Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
rivers. See the respective chapters for
information on rafting companies
operating on these rivers. Rates gener-
ally range from about $50 to $75 for a
half day to around $90 for a full day of
rafting.
Many companies offer trips on
several different rivers. Among these
companies are Alpine Adventures
Wild & Scenic River Tours (
&
800/
RAFT-FUN
or 206/323-1220; www.
alpineadventures.com), DownStream
River Runners (
&
800/234-4644
or 360/805-9899; www.riverpeople.
com), North Cascades River Expedi-
tions (
&
800/634-8433;
www.river
expeditions.com), Osprey Rafting
Company (
&
800/743-6269;
www.
shoottherapids.com), River Riders
(
&
800/448-RAFT;
www.riverrider.
com), and Wildwater River Tours
(
&
800/522-WILD
or 253/939-
2151; www.wildwater-river.com).
SAILBOARDING
The Columbia
River Gorge is one of the most
renowned windsurfing spots in the
world. Here, high winds and a strong
current come together to produce rad-
ical sailing conditions. As the winds
whip up the waves, skilled sailors
rocket across the water and launch
themselves skyward to perform aerial
acrobatics. On calmer days and in
spots where the wind isn't blowing so
hard, there are also opportunities for
novices to learn the basics. Summer is
the best sailing season, and the town
of Hood River, Oregon, just across the
Columbia River from Bingen, Wash-
ington, is the center of the boarding
scene with plenty of windsurfing
schools and rental companies. Wind-
surfing is also popular on Lake Union
in Seattle and Vancouver Lake in Van-
couver, Washington.
7 Educational & Volunteer Vacations
On the Olympic Peninsula, the
Olympic Park Institute,
111 Barnes
Point Rd., Port Angeles, WA 98363
(
&
360/928-3720;
www.yni.org/
opi), offers a wide array of summer
field seminars ranging from painting
classes to bird-watching trips to multi-
day backpacking trips.
The North Cascades Institute,
810 State Rte. 20, Sedro-Woolley, WA
98284 (
&
360/856-5700,
ext. 209;
www.ncascades.org), is a nonprofit
organization that offers field seminars
focusing on natural and cultural his-
tory in the North Cascades.
The Nature Conservancy is a non-
profit organization dedicated to the
global preservation of natural diversity,
and to this end it operates educational
field trips and work parties to its own
nature preserves and those of other
agencies. For information about field
trips in Washington, contact
The
Nature Conservancy,
217 Pine St.,
Suite 1100, Seattle, WA 98101
(
&
206/343-4344;
http://nature.org).
If you enjoy the wilderness and
want to get more involved in preserv-
ing it, consider a Sierra Club Service
Trip. These trips are for the purpose of
building, restoring, and maintaining
hiking trails in wilderness areas. It's a
lot of work, but it's also a lot of fun.
For more information on Service
Trips, contact
Sierra Club Outdoor
Activities Department,
85 Second
St., Second Floor, San Francisco, CA
94105 (
&
415/977-5500;
www.sierra
club.org). Alternatively, you can call
your local chapter of the Sierra Club
or Washington's Cascade Chapter
(
&
206/523-2147;
http://cascade.
sierraclub.org).
Earth Watch Institute,
3 Clock
Tower Place, Suite 100 (Box 75), May-
nard, MA 01754 (
&
800/776-0188
or 978/461-0081; www.earthwatch.
org), sends volunteers on scientific
