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Are you a good swimmer? Do you enjoy the thrill and challenges of white water rafting? Are you seeking a career as a commercial rafting guide? Do you simply want to learn how to read the river, and know every aspect of a safe and exciting rafting experience, to enhance your personal enjoyment? Whitewater raft…

Do you wonder if you have what it takes to paddle Northwest waters in extreme conditions? The cold water temps, chilly weather conditions, onshore winds, and choppy waters of the Washington coast combine to provide a challenging playground for experienced paddlers who have mastered their defensive boating techniques and self-rescue skills. Extreme Paddling Event! Each December nearly 200 adventurous paddlers converge on Deception Pass State Park near Oak Harbor for a 6-mile paddle race known as the Deception Pass Dash. In it’s 8th year, the DPD has become the extreme winter paddling event of the Northwest. The event is open to all human-powered craft. This years event will be held on Sunday, December 8, 2013 with rescue practice and on-water clinics held at the Park on Saturday, December 7th. Racers come from as far as California and Montana to compete in the…

The Town of Index is known for its many recreational opportunities and day trips. With the scenic Skykomish River flowing right through town, the Index Wall climbing area overlooking it, and the many protected wilderness and park areas surrounding it, Index is truly an adventurer’s paradise. And NOW is the time to HIKE IT! You can easily drive up to Index from the Seattle area in the morning and get in a fun fall hike before the afternoon football game! Most days in October you will leave behind the morning fog and mist of Seattle and arrive above the clouds in Index to enjoy the crisp autumn air and a bright blue sky. Located 1 hour from Seattle, Washington the Town of Index is a hiker’s paradise – you can enjoy a different hike each weekend all year round. In fact,…

September and October are the perfect time to get your feet wet in the sport of kayaking! Lower river levels and a slower flow rate during the fall months provide beginning paddlers with an easier learning pace, while still offering the option of experiencing waves and other hydraulic features that are either too fast, or too big to enjoy at the higher water levels that occur during the spring and summer months. The Skykomish River, just an hour outside of Seattle, Washington is a great place to take a river kayaking class, or if you’re more into ocean paddling you can check out a beginner-friendly coastal adventure at Bowman Bay! If this is your first time in a kayak, we suggest an inflatable kayak class or tour, or an intro class before tackling a hardshell kayak. Take a lesson or…

Posted by Mark Yuasa The choices on places to go and catch a fish are plentiful in the fall. “We’ve got some great coho fishing going on right now, and it is about as good as I’ve seen in quite a number of years especially in the Skykomish and Snohomish,” said Mike Chamberlain, owner of Ted’s Sports Center in Lynnwood. “There are lots of coho and most of the guys are very pleased with it from the tidewater in Everett all the way up past the town of Snohomish.” Most anglers are trolling Brad’s Wigglers or 3.5 Mag Lips. Others are doing well just casting and retrieving Vibrax-like spinners and incorporating them with a small squid or floating eggs has been good in the flowing sections of the rivers. Small Dick Nites in a 50/50 and other varieties of color have…

Boating the San Juan Islands Hidden in the rain shadow behind the Olympic Peninsula and the Cascades, the San Juan archipelago sees the sun 247 days a year. During the summer and early fall, when calm seas are the norm, clear skies are as common as the eagles and whales that swoop and breach in the waterways between the 400 islands, some no bigger than a rock. But the weather is just icing on the cake. These islands are chock-full of cool towns, of-the-moment restaurants, and opportunities for adventure. There is no bad decision when it comes to choosing which island to stay on, but there is a best decision: Stay on a boat. The best place to begin your week around and on…the Juan de Fuca Strait is in the funky town of Anacortes, home to Anacortes Yacht Charters,…

INDEX — Local residents of this Cascade hamlet off U.S. 2 spilled across the lawn by the Skykomish River,  in a festivity that 50 years ago would have been about as likely to happen as watching the sun rise over the Olympics. They spent Tuesday celebrating the fifth anniversary of the 106,000-acre Wild Sky Wilderness Area, beneath peaks of the wilderness and a nearby forested ridge recently rescued from logging.  They feted Sen. Patty Murray and U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., who fought to make it happen, and took Murray on a hike into forests of the wilderness. In days gone by, lines of logging trucks…decorated with anti-wilderness placards and with horns blaring would have protested.  Property rights activists would have spun conspiracy theories about the “them” who “want to take our land.” Signs reading “Forest Service: Kiss my axe”…

INDEX — Five years later, Wild Sky is still wild. This was precisely the goal of the people who pushed for the creation of the Wild Sky Wilderness area in the Cascade Mountains — to set aside a wild area to make sure it stays that way. About 60 people gathered in Index on Tuesday to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the designation of more than 106,000 acres near Index as off-limits to any kind of development. “This is a big deal,” said Meg Town, who formerly lived near Index and now lives in Duvall. “This is a special area.” U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Rick Larsen, who saw the measure through Congress, attended. “Hundreds of years from now people will walk through there and see what we see today,” Murray told the crowd of environmental activists, local residents…

Sen. Murray, Rep. Larsen visit Wild Sky on 5-year anniversary Index, Washington The Skykomish River was sparkling last week as it danced with the sun, seeming to join in the festivities. United States Senator Patty Murray and Congressman Rick Larsen traveled to Index on Tuesday, Aug. 20 to celebrate the five-year anniversary of the creation of the Wild Sky Wilderness Act. Wild Sky was a hard-fought designation which established 106,577 acres located in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest as a federal wilderness area. The bill was signed into law by President George W. Bush on May 8, 2008 and was the first new wilderness area created in Washington State in over 20 years. Murray and Larsen worked in partnership, championing for the bill for nearly a decade. They were welcomed in Index by over 50 wilderness advocates and local residents, many…

Family floats and Salmon swims are in! August is the best time to enjoy warm summer temps and relaxing float trips on the Skykomish River! This is also the larger of the spawning seasons for pink salmon so now is the perfect time to experience the Skykomish River – raft and kayak only 1 hour…

  Along with celebrating the river opportunities, Outdoor Adventures, and the University of Washington Kayak Club formed a synergistic relationship to invite partnerships with area residents, businesses, schools, clubs, and organizations to create an event that would draw participants and spectators to the Snohomish County recreational corridor to experience what we call Mild-to-Wild events and…