUBS | 3608 AIRPORT DRIVE | HOOD RIVER, OR 97031

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