The prospect of food is always a strong lure for bicyclists. On the premise that a bike ride that includes breakfast is perhaps only rivaled by one consisting entirely of downhill gliding, it's easy to secure riding companions. So, with the prospect of pleasant cycling on the west side of Puget Sound, two friends willingly boarded the ferry from Edmonds to Kingston for a 25-mile sojourn around this northeast corner of Kitsap County.
By Gordon Black | May 29, 2003
VANCOUVER, B.C. Indian Arm, a 15-mile-long fjord at Vancouver's doorstep, offers urban sea kayakers an opportunity to quickly shed their concrete-and-steel-girder persona and enjoy a wilderness experience.
Tucked behind Mount Seymour on the city's north shore, it has remained largely undiscovered by American visitors.
Surrounded by granite cliffs and snow-capped mountains, and fed by more than 40 streams and waterfalls, Indian Arm beckons to folks looking for an afternoon respite or weekend getaway.
By John Rosapepe | May 29, 2003
Another world comes out during the extreme ebb tides of spring and summer on Puget Sound, when geoducks poke their siphons into the air, purple sea stars cling to the undersides of rocks and tiny green shrimp flit about tide pools.
This is the perfect time to pull on rubber boots and explore the fascinating margin between land and sea, and it helps if you have someone along who knows his or her way around a beach, like the two naturalists who led a recent shoreline walk at Discovery Park in Seattle.
By Greg Johnston | May 29, 2003
Short Trips
BAKER CITY, Ore. — As he glanced toward one of the life-size exhibits, volunteer George Johnson declared, "Yep, this is the place that put Baker City back on the map."
The place is the modern National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center at Flagstaff Hill, a bluff 500 feet above some of the 150-year-old ruts of the Oregon Trail still visible in that part of Eastern Oregon.
By Jeff Larsen | May 29, 2003
Hike of the Week
You'll feel like you're back in the mountains again when you hike the Whitepine Creek Trail east of Stevens Pass.
The trail has an "olden day" feel to it, as it was well-traveled by sheepherders and hunters, who benefited from the work of trail crews kept busy clearing windfalls and chopping away the dense brush in avalanche swaths.
The trail gets less maintenance today and the campsites are empty. However, the first section of the trail is a good spring hike and can suffice as an early season backpack.
By Karen Sykes | May 29, 2003
