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Northwest Passages Book Club: Mt. Spokane peaks many bucket lists

Top left: Gene Lewan and Maureen Benz pose Wednesday for a Northwest Passages event. Top right: Lenny and Tricia Bart toast. Bottom left: Renee Reisman and Dani Wurst embrace. Bottom right: Left, to right, Royce Gorseth, Annette Gorseth, Micki Hill and Ken Hill smile for the camera. (Libby Kamrowski / The Spokesman-Review)
Top left: Gene Lewan and Maureen Benz pose Wednesday for a Northwest Passages event. Top right: Lenny and Tricia Bart toast. Bottom left: Renee Reisman and Dani Wurst embrace. Bottom right: Left, to right, Royce Gorseth, Annette Gorseth, Micki Hill and Ken Hill smile for the camera. (Libby Kamrowski / The Spokesman-Review)Buy a print of this photo
From staff reports

“Huckleberry picking on Mount Spokane” tops the list of Renee Reisman’s favorite thing to do in and around the Lilac City.

She picks them at the end of August. “The later in the season, the higher you go,” she said. “It’s a secret.”

On Wednesday, The Spokesman-Review’s Northwest Passages Book Club presented “100 Things to Do in Spokane Before You Die,” the newspaper staff’s guide to food, entertainment, outdoors, arts and culture in Spokane that was published Monday. The Bucket List Bash featured longtime outdoors writer and editor Rich Landers, who joined The Spokesman-Review in 1977 and has been writing about hunting, hiking, fishing and boating ever since.

“I think of bucket list items as a way to make connections to a place,” Landers said.

At the top of his list, like Reisman and her huckleberries, is Mount Spokane.

“Mount Spokane has it all,” Landers said. Summiting the mountain by means of horse, snowmobile, foot, motor or snowshoe is something that everyone should do, he said.

Chad White, owner of Zona Blanca restaurant and a contestant on “Top Chef,” shared his favorite places to eat.

One of his favorite meals is an off-the-menu order from La Michoacana Mexican Restaurante. He orders carnitas by the pound, tortillas and “the salsa that the guys behind the counter use,” he said.

Kristi Burns, voice of the Food Network’s “Iron Chef America,” talked about her favorite entertainment and shopping spots in Spokane.

During Wednesday’s event, the newspaper’s editors and writers invited the audience to share their Spokane bucket list picks, too.

“Learn to ice skate on the ice ribbon,” “snowshoe to Mount Spokane summit” and “drink wine at every winery in Spokane” were a few that made the list.

The book is available at local bookstores and online retailers. Proceeds help support local journalism and The Spokesman-Review’s popular community forums.

Editors said the hardest part of the book project was paring down an ever-growing list for a slim volume of just 100 picks. What bucket list destinations did we miss? Readers are invited to email bookclub@spokesman.com.