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Sea Kayak the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

South of Anchorage, the shores of the Kenai Peninsula are glacial-carved inlets where 4,000 foot peaks plummet into the waters below.  Katchemak and Tutka Bays stretch more than ten miles into the forested interior, protected from the nasty glaciers and swells of the Gulf of Alaska. Sea otters, sea lions, porpoises, eagles, and seals use these relatively calm waters as a safe haven, and now sea kayakers are following their lead.  Through the second week of September, True North Kayak Adventures out of Homer organizes three-day adventures into this fjord-like setting. You’ll spend your days paddling under 400-foot waterfalls or hiking up one of the small peaks to get an eagle’s vantage point of the landscape.  At night, you’ll camp on Yukon Island and feast on freshly caught salmon. Trips start at $495 per person, including guides, food, and tents.

I’ll be leaving today on a two-week trip to the Canadian Rockies, starting with a weeklong family adventure jaunt with my friends at Austin-Lehman Adventures. We’ll spend two additional nights in Jasper at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, before taking an overnight train on VIA Rail into Vancouver. After spending three nights in the city, we’ll take a ferry over to Salt Spring Island, a personal favorite of Seattle-based writer and BC travel guru, Eric Lucas. I’ll be back on August 8th with an update on western Canada. Enjoy these two weeks, and, as always, keep active!
 

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Sea Kayaking with My 80 Year-Old Dad on Lake George

When I tell people that I find Lake George more exquisite than Lake Tahoe, Lake Powell, or even that wondrous lake to the north, Champlain, they often look at me bewildered.  They equate the lake with the honky-tonk village on the southern tip, packed with T-shirt and fudge shops, video arcades, hokey haunted houses, a requisite water park, and my personal favorite, Goony Golf, a miniature golf course crowded with huge fairy tale characters. All folks have to do is drive about ten miles north on Route 9N to find the far more charming town of Bolton Landing. This section of the 31-mile long lake is more like a river, narrow and hemmed in by the peaks, offering vintage Adirondack beauty that once inspired Hudson River School painters to grab their canvases and head north, followed by Georgia O’Keeffe and her camera-toting husband Alfred Stieglitz.

Growing up in Schenectady, New York, we would make the hour-drive to Bolton Landing on a regular basis to reach our sailboat docked just out of town. Now I return on an annual basis with my family to visit my father and his wife who summer here, and treat my kids to a good dose of natural adventure. One of my favorite things to do is rent sea kayaks on Green Island and paddle around the classic Adirondack resort, the Sagamore, a large wedding cake of a hotel that’s been the lake’s premier address for over a century. This past weekend, I persuaded my dad and his wife, Ginny, to join me. I put my father in the front of a double kayak that I steered while Ginny paddled alongside us in a single kayak. The wind was strong and the waves choppy as we approached the sloping grounds of the Sagamore, but soon we were around the island singing sea shanties. Whether you sail, sea kayak, or prefer a motor boat, get out on this lake and make some memories.
 

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Lovely Linekin Bay

I’ve been writing about New England since 1994, even authoring a book titled New England Seacoast Adventures, so it’s rare when I find out about a classic resort on the New England coast I’ve never visited. But that was exactly the case this past weekend when I brought my family to Linekin Bay Resort on the Maine coast. Linekin Bay might be a five-minute drive from the tourist hub of Boothbay Harbor, but once you arrive, it feels a world away. A former girls camp when it opened over a century ago, you spend the night in lodges with grand stone chimneys and cabins perched on a bluff overlooking the ocean water. In the morning, you wake up to lobster boats pulling up their traps and then wander over to the main lodge for a breakfast of wild blueberry crepes, French toast topped with strawberries, eggs benedict, and hot-out-of-the-oven scones. All meals are included in the price, including the Tuesday lobster bake that’s held on the outdoor deck with live music. Other nights, the food is surprisingly good and includes swordfish, hangar steak, and roasted chicken. 

 
The main draw of Linekin Bay is its fleet of Rhodes 19 sailboats. With a southerly wind averaging ten knots, this bay was meant for sailing. I went out with one of the instructors and cruised around Cabbage Island, peering at seals lounging on rocks and osprey flying overhead. As we tacked towards the mouth of the bay, you could see the Burnt Island lighthouse and a three-masted schooner sailing along the horizon. Another morning, I went sea kayaking with the family and did the loop around the island. The resort will also offer stand-up paddleboarding this summer. And don’t miss the opportunity to walk with Rupert, a man who’s dedicated most of his life to land conservation in the region and is more than happy to show you his favorite routes. If you want to drop out of the rat race and spend much-needed quality time with loved ones, this is the place. The reason why families return summer after summer. 
 
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Favorite Fall Outings in New England, A Stop at B.F. Clyde’s Cider Mill in Mystic, Connecticut

Off the beaten track, Somewhere in Time might feel like somewhere in the middle of nowhere. But once you arrive and see the slew of people lined up for breakfast, you realize this is a local institution. Grab a mug of coffee and get ready to dig into the large selection of omelets, pancakes, and French toast. Then head nearby to B.F. Clyde’s. Open in 1881, B. F. Clyde’s is home to the oldest steam powered cider mill in America and what a contraption it is. Walk around the machinery, amazed that it still runs. Then hit the store to try the sweet cider, pumpkin bread, apple pies, and maple syrup. A perfect fall outing. 

I’m off to Chicago next week, back Monday, October 17th. Enjoy Columbus Day Weekend and keep active! 

 

 
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“Love, Life, and Elephants,” A New Book by Dame Daphne Sheldrick

On my last trip to Nairobi, I had the pleasure of meeting Dame Daphne Sheldrick at the elephant orphanage she founded in 1977. I remember the mix of joy and sadness I felt upon entering the orphanage. Joy at seeing those miniature-sized elephants frolicking in the mud. Sadness at learning that their parents were brutally murdered by poachers who left these babies to wander in the bush.
         “We came to learn how intelligent these elephants are, with a familial instinct and an astounding memory,” Sheldrick told me as we sat at an outdoor table in the back patio of her house. Then her expression suddenly turned grave as she noted, “the elephant community is in a lot of trouble. Not only is poaching on the rise, but the intrusion of livestock into protected areas has led to a scarcity of water.” 
If last week’s New York Times article on the surge of African ivory being transported to Asia is any indication, the only elephants we might be seeing in the future will be orphans. You can read about Dame Daphne Sheldrick’s fascinating life in her just released memoir, “Love, Life, and Elephants: An African Love Story.” 
 
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Holiday Gift Idea No. 1—The Wojo Wallet

When the temperature hit 60 degrees on Sunday, I decided to go for one last bike ride in 2014. I always bring my license on any of my adventures, just in case I slip down the crevice of a mountain on a hike or a text-sending teenager on a bike ride flattens me. I hate taking a thick wallet, so when I found out about the Wojo Wallet, I quickly snagged one. The thin neoprene sleeve is sweat and waterproof, so it actually floats on water. No wonder, it’s already a big hit with surfers, fishermen, and people hanging on the beach who want to go for a swim and don’t trust leaving their wallet behind. I love it because it’s thin enough to hold my credit cards, license, key, and cash when I’m out for a ride. Cost is $12.95. Add $2 if you want to add your college colors. 

 
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May Birdwatching at Mount Auburn

By the time my wife and I arrive at Cambridge’s Mount Auburn Cemetery at 6:30 am, the parking lot around the fountain is already full and minivans with birders from across New England are streaming in. We find a spot and stroll over to where we find our guide for the morning, Carol Decker, Director of Mass Audubon’s Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary. As if on cue, a red-tailed hawk flies overhead while to our left, a vibrant Baltimore oriole sits on a branch, twig in beak. While I’m always thrilled to see a hawk, especially as a diversion from writing when the large bird rests on a branch outside my office window, it is the orioles, scarlet tanagers, vireos, and the queen of neotropical migrants, the warbler, that has coaxed us to leave our pillows prematurely and arrive at this Cambridge birding hotspot. Wintering in the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, even South America, these enticing songbirds make their way north to New England and Canada to breed in the summer months. 
 
Mass Audubon schedules most of their spring walks at Mount Auburn the first two weeks of May, when the warbler migration reaches its peak. Anyone with a love of nature is urged to sign up, even a novice birder like myself. Sure I have a trusty pair of binoculars sitting next to me as I write, to savor that brightly yellow goldfinch when he inadvertently comes across my bird feeder, but I don’t memorize bird calls or carry a checklist. Perhaps that’s the reason why my wife and I found this outing last May to be so special. The colors on the backs and bellies of these birds were so spellbinding that I found it to be the aviary equivalent of going snorkeling in the Caribbean.
 

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