Muscle-powered adventure sports …within an hour's drive of the Wenatchee Valley. 

Picture of the Week

Peter Bauer took this sunset photo at Robin Lake on a recent family backpacking trip. The lake is part of an Enchantment-like lake basin on the Chelan-Kittitas county line west of the Icicle River.

Recent Posts

 
0 0 votes

See and Ski - Mtn Bike Loop

This is a great introductory mountain biking route for children. The trail is flat and smooth with an occasional short hill. Most of the trail is gravel road with some double-track and very short sections of single track. The trail follows the Wenatchee River so you can take breaks from the riding to play on the beach-- always a kid-pleaser.

+1 1 vote

Mountain Home Road

A dirt road connecting from Leavenworth to the Blewett Pass Road passing through nice forests and with expansive views of town and Icicle Canyon. Technically easy -- a good ride for beginning mountain bikers to develop skills and to gauge their fitness.

 

 

+3 5 votes

NCW Fire Map - 2010

Check out this link to a slick schematic map showing which fires are currently burning around the region and listing details about each fire.
+6 6 votes

Castle Rock Classics - SW Face

Saber, Old Gray Mare, Crack of Doom, Canary, and Century are among the classic trad climbs on the southwest-facing upper wall of Castle Rock. Castle Rock is a large granite plug 2.5 miles west of Leavenworth and one of the state's best known rock climbing crags. These routes are on the right side of the upper wall.

+6 6 votes

Lightning Sparks Regional Fires

Last night's spectacular lightning storm started over 20 fires around region. The largest of these fires is the 40-60 acre Devils Gulch Fire burning in heavy timer about 10 miles southwest of Wenatchee.

+5 5 votes

Chelan Mountains Adventure

 Ever since Earl Tilly read the book, East of the Divide, he hoped to see the sights Chester Marler recounted his tales about the Chelan Mountains. In mid-July, Earl got his wish and saw peaks aplenty -- he also got his fill of snow-covered trails and streams raging with meltwater.

 

+3 3 votes

Wenatchee River Accesses

This old post lists of most of the public access points along the Wenatchee River. We've just added what we know about swimming or dipping at these accesses -- some are excellent places to cool off on a hot summer day.

+12 14 votes

Living to 100

Living long, healthy lives... is this easier in Central Washington than other parts of the country? Yes. We have the ingredients to become a population of Mathuselahs. What's missing is proper personalization of what's known about how to live long and prosper. 

+5 5 votes

School of Rock 3

Charlie Hickenbottom, a local elementary school teacher, is teaching his peers a thing or two about higher learning. Recently the 'School of Rock' he started for his fellow teachers met for the third consecutive year on the stone walls of Vantage.

 

+14 14 votes

Ultralight Pack Smackdown

Ultralight packs help make week-long wilderness trips with 28-pound loads possible. On a circuit around Glacier Peak, a group of testers walked 100 miles and climbed several peaks to test six different ultralight packs. Here's what they found out about some of the packs made for the lightweight crowd....

WenatcheeOutdoors Video

This video highlights the adventure-sport opportunities around Central Washington -- produced by Shane Wilder

Hikes - Regional Map


View Central Washington Hikes in a larger map.    Note: We're about to build a regional map to Central Washington hiking so you can quickly scan hikes in the region and link to trip details and maps. This is a small sample of what's to come. Please test drive it and let us know what you think. Good? Terrible? What would make it better?