Our plan is to hike Miller Woods Loop Hike near the town of McMinnville. The forecast is for a temperature around 15 degrees Celsius and overcast skies. I spent some time yesterday trying to find a suitable hike that was a good distance and not too far from where we are staying. That was almost impossible as many of the local hikes are very short and the better hikes are quite a distance from Newberg. I did find the hike above and at 4.7 advertised miles, 560 feet elevation gain and described as 'moderate' this fit the bill. Plus, it is close to McMinnville which is a hot spot for Willamette Valley wineries.
Lana does a great job of finding the trailhead on Google Maps so we are confident in finding the place. A red flag was the directions to find the hike and the hike itself are very confusing or overly-complicated. As we drive southbound the clouds thin out and it is quite sunny when we arrive successfully at the trailhead! What great weather and unexpected. On with the hiking boots and the confusion begins. We arrive at the gravel parking lot around 09:50 and there are only two other cars.
Laminated map provided for loan purposes at the trailhead. We want to follow the yellow-outlined trail as it is the longer 'loop' trail.
Signage at the beginning of the hike. This map is not helpful. Note on the upper left under Please--the second item is that firearms are not allowed. I believe that the USA is the only country in the world where hikers have to be reminded not to bring their firearms! Pause for thought as to why you would bring your guns for a hike in the woods? Do you believe there are fellow citizens waiting in the woods to blast you?
Gigantic Oak tree near the start of the trail. Many acorns lying around the base of the tree.
We are lost at the start of our hike as we cannot figure out where this loop hike begins and the written directions from a webpage are not helping. There is a sign with a yellow arrow, but this goes nowhere and in fact just makes it more confusing. Lana says "we can still see our car in the parking lot and we have been lost for the last 20 minutes--too funny!!" We see the pond and finally decide to head in that direction and then head into the pasture. Lana spots a yellow arrow sign and then into the woods we head and find another yellow sign so we are on the loop trail. We carry the laminated trail map to attempt to figure out where we are on the loop hike. Phew, all good once on the trail. In fact, we meet up with two other hikers and they are both veterans of this hike. All good!
Follow the yellow sign!
Randy on the smooth and soft dirt trail through the woods.
This laminated trail map was pretty good except for the starting point. Once you have found the actual trail it is easy to NOT get lost.
We are at the summit of the trail (highest point) and now we continue the loop trail to its conclusion near the large pond.
Check out this very cool tree completely covered by moss!
We love mushrooms!
The underneath of this mushroom is even more interesting! Lana took this photo :)
It is a good hike and a fantastic day weather wise. Lots of sun and warm weather. Trail very easy to navigate and not too difficult an ascent or descent. We finish at the pond and then back up to the parking lot. Off with the hiking boots and then figure out where we would like to go for lunch in the nearby town of McMinnville. Lana accessed Google and we decided on ethnic food that we don't have much of in Vancouver. We are at the parking lot just before 12 Noon.
Strava app map of our Miller Woods Loop hike. Notice the bottom part in the middle with lots of bolded squiggles - that is where we were walking around lost trying to find the start of the trail! Many switchbacks on this trail. The ascents are pretty gradual and similar to the descents. This Trail is good for families. No dogs or horses allowed! Yeh!
Stats for our morning hike:
- Average pace 13 min 19 seconds per km (pretty fast)
- Distance 7.70 kms
- Hiking time 1 hour 43 minutes
- Elevation gain 226 metres
- 11,505 steps
OK, our secret for a foodie destination is Pura Vida Cucina in McMinnville. This is the restaurant that Lana found using Google and is advertised as Latin American cuisine - yeh! This restaurant was fantastic so we wish to keep it a secret! Nope, Randy gives it a 5 star review on Trip Advisor although its average is already 4.7 stars. In addition to the plates below, we ordered a Dispensadas (draft beer) done German dunkel style - as good as Deutschland! Lana ordered a freshly squeezed Passion Fruit juice non-alcoholic drink with club soda. As well, the dips were so good we ordered some chips to finish the sauce off. The lunch bill came to $40. We left with smiles and contented stomachs.
Online picture of the interior of Pura Vida Cucina. Pretty casual, but clean and tidy. The server and service was spot on. Zero complaints from me which says a lot. ;-)
Order of Empanadas - braised pork, two corn pastries, peanut romesco, cabbage, beans, chipotle aioli and cotija cheese. Absolutely everything about this dish was excellent. Meat was flavourful, the pastries home-made and light, beans delicious and even the greens below the empanadas.
Order of Costillas - guava chipotle, bbq spare ribs, cabbage & cole slaw and cilantro. Wow, another home run! The meat was perfect and the bbq sauce was tasty and not over-powering. Even the cole slaw was exceptional!
Order of Croquetas - crispy fired fritters, ham & chicken, cotija cheese and peanut romesco sauce. This is an appies dish and we finished off most of them before we remembered to take a picture! That is how good they were.
Order of Taco - after we finished our three dishes we decided to order another dish to confirm just how good this place was. Yup, the taco consisted of crispy pork belly and the meat was done perfectly and very tasty. Perfect ending to our lunch.
Practically across the street from the restaurant was Willamette Vineyards Tasting Room. Yes, lets do a wine tasting before we head home. This is a street front wine tasting which for us Canadians just does not occur. There was nobody inside when we showed up so that was good as we have the hostess' attention. The winery sources all their grapes from grape growers in the Willamette Valley.
Storefront picture (from the Internet)
We chose the Reserve Tasting Flight as we wanted to focus on red wines. All the wines were pretty good, but we decided to purchase the Cuvée and the Tempranillo. These bottles can age for at least five years. They are both drinkable right now though. As well, they are 2016 vintage which according to the hostess was an excellent year. No taxes in Oregon. We continue to be disappointed by the expensive prices for all their wines and the tasting fees.
About a 30 minute drive home to Newberg. Lana was very tired so she took the opportunity to have a good nap. Randy checks on wineries for tastings this afternoon. I follow a wine newsletter called "Wine Folly" and they had visited the Willamette Valley recently and completed a great article. I chose two of the wineries they visited and ironically both are located close to McMinnville. Once Lana has woken up, we are back in the car travelling south for the two wine tastings and then dinner.
Our first stop is Stoller Estate located in Dayton. They have LEED Gold Certification which is the first of its kind in the winemaking world and an international symbol for sustainability achievement. As we drive and see the winery perched on the hill with many cars parked it is already very impressive and intimidating. Very classy place.
Online pic of the Stoller Estate's award winning tasting room. On the bottom right is the edge of their tasting bar where we were standing. We arrived just before 16:30 and they closed at 17:00. It was busy and we needed to wait for a place at the bar.
The menu for our $20 wine tasting. Brad was our host. We purchased a bottle of each of the Pinot Noirs. They were delicious, but different. Hard to decide between the two. We have six wine skins available for wine purchases and are now up to five bottles.
Hmmm, Randy looks like he has had too much wine! Nope, but I did enjoy every glass (small pours). The cool thing was Brad did a blind pouring of both bottles of Pinot Noir and we both guessed the bottles! Fun to do a tasting side by side for comparison. Also, an advantage to figuring out if you want to purchase.
Lana took this picture of the vineyard that is on the hill above the winery. Most of their Pinot Noir grapes come from these vineyards. Check out the blue sky and the mountains in the background! A beautiful day in the Willamette Valley!
Our next stop is R. Stuart & Company located in downtown McMinnville not too far from the wine tasting we tried earlier today. We learned that the locals pronounce Willamette Valley as "Williamette Valley" so they add in an i which doesn't make sense given Americans have a tendency to eliminate letters in words and not add letters. Like the other wineries their Pinot Noir begins at $50. This winery sources all their grapes - they do not have their own vineyard. The owners have established good relationships with the grape farmers.
We are sitting at the counter. The place is very busy although it wasn't so busy during the day. Lots of background noise from the larger groups that are seated. This place pours much more wine than the winery we just visited. We decide to purchase the expensive Autograph Pinot Noir - a blend of eight different vineyards. Music playing in the background. Another example of having a store front for your winery. The building is over 100 years old.
Our wine tasting flight.
We have noticed that none of the wine tastings had a spittle jar! We have been to wineries and wine tasting in Canada, USA, Germany, France, Portugal, Italy and Spain and every winery had a spittle jar. Just an observation.
We walk down the main drag to La Rambla for our dinner. Highly recommended and highly rated. We love Spanish tapas so we chose this place for our dinner tonight. We decided to sit at the bar. We arrived around 18:10 and it was reasonably busy. The menu is pretty good. It was pretty dark. While the server showed up quickly, the service of food was very slow. The salad came promptly, but after that it was a long wait for our two dishes. We ordered a roasted beet and arugula salad, grilled spanish octopus and a coffee-dusted flat iron steak. The food wasn't bad, but nothing was memorable. We decided to not order any drinks. More than enough wine drank today!
Online pic of the interior.
Back to our place by the river. Over 15,000 steps today. Lana very eager to redeem her billiards lose the night before and is busy practising while Randy updates the blog. We have our re-match and Lana wins the series. Our very first date was playing pool downtown and Lana beat me very badly. A memorable day in the Willamette Valley with hiking, wine tasting and an excellent meal. Tomorrow we drive to Portland, drop the rental car at the airport and then check in to our downtown hotel. That will be our last full day of vacation.
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