Camping Washington guide: It's coming, soon

Did something today I've never done before, which was give a talk and slideshow to promote a book that technically doesn't exist yet. The book is Camping Washington, and it's going through its final touches at the publisher, The Mountaineers Books. It will be available in early June, just in time for the summer camping season. The book is an all-new, much-improved version of the old Camping! Washington guide, last published by Sasquatch Books four years ago. Look for updated campground listings, ratings, photos, maps and much more here, including the soon-to-be-required-reading Judd's Guide to Family Camping.

The slide show was part of the Grand Opening of the new clubhouse, on Sandpoint Way near Magnuson Park, for the venerable Mountaineers Club. It's a grand building -- basically a modernized interior of an old concrete structure, complete with indoor and outdoor climbing walls, meeting rooms, classroom space, a grand library, a nice granite fireplace, and a really great bookstore. Check it out when you get time.

Also, keep watching this space for more book updates. Also due out in short order is the second edition of Day Hike! Mount Rainier, published by Sasquatch Books, which I co-wrote with friend and longtime colleague Seabury Blair Jr. This guide has been the most popular day-hiking guide to Rainier on the market since its inception, and we're happy to be able to roll out a new, post-great-floods edition in time for summer hiking season.


Five-Star Campgrounds Revealed

Finally, here, by special request, is a list requested by some nice people at today's presentation. Drumroll please, for all of the 5-STAR-RATED CAMPGROUNDS in Camping Washington (it's an honor I'm quite picky about bestowing; the guide includes almost 600 campgrounds):

Deception Pass State Park

Cape Disappointment State Park

Fort Flagler State Park

Kalaloch Campground

Moran State Park

And one to be named later. (C'mon, you have to buy the book for something.)

Happy camping.

"The Winter Olympics" is now available

Amazon.com and other retailers now have my new Olympics book, "The Winter Olympics: An Insider's Guide to the Legends, Lore and Events of the Games," in stock. This was sort of a labor of love -- my inside view of the Winter Olympics, including detailed description of each sport, rules and fields of play, history, prominent medalists, fun trivia, personal experiences with various sport at the Games, some of my favorite columns filed from the Olympics, and a lot of detailed infomation about venues for 2010 Olympic events in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C. It's also a gorgeous book, with 135 color photos and quality stock. A keepsake, I hope. Check it out and let me know what you think.

And a bonus: Two collectible covers!

Beautiful Bellingham

Christmas in December

OK, so it's painfully obvious I haven't been around here for a while. For good reason: I've finished up a couple book projects. My new Winter Olympics keepsake guidebook is due out in February. Also due out this coming spring are revisions/updates of two very popular guidebooks, Day Hike Mount Rainier and Camping Washington. I'll post more information on all as publication becomes imminent.

Meantime, the snow is piled up -- deep -- at the house in Escrow Heights. See Emjay chipping away at it above, before we got another 8'' on top.

Christmas in July

It was a pretty heavy snow year up in the North Cascades, 60 miles east of our home in Escrow Heights. How heavy? The state snowplow crews, as usual, are just finishing their work clearing the final 2.5 miles of Hwy 542, the Mount Baker Highway, to the end of the road at Artist Point, elev. 5,140. Some photos from a visit on Tuesday.

Thanks to our friend Bronlea Mishler of Washington DOT, who arranged a tour behind the gate. That's her in the first photo, standing atop the roof of the Artist Point restroom, where Emjay herself had summited a few moments earlier (restroom summit photo below).

About 20 ft of snow remain at Artist Point -- about half what would have been there in midwinter. The site is just up the road from the Mount Baker Ski Area, where a world record snowfall -- 1,140 inches -- was recorded in the winter of 1998-99.

The highway to Artist Point opens Friday July 18.

Blue Tarp Bible Sweeps Nation

Or at least buffs it up, in a Swiffer sort of way (less mess).

On a national radio tour this week, we asked Blue Tarp Nation to log on here and post their own most beloved/loathed tarp applications for Le Tarp Bleu. Bring them on, and stay tuned here for more details about upcoming Blue Tarp Bible events.

Meantime: Look for the book on Amazon.com or from publisher The Mountaineers books. And enjoy this fine review (headline: "An Entertaining Look at Bad Taste") from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, from up in a place there they offer post-graduate degrees in blue tarping.

Seattle Times Olympics blog debuts

For frequent updates on the Olympic world, see my new Seattle Times blog, "Olympics Insider," found here.