A while back we gave a private Mt. Biking tour to a visiting travel writer Ronald Jacobs and he forwarded on the article he had published entitled DE OVERTREFFENDE TRAIL VAN MOUNTAINBIKEN. We had a great time with Ronald at the Sandy Ridge trail system and loved to see the photos of his adventures in Bend. The attached article below is in Dutch and gives a great overview of his trip to Oregon. Check it out!
Cycle Portland
Rentals, Tours & Bike Shop in Downtown PDX
Cycle Portland Tours hightlighted in Huffington Post!
Check out the latest Huffington Post Travel article on Bikes and Beer, featuring our Brewery Tours!
New tours combine biking with local breweries
Beer-lovers are finding a new way to explore the burgeoning craft-brewing world: on bicycles.
From Oregon to New Mexico to Vermont, beer aficionados can now hop on a bike and be led from one brewery to another. After sampling the latest microbrew, they can then pedal away all those extra calories.
The tours – which range from a few hours to several days – offer a chance to meet other travelers, learn about the local culture and, of course, sample some great beer. And each tour has a different strategy for preventing biking under the influence, from limiting tastes to 4 ounces and providing a back-up van, to saving the swigs for the end of the trip.
Heather Wess Arnold and her husband Josh, owners of Routes Bicycle Rentals & Tours in Albuquerque, took their love for beer and biking and combined them in a tour in April.
“We were expecting it to be mostly tourists, but it’s also been a lot of locals,” she said.
Novice riders will appreciate the bicycle-friendly paths, lanes, roads with light traffic. Beer-lovers can enjoy visits to at least three breweries. The $45 tours – rental included – are offered the third Sunday of each month.
Every three months, the tour is changed so people can learn about new neighborhoods and new beers. The three-and-a-half to four-hour tours cover 10 to 15 miles.
Along the way, bikers learn about the history of brewing in Albuquerque, some local trivia and are given backroom tours of the breweries, led by the master brewers. Some of the spots even let bikers participate in the process, adding the hops or stirring the mash.
There are three to four tastings – each 4 ounces – at each brewery. Plenty of water is served and Wess Arnold says the tour spreads out the drinking to keep bikers under the legal limits of driving – um, biking – while under the influence. A vehicle follows the group in case anyone becomes too impaired to bike.
“So far that hasn’t had to happen,” she said.
The vehicle also offers a way for bikers to transport any six-packs or growlers of beer, T-shirts and pint glasses without worrying about juggling the souvenirs on the bikes.
For those looking for a bit more of a challenge, Sojourn Bicycle Vacations offers a Vermont Bike & Brew tour. The six-day, five-night trip is geared toward more avid cyclists who ride 50 miles a day and includes many hills.
“It just combines some great riding and some of the world’s best craft breweries,” said Susan Rand, president of the company. “We do more riding than drinking.”
The group stops at seven breweries along the way, but also ends each day with some local beers out of a cooler. One night, there is a private chef’s beer-pairing dinner led by the brewmaster from Otter Creek Brewing.
The 18-person trip, which goes for $2,195 per person, covers the rural back roads of Vermont.
Bob Gross, 63, and his wife Cyndy, 54, were on the first tour last summer. They’ve done wine bike tours but thought it was time to learn more about beer. More than 20 years ago, she bought him a home brewers kit and he’s been hooked ever since.
“I like specialty beers, I love microbrewers,” he said. “All our bike trips gravitate toward alcohol.”
She loves Michelob Ultra but went along on the trip since they bike together two to three times a week.
“The cool thing about the trip, you got to meet the brew masters. You learn a lot about the business,” he said.
As for getting drunk while biking, he said, “You’re just really sipping a very small amount.”
Most of the drinking happens at the end of the day.
Mount Major Adventures offers customized Vermont Bike and Brewery tours that visit more than a dozen breweries in the state over a four- to eight-day period.
Too exhausted to think about that much biking? Well, there are plenty of other day trips out there including those offered since 2008 by Cycle Portland Bike Tours in Oregon.
Owner Evan Ross sums up the tours as a great way to “work off some calories and build up some thirst.”
The group visits three breweries over three hours and then ends in the bike shop where there is a keg of beer from another local brewery. Like all of the tours, Ross tends to change the beers with the seasons and his tastes.
The $40 tour used to include alcohol, but Ross said “people got too wasted.” Now, participants purchase drinks a la carte along the way. This way, no one feels like the need to finish every beer to get their money’s worth.
Other companies around the country offering similar trips include Beer & Bike Tours in Fort Collins, Colo., and Motor City Bike & Brew Tours in Detroit, which focus on the city’s brewing revitalization as well as sites from the Prohibition era.
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If You Go…
ROUTES BICYCLE RENTALS & TOURS: Albuquerque, N.M., Bikes & Brews, http://routesrentals.com/
SOJOURN BICYCLING VACATIONS: Vermont Bike & Brew, http://www.GoSojourn.com
MOUNT MAJOR ADVENTURES: Vermont Bike and Brewery, http://www.mountmajor.com/
CYCLE PORTLAND BIKE TOURS: Portland, Ore., Breweries by Bike, https://portlandbicycletours.flywheelsites.com
BEER & BIKE TOURS: Fort Collins, Colo., http://beerandbiketours.com/
MOTOR CITY BIKE & BREW TOURS: Detroit, http://motorcitybrewtours.com/bike-tours.html
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Scott Mayerowitz can be reached at . http://twitter.com/GlobeTrotScott
Registration open for the Cascade To Crown Ride!
We Invite You to Ride With Us on September 15th
from Cascade Locks, Oregon
The 2013 Cascade to Crown Ride celebrates the “Grand Opening” of the completed “connector” trail on the Historic Columbia River Gorge Trail. Make plans now to join us for this exciting opportunity!Click Here to Register Now
About the Ride
Now in its 3rd year, the Cascade to Crown is set to become a highlight of the Gorge. This year, choose from 4 route options – 10 mile, 28 mile, 48 mile, & 62 mile – offer something for every ability or bicyclist in your family. No matter what route length you choose, you’ll find yourself in the midst of a very historic and scenic place. The 28 mile, 48 mile and 62 mile routes pass by many notable falls, such as Horsetail Falls, Oneonta Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, and Multnomah Falls on the way to the panoramic Crown Point. At the end of ride, enjoy lunch at Marine Park with the Columbia River Sternwheeler. For 2013, we’re excited to have a new caterer, improved & more route signage, and a route that doesn’t require riding on I-84 this year! With the opening of the “connector” between Warrendale and Moffett Creek the route is a true dream come true for riding the Gorge.
A Ride To Benefit The Parkinson’s Resources Of Oregon
What is Parkinson’s disease?
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive, degenerative neurological disease that eventually renders many individuals immobile; stealing away independence, clarity of thought, and severely
limiting activities of daily living.
– PD affects over 1 million people in the U.S., more people than Multiple Sclerosis, Muscular Dystrophy, & Lou Gehrig’s Disease combined.
– An estimated 25,000 people in OR and southern WA have PD.
– 16 new cases of PD each week.
– One third of the victims exhibitor first symptoms before age 50.
– Annual cost of medications to treat symptoms of PD exceed $6,000.
We’re excited to partner with the Parkinson’s Resources of Oregon. For over 30 years, the P.R.O. has been dedicated to helping patients and caregivers manage this complex disease with support programs and services. Your participation in the Cascade to Crown Bike Ride shows support for PRO and those with Parkinson’s disease.
Special Thanks To The Ride Sponsors!
SCOTT MAYEROWITZ | September 4, 2013 04:25 PM EST |