Welcome back to National Parks and other public lands with T!  On a regular basis, we’ll feature favorite photos or stories from a friend in the National Park community. Are you a National Park fan with a favorite you think would be great for this series? Send me a private message through the contact section of this blog!

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About these photos»

• Place: Glacier National Park in Montana
• Date: 1996
• Photo Credit: Don (The Beerchaser)
• Why they are some of my favorites: In 1996, my wife, two daughters and I had a wonderful road trip from Oregon to Glacier National Park – we visited parts of the park in both the US and also Waterton National Park in Canada. The highlight was the famous historic Red Bus Tour over the length of the Going-to-the-Sun Highway in the US park. The bus trip is a must to get the history of the Park and check out wildlife and take in the vistas on this marvelous road. The spectacular beauty is all encompassing.
• Another great memory was my youngest daughter’s (she was then age 10) initial grief and then thrill when she left “Kermie” – the stuffed frog she got when she was three at our Glacier Park cabin. We called later that day and thanks to the courtesy and effort of a desk clerk who made a personal trip to the cabin and found Kermie under the bed, the frog was on an airplane and arrived in Portland before we got home. (This was Kermie’s second airplane voyage as she left him at Great America when we visited there five years before.)

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Meet Don from The Beerchaser»

One of my initial retirement goals in 2011 was to eventually have a beer at every neighborhood tavern or brewery in Portland— and to blog about the experience. So a few months after retiring, with some help from my tech-savvy son-in-law, I started the blog.

By August 2012, I had reviewed 23 bars – all in Portland except one in Port Towsend, Washington. With one exception which was somewhat disappointing, all establishments were great to visit. This validated my premise that each bar or pub has an interesting history and distinguishing characteristics.

With retirement travel, the “journey” expanded. We started hitting bars in Europe, Alaska, various parts of the US from the Southeast to Montana and Wyoming and Oregon’s coast and desert country. Almost nine years later, I have visited and reviewed 375 watering holes. With 125 of them Portland area establishments and another 250 outside the City of Roses.

Each quarter, I also select an individual or group as my Beerchaser-of-the-Quarter. These people, almost all of whom I know personally, are military heroes, media personalities, academicians, authors and athletes. They may or may not have anything to do with bars or beer but have an interesting story and have made a contribution to society.

I became involved with the Benedictine Brewery at Mount Angel in 2016 as a member of the Brewery Advisory Committee. I helped set up the business operations as a volunteer before it opened in the fall of 2018. The Benedictine Brewery at Mount Angel is one of only two or three in the US, that is owned by Benedictine Monks and does its development, major production, and taproom service on-site, with monks doing the brewing and running their own operation.

 —Written by Don from The Beerchaser

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Where can we find The Beerchaser?

• Website: https://thebeerchaser.com/
• Benedictine Brewery: https://www.mountangelabbey.org/benedictine-brewery/