Ron C. Judd Archives - ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Online /byline/ron-c-judd/ Live Bravely Thu, 24 Feb 2022 18:24:31 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://cdn.outsideonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/favicon-194x194-1.png Ron C. Judd Archives - ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Online /byline/ron-c-judd/ 32 32 Fortified to Thrive /health/nutrition/fortified-thrive/ Tue, 01 Jul 2003 00:00:00 +0000 /uncategorized/fortified-thrive/ Fortified to Thrive

OK, YOU’VE GOT your ratio of carbohydrates, protein, and fat dialed, and you graze through six small meals daily to keep your energy level up and your metabolism humming. Nice work. But guess what, sailor. There’s more to a high-performance diet than just the big picture, and it involves a bevy of nutritional bit players … Continued

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Fortified to Thrive

OK, YOU’VE GOT your ratio of carbohydrates, protein, and fat dialed, and you graze through six small meals daily to keep your energy level up and your metabolism humming. Nice work. But guess what, sailor. There’s more to a high-performance diet than just the big picture, and it involves a bevy of nutritional bit players known as nutraceuticals. They lurk in many natural foods but also in those long lists of ingredients found on the wrappers and labels of nearly every power drink, energy bar, and gel you swallow (see “Big Boosts in Tasty Packages,” opposite). We’re talking about things like the magnesium, vitamin A, and soy protein listed at the bottom of the Nutrition Facts label.

Nutraceuticals are functional foods—vitamins, minerals, compounds, and extracts—with specific roles. They include herbs that increase your mental aptitude, phytochemicals that can fend off illness, antioxidants that help speed recovery, B vitamins that your body requires to metabolize food, and minerals to enhance your energy-delivery systems. Though nutraceuticals won’t shave an hour off your marathon time, there’s compelling evidence that the right balance of them in your diet can contribute to overall wellness and, consequently, help you train longer, recover faster, and avoid serious problems like heart disease and joint pain. “If you’re an athlete,” says Dr. Bernd Wollschlaeger, associate editor of the Journal of the American Nutraceutical Association, “you definitely want to pay attention to nutrition supplementation.”

Can this nutra-stuff really aid you on your upcoming Rainier climb or heated game of disc golf? Well, yes, assuming you know what it does and when and how to use it. Since manufacturers don’t face strict regulation by the FDA, they’re free to make any number of claims, leaving you to distill the real science from pharmacological science fiction. It’s not an easy task when facing a $20 billion industry with hundreds of products, so we’ve put together a guide to the primary nutritional mighty mites and organized them into five easily digestible categories: stimulants that jump-start your workout; hydration catalysts and endurance boosters that ramp up your performance; systems managers that keep your body in tune; and antioxidants that help you recover and stave off disease. Armed with this knowledge, you can train and perform better for years to come.

Stimulants

MAJOR PLAYERS: CAFFEINE AND GUARANA

THE CLAIM: Caffeine and guarana (a cocktail of caffeine and other stimulants that comes from Brazil’s guarana plant) stoke up a serious workout buzz, allowing you to exercise more intensely. They also sharpen your focus. “During a race, my mind goes a little fuzzy,” says Peter Reid, two-time Ironman Hawaii champion. “The caffeine in my gel restores my focus and makes my senses clearer.”

THE TRUTH: It’s no wonder Alberto Tomba gulped espresso right before his ski runs. A shot of caffeine will improve alertness and reaction time, and studies have shown that the caffeine equivalent of two to three cups of coffee raises your exhaustion threshold by five to eight minutes. Meanwhile, caffeine’s much maligned diuretic properties are not really an issue for athletes. “Caffeine is a diuretic only if you sit on your butt,” says Terry Graham, department chair of nutritional sciences at the University of Guelph, in Ontario, Canada. “Exercise within four hours of ingesting it and you nullify its dehydration effects.”


The problem is that many of the popular buzz drinks, like Red Bull, are sugar bombs. Consume more than 25 grams of sugar in such a small serving and you’re in trouble. “You can’t get any benefits from glucose until it reaches your bloodstream,” says Graham. “And high sugar levels prevent that from happening.”


Hydration Catalysts

MAJOR PLAYERS: SODIUM, POTASSIUM, AND FLAVOR


THE CLAIM: Ever since Gatorade turned University of Florida football into the comeback brigade in 1967, athletes have reaped the benefits of water with a little something extra. Now, pretty much every sports drink claims it will improve your performance by replacing essential electrolytes. The latest versions—enhanced waters like Propel—are marketed with claims that they hydrate with fewer calories.

THE TRUTH: It’s well-known that sweaty exercise flushes both water and sodium from your system, so to rehydrate, you require more than just H20. “You need to replace your lost minerals with something that contains minerals,” says Wollschlaeger. “They help your cells work efficiently to keep your body going.” Sodium and potassium also help you retain water, slowing down the dehydration process. Finally, to ensure that you get your fill of fluids, especially during workout sessions that end before your thirst kicks in, these liquids rely on their sweet taste to keep you drinking. But do yourself a favor and skip any product containing more than 9 percent carbohydrates. Levels that high actually hinder digestion and hydration before and during exercise.


Endurance Boosters

MAJOR PLAYER: PROTEIN

THE CLAIM: “Protein stimulates the release of insulin, which speeds up the process by which muscle enzymes convert sugar into glycogen,” says Robert Portman of PacificHealth Labs, makers of Accelerade sports drinks. With sufficient glycogen stores, distance athletes can go longer and stronger, and recover more efficiently from tough training and racing.

THE TRUTH: “A major factor of muscle fatigue is low glycogen levels,” says triathlete icon turned fitness consultant and coach Dave Scott. “But protein, in combination with carbohydrates, pushes glucose into the bloodstream faster. The result is more efficiency, because your glucose levels stabilize and you conserve your glycogen levels.” Soy protein has an added benefit: general wellness. Soy’s packed with phytochemical substances called isoflavones that have been shown to enable better blood flow, reduce the risk of heart disease, and help stave off osteoporosis.


For peak performance, “keep your intake to 0.5 to 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight daily,” says John Ivy, chairman of the kinesiology and health education department at the University of Texas. To stay in that zone, stick with carbohydrate bars and drinks that pack small amounts of protein for their glycogen-producing powers.

Systems Managers

MAJOR PLAYERS: MINERALS AND B VITAMINS

THE CLAIM: You need a mineral-rich diet, and chances are you aren’t getting it. Many bars can help you achieve the proper balance of minerals, which, even in small amounts, are critical to keeping your body running smoothly.


B vitamins like thiamin, niacin, B6, and riboflavin are what your body needs to process energy. Simply put, you can’t survive without them.

THE TRUTH: Maintaining a smoothly functioning power plant is impossible without minerals. They make sure your metabolism, pH levels, and skeletal structure are in prime working order. And unless you’ve been sticking to a balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, lean meats, whole grains, and dairy products, you may be running short on one or two vital minerals that could affect performance. Too little copper, for example, limits iron’s ability to help blood cells move oxygen.


Each entry on the nutraceutical laundry list of commonly found minerals serves a purpose: Iron helps your red blood cells transport oxygen and boosts your immunity; copper helps build new bone and muscle tissue; magnesium speeds up muscle contractions; calcium regulates blood pressure; and zinc ensures a healthy metabolism.


Endurance athletes are especially susceptible to mineral deficits. Their high metabolism speeds the loss of calcium, iron, and zinc, and repeated stress from marathons, century rides, or Ironman-length triathlons contributes to further depletion of the body’s deposits. An energy bar during long hours of training will keep those mineral losses in check.


B vitamins are catalysts that enable the body’s enzymes to convert food into fuel. “Higher B-vitamin levels assist the metabolism of glucose, amino acids, and fats,” says Paul Lachance, executive director of the Nutraceutical Institute, at Rutgers University. “And when you bonk, they’re still on the job, drawing on other energy systems to keep you going.”


AntiOxidants

MAJOR PLAYERS: VITAMINS C, E, AND A

THE CLAIM: The stress of exercise unleashes armies of free radicals into your bloodstream that damage your cells, break down your immune system, and contribute to that weak, sore feeling after an intense workout. Antioxidative vitamins are the antidote. Vitamin C boosts your immune system; vitamin E neutralizes the free radicals that cause muscle soreness; and vitamin A helps fight the oxidants that lead to cancer and heart disease. Speed-climbing legend Mark Twight claims that antioxidants have even aided him during his longer outings. “Somewhere after 12 hours, they really become a factor,” says Twight. “I used to cramp up a lot when I was eating just honey without any antioxidants.”

THE TRUTH: The consensus among exercise physiologists and nutritionists is that a minimum daily intake of five to nine servings of fruits, vegetables, and nuts should provide all the antioxidants you need. But of these three vitamins—C, E, and A—the one you may want to seek out in a drink, bar, or gel is E. Prolonged exercise, and even altitude, flood the body with free radicals, so you’ll need even more vitamin E—300 percent of the RDA—to feel its positive effects.

Washington/Oregon

It’s Gorge-ous!

Tips & Resources

THIS DRIVE CAN BE a scorcher in midsummer, but plenty of river stops and unexpected cool breezes keep it sane. An excellent guide to the wealth of recreation to be found in central Oregon is Inside Out Oregon, by Terry Richard (Sasquatch Books).

ROUTE: Toppenish, Washington, to Bend, Oregon
ROADS: U.S. 97
MILES: 195

The Cascade Range (and U.S. 97, which rides its eastern flank) splits Washington and Oregon in two as decisively as divorce papers, keeping the green (and greenies) on the west side and all that sagebrush (and Republicans) on the east. Drive this route and you’ll get just enough of both but not too much of either. Start in Washington’s Yakima Valley for the thrill of plunging 2,000 feet into the gaping Columbia River Gorge, where windsurfers might give you a pink-sailed escort across the High Bridge and over the state line. Climb back up and the road spits you out into high-desert country miles of dry, rolling hills marked by a series of blink-and-you-miss-them towns like Wasco, Grass Valley, and Shaniko and views of U.S. 97’s 10,000-foot volcanic sentinels: Mounts Hood, Washington, Jefferson, and Bachelor, plus the Three Sisters. This is the backdoor route into Bend with enough holy-cow cornering to make you want to do it all over again in a faster car.

**ADVENTURE STOPS
Hiking the Columbia River Gorge: At the Columbia River crossing, it’s well worth the 30-minute detour west on Washington 14 to Horsethief Lake State Park, where short hikes contain some of the oldest known petroglyphs in the Northwest, dating from 500 b.c. (509-767-1159, )
Whitewater Rafting on the Deschutes River: A regulated dam flow means all-summer Class II-IV whitewater on the Deschutes; half-, full-, or multi-day rafting trips run from the town of Warm Springs, less than 30 minutes northwest of U.S. 97. Contact All-Star Rafting for details ($50-$350 per person; 800-909-7238, ). Anglers will want to hook a native redside trout, but first contact Deschutes Canyon Fly Shop, in Maupin, for fly recommendations (541-395-2565, ).
Rock Climbing in Smith Rock State Park: The dramatic crags and chimneys on the Crooked River, in Smith Rock State Park, three miles east of Terrebonne, draw climbers from around the globe (541-923-0702). Whether you’re climbing a gnarly route like Latest Rage (5.12a) or learning the ropes on a beginner pitch like Easy Reader (5.6), you’ll stay busy with some 1,400 climbs. For a guide, contact First Ascent Climbing Services (800-325-5462, ).

**TOP DIGS
Stocked with everything from plush suites to tepees, the Kah-Nee-Ta High Desert Resort and Casino, owned by three local tribes, is the only place in central Oregon with a day spa, horse stables, swimming pools, mineral baths, and hot fry bread. From the town of Madras, drive northwest on U.S. 26 to Warm Springs and follow signs. (Doubles, $135; 800-554-4786, )

**BEST EATS
In Bend, stop at the Pine Tavern Restaurant a riverfront landmark since 1936 and if the Oregon Country beef and sourdough scones aren’t memorable enough, the 275-year-old ponderosa pines growing up through the floor will be. (541-382-5581, )

**DON’T MISS
As the road drops into the Columbia River Gorge south of Goldendale, look twice and believe it: Yes, that’s Stonehenge up on the bluff—or at least a precise concrete replica, oriented to the planets.

**ON THE STEREO
For the route’s rockin’ curvy stretches, play late-eighties John Hiatt & the Goners. For the high-plains straightaways, turn up some Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys.

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Honeymarooned /adventure-travel/destinations/north-america/honeymarooned/ Thu, 19 Dec 2002 00:00:00 +0000 /uncategorized/honeymarooned/ Honeymarooned

Married less than a week, we already knew what hell looked like. Inside the auto-shop waiting room, the stench of tire rubber was thick enough to steel-belt your brain. Dim overhead fluorescent lights reflected our mood. As a bad Sci Fi Channel rerun blared on the tube, one of Waldport, Oregon’s finest mechanics looked up … Continued

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Honeymarooned

Married less than a week, we already knew what hell looked like.

"Maui. We coulda been in Maui." “Maui. We coulda been in Maui.”
Route 1, where the going's easy Route 1, where the going’s easy
Beachside, where Lucille gave up the ghost Beachside, where Lucille gave up the ghost


Inside the auto-shop waiting room, the stench of tire rubber was thick enough to steel-belt your brain. Dim overhead fluorescent lights reflected our mood. As a bad Sci Fi Channel rerun blared on the tube, one of Waldport, Oregon’s finest mechanics looked up from his potato-chip-and-something-gray lunch, nodded toward the old sofa slowly consuming us, and offered what will live as one of the most memorable refrains of our “active” honeymoon:


“Probably the last place in the world you wanted to be today, isn’t it?” You said it, Elmer, I thought. But, being a nearly broken man, I smiled, bit my tongue, and went back to repeating the day’s melancholy mantra: Maui. We coulda been in Maui.


Instead, we were marooned less than halfway through what my bride, Jackie, and I had considered an inventive solution to the where-to-go honeymoon quandary: a 1,250-mile, two-week, scenic, restful RV trip up the Pacific Coast, from Monterey, California, back to our home in northwestern Washington.


That was the itinerary, anyway. Now our rig was fresh off an extended lip lock with a tow truck in Waldport, which was a nice place, actually—provided you had a means of escape. Ours was incapacitated, and the fast-growing pool of 10W-40 under her gut was, alas, our responsibility, because we’d decided to forgo the traditional RV-travel method of renting one of these potty-equipped boxcars and dumping it off once we got home. We had actually purchased the RV, a 1984 Fleetwood Jamboree, from a relative who decided to part with her rolling home at a critical time—smack-dab in the middle of our honeymoon bickering. Sorry—consultation.
For three months prior to abandoning IRS single-filing status, we’d embraced, investigated, and abandoned a full slate of “outdoorsy” honeymoon plans.


A backpack trek down the spine of the Cascades? Too hard.


A long cruise on the Mediterranean? Too soft.


An extended train/car/camping trip to Canada’s Maritime Provinces? Too Shipping News.


Three sunny weeks on the beach in Cabo San Lucas/Tortola/Maui? Too long, too thong.




We were close to giving up when fate came knocking with propane appliances, a rooftop air conditioner, and sewage tanks bigger than my first apartment.


It all seemed downright serendipitous: An RV would be a perfect way to get away from it all, stopping when we wanted, where we wanted, like carefree, Gore-Tex-clad bohemians. Why not invest the $3,000 to $5,000 we’d plunk down on a traditional getaway into the old rig, gaining a rolling honeymoon that might go on forever?


I floated the idea by a trusted, outdoorsy friend. “You’re not old enough for a motor home,” he said.


“Yeah,” I replied, flashing back to the lingering joint pain after my most recent tent debacle—riding out a winter storm, in the middle of August, on Mount Rainier. “But my knees are.”


The only catch: selling the plan to Jackie. “It’s an opportunity,” I told her with a mostly straight face. “An investment in our outdoor future. It’s a beach condo, mountain cabin, and backwoods hideaway all in one fiberglass-and-steel package.”


She hesitated. I dragged out the heavy ammo: “If we had an RV,” I told my canine-enthralled fiancée, “Henry and Mabel”—our dalmatian and golden retriever/Labrador recliner—”could go along with us more often.”


For the second time in less than a year, she shocked the hell out of me by smiling and saying yes. The Great West Coast RV Honeymoon ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø was on.


As I nudged the Jamboree out of space dock in Monterey, I noted that our new old rig, which we christened Lucille, exhibited typically nimble RV-handling characteristics: squishy as a six-ton Hostess Ho Ho with dualies and a luggage rack. Although I’d piloted rental RVs before (note to the constables in Banff: Sorry about those ornamental light posts), you forget the laws of motor-home physics until you’re back on the flying bridge. The key is to think like an adult yak caught in a Mikasa outlet: You don’t want to get into positions where you have to turn quickly or back up. Also, it’s a good idea to swing waaaay wide around corners.


On our first day, we made great time bombing up California 1—relaxed by the notion that, with our rolling hut and its always-ready sleeping quarters, we didn’t really need to be anywhere at a specific time. In the early afternoon, as the Pacific salt air filtered in through Lucille’s portholes, we pulled off in a wide spot, surrounded by spring wildflowers, with a statuesque lighthouse winking nearby. On a car-camping trip, this would’ve been a 30-second photo stop. In the RV, it was waterfront dining, baby.
An hour later, we got off the comfy couch and stowed the almond-stuffed olives, lobster bisque, and crème brûlée leftovers in the fridge and pulled back on the road, feeling good about life, ourselves, and everything else.


Then we hit the first really big hill. Without warning, Lucille’s trusty old 7.5-liter Ford engine lurched and bucked like a moose in a hot tub, emitting a rather ungodly noise. I glanced over at my lovely wife—head between knees in airliner crash position—and issued my first married-man executive decision: “Hmmm,” I declared. “We’ll need to avoid hills.” Wisely, Jackie chose not to inquire about the approximately 700,000 more between us and home. The RV love/hate affair had begun.


Late that evening, we had docked Lucille in an RV camp near the town of Napa, where hawks circled overhead as the setting sun painted nearby hills in brilliant goldenrod. As we put the galley to use for another meal—notably devoid of freeze-dried components—it hit me: We were here. Done. Set up. No tent to pitch. Everything in its place. No pawing through seven Rubbermaid bins to find your toothbrush. Nothing to do but relax. This was camping.


A warm glow overtook us. So what if it was partially emanating from the pool of oil spreading beneath Lucille’s belly?




The next week on the road was, to steal a word that Lewis no doubt uttered to Clark on more than one occasion in these same parts, interesting.


Lucille continued to harrumph like a lactating elephant seal every time we made the admittedly unreasonable demand of minor elevation gains. But we became enamored of the way we could get out, get wet, and return to our portable civilization capsule and straighten things out for the next outing. Lucille’s true worth was revealed when the Oregon coastal weather did what it’s known for, imitating a hydroblast car wash. When driving rain and a 35-mile- per-hour wind sandblasted everything on the beach outside, we sat warmly protected inside, sipping wine and slurping cheese fondue—all while gazing out the front windshield at a group of hapless, rain-battered tent campers.


Jackie: “Oh, gosh. Did you see those poor people? A year ago, that would have been us.”


Me: “Ha! Did you see those poor suckers? A year ago, that would’ve been us! By the way, is there any more Grey Poupon?”


This, of course, only added to the major karma deficit I had already amassed, as evidenced by our continuing struggles: Lucille’s oil leak grew to a steady spurt. I kept feeding her Pennzoil straight shots, which seemed to appease her. But on that fateful day near Waldport, Lucille staged the ultimate rebellion, flatly refusing to start when we tried to leave our digs at Oregon’s Beachside State Recreation Site. As quick as you can say, “Hello, AAA?” we were being towed three miles into Waldport on a disconcertingly small wrecker, the driver of which confessed to some fear that if we had to do something drastic, such as stop, the motor home could run us over.
Jackie looked more concerned than usual. “It’ll be OK, won’t it?” she asked.


“At this point,” I sighed, “it’s all up to God and Visa.”


Five hours later, sitting there on that waiting-room sofa, I imagined the two entities would conspire for a repair bill in the low four digits, minimally. Then came good news came from the shop floor: They’d found a simple loose bolt responsible for the oil leak, and a leaky vacuum line between engine and transmission—likely responsible for all that uphill chugging and bucking. By day’s end, we were back on the road.


Final tab: one day lost; $146 tithed to Visa; bill still pending from God.




During our final week, the skies cleared, Lucille’s engine purred, and we did all that we’d set out to do: hiked beaches, picnicked by nearby shipwrecks, photographed wildflowers, all within proximity of our hot-shower-equipped motor home. And throughout our journey, we found a surprising number of couples in their thirties and forties traveling the same way.


Most of them admitted that it takes time to cut loose from tent-camping logic: searching for a flat, dry tent pad everywhere from the mouth of the Columbia to the Wal-Mart parking lot; rushing to campsites well before dark; waking up and checking the corners of your sleeping bag for seepage and creepage. But RVing is a pleasant new way of thinking, even when the flaws of driving a galoot like Lucille present themselves.


No matter how troublesome she gets, she’ll always keep us three feet higher off the ground than even the best tent. That’s a good thing. Especially if you’re 39, with knees and back going on 50.


Some days, tooling down the road in Lucille, bound for a rendezvous with a mountain or ocean view and full hookups (yeah, with cable TV—deal with it), we think back on that friend’s comment and realize he was probably right: We’re probably not old enough for an RV.


But our dogs are.


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Life’s a Wild Trip /adventure-travel/lifes-wild-trip/ Fri, 01 Mar 2002 00:00:00 +0000 /uncategorized/lifes-wild-trip/ Life's a Wild Trip

We’ve learned a lot in a quarter-century of roaming the planet. This month, to kick off ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø‘s silver anniversary, we’ve chosen 25 bold, epic, soul-nourishing experiences that every true adventurer must seek out—from the relatively plush and classic to the cutting-edge and hard-core. All that’s left for you is the easy part: GET OUT THERE … Continued

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Life's a Wild Trip

We’ve learned a lot in a quarter-century of roaming the planet. This month, to kick off ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø‘s silver anniversary, we’ve chosen 25 bold, epic, soul-nourishing experiences that every true adventurer must seek out—from the relatively plush and classic to the cutting-edge and hard-core. All that’s left for you is the easy part:

It's a Real, Real, Real, Real World

Problem: It’s a dangerous world out there.
Solutions:
How do you put this thing in reverse? Heavy traffic in Kaokoveld, Namibia How do you put this thing in reverse? Heavy traffic in Kaokoveld, Namibia

GET OUT THERE





Our resident gadabout’s cri de coeur to get you off your duff and out chasing your dreams.
BY TIM CAHILL
Follow in the Footsteps of Greatness, Make a First Ascent, Get Lost in Your Own Backyard


Live a South Seas Fantasy, Track Big Game on Safari, Scare Yourself Witless on a Class V River


See the World from Behind Bars, Journey to the Ends of the Earth, Paddle with the Whales


Free Your Soul on a Pilgrimage, Explore Majestic Canyons, Help Save an Endangered Species


Master the Art of the F-Stop, Ski Infinite Backcountry, Take an Epic Trek


Get Culture Shocked, Go Polar, Stay Alive!


Swim with Sharks, Pursue Lost Horizons, Behold the Wonders of the Cosmos


Jump Down the Food Chain, Gallop Through the Surf, Cast Away in Paradise, Break On Through to the Other Side

Exotic Places Made Me Do It

Meteora Monestery, Greece Meteora Monestery, Greece

“A SUBMERSIBLE VOYAGE under the North Pole?” The radio host was leafing through a copy of ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø, reading off destinations and activities in tones of rising incredulity. “Trekking with pygmies in the Central African Republic? Backpacking in Tasmania? Swimming with sharks in Costa Rica?”


Talk-show hosts, I’ve discovered, often think confrontational interviews are audience builders. I said that the magazine strives to put together the ultimate traveler’s dream catalog. It wasn’t all about diving with sharks.


“A dogsled expedition in Greenland?”


“For instance,” I said.


“My idea of a vacation,” the guy declared, “is a nice oceanfront resort, a beach chair, and a pi-a colada.”


“Mine, too,” I said. “For a day or two. Then I’d go bug spit. I’d feel like I was in prison. I’d want to do something.”


Who, the host insisted, wants to, say, trek across Death Valley? His listeners wanted to lie on the beach and drink sweet rum concoctions.


The urge to grab the guy by the collar and slap him until his ears rang was nearly overwhelming.


But I didn’t. “I think that’s a serious misconception about who listens to this show,” I replied. It was, I thought, a serious misconception about human beings altogether.


So I did my best to defend all of us who aren’t in our right minds. These—I said of the destinations and adventures mentioned—are dreams. Everybody has them, though they often come in clusters when we’re younger. A lot of us first aspired to far-ranging travel and exotic adventure early in our teens; these ambitions are, in fact, adolescent in nature, which I find an inspiring idea. Adolescence is the time in our lives when we are the most open to new ideas, the most idealistic. Thus, when we allow ourselves to imagine as we once did, we are not at all in our right minds. We are somewhere in a world of dream, and we know, with a sudden jarring clarity, that if we don’t go right now, we’re never going to do it. And we’ll be haunted by our unrealized dreams and know that we have sinned against ourselves gravely.


Or something like that. Who knows? I was just sitting around talking with some doofus on drive-time radio.


Then it was time to take phone calls. It would be satisfying to report that each and every caller agreed with me, that they excoriated the host for blatant imbecility, and that the host, convinced of my superior perspicacity, apologized then and there.


It didn’t happen quite like that. But many of the listeners did, in fact, reject the pi-a-colada paradigm. Several seemed positively gung ho about the idea of travel under stressful conditions in remote areas. It gave me hope that somebody might even call in and ask The Question—the one that anyone who’s been writing about travel for any length of time gets asked. And then someone did:


“Can I carry your bags?”


THE MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE I meet and chat with have their own peculiar travel fantasy. The dream varies from individual to individual, but it almost never involves seven endless scorching days in a beach chair.


Sometimes, after public-speaking engagements, it is my pleasure to sit and sign books. I speak with people then, and often they tell me about these fantasies, sometimes in hushed voices, as if the information were embarrassing and someone might hear. I suspect they fear the scorn of people like the radio talk-show host. They imagine they will be thought immature. Adolescent.


That’s why the words “Let’s go!” are intrinsically courageous. It’s the decision to go that is, in itself, entirely intrepid. We know from the first step that travel is often a matter of confronting our fear of the unfamiliar and the unsettling—of the rooster’s head in the soup, of the raggedy edge of unfocused dread, of that cliff face that draws us willy-nilly to its lip and forces us to peer into the void.


I’m convinced that we all have the urge in some degree or another, even the least likely among us. And we’ve never needed to respect and reward that urge more than we do now. Consider the case of my literary agent, Barbara Lowenstein, a stylish New Yorker, a small woman, always perfectly coiffed, tough and straightforward in her business dealings, and a terror to any ma”tre d’ who would dare seat her at a less than optimal table. Still, every year for the last decade, she has taken a winter trip to this river in Patagonia, or that veld in Africa. She’s been in places where baboons pilfer your food and monkeys pee on your head.


This year, after the September 11 attacks, people were, initially, amazed that she was still going anywhere at all. “It’s Spain and Morocco,” Barbara told me in October. “Not my usual. But people still think I’m crazy to go.”


I spoke with her just before she left on her trip in late December. I asked if people still questioned her sanity.


“No,” she said. “New York seems to be getting back on track. People have stopped asking ‘Why?’ and have started asking ‘Where?'”


What follows is the best answer to the latter question we’ve ever compiled: a life list of destinations, of dreams that won’t die. Read it. Try to refrain from drooling.


Can I carry your bags?

It’s a Real, Real, Real, Real World

One advantage in this dicey new world: “ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø travel” is finally living up to its name. While it’s true that previously unimaginable roadblocks are now as common as Oldsmobiles outside a Lions Club luncheon, odds are you won’t run up against them. But in case you find yourself S.O.L. in Sulawesi, our quick fixes for your worst nightmares.


Dilemma: A Third World crossing guard won’t let you into the Fourth World nation through which your third-rate travel agent booked your flight home. Creative Solution: High time you learned the ancient art of bribery. Cash is good, but don’t bother if it’s less than a $50. Low on bills? Freak out so they’ll pay you just to leave. Eat a couple pages of your passport or develop a contagious itch.
Dilemma: You’re trying to look like everyone else buying yak butter at the market in Hostilistan, but your clothing, gear, and pearly-whites scream U-S-A! Creative Solution: Memorize “I am Canadian” in 20 languages. Here’s a start: Je suis canadien. Ich bin Kanadier. Soy candiense. Wo sher jianada ren. Ana Kanady…



Dilemma: Your guide seemed like such a stable fellow when he loaded the duffels into the Land Cruiser. But three days later, he’s foaming at the mouth and stealing your tent poles to build an altar to Zolac, the God of Dead Ecotourists. Creative Solution: Finally, all that Survivor tube time pays off. Size up your group for an impromptu insurrection: Identify anyone who’s a telemarketer or attorney. Offer him/her as a ritual sacrifice to Zolac. Run like hell.


Dilemma: All you needed to bring, your carefree island-hopping friends said, was a bikini bottom and a cash card. Two weeks later, one is full of sand, the other completely drained. Creative Solution: (1) Get to an Internet portal, auction the bikini bottom on eBay, invest proceeds in bargain-priced Enron stock, wait. (2) Using rusty Craftsman pliers you found on the beach, extract gold crowns from the teeth of your carefree island-hopping friends, sell to village black-market jeweler. (3) Bite the bullet and call Mom collect.


Dilemma: Revolutionaries are headed for your remote camp with less than neighborly intentions. Creative Solution: (1) Climb a cliff, spend night on portaledge (be sure to push suspected militants off the edge first), wait for Kyrgyz Army to save you. (2) Booby-trap your campsite. First, turn fire pit into flaming cauldron of hell by greasing surrounding uphill slope with copious amounts of Gu. Carve a figurine out of campfire log, leave it propped against tent with Leatherman blade stuck directly through its head. Finally, rig a tent-pole snare and trip wire to hurl your ultra-crusty SmartWools directly at encroachers.


Dilemma: The airport security guy is sizing you up with a leer that says only one thing: Strip search. Creative Solution: (1) Preempt the search and voluntarily get naked, then start humming “Dueling Banjos.” (2) Ask him if he understands the phrase “uncoverable oozing lesions.”(3) Snap your teeth, bark, and threaten to bite.


Dilemma: To all the other revelers, it’s just your average disco ball and smoke machine. But when it comes to public places, you’ve got pre-traumatic stress disorder. To you it’s a stun-grenade precursor to absolute mayhem. Creative Solution: Relax, already. Get your groove on. It’s likely all that screaming is a just an overzealous reaction to techno-punk. But if not, what better way to go out than in a sequined halter?

The Red Planet: California's Death Valley The Red Planet: California’s Death Valley

1. Follow in the Footsteps of Greatness
Tibet / Mallory and Irvine’s Everest

It’s everything but the disappearing act: Follow the route of doomed explorers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine from Lhasa to Rongbuk Monastery, the sacred gateway to Mount Everest. You’ll camp and hike in the spectacular Rongbuk Valley, with jaw-dropping views of the world’s highest peak, before trekking to 17,900-foot Advanced Base Camp, from which the intrepid mountaineers launched their fatal summit attempt in 1924. OUTFITTER: Geographic Expeditions, 800-777-8183, WHEN TO GO: May, June, October PRICE: $4,945 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

USA / Idaho / Biking the Lewis and Clark Trail
(NEW TRIP) Retrace a portion of Lewis and Clark’s historic route as you pedal 85 miles on the Forest Service roads of the Lolo Trail, which winds through Idaho’s remote Bitterroot Mountains. But what took the explorers eight days in 1805, and drove them to eat three of their horses, will take you only five: You’ll bike 20 miles per day, and you’ll dine on grilled salmon, chicken diablo, and chocolate fondue. At night around the campfire, your guides will double as history professors, discussing Lewis and Clark’s journey and their interactions with Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce. OUTFITTER: Western Spirit Cycling, 800-845-2453, WHEN TO GO: July-September PRICE: $895 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

South Pacific / In the Wake of the Bounty
Your 22-day cruise won’t involve a reenactment of Fletcher Christian’s legendary 1789 mutiny, but you will meet his family. After three days exploring the mysterious stone ruins of Easter Island, you’ll board a 168-passenger expedition cruise ship and motor 1,200 miles west to the tiny Pitcairn Islands, to which Christian eventually piloted the Bounty and where the 48 residents boast mutineer DNA. Continue with visits to a dozen more exotic Pacific islands: You’ll snorkel in the Marquesas, look for crested terns with the onboard ornithologist in the Tuamotus, and follow a dolphin escort into Bora Bora’s lagoon. OUTFITTER: Wilderness Travel, 800-368-2794, WHEN TO GO: March, April, October, November PRICE: $7,665 DIFFICULTY: Easy

TRIP ENHANCER
Apple iPod MP3 Player

The sleekest, best-designed, and priciest MP3 player going. Apple’s iPod ($399; ) quickly stores up to three decades’ worth of greatest hits (1,000 tunes) and can play them for nearly ten hours straight. Sufficient entertainment even for the longest transpacific flight.

2. Make a First Ascent
China / Into the Kax Tax

(New Trip) Last year, Colorado mountaineer Jon Meisler used a century-old map to rediscover a hidden rift valley in western China’s Xinjiang province that provided access to some 30 nameless peaks in the Kax Tax range. Most of the mountains allow for four- or five-day assaults over nontechnical terrain to 20,000-foot summits. This year’s monthlong guided trips include an acclimatization hike into valleys inhabited by wild yaks, blue sheep, and Tibetan brown bears. OUTFITTER: High Asia Exploratory Mountain Travel Company, 800-809-0034, WHEN TO GO: June, August PRICE: from $5,000 DIFFICULTY: Strenuous

Greenland / Gunnbjørn Fjeld and Beyond
Pioneer a route up a 10,000-foot peak on your 14-day expedition to eastern Greenland’s Watson Range. A Twin Otter loaded with ropes, skis, and frozen chicken will fly you to base camp about 225 miles south of Ittoqqortoormiit, on the eastern fringes of Greenland’s icecap. After warming up on a four-day climb to the summit of 12,139-foot Mount Gunnbjørn Fjeld, your group will decide which of the 50-odd surrounding mountains to climb. OUTFITTER: Alpine Ascents International, 206-378-1927, WHEN TO GO: June PRICE: $9,500 DIFFICULTY: Strenuous

Bolivia / Exploring Apolobamba
Spend ten to 13 days in northern Bolivia’s Apolobamba range, tackling the unclimbed south face of 18,553-foot Cuchillo or a virgin peak in the Katantica group. You’ll trek on llama trails beneath glacier-cloaked peaks and watch condors soar over your base camp before you start the dirty work of picking a peak and route to fit your abilities. OUTFITTER: The ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Climbing and Trekking Company of South America, 719-530-9053, WHEN TO GO: June PRICE: $1,600-$2,575 DIFFICULTY: Strenuous

3. Get Lost in Your Own Backyard
USA / Minnesota / Paddling the Voyageur International Route

In the 60 miles between your put-in and take-out in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, you’ll find little more than a chain of pine-fringed lakes connected by muddy portages—so stopping to buy Advil is not an option. But the untouched land-scape on this ten-day canoe trip, which follows an 18th-century fur-trading route on the Canada/Minnesota border, from Saganaga Lake to Crane Lake, will keep your mind off your aching shoulders. At nightly lakeshore camps, look for bald eagles and timber wolves, and listen for the call of the loon. OUTFITTER: Wilderness Outfitters, 800-777-8572, WHEN TO GO: May PRICE: $1,649 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

USA / Alaska / Rafting the Nigu River
(New Trip) Paddle a four-man raft for 70 miles and ten days down the lonely Nigu, and it’s likely you won’t see another two-legged soul. A plane will drop you in the middle of the Brooks Range, where you’ll paddle the Class II water through rolling carpets of rhododendrons and lupines. From your riverbank camps, watch vermilion skies as they illuminate bears, wolves, and herds of migrating caribou. OUTFITTER: Arctic Treks, 907-455-6502, WHEN TO GO: August PRICE: $3,150 (includes flights between the Brooks Range and Fairbanks) DIFFICULTY: Moderate

USA / California / Death Valley Hike
Step out of the daily grind and into the empty moonscape of Death Valley National Park. You’ll hike four to ten miles a day through serpentine slot canyons and over 100-foot-high sand dunes and white borax-crystal flats, camping out under surprisingly serene skies. Yellow panamint daisies, magenta beavertail cactus blossoms, soaring peregrine falcons, and red-tailed hawks will convince you that the area is far from dead. OUTFITTER: REI ºÚÁϳԹÏÍøs, 800-622-2236, WHEN TO GO: March, April PRICE: $895 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

Paradise on the rocks: Palau, South Pacific Paradise on the rocks: Palau, South Pacific

4. Live a South Seas Fantasy
Micronesia / Chuuk, Palau, and Yap Snorkeling

Micronesia’s abundance of sea fans and staghorn corals makes for some of the world’s best snorkeling, never mind the manta rays floating between giant Napoleon wrasses and downed WWII Zeros. For 16 days you’ll stay at beachfront lodges on Chuuk, Palau, and Yap to explore the 82-degree seas in outrigger canoes and visit Jellyfish Lake, home to hundreds of the stingerless blobs. OUTFITTER: World Wildlife Fund, 888-993-8687, WHEN TO GO: March, April PRICE: $5,495 (includes round-trip airfare from Los Angeles) DIFFICULTY: Easy

Papua New Guinea / Exploratory Sea Kayaking
(New Trip) Volcanic walls and 100-foot waterfalls provide the backdrop for paddling inflatable kayaks 75 miles on this exploratory 13-day mission around the Tufi Peninsula and Trobriand Islands of southeastern New Guinea. Snorkel in 80-degree water teeming with leather sponges, sheets of table corals, and schools of Moorish idols. When the cicadas rattle, retire to a thatch-roofed guest house or pitch a tent right on the sand. OUTFITTER: Mountain Travel Sobek, 888-687-6235, WHEN TO GO: March, April, November PRICE: $3,190 DIFFICULTY: Moderate
Fiji / ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Sailing
(New Trip) The Fijian high chiefs keep the Lau Islands closed to tourists to preserve their wild blue waters and secret coves. Lucky for you, your guides have family ties. Spend four days with 40 others aboard a 145-foot schooner, the Tui Tai, sailing north from Savusavu. You’ll anchor off islands with newly built singletrack (bike rentals included), 900-foot cliffs to rappel, and a maze of waterways to explore by sea kayak. Before the waves rock you to sleep in a specially prepared bed on deck, look overboard for glowing squid eyes. OUTFITTER: Tui Tai ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Cruises, 011-679-66-1-500, WHEN TO GO: Year-round PRICE: $300 (three nights); $375 (four nights) DIFFICULTY: Moderate

5. Track Big Game on Safari
Botswana / Okavango Delta by Horseback
Go lens-to-snout with the wildest creatures on the wildest continent. On this eight-day safari you’ll spend five days cantering with herds of zebras, milling among feeding elephants, and getting close to the lions, cheetahs, and leopards that roam the marshy plains of Botswana’s Okavango Delta. Then it’s out of the saddle and into a Land Rover for three more game-packed days in nearby Moremi Reserve or Chobe National Park. Your digs are comfortable tented camps—which feature roomy canvas wall tents with beds and private viewing decks—and, in Chobe, a posh game lodge. OUTFITTER: International Ventures, 800-727-5475, WHEN TO GO: March—November PRICE: $1,975 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

Tanzania / Ngorongoro Nonstop
(New Trip) Consider it a survival-of-the-fittest safari—the fittest traveler, that is. On this 12-day romp through the Tanzanian outback, you’ll paddle among the hippos in Lake Manyara, rappel down the Rift Valley’s western escarpment, and mountain bike through the rolling foothills—braking for giraffes, zebras, and tree-climbing lions—to watch the sun set over the Ngorongoro Highlands. Next, hike the wildlife-filled Ngorongoro Crater (watch for rare black rhinos) and trek with buffalo, hyenas, and gazelles in the rainforested Empakai Crater. Need a breather? No worries. Nights are spent in cush game lodges and luxurious tented camps. OUTFITTER: Abercrombie & Kent, 800-323-7308, WHEN TO GO: January-March, June-August, October, December PRICE: $4,395 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

TRIP ENHANCER
Grundig ETravelerVII Shortwave Receiver

Emerging from a 20-day trek through the rainforest to discover that a military junta has closed all airports and invalidated all visas is enough to make you long for the PDA-size eTravelerVII radio ($130; 800-872-2228). With its ability to pick up BBC Worldwide’s shortwave signals almost anywhere, it could’ve tipped you off before things turned ugly.

Kenya / Big Five Bonanza
Timed to coincide with the great Serengeti migration, when millions of zebras and wildebeests move from Tanzania into southern Kenya, this 15-day hiking-and-driving safari puts you directly in the path of the Big Five (lions, leopards, elephants, cape buffalo, and rhino) in Nairobi and Lake Nakuru National Parks. Finish with five days in the Masai Mara, where the sheer number of species is downright dizzying. OUTFITTER: Journeys International, 800-255-8735, PRICE: $4,250 WHEN TO GO: August, October DIFFICULTY: Easy

6. Scare Yourself Witless on a Class V River
China / The Great Bend of the Yangtze

What happens when five times the water of the Grand Canyon squeezes through a gorge only half as wide? Twenty-five-foot monster waves, a roaring Class V rapid three-quarters of a mile long, and whirlpools big enough to swallow a van. On this eight-day trip, you’ll raft more than 100 miles on the Great Bend section of the Yangtze River in China’s Yunnan Province and discover canyon walls stretching upward for a mile, with the 17,000-foot Snow Dragon mountains towering overhead. OUTFITTER: Earth River Expeditions, 800-643-2784, WHEN TO GO: November, December PRICE: $4,300 DIFFICULTY: Strenuous

Canada / The Mighty Ram
Wondering why this six-day Ram River run was attempted by commercial rafters for the first time just last year? Consider what navigating the 60-mile menace, which flows through Alberta’s Ram River Canyon just north of Banff, entails: You’ll rappel down 100-foot waterfalls, maneuver around massive boulders, and shoot through rapids hemmed in by steep vertical ledges (beware Powerslide, a narrow, 35-foot drop). And you’ll do it all with an audience: Bighorn sheep—the Ram’s namesake—watch from the riverbank, while cougars watch them. OUTFITTER: ROAM Expeditions, 877-271-7626, PRICE: $1,795 WHEN TO GO: June DIFFICULTY: Strenuous

Chile / Rafting and Kayaking the Futaleufú
The Futaleufú is revered for its unforgiving hydraulics, which can suck paddlers under like a giant Hoover. But if you’re of questionable sanity and want an even wilder experience, try riding sections of the turquoise maelstrom in an inflatable kayak. Guides will make sure you’re up on wave patterns, ferrying, and how to swim the rapids in the very likely case you get dumped. Of course, you can always stick to the six-man raft, where you feel the joy (and see pine-covered banks, 300-foot-high white canyon walls, and granite spires) with relatively little terror. OUTFITTER: Orange Torpedo Trips, 800-635-2925, PRICE: $3,000 WHEN TO GO: December DIFFICULTY: Strenuous

South-coast solitude: Australia's Tasmania South-coast solitude: Australia’s Tasmania

7. See the World from Behind Bars
Morocco / High Atlas Traverse

(New Trip) Pedal from the colorful markets of Marrakech to the loftiest peaks in North Africa, the High Atlas Range. This 15-day exploratory ride takes you over a 10,404-foot pass, between 13,000-foot peaks, and through mountains still inhabited by the Berber tribes that have lived here for centuries. OUTFITTER: KE ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Travel, 800-497-9675, WHEN TO GO: November PRICE: $1,945 DIFFICUTLY: Strenuous

New Zealand / Cycling on the South Island
Nowhere else in the world do velvety roads wind by such idyllic scenery. Sandwiched between ice-capped peaks and jagged coastlines, you’ll pump up to six hours a day from the Tasman Sea to Queenstown, through old-growth forests, over a 3,000-foot pass, and past geysers and glaciers. OUTFITTER: Backroads, 800-462-2848, WHEN TO GO: November-March PRICE: $3,398 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

Canada / Coast Mountain Crossing
COAST MOUNTAIN CROSSING Ten days of wilderness singletrack—need we say more? Starting on smooth mining trails near Tyax Lake, you’ll crank up 6,500-foot ascents, into the heart of the Coast Range, before descending to the technical trails of British Columbia’s western rainforests. Thirty- to 40-mile days are punctuated by nights spent stargazing from wilderness camps or soaking in hot tubs at historic B&Bs. OUTFITTER: Rocky Mountain Cycle Tours, 800-661-2453, WHEN TO GO: September PRICE: $2,495 DIFFICULTY: Strenuous

TRIP ENHANCER
Garmin eTrex Vista GPS

Soggy maps proving difficult to decipher? Break out the eTrex Vista GPS ($375; 800-800-1020). Better screen resolution (288X160), a more accurate WAAS signal, and downloadable maps from MapSource or Garmin (sold separately) let you use your paper version as emergency Wet-Naps. Just don’t forget batteries.

8. Journey to the Ends of the Earth
Mongolia / Riding with the Eagle Hunters
Riding with the Eagle Hunters When Aralbai, your guide, honors you with a sheep’s ear hors d’oeuvre, don’t gag. You’re in Mongolia for 11 days to learn traditions of the Kazakh eagle hunters, named for the hooded golden eagles they carry on their arms. Ride horses with the hunters by day; by night, sleep in a mud-brick cabin, dance to the sounds of the morin khuur (a two-stringed fiddle), and sip vodka, which will make that ear slide down nicely. OUTFITTER: Boojum Expeditions, 800-287-0125, WHEN TO GO: November-January PRICE: $1,950 DIFFICULTY: Easy

Australia / Tasmania Trek
(New Trip) It’s easy to become disoriented in Tasmania’s Southwest National Park. The nearest settlement can be a week’s walk away, trails often morph into muddy mangrove-covered slopes, and most of your companions are wallabies. So be sure to grab your map before the Cessna abandons your group and its 40-pound backpacks of food and gear near Melaleuca Lagoon. From there it’s a ten-day, 55-mile hike along the South Coast Track, where you’ll bask on deserted beaches, scramble up 3,000-foot passes, wade across tea-tree-stained lagoons, and weave through towering celery-top pines. OUTFITTER: Wilderness Travel, 800-368-2794, WHEN TO GO: February 2003 PRICE: $2,495 DIFFICULTY: Strenuous

Mozambique / First Descent of the Lugenda River
(New Trip) The Yao of northern Mozambique have seldom seen foreigners and have certainly never seen your fancy fiberglass boat. This summer be the first to paddle kayaks down the Lugenda River. For two weeks and 700 miles you’ll float the copper flatwater past the Yao’s thatch-roofed huts, dense woodlands, iselbergs—gnarled rock spires poking out of the flat land—and around pods of hippos. Camp on islands scattered in the quarter-mile-wide river or along its banks under skies framed by ebony trees near the Niassa Reserve, home to 14,000 elephants. OUTFITTER: Explore, 888-596-6377, WHEN TO GO: June PRICE: $5,000-$7,000 DIFFICULTY: Strenuous

9. Paddle with the Whales
Argentina / On the Coast of Patagonia

Tourism is strictly regulated on the Argentine waters north of Patagonia’s Valdés Peninsula, where nearly a third of the world’s southern right whales breed. But you can skirt the rules and sea kayak with the 55-foot-long mammals by helping conduct a wildlife census. As you paddle between beach camps for ten days and a total of 60 miles, you’ll watch female whales care for their calves and surface within feet of your kayak, while the males slap their flukes to get their mates’ attention. You’ll help guides count giant petrels, black-browed albatrosses, and some 40 other bird species. OUTFITTER: Whitney & Smith Legendary Expeditions, 403-678-3052, WHEN TO GO: October, November PRICE: $3,250 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

Mexico / Circumnavigating Isla Carmen
(New Trip) Endangered blue whales more than five times as long as your kayak love to cruise past Isla Carmen in the Gulf of California looking for tasty crustaceans. Get close to the world’s largest animals and be among the first to circumnavigate Carmen by sea kayak, paddling between six and eight miles per day for nine days. Along the way you’ll also watch fin whales, snorkel with angelfish in 72-degree water, and search for rare blue-footed boobies. Spend nights camping in sheltered coves where volcanic rock juts into the sea. OUTFITTER: Sea Kayak ºÚÁϳԹÏÍøs, 800-616-1943, WHEN TO GO: April PRICE: $1,350 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

Norway / Paddling the Svalbard Archipelago
In July and August, go where the whales go: the Svalbard Archipelago, 600 miles northwest of mainland Norway. Here you’ll find 90- to 190-ton blues, 40-foot-long humpbacks, square-headed sperm whales, hundreds of walruses, auks, and kittiwakes—and 24-hour daylight to take it all in. Paddle a sea kayak ten miles a day for eight days through frigid 32-degree water along Svalbard’s western coastline, returning each night to cozy cabins (polar bears make camping inadvisable) and spicy bacalau stew aboard a former Norwegian trawler. OUTFITTER: Tofino Expeditions, 800-677-0877, WHEN TO GO: July, August PRICE: $8,000 (includes airfare from Tromsø, Norway) DIFFICULTY: Moderate

Step inside: another inviting nook off the Grand Canyon Step inside: another inviting nook off the Grand Canyon

10. Free Your Soul on a Pilgrimage
Tibet / To the Center of the Universe

May 26—the date Buddha was born, reached enlightenment, and died—is the day to visit Mount Kailas, a peak sacred to Buddhists, Jains, and Hindus. And Tibetan Buddhism expert Robert Thurman (yes, he’s Uma’s dad) is the man to go with. On this 28-day journey, you’ll circumambulate 22,027-foot Kailas. For an authentic experience, prostrate yourself as you go. OUTFITTER: Geographic Expeditions, 800-777-8183, WHEN TO GO: May PRICE: $8,085 DIFFICULTY: Strenuous

Spain / Biking El Camino de Santiago
Devout Christians have been walking the roads from the city of Burgos to the shrine of St. James, in the city of Santiago de Compostela, for more than a thousand years. Modern pilgrims can save their soles by making the 326-mile journey on a bike. You’ll ride on dirt roads and trails up to 60 miles per day for nine days, stopping to sleep in small hotels and to explore Romanesque churches in villages along the way. Follow ancient tradition and pick up a rock (of a size proportionate to your sins) on day six, and carry it 1,200 feet before ditching it at the highest point on the Camino: 4,891-foot Foncebadón Pass. What, after all, would a pilgrimage be without a little suffering? OUTFITTER: Easy Rider Tours, 800-488-8332, WHEN TO GO: May-July, September PRICE: $2,250 DIFFICULTY: Moderate
Peru / Sacred Sites of the Incas
In the tradition of their Incan ancestors, the Quechua people of southern Peru celebrate the June solstice at the foot of 21,067-foot Mount Ausungate, the spirit of animal fertility. Circumnavigate the holiest peak in the Cusco region on this 44-mile, high-altitude (12,000-foot-plus) trek, following ancient paths past grazing alpacas and Quechua villages. The 18-day trip also includes a four-day, 27-mile trek up the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. OUTFITTER: Southwind ºÚÁϳԹÏÍøs, 800-377-9463, WHEN TO GO: May-September PRICE: $3,675-$4,525 DIFFICULTY: Strenuous

TRIP ENHANCER
NEC Versa DayLite Notebook PC

Kayak, Tent, or African bus: The 3.3 pound Versa DayLite ($2,499; 888-632-8701) goes where you’d never dream of hauling heavier laptops, and goes for seven hours on its battery. But the screen is the star; its significantly heightened contrast means easy readability under the harsh glare of, say, the Saharan sun.

11. Explore Majestic Canyons
USA / Arizona / Padding and Hiking the Grand Canyon

Floating 235 miles through the 6,000-foot-deep Grand Canyon on its storied waters is a once-in-a-lifetime experience (unless you have an in with the permit office, which is doubtful). On this 13-day trip you’ll hit all the raging Class IV+ rapids and have ample time to hike and boulder in the side canyons, play under 125-foot waterfalls, explore Anasazi granaries, and swim in the calcium carbonate-tinted bright-blue pools at Havasu Creek. OUTFITTER: Outdoors Unlimited, 800-637-7238, WHEN TO GO: May, September PRICE: $2,795 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

Peru / Whitewater Rafting Colca Canyon
The reward for threading through 40 miles of SUV-size boulders on southern Peru’s twisting Class V Colca River—beyond the rush of making it out alive—is the rare view of soaring black condors against the canyon’s 11,000-foot walls. But don’t look up too much. The run demands deft maneuvering in paddle rafts. An added boon on this eight-day trip are the abundant natural springs. Soak in the hot ones; drink from the cold ones. OUTFITTER: Earth River Expeditions, 800-643-2784, WHEN TO GO: July PRICE: $2,900 DIFFICULTY: Strenuous

Mexico / Trekking in Copper Canyon
Hike through four biotic zones while dropping 6,000 feet from rim to floor in Chihuahua’s Copper Canyon. This ten-day trek starts on a cool plateau of ponderosa pine and Douglas fir. You’ll descend on paths used for centuries by the Tarahumara Indians, through piñon pine and juniper to reach arid slopes and agave cacti. Lower still, enter the subtropics, where parrots squawk in mango trees outside your tent. OUTFITTER: ºÚÁϳԹÏÍøs Abroad, 800-665-3998, WHEN TO GO: February-March, October-December PRICE: $1,590 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

12. Save an Endangered Species
Mongolia / In Search of the Snow Leopard

Journey Mongolian-style across the golden steppes and 12-mile-long sand dunes of the Gobi Desert as you help biologists find the nearly mythical snow leopard in its native habitat. You’ll sleep in yurts as you travel by camel, horse, and four-wheeler south from Ulan Bator for 11 days. Drink fermented mare’s milk with nomadic tribesmen before scouring the wild southeastern fringe of the Gobi, searching for malodorous leopard markings: The elusive cats spray the same spots for generations. OUTFITTER: Asia Transpacific Journeys, 800-642-2742, WHEN TO GO: September PRICE: $5,895 DIFFICULTY: Easy to moderate

U.S. Virgin Islands / Tracking Leatherback Turtles
Heroic beachcombing? Absolutely, at least along the southwest shore of St. Croix, where the Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge hosts a slew of endangered leatherback turtles and one very successful conservation team. For ten days, live in airy beachside cottages and walk the two-mile white-sand shores, helping resident biologists measure nests and count hatchlings as the newborns struggle toward the warm Caribbean. OUTFITTER: Earthwatch Institute, 800-776-0188, WHEN TO GO: April-July PRICE: $1,895 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

Suriname / Paddling with Giant Otters
(New Trip) This former Dutch colony contains some of the most pristine tropical rainforest in the world and offers the best chance to see—and help save—some of the 3,000 or so endangered giant otters still left in the wild. For eight days, paddle in dugout canoes with biologists and natives in Kaburi Creek, a favored otter habitat in central Suriname (and home to kaleidoscopic macaws and parrots). Sleep in hammocks on the shore and canoe to “otter campsites” in this pilot project to count and study the friendly six-foot-long animals. OUTFITTER: Oceanic Society, 800-326-7491, WHEN TO GO: September PRICE: $2,390 (includes airfare from Miami) DIFFICULTY: Moderate

F-stop and go: fishing nets in Vietnam F-stop and go: fishing nets in Vietnam

13. Master the Art of the F-Stop
Cuba / Vision and Discover in Havana

Here’s your shot at playing globetrotting photojournalist. You’ll spend six mornings discussing theory, history, and technical concerns with your instructor, New York-based commercial and fine-art photographer Stacy Boge, at the Maine Photographic Workshops’ Cuba headquarters, formerly a 19th-century convent. In the afternoons she’ll set you loose to photograph historic forts, artisans at the craft market, and the wizened faces of Old Havana with a bilingual teaching assistant and guide. Lab crews develop your film nightly, so it’s ready for next-day critiques and slide shows. OUTFITTER: The Maine Photographic Workshops, 877-577-7700, WHEN TO GO: February, March PRICE: $1,495 DIFFICULTY: Easy

Vietnam and Laos / That Luang Festival
With photo opportunities that include sacred wats, limestone-spired islands, bustling markets, and numerous saffron-robed monks and nuns—plus acclaimed photographer Nevada Wier as your guide—you can’t help but take a few incredible shots. In Vietnam, you’ll sea kayak in Ha Long Bay and mingle with people of the Hmong and Dao hill tribes in the Tonkinese Alps; in Laos, you’ll cruise the Mekong River in a junk and watch a candlelight procession in Vientiane, the capital city, as thousands of Buddhists celebrate the annual That Luang Full Moon festival. OUTFITTER: Mountain Travel Sobek, 888-687-6235, WHEN TO GO: November PRICE: $4,400 DIFFICULTY: Easy
USA / Midway Atoll / Avian Images
The bird-to-human ratio on this U.S. naval base turned wildlife refuge—which lies 1,320 miles northwest of Honolulu—is an astonishing 8,000 to 1. Spend seven days with photography instructor Darrell Gulin and you’ll shoot black-footed albatross in the island’s lush interior one day and backward-flying red-tailed tropic birds on a beach the next. Your base: a comfy (really!) suite in the renovated naval officers’ quarters—Midway’s only accommodations. OUTFITTER: International Wildlife ºÚÁϳԹÏÍøs, 800-593-8881, WHEN TO GO: April-May PRICE: $3,295 DIFFICULTY: Easy

14. Ski Infinite Backcountry
USA / Wyoming / Teton Crest Traverse

It’s America’s Haute Route, cowboy style (no chalets). Hone your winter-camping skills after skinning 1,700 feet from Teton Pass to 9,100-foot Moose Creek Pass, with views into more than 400,000 acres of wilderness. Camp here for three nights, skiing the varied terrain of the Alaska Basin, before your 13-mile descent through Teton Canyon. OUTFITTER: Rendezvous Ski and Snowboard Tours, 877-754-4887, WHEN TO GO: April PRICE: $825 DIFFICULTY: Strenuous

Europe / The Continent’s Best Powder
Western Europe’s off-piste wonderland has a dirty little secret: unreliable snow. But Gary Ashurst—of La Grave, France, by way of Idaho—won’t tolerate it. Meet him and his Mercedes van in Geneva; he’ll take you to the best powder around—wherever that is at the moment. Staying in B&Bs or chalets, you’ll spend seven days carving the chutes of the Cerces, jump-turning down tight couloirs in the Dolomites, or reveling in another one of Gary’s always-snowy stashes. OUTFITTER: Global ºÚÁϳԹÏÍøs, 800-754-1199, WHEN TO GO: January-April PRICE: $1,600 DIFFICULTY: Strenuous

USA / Alaska / Peaks of the Chugach
(New Trip) Welcome to the middle of nowhere. After the plane lands, settle into your base-camp hut on Matanuska Glacier and take a lesson in glacier safety. Then spend ten days exploring every crevasse, serac, and untouched blanket of snow between you and your goal: the 10,000-foot summits of the Scandinavian Peaks. OUTFITTER: Colorado Mountain School, 888-267-7783, WHEN TO GO: April PRICE: $1,800 DIFFICULTY: Strenuous

TRIP ENHANCER
Leica Trinovid BCA Binoculars

Leica’s nine-ounce glasses ($429; 800-877-0155) are compact enough to slip elegantly into a pocket, but they offer 10X magnification coupled with superior optics that sharpen contrast on objects 1,000 feet away, all in a package that doesn’t scream “tourist.”

15. Take an Epic Trek
Nepal / Jugal Himal Exploratory

Get off the teahouse circuit (and, let’s hope, the path of Maoist insurgents) on this 23-day exploratory trek through the Jugal Mountains of Langtang National Park, about 75 miles west of Mount Everest. Starting in the Balephi Khola Valley, trek up to eight hours a day among rhododendrons and banana trees, following shepherd trails to two delphinium-fringed lakes at 17,000 feet. OUTFITTER: World Expeditions, 888-464-8735, WHEN TO GO: October-November PRICE: $3,120 DIFFICULTY: Strenuous

Bhutan / In the Shadow of the Goddess
Your ultimate destination is 23,997-foot Chomo Lhari, the “Mountain of the Goddess.” But, like life, this trek’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey: You’ll hike seven miles per day (average daily elevation gain: 2,000 feet) through western Bhutan’s Paro Valley on an ancient trading path that winds through thousand-year-old villages, fields of blue poppies, and pastures filled with grazing yaks. Camp in meadows and share the trail with caravans bringing salt, tea, and Chinese silk to Paro on this 70-mile, out-and-back route. OUTFITTER: Asia Transpacific Journeys, 800-642-2742, WHEN TO GO: March, September PRICE: $4,395 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

Russia / Hgih-Altitude Altai
Storybook adventure at its finest: Be on the lookout for wolves, lynx, eagles, and the rare snow leopard by day; by night camp at the base of 10,000-foot peaks named Beauty, Fairy Tale, and Dream. On this challenging 65-mile trek in the Altai Mountains, in one of the most remote regions of Siberia, you’ll cover eight to 12 miles per day, hiking through cedar-forested valleys along the roaring Chuya River and ascending to glacier-fed lakes, before heading back to civilization—and we mean civilization. The Altai has been inhabited for hundreds of thousands of years.OUTFITTER: Mir Corporation, 800-424-7289, WHEN TO GO: July-August PRICE: $2,395 DIFFICULTY: Strenuous

The dog days of Greenland The dog days of Greenland

16. Get Culture Shocked
Central African Republic / Tracking with Pigmies

(New Trip) Put down your cell phone, pick up a spear, and spend five days in Dzanga-Ndoki National Park fully immersed in the Pygmy way of life. You’ll bushwhack through remote rainforests in the southwest Central African Republic, helping hunt for small antelope, track lowland gorillas and elephants, and collect medicinal herbs like Carcinia punctatam (it battles the runs). At night, retire to comfortable bungalows on stilts perched along the Sangha River, near the Pygmies’ village. OUTFITTER: Wilderness Travel, 800-368-2794, WHEN TO GO: November PRICE: $4,695 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

Ecuador / The Magic of the Shamans
See your troubles revealed in the entrails of dissected guinea pigs and enjoy other, equally drastic healing measures (like being thwapped by twigs) on this ten-day visit with Ecuadoran shamans. You’ll sleep in locals’ huts and travel by car, canoe, and foot to three spiritually distinct regions. Before heading into the Andes, visit the Amazon, where shamans venture to the underworld on the wings of ayahuasca, a natural hallucinogen—sorry, audience participation is discouraged. OUTFITTER: Myths and Mountains, 800-670-6984, WHEN TO GO: March, July PRICE: $1,895 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

Vietnam / Ethnic Explorer
Motorcycle into the hills of north Vietnam and meet the Flower Hmong in their rainbow head wraps or get lost in a chicken-filled market. Then park the bike for a three-day scramble up 10,312-foot Mount Fan Si Pan, with a local guide who smells his way up the route. OUTFITTER: Wild Card ºÚÁϳԹÏÍøs, 800-590-3776, WHEN TO GO: Year-round PRICE: From $1,600 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

17. Go Polar
Greenland / Dogsledding Across Polar Tundra

Travel the Arctic with the in crowd. Join explorer Paul Schurke on his annual Polar Inuit spring trip, accompanied by Inuit hunters who happen to be descendants of Americans Robert Peary and Matthew Henson, arguably the first men to reach the North Pole. You’ll snow camp in ten-degree temperatures for 14 days and dogsled the snowy alien landscape for 300 miles over sea ice on coastal fjords and Arctic tundra. OUTFITTER: Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge, 800-584-9425, WHEN TO GO: April PRICE: $6,000 (includes round-trip airfare from Resolute, Canada) DIFFICULTY: Moderate

Sweden and Norway / Reindeer Packing in the Arctic
Welcome to a slice of polar paradise: With domesticated reindeer to do the heavy lifting and carrying, indigenous Saami guides will lead you for four days and 35 miles through the alpine birch forests and tundra of Arctic Sweden until you reach the Tys Fjord at the Norwegian Sea. There you’ll swap hiking boots for sea kayaks and paddle 58 miles of Norway’s Salten Coast, exploring lush fjords, camping on beaches, and fishing for arctic trout. OUTFITTER: Crossing Latitudes, 800-572-8747, WHEN TO GO: August PRICE: $1,900 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

Antarctica / Scuba Diving Under Ice
You may have explored the wrecks off Palau and swum with whale sharks off South Africa, but until you’ve submerged yourself under the Antarctic ice pack, you haven’t really scuba dived. Journey on a Russian icebreaker to the Antarctic Peninsula and for 13 days don a drysuit, hood, and a freezeproof regulator, and plunge into a frigid world of surreal rewards. The diffuse light and 32-degree water are home to spindly pink starfish, sea hedgehogs, and sea butterflies. Just don’t let the ice, in infinite shades of blue, distract you from the roving leopard seals. OUTFITTER: Forum International, 800-252-4475, WHEN TO GO: February, March PRICE: $4,890-$6,340 DIFFICULTY: Strenuous

TRIP ENHANCER
Fossil Wrist PDA Watch

Don’t tote your PDA around the world, wear it. Fossil’s wristwatch ($145; 800-969-0900) uses an operating system developed in collaboration with Palm to let you zap 1,100 contacts with addresses or 800 appointment memos from your PDA into its stylish little self. Added bonus: it also tells time.

18. Stay Alive!
Peru / Learn to Thrive in the Amazon

Failing economy got you feeling the need to sharpen your survival skills? Let Peruvian survivalists show you how to stun fish, start a fire in the waterlogged forest, repel mosquitoes (by smearing yourself with squished termites), and treat ailments like a venomous snakebite. Eating juicy beetle grubs is optional on this seven-day trip in northeast Peru’s Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo Reserve, but once you’ve tried them, stomaching a bear market seems easy. OUTFITTER: Amazonia Expeditions, 800-262-9669, WHEN TO GO: Year-round PRICE: $1,295 DIFFICULTY: Easy

Costa Rica / Survival Trekking in the Osa Peninsula
Get a taste of Special Ops action when you spend ten days in the Costa Rican rainforest with former Special Forces veterans, who teach you survival basics and throw in a little fun to boot. Lessons in shelter building, foraging, and wilderness first aid are mixed with beach trekking, diving, and wildlife watching on the biodiverse Osa Peninsula. OUTFITTER: Specops, 800-713-2135, WHEN TO GO: April, July PRICE: $3,495 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

Namibia / Forage and Hunt with Nomads
The barren Namibian prairie may seem like a wasteland, but after six days with the nomadic Ju’hoansi bushmen, you’ll see it as a bountiful Eden. Learn to make arrow-tip tranquilizers used to stun and kill impala; help gather roots, wild fruits, and the sweet sap of the acacia tree. Back at your mobile camp, the tribesmen may treat you to an evening of music. OUTFITTER: Baobab Safari Co., 800-835-3692, WHEN TO GO: April-October PRICE: $3,100 DIFFICULTY: Easy

Silent as stone: Angkor ruins in Cambodia Silent as stone: Angkor ruins in Cambodia

19. Swim with Sharks
Costa Rica / Live-Aboard Off Cocos Island

Bring courage and an empty logbook. With ten days on the live-aboard Okeanos, you’ll need plenty of room to record all the scalloped hammerhead and reef sharks that swim by on nearly every dive. Dry out with an optional trekking excursion on lush, 18-square-mile Cocos. OUTFITTER: International ºÚÁϳԹÏÍøs Unlimited, 800-990-9738, WHEN TO GO: Year-round PRICE: $2,995 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

South Africa / The Big Five Dive
Even if you feel safe on the three days you’re inside a steel cage watching great whites, your ten free dives could be a little nerve-racking, and this is one time you won’t want to chum the water. On this 12-day, hotel-based trip on South Africa’s northeast coast, you’ll see ragged-tooth, hammerhead, and bull sharks in their natural habitat—aka hunting grounds. OUTFITTER: EcoVentures Nature Tours and Travel, 800-743-8352, WHEN TO GO: July, September PRICE: $3,900 DIFFICULTY: Moderate
Galápagos Islands / Cruising on the Sky Dancer
(New Trip) The hardest part about your eight days on the Sky Dancer will be resurfacing—and not because the 24-person live-aboard is anything less than first-class. No, it’s that the white-tipped, whale, and Galápagos sharks will have you jonesing for your scuba tank all hours of the day, as will the gigantic manta rays that swarm here in Darwin’s playhouse. OUTFITTER: Ecoventura, 305-262-6264, WHEN TO GO: Year-round PRICE: $2,895 DIFFICULTY: Easy

20. Pursue Lost Horizons
USA / Utah / Rock Art and Archaeology in the Escalante Outback

Archaeologist Don Keller, who’s scoured Escalante National Monument’s backcountry for the past decade, has uncovered numerous ancient petroglyphs, but many of his finds remain undocumented. Join Keller this spring, hiking for nine days, three of which are spent photographing and mapping 4,000-year-old Anasazi and Fremont rock-art panels. OUTFITTER: Southwest Ed-Ventures, 800-525-4456, WHEN TO GO: April PRICE: $1,250 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

USA / Hawaii / Multi-Island Hike
There’s a lot more to Hawaii than Sex Wax and surf gods: Poke around the Pu’u Loa Petroglyphs on the Big Island, taro terraces on Oahu (both of which have been around since a.d. 500), and the ancient Hawaiian heiau (temples) on Kauai and you’ll feel like a hand fresh off Captain Cook’s Endeavor. But fear not, this custom seven-day camping and hiking trip is flush with the hedonistic pleasures for which Hawaii is famous: soaking under tropical waterfalls, sunning on secluded white sand beaches, and snorkeling with dolphins and sea turtles. OUTFITTER: Hawaiian Islands Eco-Tours, 866-445-3624, WHEN TO GO: Year-round PRICE: $895 DIFFICULTY: Easy to moderate

Cambodia and Vietnam / Discover Ancient Ruins
Spend hours exploring the 12th-century temples of Angkor Thom, Angkor Wat, and Ta Prohm, the Hindu centerpieces of the Khmer kingdom, on this four-day trip to the Angkor ruins—the front end of an 11-day cycling tour through Vietnam. When the heat becomes unbearable, lounge by the pool at the Grand Hotel d’Angkor, a French colonial palace with all the touches of early-20th-century Indochina: wicker chairs, lazily swirling fans, and teak beds. OUTFITTER: Butterfield & Robinson, 800-678-1147, WHEN TO GO: October-April PRICE: $2,250 (Vietnam costs an additional $5,450) DIFFICULTY: Easy

TRIP ENHANCER
Olympus C-700 Digital Camera

This featherweight digicam ($699; 888-553-4448) has two megapixels’ resolution with a 10x optical zoom and a 27x digital zoom that outfocuses anything in its class. If you’re lost, use the images in the view screen as a visual breadcrumb trail.

21. Behold the Wonders of the Cosmos
Canada /Northern Lights

Nowhere else on the planet do the northern lights have more pizzazz than in Churchill, Manitoba, and this year, they’ll be at their best: Scientists are expecting great solar storms, meaning that for four nights you’ll likely see flaming oranges, streaks of deep blue, and patches of magenta over the early-spring subarctic skies. Days are spent dogsledding and watching for polar bears near your lodge in Churchill. OUTFITTER: Natural Habitat ºÚÁϳԹÏÍøs, 800-543-8917, WHEN TO GO: February, March PRICE: $2,795 DIFFICULTY: Easy

USA / Colorado / Anasazi Sun Calendars
(New Trip) Eight hundred years ago, the Anasazi hailed the winter solstice using rocks and shadow tricks. You can still watch the shadows dance, but only on December 22 will the sun be perfectly positioned to cast the dagger-shaped shadows onto the heart of spiral petroglyphs. From your B&B base camp in Cortez, Colorado, you’ll spend a week day hiking in Ute Mountain Tribal Park—home to more than 20,000 protected archaeological sites. OUTFITTER: Southwest Ed-Ventures, 800-525-4456, WHEN TO GO: December PRICE: $1,395 DIFFICULTY: Easy

Australia / Total Eclipse ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø
The Australian outback is your front-row seat for the 2002 total solar eclipse. You’ll be awed by the shimmering lights that dance on the edge of the darkened sun—a phenomenon caused by sunlight shining through the moon’s valleys. But the events leading up to the big show are nearly as spectacular: six days diving from a live-aboard in the Great Barrier Reef and three days of hiking in the Cape York rainforest. OUTFITTER: Outer Edge Expeditions, 800-322-5235, WHEN TO GO: December PRICE: $3,500 DIFFICULTY: Easy

Grin and bear it: an Alaskan grizzly's smile, frozen on film Grin and bear it: an Alaskan grizzly’s smile, frozen on film

22. Jump Down the Food Chain
USA / Alaska / Grizzlies of Coastal Katmai

Your expedition leader, naturalist and photographer Matthias Breiter, will tell you to bring your good camera, and for good reason. The first day, you’ll see puffins, sea lions, and bald eagles while kayaking Kodiak Island’s jagged shore. On day two you’ll meet your base camp: a research tugboat christened The Grizzly Ship. And for the next three days, you’ll cruise the Katmai coast, where thousand-pound grizzlies dig for clams. The brave can venture ashore in a Zodiac. The foolish can snap close-ups. OUTFITTER: Natural Habitat ºÚÁϳԹÏÍøs, 800-543-8917, WHEN TO GO: June PRICE: $4,695 DIFFICULTY: Easy

Uganda / Primate Safari
You hear a wild mountain gorilla—the largest primate on earth—long before you see it: The territorial scream of the 500-pound beast is bone-chilling. After five days in plush safari camps while exploring chimp-thick Kibale and Queen Elizabeth National Parks, machete your way into the Impenetrable Forest of Bwindi National Park and spend two days tracking your huge, hairy distant cousins. OUTFITTER: Mountain Travel Sobek, 888-687-6235, WHEN TO GO: January-September PRICE: $5,150 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

Brazil / Pantanal Jaguars
Ride horseback, boat, and hike into the steamy Pantanal floodplain in southwest Brazil, home to the highest concentration of wildlife in South America, to find the largest jaguars in the world. For nine days, you’ll help count the stealthy cats with motion-triggered cameras and scat and paw-print surveys, and stay at a comfy research lodge. OUTFITTER: Earthwatch Institute, 800-776-0188, WHEN TO GO: February, March, July, August PRICE: $2,195 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

23. Gallop Through the Surf
USA / California / Redwood Coast Ride

Survey the Mendocino Coast from the back of a regal Arabian or Russian Orlov cross. You’ll gallop along windswept Ten Mile Beach, atop oceanside bluffs, and through dense redwood forests. Where else can you fill your canteen at a mineral spring by day and sip cabernet in hot tubs at an oceanfront hotel by night? Welcome to northern California. OUTFITTER: Equitours, 800-545-0019, WHEN TO GO: May-October PRICE: $1,995 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

Greece / Aegean Sea Trail Ride
Trot from inn to inn and taverna to taverna for six days and 90 miles around the Pelion peninsula, 200 miles north of Athens. You’ll stuff yourself silly with feta and phyllo and sip your share of ouzo at every stop, so be happy the sure-footed horses are accustomed to the rugged landscape. From Katigiorgis on the Pagasetic Gulf, cross 3,000-foot mountains on old mule trails, then descend to the Aegean Sea, where you’ll canter on the beaches, and plunge—with your horse—into the warm surf. OUTFITTER: Cross Country International, 800-828-8768, WHEN TO GO: April-May, October PRICE: $1,430 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

Venezuela / Galloping the Beaches of Macanao Peninsula
Ride, siesta, ride. Repeat. This will be your blissed-out routine for three days as you explore the pocket beaches, rocky points, and cactus forests of Isla Margarita, off the northern coast of Venezuela. On the island’s undeveloped Macanao Peninsula, gallop into the waves, camp on the beach, and afterward part ways with your beloved steed. For the last four days, fly to famous 3,212-foot Angel Falls on the mainland, and then on to the island of Los Roques to snorkel among exotic corals and rainbow parrotfish in the national park. OUTFITTER: Boojum Expeditions, 800-287-0125, WHEN TO GO: January, November, December PRICE: $2,175 DIFFICULTY: Easy

24. Cast Away in Paradise
USA / Idaho / The Middle Fork of the Salmon

Few fishing spots nourish the ego like the Middle Fork of the Salmon, where even beginners can catch (and release) 30 fish a day. Raft on Class III water for five days and 60 miles in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, fishing with guides from your boat and camping on sandbars—many near hot springs—at night. OUTFITTER: Middle Fork Wilderness OUTFITTERs, 800-726-0575, WHEN TO GO: June-September PRICE: $1,790 DIFFICULTY: Easy

Canada / The Miramichi
While 80 percent of North America’s Atlantic salmon spawn in the 55-degree waters of New Brunswick’s Northwest Miramichi River, they’re persnickety bastards when it comes to biting on flies. Spend five days outsmarting them on water near your farmhouse post—the Smoker Brook Lodge—using flies you tie each evening under the tutelage of master Jerome Molloy. OUTFITTER: Smoker Brook Lodge, 866-772-5666, WHEN TO GO: May-October PRICE: $1,500 DIFFICULTY: Easy

New Zealand / The Rangitikei
Fly-fishing indeed: Access the North Island’s Class I-III Rangitikei River by helicoptering to its headwaters, then pile into a three-man raft and spend five days casting for gluttonous 16-pound rainbows. Camp on the river’s grassy banks and hike to rich side veins where the “flies” trout prefer are plump field mice. OUTFITTER: Best of New Zealand Flyfishing, 800-528-6129, WHEN TO GO: October-May PRICE: $2,500 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

25. Break On Through to the Other Side
North Pole / Journey to the Bottom of the Sea

(New Trip) Your mission: to be the first team to reach the ocean floor at 0 degrees latitude, 0 degrees longitude, in two 18-ton submersibles. For seven days, your nuclear icebreaker slices through the Arctic Circle. Once at the pole, you’ll spend eight hours descending 14,500 feet. OUTFITTER: Quark and Deep Ocean Expeditions, 800-356-5699, WHEN TO GO: September 2003 PRICE: $65,950 DIFFICULTY: Moderate

The World / Mysteries of the Earth by Private Jet
The Jules Verne experience! Only, swap the French sidekick for four world-renowned scientists, the balloon for a deluxe 757, and 80 days for 25. Taking off from Miami, touch down first in Manaus, Brazil, then fly westward for a dance with Upolu Islanders in Samoa, whisk across the International Date Line (crikey, we’ve lost a day!) to dive the Great Barrier Reef, go on safari in Nepal’s Royal Chitwan National Park, hoof it in the Serengeti, the Seychelles, the Canary Islands, and…isn’t it about time for cocktails? OUTFITTER: American Museum of Natural History Discovery Tours, 800-462-8687, WHEN TO GO: March PRICE: $36,950 DIFFICULTY: Easy

Space / Suborbital Space Flight
(New Trip) Train at a custom-built, U.S.-based spaceport for four days, reviewing the details of your reusable launch vehicle (RLV) and perfecting simulated-zero-gravity back flips in the hull of a cargo plane that’s nose-diving from 35,000 feet. Then it’s off to suborbital space (that’s 62 miles up) for ten minutes of weightlessness with a nice view of your native planet. OUTFITTER: Space ºÚÁϳԹÏÍøs, 888-857-7223, WHEN TO GO: 2005, pending development of the RLV PRICE: $98,000 (includes leather flight jacket and space suit) DIFFICULTY: Moderate

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The Deep, White Secret /outdoor-adventure/snow-sports/deep-white-secret/ Sun, 01 Nov 1998 00:00:00 +0000 /uncategorized/deep-white-secret/ The Deep, White Secret

By the time you get to the top of Whistler Peak, you’ve already missed it. Literally and completely. The best of the West, Canada’s or anyone else’s: millions of acres—OK, hectares—of sunny, high, and dry mountain ranges covered with fluff that’s begging for the caress of powder skis. Selkirks, Purcells, Monashees, Cariboos: It’s easy to … Continued

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The Deep, White Secret

By the time you get to the top of Whistler Peak, you’ve already missed it. Literally and completely. The best of the West, Canada’s or anyone else’s: millions of acres—OK, hectares—of sunny, high, and dry mountain ranges covered with fluff that’s begging for the caress of powder skis.

Skiing in British Columbia

Skiing in British Columbia


Selkirks, Purcells, Monashees, Cariboos: It’s easy to overlook these lesser-known interior ranges, into which helicopter jockeys fly extreme-ski heroes every year for endless reels of deep-steeps powder footage. Especially when you fly by this crooked spine of central British Columbia in the window seat of a 737, about a half-hour out of Vancouver, the trailhead for the well-worn path to Whistler-Blackcomb.
Sure, North America’s most mega of megaresorts is still numero uno on everybody’s “best” list—until they actually ski there enough to learn the truth: All too often, Whistler’s base elevation of only 2,214 feet, coupled with a popularity that just won’t peak, leaves tens of thousands of frustrated thrill seekers quite literally in a numbing fog.


Now don’t get your Capilene drawers all in a bunch, Whistler faithful. We have not come to bury your vaunted burg, which clearly has enough microbrew providers and macro-lift essentials to make everybody happy at least some of the time. But Whistler’s rapid ascension to superpower status has obscured the world’s view of a handful of truly worthy neighbors to the east: Big White and Silver Star in the sunny Okanagan Valley, and Sun Peaks (formerly Tod Mountain) in the dry hills above Kamloops. They’re places we learned about by following the caravan of Vancouver-based SUVs—more than a few of them driven by Whistler lifties and ski instructors. An exercise in escapism? Absolutely. Whistler, they say, is the place to make money. Central British Columbia is the place to ski.


This is doubly true today, with the revolutionary discovery that you don’t need a helicopter to plant your poles in BC’s interior. Recent upgrades at these off-the-path spots have taken the rough edge off venturing into this mountainous maze. And the all-time disparity between U.S. and north-of-the-border dollars renders all Canadian ski resorts—with lift tickets averaging about U.S. $30—a bargain buy.


And a potential addiction. Every one of BC’s anti-Whistlers offers Utah-dry snow, oft-bright skies, and an earlier, more dependable season. Better yet, they’re just far enough out of Land Cruiser range to ward off the day-skiing swarms that inundate Whistler on weekends and holidays.

Big White: Kelowna, British Columbia

Big White (800-663-2772) comes as close to a fully self-contained resort as any in central BC, making it the destination of choice for intermediates and families. Vancouverites have taken notice, especially in the eight years since the new Coquihalla Connector freeway made it a quick 250 miles to Kelowna. Express quads sprouted as fast as west-siders (and migratory northwestern Yanks) could fill them, and Big White grew into a contender.


Too much so, grouse some locals, who say Big White—which gets about one-fourth of Whistler-Blackcomb’s throngs—is already too crowded, at least by Inner BC standards. Indeed, the resort’s two mushrooming base areas (the lower-mountain Westridge area was built entirely from scratch two years ago, doubling the skiable acreage) seem so constantly under construction that Big White threatens to become Whistler East.
But the weather proves that this ain’t Whistler. Big White sprouts dramatically from a high-desert plain (think northern Idaho), and the bald-headed mountain is consistently hit by the big stuff: 294 inches of it in an average year. Unlike its West Coast cousins, however, clearing almost always follows dumping here, exposing a grand palette of 100 maintained runs spread over 2,300 acres that face mostly south, into the winter sun. The upper elevation, 7,500 feet, is the highest lift-served area in the region, which means snow lingers longer. Many runs are lightly treed, and post-storm forays through the snow-ghost-studded Enchanted Forest are the stuff of BC skiing legend.


The upper-mountain terrain, reached by eight rarely jammed lifts, tends to be open and exposed, with a handful of extremely large boulder fields. The black runs are truly unnerving to most, though experts may wish for a little more variety after a day of ripping the Easter Chutes or the double-diamond Grizzly Playground Bowl. Intermediates, however, never seem to get enough of Big White. The best cruising runs—Cougar Alley and the other tree-cut trails off the Black Forest Express—are nicely sculpted with great sight lines and plenty of roaming space. The ski and snowboard school is big and notable, and boarders thrive here, both in the three halfpipes (one lighted) and on the mountain itself.


Accommodations are definitively not backwoods. Six thousand beds are found in 22 hotels, ranging from the utilitarian Whitefoot Lodge ($81; 800-663-2772) to the only slightly upper-crusted White Crystal Inn ($102; 250-765-4611). The newest digs are in the cleverly designed, 100-room Coast Resort ($89; 250-491-0221), added last season. Nightlife is loose, fun, and just raucous enough. Don’t leave without partaking of the Gunbarrel Coffee (flaming Grand Marnier poured down the barrel of a shotgun at Snowshoe Sam’s). Next day, you’ll swear you saw Ogopogo, the legendary monster of nearby Okanagan Lake.

Silver Star Mountain Resort: Vernon, British Columbia

Inner BC skiers often reach their outer limits at Silver Star (information, 250-542-0224; reservations, 800-663-4431), a smaller, more intimate neighbor of Big White. Compared to the bring-the-kiddies trappings found two hours up the road, Silver Star has an alpine-flavored Euro feel, due partially to the “Victorian Gaslight Village” themery in the nonetheless cozy base area, and more than a little to the area’s status as British Columbia’s nordic skiing capital. The Canadian national skinny-ski team trains on the mountain’s 22 impeccably coiffed miles of trails and on 30-plus miles in surrounding Sovereign Lake Provincial Park. In other words, there’s plenty to do if you burn out on lift-served splendor. But you probably won’t.


Silver Star doesn’t get quite the consistent winter dumpage of Big White, which sits a thousand feet higher, but what falls here is put to better use, thanks to a wonderful mix of terrain that beats you up on the mountain’s backside and then ushers you ever so gently back to your condo on the sweetly groomed runs down the front. The front in question, Vance Creek, is a south-facing slope with a mix of beginner and intermediate runs, small enough to get the lay of the land in an hour or two yet large enough to stave off boredom for days. But it’s the backside, north-facing Putnam Creek, that put Silver Star on BC skiers’ must-plunge maps. Putnam’s 2,500-foot vertical starts with some uh-oh chutes—a surprising number of which get regular grooming from winch-cat machines—and ends with a series of oh-shit glades. Throw in a couple of Volkswagen-swallowing bump fields and Putnam will run most skiers’ fuel tanks down past empty in a day or less. It’s some of the most challenging on-piste terrain in BC.


Snow holds longer atop the northside runs, but it’s champagne-dry and plenty deep everywhere on the mountain. And the views are right up there with those from the top of Whistler Peak. The mountain’s facilities (eight lifts, 85 trails, and two halfpipes) feel small, but runs are generous, lines short or nonexistent, and the degree of thighus fryus at the end of the day feels big-mountain indeed.


In the compact base village, tucked into the center of the mountain, lodging choices range from the plush Delta Silver Star Club Resort ($70; 800-610-0805) to the group-friendly Pinnacles Suite Hotel’s slopeside condos ($145; 800-551-7466). Like Big White, Silver Star typically opens early (mid-November) and closes late (mid- to late April). Good thing, because business—while never quite qualifying as gangbusters here—is strong, thanks mainly to an unusually large number of repeat customers. Silver Star regulars say the place is as convenient, relaxing, and friendly as any resort they’ve encountered. It’s a particular hit with families, who rave about the ski school’s dual adult/child programs, which tend to ensure that neither generation tells unverifiable big-air tales come dinnertime.

Sun Peaks Resort: Kamloops, British Columbia

It may not be Whistler, but it just might become Blackcomb. And then some. For what once was a steep little stump-mined hill known as Tod Mountain is becoming, through a three-decade transformation, a five-mountain, lift-laced behemoth that aesthetically resembles (and will eventually outsize) Whistler’s glacial better half.


No coincidence. In 1992 Tod Mountain—which in its first 30 years had gone through more overzealous, undercapitalized owners than your average Miami cigarette boat—was acquired by Japanese resort builder Nippon Cable, which also owns a good chunk of Blackcomb. Money flowed like spring runoff and the area grew into Sun Peaks (800-807-3257), self-dubbed “the West’s next great mountain resort.” Design-award-winning lodges sprang from the mud. An entire mountain, the second in Sun Peaks’ master plan, was added to the terrain map. Express lifts dropped from the sky.
Some locals view this investment invasion as a contagious virus incubated by the evil geniuses of Whistler, but for the rest of us it’s a rare opportunity: Show up at Sun Peaks in the next half-dozen years and you’ll think you’ve time-warped back to Aspen or Vail in those innocent early days, when they were still frequented by folks who prefer endorphins to stock options.


The best of both worlds? Could be, at least for the time being. Aside from its out-of-the-box newness, Sun Peaks has a bevy of other lures: close proximity by highway to both western BC and western Washington; a foreign-investment-fueled international flavor, with skiers from Germany, Japan, and beyond; and a primo brand-name endorsement from Nancy Greene, 1968 Canadian gold medalist, who pulled up 20 years of Whistler roots to move to Sun Peaks, where she and her husband, former racer and ski coach Al Raine, now run a ski-in-ski-out lodge.


Extensive resculpting (OK, bulldozing) of the formerly gnarly, stump- and bump-infested Tod has added a mix of intermediate and easy runs—long cruisers, ultrawide rookie trails, and a sweet set of super-steep racetracks on Sunburst Ridge—but not at the expense of the sewing-machine-knee-inducing steeps that made the old peak infamous. Saved from the big shave were Tod’s thousand-vertical-foot tree-ski paradise, the Gils; four downright frightening double-diamond chutes known as the Headwalls; and other tough nuts like the double-diamond Challenger, one of the most vertical lift-served plunges this side of Jackson Hole.


The snow? Well, it’s not overwhelming in amount, but it’s typically marvelous in feel and consistency. For proof, note that Mike Wiegele’s legendary heli-ski operation at Blue River is but a half-hour’s flight to the north. Many of the same weather patterns that fuel Wiegele’s hero-snow business do their deed on Sun Peaks’ 6,800-foot summit first. Fog can be a problem at this resort, which lies west of Big White and Silver Star, but with primarily southern exposure, there are plenty of blazing powder days.


Lodging options grow monthly, with new hotels and condo units popping up as if sprayed from water cannons. For now, the bunks of choice among the 3,000 already available are at Greene’s Cahilty Lodge ($70; 800-244-8424), which boasts 193 hotel- and condo-style units and the added advantage of a hostess with more than her share of insider intelligence.

And It’s Even Good in the Margins: Skiing Down BC’s Still Less Well Beaten Paths

Powder tends to collect in the fringes. As do BC skiers. The same stuff that blankets the destination resorts of Big White, Silver Star, and Sun Peaks is also floated upon and inhaled daily at a handful of local day-tripper ski haunts—not to mention visited in deus ex machina style via the world’s biggest heli-ski air force. Pick, choose, and drop in.


Red Mountain (800-663-0105) is barebones, backwoods skiing at its butt-busting best. Red, as it’s known in the northland, doesn’t qualify as a well-kept secret anymore, but its home base, the frontier mining town of Rossland, is still Starbucks-free. Clinging beneath two peaks that trap caches of Rockies-like powder, Red delivers dozens of terror-inducing black-diamond chutes and a grand assortment of lift-served powder glades. Even without the exchange rate, Red’s mostly utilitarian lodgings would be dirt cheap. Try the Uplander Hotel ($54; 800-667-8741) or the closer-to-the-mountain Ram’s Head Inn ($77; 250-362-9577), where a big wooden hot tub allows for plenty of aprˆs-ski northern exposure.
Veteran BC skiers rate 400-acre Whitewater (800-666-9420), just outside Nelson, one of Canada’s best powder mountains. And the numbers—388 annual inches—back it up. Most locals skip the tired old lifts and head straight out of bounds, skiing trackless backcountry glades down to the cars they parked on the highway below. Lodging is all down the hill in Nelson, an absolute Christmas ornament of a mountain town that served as the small-town setting for Steve Martin’s Roxanne. Try the centrally located Best Western Baker Street Inn ($50; 250-352-3525) or call the above number for a list of turn-of-the-century B&Bs.


Tucked under the Rockies’ left shoulder, Fernie Alpine Resort (800-258-7669) is a longtime provincial wallflower, but new owner Charles Locke, who also owns Lake Louise Ski Area, is speculating that Fernie’s best attributes—including a hefty 350-inch average annual snowfall—will turn a few heads. Two lifts scheduled to open in December will open three new bowls and nearly double the skiable acreage to 1,900, with a respectable 2,800-foot vertical drop. Crash at the comfy slopeside Griz Inn ($48; 800-661-9170) or find even less expensive lodging five minutes away in Fernie. Be forewarned, however, that the only apris-ski action to be found is at the mountain.


For pure, chopper-powered steeps, Mike Wiegele Helicopter Skiing (250-673-8381), based near the town of Blue River, is still the place. Wiegele’s 22,000-square-foot spruce-log lodge is where all good skiers should go when—or hopefully well before—they die, with gourmet grub, professional ski waxers and shoulder rubbers, and as much vertical as you can do in a day without heading for the great beyond. Wiegele’s crews fly to otherwise-untouchable spots in the Cariboos and Monashees, side-by-side ranges that share about 360 inches of annual snowfall. Five- to seven-day packages cost from $2,550 to $3,830 per person, but look at it this way: Every serious skier owes it to himself once in a lifetime. The exchange rate—and your knees—won’t ever be better.

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