Ask Susan,
Your Personal Travel Counselor
Tell me how you really feel about paddling through gorges, water-dancing around boulders and portaging log jams. How about dropping cliffs on your mountain bike or hiking knife ridgelines? I see. Perhaps you are perfectly content paddling flatwater or mountain biking old logging trails? Do you need gourmet meals? Does your exhausted body require a comfy bed? Lie back on your couch with a glass of wine and let me help you solve your trip planning problems.
I am a journalist with 16 years of experience researching and writing about travel, with special emphasis on “soft” adventure travel such as hiking, paddling, biking, camping, skiing and snowboarding. The Internet has made it infinitely easier to research and book travel, but with all the information resources out there, it’s difficult to sort through the conflicting messages and choose the right vacation. My “travel counseling” services can rescue you from the abyss.
Life List:
Wild Alaska by Boat
We landed in Juneau just after 8 a.m. and by 11 a.m., we had shopped for provisions and arrived at the dock where the “Galaxy” is moored. It will take most of the afternoon to ready the 38-foot, converted fishing troller for our two-week escape into the isolated islands of Southeast Alaska’s Inside Passage.
We’re dizzy with excitement and still can’t believe we’re in Alaska, a longtime dream that had miraculously come to fruition just months earlier. How is it we are about to board this private boat for a close-up-and-oh-so-personal tour? Captain Vic Cano—lifelong friend, best man at our wedding, professional folk musician and wood-carving artisan—holds the key to our dream…if boats had keys, that is.
Vic, a native of northern Vermont, had decades ago given up the life of teacher, moved to Washington state…
ROW Adventures Blends Whitewater Rafting with a Dash
of Wilderness Culinary Lessons
If whitewater rafting and perfecting your wilderness cooking skills top your list of fun, then ROW Adventures' Culinary Whitewater Rafting Series is just the trip for you. After a thrilling day on the river, ROW Adventures' guides and a skilled chef will teach guests how to prepare gourmet meals in the wilderness using Dutch ovens.
Dutch ovens have long been used in the West. Lewis and Clark, sourdoughs of gold rush days and pioneers on the Oregon Trail all depended on these versatile cooking pots that allow a person to bake just about anything. Participants in ROW's cooking adventure will learn all the tricks of Dutch oven cooking with a focus on regional Northwest fare such as wild salmon, Pacific oysters, huckleberries, Idaho potatoes, mushrooms, apples and other fresh seasonal fruit. Meals will be paired with Oregon, Washington and Idaho wines along with tasting notes of each featured wine.