Beer Bloggers bag a peak!

A nice cold beer tastes pretty good after a grueling 9 hour hike up a BIG mountain. . .

We two beer bloggers took a trip to lovely Colorado. We have a sordid history with Mt. Harvard (due to late starts and bad scary weather I've been ejected 2 times from the mountain).  But the mountain gods finally smiled upon us and gave us a beautiful day with blue skies.  The hike was pretty grueling  but we made it up and back and decided we earned a good meal with ice cold beer

 

Luckily for us there is a new Brewpub in the little town of Buena Vista near the trail head.  The Eddyline Restaurant and Brewery is a nice addition to this little Colorado town in Chaffee County nestled in a valley below the Sawatch Range Collegiate Peaks. The beer was a little hit or miss (not huge fans of the Pilsner or Amber) but we did like the Colorado Pale Ale, the Midland Trail Pale Ale. 

Oh and if you want to stay in Buena vista you MUST stay at Los Manos Bed & Breakfast.  There's no better place to go home to after a long day on the trails!!!!

If you make your way to Buena Vista - the Eddyline is a must stop for good beer, yummy pizza and grass-fed burgers!

More Colorado Beer blogs to come!

Beer Bloggers weekend road trip to Door County

Although this is named the Madison Beer Blog - sometimes we beer bloggers have to head out of town and expand our horizon. This past weekend 4 of us (us and the Hamms - who have made prior appearances on the blog) headed up north to Door County. The Hamms brilliantly chose a place called Gordon Lodge for our home base.

Gordon Lodge is a great place to stay, it is the kind of place where your feel yourself start to REALLY relax. It is tucked away from all the kitchy shops on a peninsula on North Bay looking out toward Lake Michigan. There are miles of trails, beautiful views, a mid-century flair and 6 bars. Yes, you heard me right, 6 bars (pretty high quota for a place that holds about 105 people).

Our favorite place to grab a beer on this tripe was at the Top Deck at Gordon Lodge. This is a great bar and restaurant that overlooks the water. There was good (and unexpected) Wisconsin Beer on tap including Lakefront Riverwest Stein (a smooth drinking Amber) and O'so Night Train (a yummy chocolaty Porter). It was agreed while not a huge selection they made made smart choices for their taps. We had a couple beers and watched the sunset set over the water here. Just beautiful.

 

Another great place we visited was Sister Bay Bowl. This is a bar/supper club/bowling alley. And they do all 3 extremely well. It was at Sister Bay Bowl that we came to the conclusion that PBR may be the best bowling alley beer. Not sure why, but when PBR is served is near some lanes it is everything you want in a beer. We also discovered here that none of us will likely become pro bowlers in this lifetime (esp. me with my sad 70!).

 Here's some more pics:

REACH Ride: Figure 8 the Lakes - for beer lovers!

 So I will start by saying that I am not really a biker.  I don't own an expensive bike, clip on shoes, or an "official" Team Radioshack jersey. And I am certainly not a big fan of how I look in biker shorts. But living here in Madison it seemed like a shame not to take advantage of how bike friendly a place it is.  So last year I bought a bike - a 7 speed cruiser I refer to as my Pee-Wee Herman bike (although it is not as tricked out - see video below).

My friend Erik recently told me about his organization's event, REACH Ride: Figure 8 the Lakes. REACH a child is a great organization that helps children in crises through the power of books, so since it was for such a good cause - we (me and my hubby Matt) signed up.

This was my first organized ride and the longest distance I've ever ridden so I was kind of nervous. When we arrived at the starting line most people had proper biking attire on and were on sweet road bikes. We headed out onto the roads and within a couple of miles were in Dane County farmland.  Let me just say that when you are in a car it is all pretty and green and rolling.  When you are on a bike those are some ridiculously air sucking ginormous hills.  But we gasped our way over them and made it to rest stop #1.  breakfast at Captain Bill's.  I must have looked sort of pathetic bc some dude told me don't worry all the big hills are over with. The dude's a liar.

We got back on our bikes and rode around Lake Mendota through Shorewood Hills. Shorewood turned out to be a huge ego booster for us on non-road bikes.  They apparently threw down a ton of gravel the night before the race so the poor road bikers had to go through very cautiously.  Pee-Wee cruiser bike and Matt's mountain bike allowed us to just blow past the real bikers and leave them in our dust - for about 5 blocks anyway. 

The next stop was at the Terrace (UW Union).  Our friends Molly & Dave were volunteering and stationed there.  Had a nice chat and then I left to ride around Lake Monona solo. (Matt had to save his legs for his 15 mile run the next day). I rode Monona and then met Matt back up on the Isthmus and we rode the last 8 or so miles back to where we started at the Nau-ti-gal.  

And that is where I got my reward for riding almost 37 miles:

Yes that is right - a free Supper Club (Capital Brewery) 

Jerseys:

Along the way I took a couple pictures of the beer themed jerseys I saw. I also couldn't resist a pick of the Twinkies jersey.  Twinkies told me he had to eat 12 Twinkies to get his jersey.  There was one other jersey I wish I'd gotten a good pic of - Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.  Awesome!!!

Here's some other assorted pics form the ride and after party: