Bust your Axle at Wagonwheel Lake

I recently returned to the Staircase Area of Olympic National Park to tackle (actually track for a new Green Trails Map) one of area’s steepest trails-Wagonwheel Lake. The sign at the trailhead warns that you’ll climb 3,200 feet in 2.9 miles. Which isn’t entirely true as the first .4 mile you’ll gain only 200 feet and the last .5 mile you’ll gain only 200 feet meaning that within 2.0 miles you’ll ascend 2,800 feet! Yep-that’s steep! So many park visitors intent on seeing the lake ignore this warning (or underestimate their fitness level) and attempt this trail. Many soon poop out! And for those who persevere-once they get to the lake-they realize that all of that effort was hardly worth it. The lake is more of a stagnant pond cradled in a forested basin. But if you have more energy and determination-there is a scenic payoff waiting for you. Follow a way path another .4 mile and 700 more feet of climbing to an open knoll straddling the Mount Skokomish Wilderness-Olympic National Park Boundary. From this spot you can now enjoy excellent views of Mount Lincoln, Mount Stone, Mount Skokomish, Mount Ellinor, Mount Washington and the vast and unknown emerald ridges dividing the South and North Skokomish River valleys. Locate Wonder Mountain, Five Ridge Peak, Six Ridge and other little known and little explored peaks. A region that pretty much looks as it did when Lieutenant Joseph P O’Neil explored this part of e Olympic interior over 120 years ago. Want more information on this hike? It’s hike no. 38 in my Day Hiking Olympic Peninsula book. Have fun busting your axle on your way to Wagonwheel! - Follow all of my blog posts at Craigromano.com.

Paddling the Hanford Reach

On May 19, 2013, I along with Jordan Youngs of the Tri-Cities Visitor and Convention Bureau, and a couple of happy paddlers from Seattle set out with two guides from Columbia Kayak Adventures for an amazing kayak trip down the Columbia River at the Hanford Reach National Monument. I have hiked the White Bluffs of the Hanford Reach National Monument on several occasions and it is featured in my Day Hiking Eastern Washington book.

Seeing the Bluffs from water, however was a completely different experience. Here on the longest free-flowing non-tidal section of the Columbia River we paddled through a juxtaposition of two worlds. On our left was some of the last virgin shrub-steppe left in Washington  On our right were the remnants of the birth of the Atomic Age. It was hauntingly beautiful. We watched white pelicans fly overhead–eagles and herons too. And the bank

s of the river housed 1,000s of swallow nests. We encountered only a few other people on the river this beautiful 80-degree sunny Sunday. The Hanford Reach is one of the classic landscapes and natural features of Washington, yet it has been visited by few folks in comparison to Mount Rainier, the Olympics, and other state landmarks. I will be writing a piece on kayaking the reach in an upcoming issue of Northwest Travel. Check it out–and consider paddling one of the most spectacular places in the Evergreen State!

Also-I am now blogging through my refurbished website Craig Romano.com. Please bookmark that site to new posts.

Hikeoftheweek.com-- New and Improved!

New and Improved!

The long-awaited for relaunching of Hikeoftheweek.com has finally arrived! Thanks to Ashley Knecht of Mountaineers Books, Hikeoftheweek.com finally has the professional look and user-friendly features that it deserves. I started the site back in 2005 with Michael Fagin of Washington Online Weather. Two years ago I took complete control of the site but just didn't have the time and knowledge to make the upgrades that it needed. This year, all of that changed. Check out the site if you've haven't in a while. You will notice and be pleasantly pleased with the following features:

• Professional look and graphics
• Sliding content
• Larger photos
• User-friendly search engine
• subscription service
• multi-categorized archives

Hikeoftheweek.com continues to be sponsored by our friends at Snohomish County Tourism, Green Trails Maps and Mountaineers Books. Every other week the hike will spotlight a Snohomish County destination from suburban walks to backpacking routes deep within the Glacier Peak Wilderness. Every other week in between, Hikeoftheweek.com will spotlight a seasonally based hike throughout Washington state (sometimes spilling over into adjacent Oregon and British Columbia) with current emphasis on the Columbia River Gorge and Eastern Washington destinations to highlight my most recent books--where more detailed information including maps can always be found on the spotlighted hikes. Look forward in the future too to special guest posts from other hiking authorities as well as special posts, contests, and book promotions. Take a look at the site and let me know what you think. Happy hiking!

 

Who Would You Name A Mountain For- And Why?

Suppose you could name a peak for someone or something you admire. Who or what would you name your peak after? Why?

This is British Columbia's Mount Garibaldi.

 

It was named by Captain George Henry Richards of the Royal Navy for this guy (right)-Italian Patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi. Garibaldi happens to be one of my personal heroes too, and I'm glad he got such a beautiful mountain named after him.

 

 

I haven't climbed Mount Garibaldi yet-but I visited his birthplace in Nice, France a few years back. Nice used to be in Savoy-but Victor Emmanuel gave it to France after Italian Unification. Sheesh-the father of Italian unification couldn't even get his birthplace placed into his new country!

 

I stopped by at his residence in Uruguay too. Garibaldi lived in Uruguay and New York City too (afterall he's Italian!). He helped liberate Uruguay. Who goes to Uruguay anyway!? Evidently me and Giuseppe!

Exploring the ACFL on a beautiful November day

 

 

What a gorgeous November day today! I had to turn the computer off early and head outside. There aren't too many good sunny days left in the Northwest between now and the New Year. It was a perfect day to sneak over to Anacortes to continue researching Anacortes Community Forest Lands(ACFL). There are  over 50 miles of trails within this 2,800-acre protected recreation haven on Fidalgo Island. I intend on hiking many of those miles and including the best of them in my upcoming Day Hiking San Juan and Gulf Islands book which  will have an entire chapter on Fidalgo Island. Today's line up included the loops around Little Cranberry Lake and Big Beaver Pond! Have you been on them? What's your favorite Fidalgo hike(s)?

The Third Edition of Hiking in Snohomish County is now out!

Read all about it in this press release and get your copy now!

Hiking in Snohomish County, a new brochure that features 30 hikes from beach walks to wilderness explorations, is now available free from the Snohomish County Tourism Bureau.

The guide describes 30 hikes in detail and includes driving directions, topographical maps and a handy chart that lists each hike’s roundtrip distance, easy-to-difficult rating, elevation gain, best season to hike it, and closest community.

Also included are local resources and a list of accommodations for those who want to plan an overnight getaway around hiking.

This the third edition of Hiking in Snohomish County, authored by Craig Romano for the Snohomish County Tourism Bureau.

Romano is an award-winning author of nine guidebooks on hiking in Washington State, content provider for Hikeoftheweek.com and Trails Editor for Outdoors NW magazine.

In this latest brochure, Romano increased the number of featured hikes from 25 to 30 and replaced some hikes in previous editions to spotlight new ones.

The 30 hikes capture the full scope of hiking destinations within Snohomish County: beaches, scenic rivers, old-growth forests, alpine lakes, wildflower meadows, mountain tops, wildlife preserves, historic sites and impressive waterfalls.

To obtain Hiking in Snohomish County, go to www.snohomish.org/informationandrequests or phone the Snohomish County Tourism Bureau at 425-348-5802 ext. 10 to request the brochure be mailed.

For more information on Craig Romano and his guidebooks, visit www.CraigRomano.com.



The Snohomish County Tourism Bureau is a non-profit economic development agency responsible for the year-round professional tourism marketing of Snohomish County, Washington.

The Hike-A-Thon is On!

 How many miles will I hike this month?

I started the Washington Trails Association's 2012 Hike-A-Thon with a bike trip! It was actually a car-free hiking research trip to Sidney, BC on the Saanich Pensinsula north of Victoria. There I hiked 10 miles in the John Dean Provincial Park and 10 miles on Sidney Island in the Gulf Islands National Park Preserve. It was a research trip for my upcoming book, Day Hiking San Juan and Gulf Islands and the first one  I did car-free. I took my bicycle over on the  Anacortes-Sidney Ferry and stayed right in Sidney (at the waterfront Sidney Pier Hotel) from where I biked to John Dean Park and took a passenger ferry to Sidney Island. I then biked part of the Lochside Trail researching it for my book as well. You see this will be my first book that also explains how to get to trails and campgrounds by bicycle and whether trailheads and campgrounds and lodging are bike friendly. The Sidney Pier Hotel is-they'll lock your bike in a secure room.

The San Juan and Gulf Islands and Victoria-Saanich Peninsula are ideal for bike touring and bike-hiking options. Big advantages aside from not using gasoline is the convenience of getting on ferries. No reservation needed. No long line ups and only a fraction of the expense to get to the islands. Try it!

Now about the Hike-A-Thon. SPONSOR ME! (please!). I'm hoping to raise $1,500 for WTA this year to help protect and enhance the trails that we love so much! To give you an added incentive to sponsor me, I will be giving away some of my books and thanks to the generosity of Green Trails Maps, I'll be giving away a few special series maps too!

Anyone who sponsors me at $25 or more will have their choice of a special series Green Trails Map (a $12 value).

Anyone who sponsors me at $40 or more gets a map and a membership in WTA (if you're not already a member).

Anyone who sponsors me at any level is eligible to make a little wager as to how many miles I will hike in August. Make a guess (send it to me at Craig@craigromano.com or on my facebook page "Craig Romano Guidebook author) and the person who comes closest to my August total without going over will win his or her choice of two of my guidebooks! How cool is that?

Finally, because I want to pay-it-forward; if you help me make my $1,500 goal I will personally donate $100 to the Skagit Land Trust’s Barney Lake campaign. WTA and Skagit Land Trust have partnered in the past on such great projects as Guemes and Vendovi Islands (both appearing in my new book, Day Hiking San Juan and Gulf Islands).

So, what are you waiting for?! Make a donation today!
Ready to get started? Just click "Sponsor Me" to make a donation.
Thank you in advance for your generosity!

Sponsor me and save a trail, get a map, win a book,

and help me protect a lake!

Greetings friends and loyal readers:

I have decided this year to participate in WTA's hike-a-thon in addition to the in-kind donation I give every year volunteering as one of the prizes to lead people on an all day fun hike. I'm hoping to raise $1,500 for WTA this year to help protect and enhance the trails that we love so much! To give you an added incentive to sponsor me (and to add a little more fun to this event), I will be giving away some of my books and thanks to the generosity of Green Trails Maps, I'll be giving away a few special series maps too!

Anyone who sponsors me at $25 or more will have their choice of a special series Green Trails Map (a $12 value).

Anyone who sponsors me at $40 or more gets a map and a membership in WTA (if you're not already a member).

Anyone who sponsors me at any level is eligible to make a little wager as to how many miles I will hike in August. Make a guess (send it to me at Craig@craigromano.com or on my facebook page "Craig Romano Guidebook author) and the person who comes closest to my August total without going over will win his or her choice of two of my guidebooks! How cool is that? I am researching two books and doing some mapping for Green trails to give you an idea of how much I'll be on the trail. Previous Augusts have averaged about 150 miles for me.

Finally, because I want to pay-it-forward; if you help me make my $1,500 goal I will personally donate $100 to the Skagit Land Trust’s Barney Lake campaign. WTA and Skagit Land Trust have partnered in the past on such great projects as Guemes and Vendovi Islands (both appearing in my new book, Day Hiking San Juan and Gulf Islands).

So, what are you waiting for?! Make a donation today!
Ready to get started? Just click "Sponsor Me" to make a donation.
 Thank you in advance for your generosity! And Giuseppe (one of two of my furry office assistants) says "Mille Grazie!"

(photo taken by Karen Sykes)

Hiking In Kind

I like to put my money (and occasionally other people's money too-more on that to come) where my boots are. I support a handful of recreation and conservation groups that work on behalf of keeping our trails and parks open and in good shape; and in purchasing new lands for conservation and helping to protect the ones we have already secured. In addition to making monetary donations, I often give in kind donations to help out some of my favorite organizations. Through in kind donations I can often leverage more money for these groups than I can provide on my own.

Four groups that recently benefited from my in kind donations are the Skagit Land Trust, Columbia Land Trust, Washington Trails Association and the Washington National Parks Foundation. In three of these cases I put myself up for auction to personally guide folks on some of their favorite trails, In addition to receiving my hiking service  for the day, my publisher throws some books in too! For the Columbia Land Trust we extended the auction to allow other folks to buy a spot on the hike that I lead. We raised $1,000 on that hike! At the Skagit Land Trust auction, my hike secured $250; and for the Washington National Parks Fund, my hike brought in $400.
I also spend the day hiking with one of the winning groups in Washington Trails Association's annual Hike-a-Thon. And my 50 for 50 run last year raised $4,240 for WTA.

Collectively all of these events that I participate in raise some serious money for our trails and special places. WTA's Hike-a-Thon raised $67,000 in 2011. The Skagit Land Trust's 2012 auction brought in over $100,000. Washington National Parks Fund's recent auction raised $65,000 and the Columbia Land Trust's auction last year brought in an amazing $150,000! In these time of fiscal austerity, it is nice to see that folks are still generous and care enough to continue protecting our special places and leaving a natural legacy. I hope you too are finding ways to give back to your favorite trails, parks and wild places!

(Photo-A great day hiking the Weldon Wagon Road Trail and raising money for the Columbia Land Trust-photo courtesy of the Columbia Land Trust)

Revising and Updating

Trying to keep up with road closures and trail conditions can be downright daunting. And as much time (seems like always) as I am on the trail researching for my guidebooks, it can be a challenge keeping my books updated. I hike, map and research every trail I write about so you can trust my information when you hit the trail. But what happens when something changes after my book is published? We try to reprint each title every 12-18 months, so I can add those changes in. I also try to keep you informed on my blog, facebook site and website. But I also can use your help too. You see I am always out researching a new book which means my focus stays in one area for long periods of time. So if something is happening over on the Olympic Peninsula and I am spending the summer near Mount St Helens, I might miss that change. I try to keep up with all my sources to keep me informed, but many times in the field I am not getting that information. With that said, please don't hesitate to send me an email about anything you notice changed from the time of my books' printings. I just finished making revisions/corrections for the 3rd printing of Day Hiking North Cascades. I am currently researching two new books, Day Hiking San Juan and Gulf Island and Day Hiking Mount St Helens. I'll be working on a second edition on the Day Hiking Olympic Peninsula soon with all kinds of changes -including adding new hikes! Let me know if there is anything in particular you want to know more about. And please let me know if there have been any trail/road/land-use changes out there! Thanks and I look forward to hearing from--and thanks for all of your support!

 

Try This Trail!

My Seattle Met Hiking/Writing Gig

Those of you who enjoy my Hikeoftheweek.com and NW Trails column in Outdoors NW may want to start reading Seattle Met's Tripster Blog where I will be contributing content on a monthly basis for Try This Trail. Each entry will be new material and season specific and will include hikes from all over Washington state and perhaps a trip every so often to Oregon and BC. First trail? Saddle Rock in Wenatchee. Have you hiked it yet? The flowers are currently in full bloom-so get there soon! Let me know too if there are any trails or areas that you'd like for me to write about.

I Love to Tell a Tale of a New Trail

I am often asked how I find trails for my guidebooks. A legitimate question, for after all folks buying my books are trying to find trails too. Okay, this is how I do it-incorporating any one or more of the following methods per trail.

1. General Knowledge/Life Experience- I already know the trail exists
2. Maps of all degrees and from various agencies
3. Old guidebooks and competitors' books
4. Websites of land agencies, trail advocacy groups, hiking forums, and non-profit land trusts
5. Word of mouth from other hikers and explorers
6. Word of mouth from locals of the area that I am researching
7. Scouting roads and parks and forests firsthand while researching a different trail
8. By accident-driving by and noticing what appears to be a trail!

Now, those of you who use my books (and I thank you for your support) know that one of the things I pride myself in with my books is that I hike every mile of every trail that I write about. And in almost all cases I hike them within a year or so of when the book highlighting them is ready to go to press. The best part of writing hiking guidebooks is the research. And the best part of my research is when I stumble upon "new" trails--both new to me and new in their existence. My recent scouting trip to Orcas Island for my upcoming Day Hiking San Juan and Gulf Islands book yielded several "new" trails-both new to me and in their existence. I found and hiked new trails at the Turtleback Preserve and Obstruction Pass State Park--both allowing for new loop options and both destined to be well loved hiking options for many. I can't wait to share them with you--and the many other new trails that I have yet to discover. Next up--Saturna Island--I can hardy contain my enthusiasm! Of course if you have a "new" trail for me, I'd love to hear about it!

(Photo: Lost Oak Trail is lost no more now that I found it!)

White Deer and Psychedelic Vans

Welcome to Doe Bay

I was recently invited to spend a couple of nights at the Doe Bay Resort on Orcas Island while I researched the island's trails for my latest guidebook. I accepted the generous invitation and prepared myself for a glimpse into this famous (or infamous) Northwest retreat. I was well aware of the resort's eclectic, eccentric, and fascinating history-most notably as a place where hippies and other counter-culture types have long been coming to. The resort has gone through a few changes over the past decade; and while it definitely still caters to the hippy sect-it appeals to the more mainstream as well. It is noted for its sustainable practices and its cafe serves locally grown and harvested organic foods. Nothing alternative there-that's a practice that is quickly being accepted by folks of all political leanings and lifestyles. My stay was peaceful and while I did encounter fellow hikers and paddlers at the resort, there were definitely plenty of disciples of different dance beats than the ones I usually waltz to! The place definitely has a 1960s-early 70s flashback feeling. Even the wildlife here is grooving to a different circle of life. My second day, I opened my door to savor the morning sunshine and what did I see? A- I- kid you not-white deer! Whoa-some one put some Jefferson Airplane on, for I'm about to go chasing white deer! I missed the opportunity to photograph it, but was able to take a few shots of a psychedelic van by the bay-I couldn't have staged that one! But while I was out hiking later in nearby Obstruction Pass State park, what did I see there? Whoa-another white deer! Actually a white deer with some funky blotches! Just what kind of mushrooms are those deer grazing on? Or better yet, did I graze on something funky earlier-were there really white deer frolicking around Doe Bay? Is the White Knight talking  sdrawkcab yet?

Write on!

I once again apologize for my lack of recent blog posting. Believe me, it is not because I have nothing to write about. Au contraire it is because I am doing too much writing elsewhere that I haven't been able to pen any musing lately here. So what am I up to?

• Finishing up the research and writing for Day Hiking Eastern Washington. I co-authored this book with Rich Landers and you are going to love it. 125 hikes (plus bonus hikes) and interesting sidebars covering the Okanogan Highlands, Kettle River Range, Selkirks, Spokane, Palouse, Columbia Basin, Channeled Scablands, and Blue Mountains. The book should be released sometime in early 2013.
• Researching my next book, Day Hiking San Juan and Gulf Islands. You will love this one too-150 hikes in the islands, Anacortes, Point Roberts and Victoria and the Sanaach Peninsula. Have currently researched San Juan, Lopez, and Galiano-off to Orcas and Saturna next. Book will be released in early 2014.
• Planning Day Hiking Mount St Helen's! Yep-that's the next book in the line up!
• Researching and writing Northwest on the Run features for Northwest Runner Magazine. Next in line-Vancouver, USA!
• Researching for the next edition of Hiking in Snohomish County. New brochure will be bigger and better!
• Writing a feature on the Columbia River Gorge for the newly revamped Northwest Travel Magazine.
• Writing monthly hikes for Seattle Met's online site.
• Writing NW Trails for Outdoors NW
• Putting together an interview of Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna for Northwest Runner for the start of a new feature on Northwest runners.
• Writing a new series for VisitRainier.com on Mountain personalities
• And check out my feature on Republic and NE Washington in the newly released Washington State Visitors' Guide
• And check out my feature on Cape Horn in the newly released Gorge Guide
• And of course, follow my travels and musings on Facebook

Okay-I need to get back to writing!