A Grand Ole Time

Last May I spent 10 days in southern Ontario doing some incredible river and sea kayaking. Sea Kayaking in Ontario? Yes-on the Great Lakes!

Anyhow-one of my highlights was a trip down the Grand River, a Canadian Heritage River, not too far from Toronto.

I posted a story on this great location on the Weathernetwork.com and this month I have a small piece in Canoe and Kayak magazine about it. Check it out, and if you get back east next spring consider an all day excursion with Grand Experiences.

October Surprise

This past weekend in the Pacific Northwest saw some incredibly wonderful unseasonably nice weather. Taking advantage of perhaps the last good hiking days of the season, I set off with my wife, Heather for the Gothic Basin off the Mountain Loop Highway (left) on Saturday and Park Butte near Mount Baker (above) on Sunday.

Aside from the ample sun shine, 60 degrees and incredible lighting, these two extremely popular hikes were pretty quiet. Only a handful of hikers were out on both trails this past weekend. Not complaining-just a shame for the rest of you. You'll have to wait until next summer now to enjoy them. And yes, both of these hikes are in my upcoming Day Hiking North Cascades Book (Mountaineers Books) due for release spring 2008.

Mambo Italiano a la Montreal

I was born in a Little Italy in Bridgeport, Connecticut. I have vivid memories of corner stores reeking of "stinky cheese", sawdust on the floor-little old Sicilian nonni shrouded in black, Easter and Christmas Mass filled to capacity, and the goombas hanging out on the corner. I went to high school in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Catholic school of course. Lawrence at one time was teeming with paisani. They're still there-but mostly now in the more affluent towns of the Merrimack Valley.

One of the things I miss most about the East Coast are the European ethnic neighborhoods. The eastern cities are still full of them. I miss the food, the culture, and the people-they are quite colorful-quite different from the west. I just got back from a short trip to Montreal. What a city! Of course the French have given this Canadian city much of its flair. But after the French and the English, the Italians are the largest ethnic group. Italian is the fourth most spoken language in Canada, and in Le Petite Italie it can be heard. The Italian immigrants started the Jean Talon Market in 1933, and it continues today-a bastion of many cultures-one of the largest and finest outdoor markets in the east.

If your travels lead you this way, be sure to check out Montreal's Piccola Italia. Rent Mambo Italiano some night too. It was filmed here. One of Canada's highest grossing films and one funny movie! I can't wait to head back east-Ho molto fame!

No Wonder I'm a Little Tired!

I just finished up a fantastic week of hiking in Washington's Methow Valley. Put in just under 80 miles on the trail. My total hiking mileage for this year is now just shy of 900 miles. 900 miles! Yep-I'm feeling them. Researching two new hiking books; Day Hiking the Olympic Peninsula and Day Hiking North Cascades-plus some Canadian rambling for the Weather Network and my usual annual trips to France, Spain and New Hampshire have forced me to put a lot of miles on my boots this year. But what a year-especially here in the Pacific Northwest where we have been enjoying some of the best weather that I can remember.

That's me on Burch Mountain in the Pasayten Wilderness. Great hike. It's in my new book. Ok, time to recover. Heading to Montreal this weekend for a little urban culture. I plan on putting some running miles in while I'm there. After all, just because I'm taking a break from hiking you don't actually expect me to take a break completely, do you?

Borderline Security

So Congress has finally decided to get serious about our porous borders. Good-but trouble is it isn't just our border with Mexico that can use a little scrutiny. Our grand unguarded border with Canada is wide open. A sieve for drug runners, illegal immigrants, terrorists, and other riff raff. And our border with Canada is easier to cross than the one we share with Mexico.

Most of the Canadian Border from Washington to Montana is surrounded with deeply forested and mountainous terrain. But it isn't all wilderness. A maze of logging roads, especially on the BC side of the 49th parallel make it quite easy to get drug runners and illegal aliens on their way to the USA. They can easily drive up to the remote boundary-then hike one of our well maintained trails to a runner waiting for them at the trailhead.

Places like the Tomyhoi Valley (pictured above) can be traversed in less than a day, making wilderness survival skills unnecessary for the scofflaws. And it was exactly on this trail that I witnessed three drug runners hauling huge caches on a dreary August afternoon. I asked the "backpackers" where they were going and where they have been. They said they climbed Tomyhoi Peak. From Tomyhoi Lake?, I thought. Yeah- Right! They had gigantic packs on-garbage bags for rain protection-and they cut the switchbacks as they marched up to Gold Run Pass. They didn't seem too concerned about "losing" their garbage bag covers in the Mount Baker Wilderness either. So much for leave no trace. But the Junkies in Puget Sound could now rejoice-their delivery was on its way.

With the Forest Service's personnel dwindling to nothing-our northern border is slated to once again become a land of lawlessness where smugglers and no-gooders can freely roam into our country. We desperately need to once again establish wilderness guard houses, employ backcountry law patrol and get serious about nabbing and detaining lawbreakers. And one other thing-you junkies out there need to straighten-up. We're all paying for your filthy fix. Keep your filthy disgusting habits out of my sacred and precious wilderness. I leave the city to get away from this crap. Congress are you listening? Get serious about our borders-fund more law enforcement in the Forest Service before more innocent hikers get hurt or worse.