5.5 miles of hiking • 250' elevation gain •
On Wednesday after work, I decided to head out for an Adventurous Young Mazamas urban hike starting at the downtown REI. Matt Reeder (local hiking guide author and all around nice guy) hosted an evening of music trivia and visits to former and existing music venues in Portland. While my legs were a little sore from my climb the day before, gain on this was minimal and it was fun to just hike in street clothes and geek out about music. My tastes are a little darker and more industrial and goth rather than rock, but it was still interesting to see the places where music history was made in the 90's in Portland. Sad that so many old establishments are gone, or are no longer music venues. Even in my couple of years here, I have seen a few venues come and go as the city focuses on building condos rather than building culture and supporting the arts. (A huge reason I was drawn to Portland in the first place, the music scene) The PNW seems to breed a certain type of bleak music that I have always gravitated towards. I hope what places we have can still thrive for years to come.
After walking by downtown venues, we headed across the Burnside Bridge to Doug Fir, which was to be our mid hike beer stop, but it was packed with people. We opted to walk and find a slower looking establishment for our large group, and ended up at Rontoms. A few beers later and we were back in the streets for one last stop at the Melody, which is still an existing venue, but now only for corporate events and parties.
It was nice to do something a little different and more relaxed than a typical Mazama outing.
