We have a lot of local stories in tomorrow's section.

Check out Bill Hutchens' guide to the Olympic Peninsula for first-time visitors. Bill has 10 recommendations.

We've got the news on the first razor clam dig of the season, plus the outlook for each of the five beach area.

I was at the Jackson Visitor Center Sunday afternoon and write about the final hours before the center closed for good. We'll take a look at the new center in the Oct. 9 Adventure section.

Pheasant hunters will likely see fewer birds in the field this season. That's the forecast from the state and Pheasants Forever.

Also, we have our annual ski survey in the section. But you also can find it online here.

Our last day as OPNs started with some hiking in the Hoh Rain Forest. (PDF warning)

The entrance road is only a few miles south of Forks off of 101, but it's another 12 miles or so to the ranger shack (where you purchase your $15 permit) and then six more winding miles to the visitor center and various trailheads. Along the way there are several turnouts for viewing the Hoh River, buying some snacks or just looking at big trees - really big trees, like the aptly named Big Spruce Tree:

After gettin' learned up up at the visitor center, we took the short (about a mile) Hall of Moss Trail, which starts and ends at the parking lot. It's a cool and informative jaunt through marshy, mossy forest. Every few steps, you can stop and read all about the "circle of life" in one of the rainiest rain forests in the world.

Ya gotta do the 1.2-mile Spruce Nature Trail, too, because it takes you right by the Hoh River.

(Ever seen that movie "Two Pimps and a Hoh"?)

Of course, real men visit the Hoh Rain Forest to do the Hoh River Trail. It's a 17.4-mile hike (one way) up to Glacier Meadows where, we're told, you can get excellent views of Mount Olympus. Finishing that hike, which turns steep at the 13-mile mark as you climb from 600 feet above sea level to 4,300, is now on our Bucket List.

But with Kalaloch and Ruby Beach waiting for us, we decided the mighty mountain will have to endure us some other time.

Ruby Beach is magnificent. It's a few miles north of Kalaloch Lodge. A short, simple downhill trek puts you at the mouth of Cedar Creek with great views of Abbey Island just off shore.

We hiked up and down the beach a bit and climbed on the acres of logs piled up near the base of the bluff. (Don't do this at high tide; they're unstable.) Then we headed to the lodge for a late lunch/early dinner before heading back to Tacoma.

All in all, this was an incredible – albeit quick – vacation. We got a taste for the Oly Pen and kept talking about how we need to go back and focus on a few of our favorites from among the ten destinations we hit in four short days.

Tuesday I mentioned the signs of vampires in Forks.

The "Twilight" phenomenon has taken over the town. We rolled in a few days after a big celebration in honor of "Twilight" author Stephenie Meyer. Sept. 13, the birthday of Meyer's fictional heroine, Isabella "Bella" Swan, apparently was Stephenie Meyer Day in Forks. And the signs are still everywhere.

Readerboards and shop windows all over town bear little hints of the town's infatuation with the book, author and characters who put them on the map.

On the way into Forks on 101 from the north, you'll see this sign:

I'm not sure about the "race fans" reference. Here's the flip side:

In town, the readerboard at the Dew Drop Inn sports these messages:

Sully's Burgers was closed, but these images are still soaped (or shoe polished?) onto the windows:

Sorry about the flash in that first pic. I had to shoot this dry-erase board special through the window, so it's no good either:

There are stacks of "Twilight" novels in the local Thriftway, and I have to tell you about Pacific Pizza. We had some take-out from Pacific in town Wednesday night, and nearly every window in the place still bears a "Twilight" message. They advertise Ed Bread (named after Edward Cullen, Bella's vampire beau), Swan Salad and, my favorite, Bellazagna. I didn't have my camera at the restaurant, but I doubt you really need to see the "I (heart) Edward)" sign or the bloody hand prints. Also, there's a tribute to www.twilightmoms.com, whose members apparently descended upon the town last weekend. How many members? "Like, all 1,000 of them," according to the girl at the counter. I think she might have been exaggerating.

The restaurant was still advertising tours of Forks High School (Bella's school; did I mention this is a young-adult series?) and a "Wolf Dance" at La Push, all of which took place last weekend. The wolf thing is a reference to the werewolves who, according to the novels, inhabit the Quileute Indian Reservation in La Push. Some of the story takes place there on First Beach and in the Quileute cemetery.

We drove by the high school and the police station, which also are mentioned in the books, but there was nothing interesting to shoot. However, we cruised by Forks Community Hospital and snapped this shot:

Dr. Cullen is Edward's father. I believe he treats Bella after a car accident.

By the way, apparently not every establishment in town is on the "Twilight" bandwagon:

Wednesday we hit Neah Bay, Cape Flattery and Shi Shi Beach.

Neah Bay was our staging point. In order to visit the attractions on the Makah reservation you have to purchase a $10 recreation pass, and we got ours from Washburn's store in town. Just go through one of the checkout lines and ask for one.

We stopped for a few minutes to pay our respects at the Diah Veterans Park – Fort Nuñez Gaona historical monument, which opened May 17. It's a tribute to both the late 1700s Spanish military settlement (and its relationship to the Makah tribe) and the tribe members who have served in the United States military.

We also tried our best to snap a photo of Vancouver Island, but the fog (and marked amateurism) hampered us.

After that, it was about a 20-minute drive along a winding road to the Cape Flattery trailhead. Our guide book, "Day Hiking: Olympic Peninsula," published in 2007, indicated we would spend about the last five miles on a gravel road, but the entire way is paved now.

We got the feeling this trail was made for us. It's a short hike (less than a mile round trip) to an amazing payoff. Several viewpoint balconies are perched precariously on the edges and at the end of this high peninsula. If you don't like heights, stay away. Every gust of wind feels as though it might whisk you off a cliff, and you can feel the bigger waves reverberate. The final viewing platform is on the very tip of the peninsula, the northwesternmost point in the contiguous United States.

Here's the view to the south from one of the platforms along the trail:

Here's the view to the south from the platform at the trail's end:

Here's the view to the north:

And here's the view straight ahead, toward Tatoosh Island:

And a closer look at the island lighthouse:

It's another half-hour drive to the Shi Shi Beach trailhead to the south. We'd heard such wonderful things about the eight-mile hike along Shi Shi to Point of the Arches and back, but somehow the initial (and VERY muddy) two-mile hike through the forest never came up. Neither did the ridiculously dangerous descent down the side of a cliff at the end of that two-mile forest hike. Seriously, this place needs an elevator, stat!

Regardless of the difficulty, we'll definitely head back to Shi Shi on our next trip around the loop. We got there too late in the day to do the full hike (and climb) and still get back through the forest before dark. I did get this shot from one of the overlook points just before the big descent. It's a look south toward Point of the Arches.

Tuesday shaped up pretty well.

On our way through Port Angeles, we caught several of Bob Stokes' "Avenue of the People" steel statues. Head over to the GO Arts blog to read a bit more about this fascinating guy, described by his PR person as "a Northern California artist who has put down roots on the Olympic Peninsula and is shaking up the former logging town of Port Angeles with his artistic vision."

We were toying with the idea of taking Highway 112, the northern route out of Port Angeles, because we had developed a hankerin' for the amazing Straight of Juan de Fuca views offered up by Dungeoness Spit. But we opted to stay on 101 because Jeff, Craig and my boss Craig Sailor all told me that Lake Crescent is – and this is a direct quote – "cool."

They were right.

Highway 101 hugs the southern edge of the lake. Our first stop was Barnes Point, where we found the Marymere Falls trail. It starts out as an easy, flat hike on a wide trail through gorgeous forest. After you cross a pair of log bridges, though, the path becomes a steep winding staircase up to two falls overlooks, but it's well worth the exertion. It's about an hour or so round trip if you take your time.

Note the dude in the photo doing his best to give the image some scale. Thanks, dude!

Next we just picked one of the dozen or so view turnouts along 101 for a quick break. I almost drove the car into the lake on several occasions, so I finally listened to the kid and just stopped to take some pictures. You can't see it well in this shot (proof of my lousy photography skills), but the water is amazingly clear with a turquoise tint. We stopped just before Fairholm, a way point at the west end of the lake.

If you're headed to the lake, you might as well visit Sol Duc Hot Springs. Sol Duc Hot Springs Road is just a mile or two from the west end of the lake, off of 101. Nathan, a world-wise traveler who has dipped his tush in natural hot springs outside of Nagano, Japan, offered up a question that, up to that point, hadn't been of immediate concern to me:

"Is it a naked one?"

No, it's not. But, sorry, no pics anyway. That would have been rude to the other bathers. The hot springs are piped into two large, manmade circular pools and a wading pool. There's also a chlorinated swimming pool for cooling off. Day-use admission is $11 per adult, and the front office rents towels, lockers and swim wear for $3 each. The only drawback is the sulfur smell.

I don't remember where I read it, but there's a Native American legend about how two dragons met in the Sol Duc Valley and fought for years. They were so saddened by their eventual stalemate that they retreated to their caves and cried. The hot springs are their tears.

After we checked into our hotel in Forks, we headed out to the beach at La Push to watch the sunset. That smaller notched rock in the picture below is named "Gunsight Rock," a moniker that met with the approval of my teenage Halo fan.

We ate at a place called River's Edge Restaurant, a decent steak and seafood house near the mouth of the Quillayute River.

Forks, by the way, is the setting for Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" series, young-adult novels about vampires. There's a "Twilight" movie destined for theaters this winter, and there are signs of vampires all around Forks. I'll try to post some pics Wednesday, after we get back from Neah Bay and the northwesternmost point in the contiguous United States.

Sigh.

Biggest bummer of the trip so far: Hurricane Ridge is closed to all traffic. The closure began Monday and runs through Thursday, and I'm not sure we'll be back this way, since the point of this trip is to "do the loop."

Oh well. At least we got to spend the morning using Buzz Coffee's incredibly slow wi-fi and listening to the OMG girls, who, let's face it, really deserve their own paddock at the Olympic Game Farm.

So it's off to Sol Duc Hot Springs, which really is more our speed anyway.

"Dungeoness Spit," everyone said. And we're glad we went, truly.

At high tide, it's not an impossible 5.5-mile hike out to the lighthouse at the end of one of the worlds longest natural sand spits. But it's a lot harder.

North of Sequim, the spit offered us our first-ever view of the Straight of Juan de Fuca. The spit justs out from the beach toward the northeast, and you can see the lighthouse from the trail. Doesn't look like 5.5 miles, you'll tell yourself. Can't be 5.5 miles out, 5.5 miles back. Can't be an 11-mile round trip.

The pathetic photo above shows how "far" we made it. To be fair, we started late in the day, around 4 p.m., and the park was set to close around 7 p.m. A volunteer guide told us the hike takes four to six hours - during low tide when there's hard sand to walk on. I'm no good at math, but it didn't sound like we would make it.

The volunteer must not have thought so, either. She encouraged us to just hang out on the spit and watch for the family of whales that had been spotted throughout the day. She even loaned us her binoculars. I guess she didn't want to have to take her buggy out to rescue two idiots later on.

Here's the view to the southwest, toward Port Angeles:

And here's the view to the northeast, toward the end of the spit:

Despite the fact that we didn't make it to the lighthouse, I was happy to pay the $3 entrance fee, since all of the money goes to Dungeoness National Wildlife Refuge, which occupies the entire southeast length of the spit.

First of all, I'm so sorry.

We need to limit Craig's photo-archive access.

Anyhoo, those pictures are old, so I posted a current pic below. Every time I go on vacation, I get tubbier from eating way too much and harrier from not shaving. Our Olympic Peninsula trip began Monday. Here's what my son and I look like today. Wave, Nathan!

I snapped that photo Monday afternoon at the Olympic Game Farm. Years ago, we visited a game farm in Oregon, so I expected the one in Sequim to be about the same: lots of tufts of brown fur just barely visible through tall grass. But the animals were out in force Monday, eager for the bread the ticket guy sold us. (Admission is $10 per adult, bread is $2 per loaf).
Ever been stalked by a llama? It's every bit as thrilling as they say it is. Zebras, horses, deer and peacocks swarmed our car, too. They didn't want to let us leave. Or, at least, they didn't want our bread to leave.

We had a "Jurassic Park" moment when one of the bigger yaks craned its head sideways to get a better look inside Nathan's window. And let's just say yak snot it not a great window cleaner. Still, we couldn't help but admire this guy's persistence:

There's a plain full of elk and buffalo, but our shot had to be a drive-by one, because the area is forested with signs that warn you to "KEEP MOVING." The guy at the front gate said it was because the bison and sometimes the elk will challenge your car to a duel. Apparently nobody really "wins" in that scenario.

We felt sorry for this guy, a white rhino whose horn seemed to have gone all "Free Willy" on him.

The bears are the coolest. These guys are totally Yogi – they'll do just about anything for food. They came right up to the (electrified) inner fencing and waved, sat up, begged, posed, etc. And they caught flying bread hunks with their mouths. And, sure, they seem roly-poly and cute. But do NOT help them develop a taste for manflesh. Stay in your car.

As you can tell by the picture to the right, News Tribune writer Bill Hutchens has always been a big hit with our female readers. Rippling muscles, writing talent, and fashion sense. He's a true triple threat.

And this week, he's working for us in an attempt to bring more women readers to The Adventure Guys.

Bill has done many things in his distinguished career as a News Tribune writer. He's written hundreds of video game reviews, he's fenced (with a saber - as far as I know he's never sold any stolen goods) and he's worn a kilt.

But one thing he's never done is explore the Olympic Peninsula.
Driving Highway 101 around the Olympic Peninsula is a must for Washington residents and this week Bill is finally taking his trip.

He'll spend this week hiking, exploring, camping and whatever else he comes up with.

We haven't heard yet if he'll be wearing a shirt or his man skirt on this trip. Check back regularly this week and find out.

What a ride and what a day. The day went without any issues. Russ and I concluded that this was the best time we had on any of the last five Courage Classic rides. Both of us felt strong all day and at our best as we climbed Stevens Pass. I made my best time ever up the pass by seven minutes.

As the ride took place, it dawn on me besides the kids who are helped by the money raised; the real story is all of the volunteers who make the ride happen. As riders we are told continuously by many volunteers “Thank you for raising money and riding for the kids.” I hope to not leave out any one but here it goes. Here are just some of the volunteer highlights and a thank you I want to pass on:
• MultiCare has seventy – five volunteers who help put on the ride. Checking in people, loading and unloading bikes, moving and putting up tables and chairs, driving SAG cars, and ect.
• All the Rotary Clubs of Pierce County were involved in buying and preparing all the food stops along the ride. Each stop had more Rotarians than you can count. How could you not when you have to feed over 700 rides in a short period of time? Thank you for the treats and the special little twist you have at each stop. STP could learn from you. We had apple cider, coffee, water, Gatorade, ice cream sundaes, fresh fruit, root beer floats, snow cones, and many other items to enjoy at the many food stops.
• John Curley for riding and being the MC for the Saturday night program.
• The Gig Harbor Rotary for a better spaghetti lunch at Snoqualmie Summit than I had at Spaghetti Factory besides the parking was easier.
• What can Brown do for you? I tell you what UPS does for the riders. UPS takes the riders luggage from them at the start of the ride and drops it off at their camp site or hotel during all three days. The bags are dropped off by the rides numbers at the finishing site. UPS also took care of my laptop by keeping it safe for me.
• Many MultiCare employees volunteered their weekend for the ride, and brought their kids along to help as well.
• The Old Town Bicycle shop fixed and worked on many bikes for a thank you or the cost of the parts. Thanks for taking care of my tire and my bike.
• The South Hill – Puyallup Rotary and Sumner Rotary for a nice lunch of sandwiches and soup.
• All the SAG drivers – Thank you for stopping and bring water, a floor pump, a kind word of encouragement, and a ride when the body or the bike gave out.
• The Lion’s Club of Leavenworth for my favorite dinner and a great breakfast. Dinner is so good I worry about embarrassing myself for eating so much, and trust me when it comes to food I don’t embarrass easy.
• The Tacoma Narrows Rotary for the baked potato lunch and the fun we had in line. Every year you add a new topping for the bakers, and I love all of the items you offer.
• Thank you for all of you who worked on Thursday and Friday to prepare the ride and those of you who will work on Tuesday getting everything back to where it goes.
• Thank you all for a special ride but be prepared the word is out so expect more riders next year.

I tried to post this on Saturday, but the hotel which claimed to have an internet connection didn't have one.

Sunday Night

This weekend’s ride reminds me of times when I was a kid where you have no worries and only good times. Remember as a child the extra fun days flew, but the days when you had to pull weeds dragged on. This weekend has been that kind of weekend; it is flying by. The only small hiccup came from during the first fifteen miles of the ride. The three readers of this blog, who are all related to me, will know my love of dehydration, IVs, and ER. I felt the need to get ahead of my hydration so I drank two large bottles of water the first ten miles. Hoping I would soon have a sign that I was fully loaded and hydrated – I wanted - NO - I needed to pee. I had the same experience Craig Hill had two years ago on STP when he needed to go. Finally, with a full bladder, I pulled over behind a tree to relieve myself. Sweet relief. The hiccup wasn’t the fact I couldn’t void, but when Todd Kelly my neighbor and Multi-Care Hospital Communications Director decided to roll up in his SAG wagon within ten feet of my tree. Todd has his soon to be a seventh grade daughter Sarah with him. He quickly threw the car in reverse, and all turned out well.

The weekend is truly a worry free weekend for the riders, but it happens by the hard work of the volunteers. I asked Todd if the weekend qualified as work – he said no he volunteered this weekend in fact he mentioned his first day of his vacation is Monday the last day of the ride. His daughter Sarah was right by his side working hard with her dad. The hours the volunteers put in are enormous – Todd started both Saturday and Sunday before 7 AM and Saturday his day finished at 9:30 PM. When Russ and I left the program last night at 7 PM, Todd with Sarah at his side was still hard at work. I talked to a couple Rotary members who came up the night before the event to set up their food stop, and woke quite early to prepare food for the many riders.

Again for my three family and friends reading the blog, the cribbage total is 10 to 10. I jumped out to a huge lead of 9 to 2 to only have Russ get on a big run and tie it up.

Monday’s ride is the toughest for me. The ride is around sixty miles with about the biggest climbing day. Today we climb Stevens Pass. The total climbing miles today is around fifteen miles of the sixty. Russ waits for me at the top of the pass, and my best time in the past has Russ only waiting for twenty-three minutes; we will see.

Twenty-two miles into today’s ride my tire made a sound like a .357 going off. Not good, I had my first flat tire on the ride and only my second for the year. Craig Hill has the record for four flats on one fifty mile ride, and he literally blew through five tubes. Russ Meyers comment “You pulled a Craig Hill.” The day started a bit dicey with rain at the start of the ride. As the good boy scout that I am, I came prepared with a long sleeve cycling jersey and my long cycling pants. My body was warm and toasty. The rain came and went as we road through day on and off on I – 90.
As I near the start of the largest hill, the tire blew. The Courage Classic has about seven sag wagons which drive the course helping people with flats, water, and bike problems. The helpful sag driver was Eric Quist. After trying to fix the tire, we tried two tubes then the tire blew again. Eric loaded the bike onto the car and took me up the hill to a waiting mechanic. Old Towne Bike Shop supplies the bike mechanics. The mechanics are outstanding in their service. The mechanic told me to go have lunch, and my bike would be ready when I returned. The bike was ready to go, and when I didn’t have enough money they allowed me to come by later to pay. The Courage Classic treats their riders like no other ride.