Wednesday is the last day to register for the second Paddle Kitsap, a two-day paddle trip around the north end of the Kitsap Peninsula.

Whether its a kayak, canoe, rowing, or other human powered craft , participants can enjoy the natural beauty, challenge of the course and making new paddling friends.

Paddlers will leave from Port Gamble and paddle around the north end of the peninsula to Kingston on the first day. Day two continues on to Poulsbo.

Paddle Kitsap is for all levels of paddlers. You do not have to be an expert to paddle this course. It is fully supported so you can paddle a little or all of it depending on your ability and how you are feeling. Most of the course does not leave the shoreline and the open water crossings are short in duration.

The cost is $175 per person.

Click here to learn more about the event.

Jeff and I teamed up to write a story about our favorite food stops after a day in the outdoors.

No fine dining here. Just fine burgers, fries, shakes and cherry pie a la mode (Twede's famous pie pictured to the right).

Check it out and see if your favorite was included. If not let us know about your favorite. We'd love to check it out.

(Picture by Drew Perine)

Backpacker Magazine just announced its Best Cities to Raise an Outdoor Kid.

Seattle made the list - coming in at No. 6 - even though it's still easier to get to Mount Rainier and the Olympic Mountains from Tacoma.

We're not bitter.

Boulder, Colo., was No. 1 on the list. Hood River, Ore., is No. 13.

I’m blogging from Keystone right now as I wait in line with my son for the Keystone-Port Townsend ferry. Here’s a recommendation for anybody trying to make this run between now and the end of June. Make a reservation at least one week in advance.

I talked with a kayak outfitter this morning in Langley who said he’s been told reservations are filling a week in advance. He ended up getting stuck in Port Townsend recently.

The run is the easiest way to get to the Olympic Peninsula from any point north of Seattle. So with the Hood Canal Bridge closed through June for construction demand is through the roof. Making matters worse, the state ferry service is using a smaller ferry it borrowed from Pierce County. The Steilacoom II used to make the run from Steilacoom to Anderson Island.

Standby isn’t totally out of the question. We’ve been told we have a good shot at the 4:30 ferry. It’s 2:23 right now. A long wait, but we get to play on the beach for a couple hours. And that beats a long drive almost any day.

To make reservations:
Visit wsdot.wa.gov/ferries
Call 877-595-4222
Or from your cell dial 511

Also visit the website for info on a special Edmonds to Port Towsend run on the weekends.

Sunday we are going to take a look at Movie's filmed in Washington's outdoors. While Washington's outdoor makes a glorious set for Hollywood flicks. We'll look at 12 places you can recreate where movies were filmed on Sunday.

Until then here are 15 other movies that are at least partially filmed in Washington.

I'm working on a story about how to better store outdoor gear in your garage.

I would love to hear your suggestions on how to store your stuff for camping, fishing, paddling, skiing and snowboarding, hiking, hunting or any other activities you enjoy.

Feel from to comment here or send me an e-mail at jeff.mayor@thenewstribune.com.

Port Townsend seems to be the place people always go through en route to somewhere else. But Craig Hill found there is plenty of things to do for adventurers, including kayaking, cycling and parks.

I'm writing about the effort of the Washington State Parks Foundation to raise $4 million. The money will be used on four projects and programs to assist the State Parks Department.

Anglers will be interested in a couple of proposed changes in fishing regulations for the 2009-10 seasons. The biggest impacts locally are on Chambers and Ohop creeks.

We got that and more in tomorrow's Adventure section.

We got an advance copy of the October issue of Backpacker magazine this week and found it packed with tidbits about Washington.

Not surprisingly, since this is its “Survival Issue,” the magazine takes a couple of looks at Mount Rainier. The trek to Camp Muir is listed No. 4 on the list of “America’s 10 Most Dangerous Hikes.”

And the magazine dubs Mount Rainier “America’s Most Dangerous Mountain.”

This shouldn’t be too much of a surprise if you are a regular reader of The News Tribune. In fact, the magazine sites The News Tribune as a source for its Rainier coverage.

The magazine lists paddling around San Juan Island and climbing Mount Adams via the Mazama Glacier route among its “Ten Epic Hikes.”

Backpacker doesn’t mention Longbranch mountaineer Dan Mazur by name, but does give him a tip of the cap. Aussie climber Lincoln Hall is listed as one of the 16 Ultimate Survivors for surviving overnight on Mount Everest in 2006. It was Mazur who rescued him.

The October issue of Backpacker’s Magazine hits newsstands Sept. 9.

The guys from OAR Northwest, a foursome of University of Puget Sound graduates, have finished another epic rowing adventure.
Two years after becoming the first Americans to row across the North Atlantic, two members of the team circumnavigated the Olympic Peninsula.

Greg Spooner and Jordan Hanssen pulled into Gig Harbor at 2 p.m. on Aug. 23 to complete their 20-day, 400-mile voyage.
The men made the journey in a 16.5-foot, 200-pound dory and carried 150 pounds of gear.

Hanssen, who biked across Australia earlier this year, said in some ways this trip was more intense than rowing across the Atlantic.

The toughest stretch came in a swampy area on the Black River between Grays Harbor and the Puget Sound where Hanssen, 6-foot-5, and Spooner, 6-3, had to get out and push their boat through the muck. It took eight hours to move the boat half a mile, Hanssen said.

“Sometimes we’d push it an inch, sometimes it would go half a boat length and sometimes we’d fall on our face,” Hanssen said. “And sometimes the mud smelled like diarrhea.”

In other words, Hanssen said, “this isn’t something I’d recommend doing for fun.”

Hanssen and Spooner became enamored with the idea of circumnavigating the peninsula when a friend suggested it in 2006.

“We wanted to make the peninsula an island,” Hanssen said.

As they researched their idea they consulted several people who rowed portions of the loop, including themselves. They rowed from Port Angeles to Aberdeen with teammates Dylan LeValley and Brad Vickers in 2006 while training for their Atlantic row.

They read about men in the 1800s who tried to find a waterway from Gray Harbor to Puget Sound, but never found anybody who successfully circumnavigated the peninsula.

In fact, some bad luck kept them from completing their entire trip.

On the Pacific Coast near the Queets River, the men decided to ride the surf to the beach to spend the night. But the next morning their boat nearly filled with water as they tried to get it back out past the light surf. After several unsuccessful attempts, the men decided to row up the Queets River to Highway 101 and called a friend for a ride to Grays Harbor.

They thought about trying again the next day, but realized there was no way they’d get their boat past the surf.

“We didn’t want to put our lives at risk so we made the safe decision,” Hanssen said.

Because they’ve rowed the section of the coast before they didn’t have a lingering sense of failure for the 40 miles of the trip they missed.

“If we had known we were going to have that trouble we would have just kept rowing through the night,” Hanssen said. “… Greg and I are very satisfied. It might have been in a different boat and at a different time but we have rowed completely around the peninsula.”

Besides, the real challenge of the trip was making their way from Aberdeen to Olympia, Hanssen said.

From Aberdeen the men rowed up the Chehalis River to the Black River near Oakville.

They then followed the Black River to Black Lake. From there they made their way up a canal and portaged their boat a bit to get to Capitol Lake.

At the end of Capitol Lake they picked their boat up and carried it to Budd Inlet where they had an obstacle free row all the way back to Gig Harbor.

Hanssen and Spooner’s adventure was more than just another physical and mental test. It was training for their next odyssey.

In 2011, Hanssen and Spooner plan to row from New York to Nome, Alaska.

Read Hanssen and Spooner’s dispatches from their travels at oarnorthwest.com.

Just got back from a weekend kayaking and exploring in Port Townsend.

Seems like most people are there to hit the shops, but there is clearly much more to do around here for those who are little more active.

We'll be exploring what there is to do in Port Townsend in a future Adventure section. Until then, here are a couple pictures.

Kayaking with my son, Alexander.

Kayaking with my daughter, Mackenzie.

"I got nowhere else to go!" Alexander explorers a battery at Fort Worden. This is the location of the famous "I got nowhere else to go!" scene in "An Officer and A Gentleman." Great flick, but not appropriate for kids.

Debbie Natelson of Soundrowers Open Water Rowing & Paddling Club recently sent info on the upcoming race across Puget Sound:

Join Sound Rowers Open Water Rowing & Paddling Club for the annual Great Cross Sound Race, Saturday August 23, 9am. This race is open to all human powered boats: rowing shells (fixed dory to sliding seat shell); canoes/outrigger canoes/war canoes; kayaks/surfskis, pedal boats, paddle boards. Mass start; 7.6 mile course begins and ends at the Alki swimming Beach, proceeds west towards and around Blakely Rocks off of Bainbridge Island, then south to the Decatur Reef Buoy, then back east to Alki Beach. THe race is exciting with variety of boats and usually offers some navigational challenges in addition to distance (general summer boat traffic wake, ferry boats, tides, currents, and prevailing wind. At some point in triangular course you are battling the conditions. Coast Guard approved flotation device, whistle, and ability to self rescue in cold water required. Non members welcome. Mandatory pre-race meeting at 8:15. For directions/further information on this race and other Sound Rowers races, www.soundrowers.org. Race Director, Jeff & Theresa Knakal, 425-338-9441.

My family and I just returned from a trip to Vancouver Island. We had a great trip, traveling from Nanaimo to the far north coast, and then over to the Ucluelet-Tofino area. We saw bald eagles every day and a number of black bears, including a sow with two cubs. I'll be writing about it for an upcoming Adventure story.

While I'm working on my story, I would love to include your thoughts on places people should visit on Vancouver Island and why. It seems to be one of those quintessential Northwest family camping trips. Send me an e-mail about where you like to visit while on the island and what makes it a favorite of yours.

Finally, while I was away, however, my e-mail shut down. So if you sent anything to me that bounced back, please send it again.