This is the Summer to Finally Raft the Chilko River in BC
It was 20 years ago when I first met Brian McCutcheon, owner of Rivers, Oceans, and Mountains, or simply ROAM. I had been hired by Men’s Journal magazine to write about the first descent of the Klinaklini River in British Columbia. It was a spectacular journey down a rip-roaring river dwarfed by snowcapped peaks and glaciers. I was accompanying Johnny Morris, the owner of Bass Pro Shops, who came to the Northwest with his entourage to hook salmon on the fly. The fish weren’t biting but the scenery and excitement of riding the Klinaklini more than made up for the lack of salmon.
Like the rest of the West Coast, British Columbia got slammed with snow and rain this past winter. So the rivers are bulging at the seams, ideal for a memorable multi-day paddle. One of the most exciting whitewater rafting runs in North America and a personal favorite of McCutcheon is the weeklong jaunt down the Chilko River in southwestern BC. Take an hour seaplane flight from Vancouver to 4,000-foot high Chilko Lake where a $10 million lodge now stands. Then let the rollercoaster ride begin. You’ll cruise 130 miles, dropping 3,000 feet through a tumultuous blur of lava gorges and narrow chutes. Looming overhead are sloping carpets of forest and jagged peaks. And, on those rare moments when you slow down, you might find yourself staring at an eagle or grizzly. BC also stands for serious Bear Country, home to 12,000-plus grizzlies.
“Before World War II, Warsaw was more beautiful than Prague, than Budapest,” said Joanna Maria Olejek, a translator living in the heart of the city. But then, of course, the Nazis came in and destroyed 85 percent of the city, pinpointing the most important cultural attractions. Stalin swiftly followed Hitler to clean up the mess and give the city a nice communist sheen. Look at the expanse of multistoried apartments, sprinkled with high-rise hotels, and you yearn for a more compelling skyline.
Every newspaper, magazine, and website seems to be picking their top (fill in the blank) of the past year, so I’ve decided to give you my favorite adventures of the year. In early October, when the leaves on the maples were turning yellow, I had the good fortune paddle down the West Branch of the Penobscot River following in the current of the great naturalist and philosopher, Henry David Thoreau. Our guide was Kevin Slater, a legendary Maine paddler and dogsledder who learned these rivers and how to carve his own canoes and paddles from his mentor who he simply called “the Old Timer.” We spent four glorious days on the water, with few other paddlers, spotting moose, bear, loons, and osprey. In the backdrop was mighty Mount Katahdin, the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. The story will appear in an upcoming issue of Sierra Magazine, the publication of the Sierra Club. If you want to paddle with Kevin Slater on the Penobscot, you can 
We loved our penthouse room at 
This past November, the travel world descended on 
Once on Cape Breton, most travelers make a beeline for the headlands of the