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2 months ago | 
pdxmonthly.com | Rebecca Jacobson
Mike Rysavy first visited Bagby Hot Springs in the early ’90s, as a teenager growing up in Milwaukie. He’d read an Oregonian story about the spot, which is tucked into the Mount Hood National Forest between Estacada and Detroit. Rysavy says he’d “never even contemplated the idea of hot water coming out of the earth,” and thought it sounded “pretty neat,” so he and a few friends set out.
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Dec 30, 2024 | 
pdxmonthly.com | Rebecca Jacobson
Last December, I came back to Portland Monthly after four and a half years away from the magazine. The reasons why were many, but atop the list was a desire to return to work that dealt directly with the place I call home. And, after years of writing about the arts—along with bikes, woo, and people doing weird things on the internet—I’d now get to steer travel and outdoors coverage, which meant expanding my gaze beyond the city in ways I hadn’t before.
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Nov 18, 2024 | 
pdxmonthly.com | Rebecca Jacobson
In 2005, Alison Crocker was up for a spot on the US Olympic cross-country ski team. The Dartmouth College senior, who’d competed internationally since high school, had been skiing well—she’d had four top-five finishes in elite SuperTour races that year, and the previous year had placed fourth at the NCAA Championships. In the end, Crocker came two spots shy. But she had an impressive backup plan: a Rhodes Scholarship to study astrophysics at the University of Oxford.
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Nov 12, 2024 | 
pdxmonthly.com | Rebecca Jacobson
Doug firs dusted with snow. Mighty peaks on the horizon. A toasty warming hut around the corner. Gliding through Pacific Northwest wilderness is a surefire way to rejuvenate your city-weary soul, and Oregon and Washington boast a bounty of cross-country destinations to satisfy skiers of all levels. Many of the spots named here require a sno-park permit, which costs $25 annually in Oregon and $50 in Washington (one-day permits are also available in each state).
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Oct 30, 2024 | 
pdxmonthly.com | Rebecca Jacobson
Save the adrenaline fiends and modern explorers using their PTO for backcountry expeditions, most of us hope to spend our vacation time, you know, relaxing. And when trying to wick away stress, it helps to sweat it out. Scattered across Oregon and Washington, contrast therapy evangelists have set up floating saunas over serene lakes and parked wood-burning trailers near mountain rivers, so sweaty visitors can cool off in the chilly waters of the Pacific Northwest.
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Oct 4, 2024 | 
pdxmonthly.com | Rebecca Jacobson
No matter how you slice it, the Time-Based Art Festival is a feat of endurance. For most of its 21 years, the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art’s annual extravaganza has unfolded across 10 days—a dizzying, sleepless spree of genre-bending art and performance. A flood of creative feats that sweep up and swirl together Portland’s art community, agitating and serenading them like a Maytag before releasing them back to whatever is they do for the rest of the year.
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Oct 2, 2024 | 
pdxmonthly.com | Rebecca Jacobson
Cemeteries tell stories. While they hold undeniable appeal during spooky season, a stroll among the tombstones during any time of year turns up tales of bygone times. Here's a tour of historic graveyards across Oregon, from the coast to Baker City, Eugene to Klamath Falls.
Two-acre site in a meadow northeast of Sisters. Established in 1880 adjacent to a Civil War–era military camp.
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Sep 21, 2024 | 
wweek.com | Rebecca Jacobson
This story first appeared in the April 23, 2014 edition of WW. A century ago, Portland faced a terrible scourge. The city’s newsboys were corrupting the city’s moral fiber. These inveterate ruffians, who numbered in the hundreds, were known for gambling, stealing, truancy, profanity, smoking and general recklessness. Several even lost limbs after jumping from moving streetcars. What the newsies needed, Portland’s progressives determined, was a clubhouse.
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Jul 26, 2024 | 
pdxmonthly.com | Rebecca Jacobson
In 1999, a Kentuckian named Zale Schoenborn organized a fundraiser for Portland’s KBOO community radio station. He booked Horning’s Hideout, a private park in North Plains, and assembled a varied lineup of Americana acts. He called it Pickathon, and about 90 people showed up.
Flash forward a couple decades, and Pickathon is now among the country’s most beloved festivals, drawing 10,000 annually to Happy Valley’s Pendarvis Farm for a music-filled campout in the woods.
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Jul 9, 2024 | 
pdxmonthly.com | Rebecca Jacobson
On a solo trip to the Oregon coast a few years ago, Portlander Laura Veirs spent hours wandering the beach at Hug Point with Gram, her chihuahua mix. Back at her hotel in Seaside, she wrote haikus. When she shared them on Patreon and a supporter suggested she turn them into a song, she initially bristled.
But the idea proved a good one. While the resulting track may not keep the 17-syllable structure of the haiku, its striking nature imagery—“black and gold sand,” “vermillion sun”—evokes the form.
