My wife and I left Seattle on Saturday. 14 hours later we were in Salt Lake City. Day one, skiing at Alta. Day two, skate skiing at Solitude. Day three, a backcountry ski tour up Big Cottonwood Canyon. This morning, drove to Steamboat Springs, CO. For the next four days I’ll be dividing my time between cheering on my wife at the Telemark National Championships ski race here in Steamboat Springs and snapping photos. Subscribe now and be the first to witness some road trip photographs when I return home and organize everything.

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I’ve heard it before, really, as I’m sure anyone who has paddled in ocean swells and prefers the aroma of salty air over the rush of white-water, has too. Mention the word sea kayaking to anyone who has never actually done it, and I’m sure you’ll get a similar response. Little do they know how exciting (thrilling even?) and dangerous sea kayaking can be. Don’t get me wrong, most of my sea kayaking trips tend to be in areas that offer solitude, wildlife and (relatively) calm waters, such as the secluded bays off of Vancouver Island or hugging the coastline of the Channel Islands (or right here in Puget Sound.) That’s not to say I haven’t been in situations where things went bad very quickly, when I was literally paddling UP and DOWN ocean swells, praying for dear life that my boat didn’t capsize. Things can go bad very quickly in a sea kayak.

What got me thinking about this was an article I flipped through in a recent edition of Sea Kayaker magazine. There was a story about a veteran paddler who got lost, and disappeared, while paddling around the Brooks Peninsula (the most western point of Vancouver Island and all of Canada.) Interestingly I was trying to plan a trip to this exact same area for the summer (a wedding got in the way.) Of course this doesn’t mean I won’t try and get up there. Every one of my Vancouver Island trips, whether by bike or boat, has been awesome. The island is so diverse, there is so much to do and explore, that I find it hard to believe people who have called Seattle home for decades, have never made the trip north.

Cape Cod National Sea Shore

My parents are lucky, for they live in a truly unique part of the US. Although I'm spoiled by the natural wonders of the Pacific Northwest, I'm always intrigued and captivated by the scenery in and around Nauset Beach and the rest of Cape Cod

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Sea Kayaking Channel Islands National Park

Sea kayaking Channel Islands National Park, camping on Santa Cruz island

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Blake Island Sea Kayaking

Sea kayaking around Blake Island off West Seattle.

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Sea Kayaking Johnstone Strait Vancouver Island

The sea kayaking in British Columbia is spectacular and the thousands of inlets, coves, peninsulas, and nearby Johnstone Strait, make paddling around Vancouver Island some of the best in the world. This photo album consists of two separate sea kayaking adventure trips to the Broughton Archipelago, off the NE corner of the Island.

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Kayaking Ross Lake, North Cascades

Ross Lake National Recreation Area is located in the heart of the North Cascades. Although not part of North Cascades National Park, it offers true wilderness lake kayaking. Surrounded by towering peaks and dotted with serene camp spots, Ross Lake runs north to the Canadian border.

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Sea Kayaking Trip: Baja California

Unfortunately I don't have the original prints from this epic 17-day sea kayaking trip from Loreto to La Paz in Baja, Mexico, back in Dec 2000. I do have lots of memories though. This was really my first big self-supported 'wilderness' trip, one that opened my eyes to adventure travel. All sea kayaking photos were shot with a simply P&S film camera. I apologize for the very small viewing sizes. Hopefully I can uncover the original prints and rescan.

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So, be careful if you’re going for a paddle. Although I ski and bike alone (resort ski, not backcountry ski) I rarely go sea kayaking by myself.

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It’s very easy to take certain things for granted. Here in Seattle we’re often so focused on traveling down to Mt Rainier, or somewhere in the Cascades, or maybe over the Cascades for some high desert warmth, that we often forget about this relatively small chunk of paradise to our west. Of course everything is relative. Olympic National Park isn’t necessarily small, it encompasses over 920,000 acres, 95% of which are designated as wilderness. If you’re willing to put in even a small amount of effort by hiking more than just a couple miles from the ranger station, you’re going to have A LOT of space to yourself.

But we’re not necessarily going to hike into one of the 60 named glaciers in the interior of the park. We’re packing the surfboards and sea kayaks (and the bikes for good measure) and driving to where the land meets the sea, where the Pacific ocean has, for thousands of years, molded the coastline into a stunningly rugged and beautiful piece of nature.

So stay in touch…and come back in a week or so for what I hope will be a dazzling display of photographs from Olympic National Park.

In the meantime, enjoy this sailing photo I captured as Jeannine, and hundreds of other brave sailors, sailed off below the looming Olympic mountains as part of the annual Swiftsure Yacht Race. The shot was taken just north of Victoria on Vancouver Island.

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say again: we (those of us who live in the Pacific Northwest) are blessed with so much natural beauty within relatively easy reach, that it can be really difficult to decide where to go on the weekends. Do we go sea kayaking, mountain biking, climbing, backcountry skiing…ah, the choices!

This past weekend was no different, so on Sunday it was up early for the drive out to Newhalem for the beginning of an overnight bike tour on the North Cascades Highway. The goal was to finish in Winthrop, meeting up with a large group of friends who had ridden over the day prior. For those who have yet to visit this stunning national park, I highly recommend you go now. Less than three hours from Seattle, it’s actually one of the least visited national parks in the country and believe it or not, there are folks in Seattle who have no idea this much rugged beauty is so close to home.

The North Cascades highway offers awe-inspiring views combined with leg-busting climbs. Matter of fact, the total elevation gain from Newhalem to Washington Pass is nearly 6000 ft. Sweet. Once you crest the pass, the long winding Alps-like descent brings you into the high and dry Methow Valley.

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On Sunday my fiancee leaves for Europe, along with 8 other members of the US Telemark Ski team. Their goal is to put the US on the telemark map, which I have no doubt they can do. I’ll be joining the team for the latter part of their trip, photographing these very talented telemark skiers at their final race in the Czech Republic. Afterward we’ll be spending some time searching for the deepest snow. More details to come…

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As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m pretty convinced the Discovery Coast Circle Tour is quite possibly one of the best bike tours no one knows about in North America.  Although I have created a photo gallery that includes some of the images from that trip, I wanted to provide a better sense of place for those viewing my images. So here is an interactive map illustrating the route as well as general locations of where I took my photographs. If for some reason the Google map causes problems, you can open a new browser by CLICKING HERE

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After recovering from my Bella Coola cycling tour I had about a week before departing on yet another short journey, this one down to Monterey, California, to spend some time with the family and enjoy the warm California sunshine. Once again I found myself enjoying quite a bit of bike time. Although I didn’t have my SLR camera with me I did manage to throw my father’s point and shoot Canon  in the back pocket for an extremely pleasant, albeit windy, ride down the stunningly beautiful Big Sur coast (photos coming soon.)

Which also got me thinking, how about a little camera comparison. So, for the next week, as I drive up the California and Oregon coasts back to Washington, I plan on taking photographs with both the point and shoot and my Canon Rebel XT. Afterwards, I’ll post some images and do a bit of print comparisons on my Epson R2400.  Seeing that I’m in the hunt for a smaller camera that I can easily carry into the backcountry with, this should quite valuable.

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So here I am, back at the "office" for one day and already I find myself thinking back to last Monday when I was pedaling my way north from the rugged gold-rush town of Lillooet, British Columbia.  For the next 7 days I would bike, boat and bus my way through some of the most diverse and beautiful geography anywhere. Termed the Discovery Coast Circle Tour, I think it’s fair to say this could be one of the best kept secrets in North American bike touring. Full story coming soon…

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