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!

Spotted an owl-Snowy Actually!

Yet another first in my life of outdoor adventure. Despite living the majority of my life in northern latitudes including very close to the province of Quebec which boasts as its provincial bird the snowy owl-I had never seen one of these majestic birds. Yesterday my snowy owl drought ended. On a long bike ride that took me to Fir Island (where I saw 1,000s of snow geese) and along the Skagit River (where I saw 100s of trumpeter and tundra swans) and then finally to Edison on Samish Bay-all alone on the side of the road surveying a field was a young snowy owl! It just stared as all five in my bike group pedal by. Gorgeous bird. At first I thought it was a hawk and was perplexed by all of its white. Then I realized with its rounded head and flat face it was a young snowy owl as it was still sporting lots of gray bands. Of course I didn't have a camera on me to capture it. But boy this was a much better experience than last April's owl experience at Alice Lake Provincial Park in British Columbia where a barred owl swooped down at me and chased me down a trail for a good quarter mile. I'll take the roadside snowy owl any day over the in flight Barred owl coming at me. And who would have thought that my snowy sighing would have been by way of spoke and sprocket?

(photo of adult male snowy owl courtesy of Wikipedia)

Metal to the Petal

It wasn't exactly a tip toe through the tulips-more like pedaling through the petals. Last Thursday evening Heather and I took advantage of our local flower show sans weekend warriors- and biked out to La Conner soaking up the showy scenery. The tulips are in full bloom now and they'll probably be strutting their stuff for another week or two. If you can sneak up here during the week, consider a bike ride through the flats. The traffic is light, the way is flat, and the scenery is spectacular.

Since relocating in Skagit County two years ago I have rediscovered my bicycle and have been doing quite a bit of it once again. Yesterday, Heather and I did a 45 mile bike ride around Camano Island participating in the annual Camano Climb Ride. The weather held out for us-the ride was well organized-but attendance was light with too many uptight Joe Biker types from Seattle-you know the types I'm talking about- the ones with the $5,000 bicycles who are too cool for themselves-don't know how to be friendly-civil-or decent-then wonder why they're single- Go Figure! Anyhow-I welcome all friendly salt-of-the-earth folks to come on up and cycle the backroads of my backyard. See you out on the flats-don't forget to wave hello.

Has Spring finally Sprung?

Okay, it hit 55 degrees yesterday. Still a degree below the normal high for this time of year-but heck, I'll take it! Heather and I participated in the 28th annual Tulip Pedal bike event. It was fairly well-attended, but not fairly well structured. You were pretty much on your own-so after we left the 40 mile group behind, it felt like we were on our own-and we pretty much were! But--this is our backyard so we were familiar with the roads and we had a great time putting in 63 miles. It was the longest bike ride the both of us have done in awhile. The sun was out-Mount Baker was out and a handful of daffodils were out as well. No tulips yet-it'll be another week or so for them-hopefully in time for our big Tulip Run next weekend. I'd like to see the Tulip Pedal organized as well as our run which is sponsored by the Skagit Runners. Hopefully we'll be able to give them a few good pointers to grow their event and make it a much stronger one. Never-the-less when the sun is shining and you're out exercising in a beautiful environment how can you not be enjoying yourself!?