April 2017
When Kim and Ginny Billings Lewis came up with the idea of opening a tour company for an outdoorsy community like Ashland, it was already in their blood. That was twelve years ago in 2005. Now located at “the Cabin” next to the Breadboard at 800 N. Main, it’s a booming and successful year-around business, helping theatregoers and locals “get out there in the Great Outdoors” and explore.
Their growing staff includes well-known Bay area wine steward and cross-country ski and bicycling expert Nathan Dwyer; Chris Wagenet, a founding leader of Meet-Up’s Southern Oregon Happy Trails (with over 3,000 members); and Misha Savona, Outdoor Adventure Leadership intern from SOU.
“We not only offer the best professional leadership for our tours and rentals, we have custom Shuttle Buses, SUV’s, vans and Lincoln Town Car Limos to get you to where the outdoor action is,” Kim said.
MS Tours has a wide array of some 30 tour offerings at www.Ashland-Tours.com. Kim was recently filmed as the featured guide last May 2016 for the History Channel special on “The Unexplained Mysteries of Crater Lake Nation Park.”
“We snowshoed and rappelled to remote areas of the park to film, and even had a Klamath Native American lead a sacred scene at a Crater Lake fire circle in the filming,” Kim said. “It was an honor to be chosen.”
They’re now offering horseback trail riding on the Oregon Coast and the Redwoods, and guided, downhill mountain biking trips from the top of Mount Ashland and to Moab, Utah. This year’s weeklong adventure will be in Madras, Oregon, for the renowned Great American Eclipse of World significance on August 21 (it’s the first total eclipse to hit the continental United States since 1979).
MS Tours still has pre-paid openings for an Ashland community Eclipse RV and Campsite Community—a lodging and outdoor fair experience, from August 17-21.
“If you’re coming for the Ashland Shakespeare Festival experience, we offer sideline get-aways that will have you back in time for the plays: Rafting, Crater Lake National Park interpretive tours, Wine and Micro-Brew Bus Tours, Fly Fishing, Horseback and Electric Bike Riding,” Kim said.
Guiding and Hospitality are in Ginny’s blood. She was raised on the epic and still existing Billings Farm, which has been in the family since 1856.
“In the 1960s I was just five years old when my dad John Billings had the all-natural spring-fed pond built and it became a welcome sign for Ashland,” Ginny said. “Now three generations later, locals and out-of-town visitors get to go fishing and birding in and around the amazingly beautiful ecosystem. School groups from elementary to secondary to SOU have explored and taken field trips there.”
The late John Billings, long-time Ashland Community Planning Commissioner and City Councilor, co-founded the Ashland YMCA, was district governor of Rotary and earned the title Mr. Rotary for his 62 years perfect attendance. He followed the lineage of his founding family pioneers of Ashland from the mid 1800s.
Ginny’s great grandparents helped bring the Chautauqua movement to Ashland to host nationally known speakers and entertainment. It was upon that original Chautauqua building foundation that the Elizabethan Theater of OSF’s stunning outdoor theater was later built.
For more info, call 541-482-9852 or go to ashland-tours.com. You can also like them on Facebook.
