Clarksons’ Kootenay Lodge shines
Evidently, being an expert in only one field doesn’t do it for Reg Clarkson. After a few years as the golf pro at the Balfour (British Columbia) Golf Course, he and his cousin, Chris Clarkson, decided to build their own par-three course in 1996. They threw in a restaurant for good measure.
And this year, the cousins and their wives, Karyn and Kirby, opened Kootenay Lakeview Lodge, a $1.2 million facility.
“It’s our first crack at this type of business,” Reg Clarkson says. “But now I can tell you more things about pillows and mattresses than you’d ever want to know.”
Each of the lodge’s 20 rooms overlooks Kootenay Lake.
“That’s what blows people away,” Clarkson says. “When they step out on their deck in the morning, it’s spectacular.”
Seven golf courses lie within 90 minutes, and the lodge currently offers room packages with Balfour Golf Course and Kokanee Springs Golf Resort. In the winter, they’ll switch to Whitewater ski packages.
Ainsworth Hot Springs Resort is also nearby.
Chef Trevor Ditzel, another partner in the hotel, has created a something-for-everyone menu with seafood, steak, baby back ribs and pasta at McQ’s North Country Grill, a 75-seat restaurant with a 45-seat patio.
Rooms start at $109 (Canadian), depending on the season. Call (877) 229-4141 or visit kootenaylakeviewlodge.com for a complete listing.
Walk globally
The trouble with travel is this: There simply isn’t enough technology involved. It’s just you, out there, seeing and hearing things practically naked.
Sure, digital cameras have upped the geek factor somewhat and you can always drag your laptop along, but there’s a real need to more fully mediate the travel experience with digital gadgetry.
Gray Line of Seattle has risen to the challenge. The company’s high-tech, satellite-activated walking tours use a global positioning system (GPS) to guide you through Seattle’s Pioneer Square, the downtown shopping district, or Pike Place Market and the waterfront. Each route takes about 30 or 45 minutes.
The electronic walking guide – headphones and a handheld GPS – issues audio directions for your route and, as you pass a particular landmark, it explains that site’s significance. It even points you toward the nearest available restroom.
You get a full day with the device for $9. Learn more at (800) 426-7505 or www.graylineofseattle.com.
Olympic games
The unofficial list of the top tourist spots in all 50 states, compiled by Tom Uhlenbrock of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and published in the Aug. 22 edition of Travel, named Olympic National Park as Washington’s most popular destination.
Good call. It’s truly something to see, and you can do it any which way you please.
My brothers and I first experienced this splendid, fertile treasure in our grandparents’ travel trailer when I was 11. We made a return pilgrimage last month, backpacking for four days through the park’s temperate rain forest – one of few in the world – and along its ocean beaches.
If you’re the type who prefers to establish a central headquarters, though, the lodge across Lake Quinault from the park might be just the place for you.
Built in 1926 and operated by special permit in Olympia National Forest, Lake Quinault Lodge offers access to more than 15 maintained hiking trails. On Fridays and Saturdays, the lodge organizes guided hikes.
The Big Spruce Tree Trail, as its name implies, takes you to the largest known Sitka spruce tree, and The Big Cedar delivers you to (you guessed it) yet another mighty tall tree. The Maple Glade Trail, doubtless particularly spectacular in the autumn, shows off the rain forest’s big leaf maples and the moss and fern streamers adorning them.
While you’re hiking, keep your hands in check or you might find yourself getting friendly with a soft, squishy banana slug, North America’s 6- to 8-inch king of the mucus-makers.
Mountain bikes aren’t allowed on the trails, but the Forest Loop Drive goes for 30 miles past more big leaf maples, elk habitat and waterfalls.
There’s more to do back at the glacier-carved lake, and the lodge will supply your choice of sea cycle, canoe, rowboat or kayak.
Beginning Sept. 26, you can take advantage of “value season” and the reduced rates it brings. Rooms in the lodge’s boathouse, an eight-unit annex built in 1923, start at $70. Other rooms cost between $80 and $133. Be forewarned: If you just can’t live without “Jeopardy!” you’ll want to set your VCR. The lodge eschews in-room television, radios, and telephones.
More information is available at (800) 562-6672 or www.visitlakequinault.com.
Regional events
“ Puyallup Fair, Sept. 10-26, Puyallup, Wash. Rides, animal exhibits, face painting, rodeo and name entertainers (Bill Cosby, Kenny Rogers, Brooks & Dunn, etc.), not to mention the Gentlemen Jugglers and Karen Quest’s cowgirl tricks. (253-841-5045, www.thefair.com)
“ Eternal Egypt, Masterworks of Ancient Art, through Oct. 31, Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria. The Royal BC Museum is hosting this exhibit on loan from The British Museum. The 144-item show features a red granite lion in charge of guarding a Nubian temple, a gold mummy mask and a 3,000-year-old papyrus scroll of the jackal-headed god Anubis. Clipper Vacations sells tickets packaged with Victoria Clipper fares. (800-888-2535, rbcm1.rbcm.gov.bc.ca, clippervacations.com)
“ Journey’s End National Art Exhibition, Oct. 1-Nov. 15, Astoria, Ore. This national juried art show, inspired by Lewis and Clark’s expedition, includes traditional oil paintings, sculpture, mixed-media pieces and more. It’s at the Heritage Museum in Astoria. ( www.jsend.org)