Bruce Moore

We’ve had a number of wonderful stays at Deer Park Lodge on Muskallonge Lake, right on the top edge of the UP, about half-way across.

The lodge has a nice beach, boat rentals, clean and comfortable cabins, lots of birds, a general store, and super proprietors. It’s also a long walk, or very short ride, to the beautiful shores of Lake Superior, if you enjoy long walks and distant horizons.

You can learn more about Deer Park Lodge at their blog.

This park will be something special. Free, beautifully conceived and executed. People will come from around the world to see it. Don’t let it escape your local reality.

We’ve been tracking the park’s development for two years. Check it out

It’s what I see when I look out my windows. It’s where I am when I walk out my door. It’s the home of the Bent

Hope it stays this way. We always go through on our way to camp on Skagit Bay. Also very close (about 15 minutes) to Deception Pass and (about 30 minutes) Chuckanut Drive – both glorious day trips from a La Conner base. And, if you want to check out the big winter bird migrations over the Skagit Flats, it’s the place to hang.

Very comfortable, cool selection, artfully displayed.

Stop by and ask Karen how the store got it’s name.

The sweet corner of the oldest island in the Hawaiian chain (by a couple million years). Stop here to pick up fresh fish and supplies and then head across 7 one lane bridges to Haena.

Walk up the beach to Tunnels beach for some fine snorkeling. Walk back, fire up the grill, chill.

Imagine a coastal village, off the highway, with no national chains. Friendly merchants, nice galleries, good food, and a beach you can walk forever. Don’t forget to look down.

... and a great piece of steelhead water.

A mid-sized western steelhead river flowing less than a thousand cfs in October, the Ronde drains Oregon’s Blue, Wallowa and Elkhorn Mountains, enters Washington State some thirty miles from its juncture with the Snake, and winds through a rugged canyon whose steep walls rise three to four thousand feet above the river.

By October the Ronde’s sea-run rainbow have negotiated the Columbia and the Snake to begin their run up home waters. Ten more days and I’m going to join them with guide John Farrar , hoping to delay one or two, only briefly, on their way.