Bend is one of my favorite cities to visit. It has the high desert weather, some amazing wilderness, amazing beers, and a pretty decent vegan scene to boot. Also, Cline Butte OHV area has some nice options for wheeling. Only thing is, you need to know where to go.
Hopefully this guide will help for your next trip.
**UPDATE!! As of Summer 2016, The Brewery at Lake Tahoe NO Longer offers the vegan burger. I have updated the post below**
There are two ends of the Rubicon trail in Northern California.
Most people start on the Loon Lake end and make their way toward South Lake Tahoe on the Eastern end. While the West end at Loon doesn’t have any amenities, the Lake Tahoe region has a ton of great, hidden vegan gems – some to hit up, and some to avoid.
I will update this little guide as my time in Tahoe expands and I am able to check out more and more places.
The Brewery at Lake Tahoe
3542 Lake Tahoe Blvd, South Lake Tahoe, CA
While roaming our local New Seasons today, something caught me eye in the rainbow of colors in the Gardein freezer section. It seriously is starting to look like Rainbow Brite puked Skittles all over the place.
Anyway, the pink highlight color on the bag drew my eye and I snagged the last bag in the freezer.
The bag promises it contains a packet of awesome sauce. So with that, we planned on making it part of tonight’s dinner.
As with all of Gardein’s fake meats, these were simple to make. Simply toss the frozen bites into a skillet with some oil and cook thoroughly. Toss in the awesome sauce, and serve over a bed of whatever starchy goodness you want. We went with some sticky rice.
I always laugh at the often obscure names given to trails in our area. Some, I am sure have a backstory (Stick in the Nose is an actual trail name) while others I think are a lame attempt at sounding intimidating. But Crushers has always had that scary spot in my mind.
Not just due to the name, but due to the massive boulder field that is the trail. It is probably the ultimate rock crawling trail in this area.
The trail begins with a common filter that has a pretty easy line even though it looks menacing.
I didn’t feel like dinner. I felt like some vegan sin food. And I was longing for those old school, bad-for-you velveeta experiences.
While roaming the aisles tonight at Food Fight, I decided to try the new Daiya Cheezy Mac and grabbed a box.
Continue reading Product Review: Daiya Cheddar Style Cheezy Mac
I was one of the early adopters of the “bedlined grille” look. My OEM paint was chipping from winter road debris, and I just thought it made sense to have a durable, easy to repaint grille coating on the front of the Jeep. However, when it came to repaint it this Summer I got the great idea to use a new, polyurethane liner and totally messed it up.
So it was time to find a new grille.
And, while this is not a review, I have been really happy with my new Spartan Grille from Rugged Ridge.
I hope this install writeup will help anyone that comes across a couple of the trickier parts of this install. Check out my unboxing video for the Spartan Grille!
Continue reading Product Install: Rugged Ridge Spartan Grille
Today I created my first ever unboxing video of the newest grille to hit the market for Jeep JK – the Spartan Grille from Rugged Ridge!
This is a VERY involved install that will require exhaust configurations, trips to the tool store, modifications, Jeep friends, and beer. This is NOT a quick “bolt-up” installation as I thought it would be. Understand that – you may require multiple days to get it done right.
This was one of the most significant installs I have done on my Jeep.
Continue reading Product Install: Artec Aluminum 4 Door Bellypan Armor Kit
A lot of surprising, ground shaking history was made this week, with the Supreme Court deciding that gay marriage is protected by the US constitution, and struck down all state-level bans. This is a huge victory for millions of gay couples that can now celebrate their relationship with equality, and a victory for a society that bills itself as free. And, many of my friends know I am a HUGE supporter of marriage equality.
But I feel a pang of irony in the celebratory news, as we also force the removal of the confederate flag from our collective psyche.
The Yulin dog and cat meat festival in China is gaining a lot of social and even mainstream media attention this week. And that is hopefully good news, as it shines a bright light on a pretty horrific “festival” that needs to end. These types of events, have been socially protected under the guise of “culture,’ yet now, with the news of the Chinese Government allowing the dialogue, that protection may come to an end.
![Trail Review: Crushers [OREGON]](https://offroadvegan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/img_2631.jpg?w=672&h=372&crop=1)
Off-road Vegan 