Top Ten Urban Kayaking Cities - Plus Fireworks Paddles

Kayaking during the Fourth of July celebration in Pittsburgh.  Photo courtesy of Cara Rufenacht, Venture Outdoors.

If you live in a waterfront city or are visiting one this weekend for Independence Day festivities, chances are you’ve seen at least one stranger navigating your metropolis in a kayak and wondered, Could that actually be . . . fun? “People ask me that all the time,” says Ted Choi, owner of San Francisco’s City Kayak. “They basically assume that kayaking in a natural setting is the best thing—but urban kayaking is amazingly beautiful.” And easy. Many U.S. cities have local paddling outfitters (we found three in Manhattan) that offer equipment rentals and tours, DIY or guided. It’s convenient, low cost, and yes, fun. You can even catch a fireworks 4th of July paddle in some cities. Text by Catherine Price, Laura Buckley, Annie Hay, Alyson Sheppard

San Francisco

It’s easy to feel small when you’re out in the big bay. “Even if the waterfront is busy, you only have to paddle out 15 minutes and you’re suddenly in the middle of nowhere,” says City Kayak’s Ted Choi. “There’s so much space out here, kayakers kind of disappear.” And if you really want to get away? Sign up for Choi’s Alcatraz tour, a 3.5-mile out-and-back to the infamous prison site. You’ll pass sailboats, migrating birds, and the occasional sea lion ($75; citykayak.com).

FIREWORKS PADDLE? Sign up for a City Kayak's one-of-a-kind Frisco Bay firework experience, complete with two hours of easy paddling, four hours of exploration on Fisherman’s Warf, and one of the best views of the fireworks in town ($75; 2-10:30 p.m.).

Chicago

Skip Lake Michigan’s crowded shore in favor of a float down the city’s namesake river. Kayak Chicago leads nighttime paddles past historic industrial buildings into the heart of downtown. “When you get to Kinzie Street Bridge, it’s like a curtain pulls back to reveal the Emerald City—everything’s lit up and twinkling,” says owner Dave Olson. From here it’s 25 minutes to Navy Pier, where kayakers enjoy VIP views of the Wednesday and Saturday night summer fireworks ($50; kayakchicago.com).

FIREWORKS PADDLE? Sign up in advance with Kayak Chicago, put-in is at 8 p.m. ($50).

Washington, D.C.

In under a mile, the Potomac morphs from a silent, tree-tunneled river into a bustling urban waterway. Jack’s Boathouse, by the Key Bridge in Georgetown, is a convenient jumping-off point for forays in either direction. Paddle upstream into what co-owner Paul Simkin calls the “wilds of Virginia” (watch for bald eagles), or ride the current a half hour downstream to take in the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial (kayak rentals, $10 an hour per person; jacksboathouse.com).

FIREWORKS PADDLE? Jack's Boathouse only has single kayaks left for a fireworks paddle, so reserve early ($65; 6:30-11 p.m.).

Pittsburgh

What better place to kayak than a town built around rivers? Known as the City of Bridges, Pittsburgh is constructed around the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, where the Ohio River forms. Kayak Pittsburgh rents kayaks from several locations throughout the city—downtown, Lake Elizabeth, and North Park—so choose your docking point and explore the urban landscape (Prices vary depending on dock, kayakpittsburgh.org).

FIREWORKS PADDLE? From 7-10 p.m., kayakers can get a front-row seat to the fireworks with Venture Outdoors’ 4th of July paddle. Paddle leisurely upstream while the sunsets, then head back down to Point State Park to watch the action. Solo and tandem kayaks are available ($75 non-member/$55 member; ventureoutdoors.org).

Portland, Maine

Portland is a bustling adventure town and urban kayaking is no exception. Launching from Peaks Island, Maine Island Kayak Company offers full and half-day trips exploring the waters around Portland. Sights include both mainland and island attractions, such as shipwrecks and a civil war fort. H2Outfitters also offers an urban kayak experience in Portland, including paddling up to restaurants for a quick lobster feast. You can also hit up a local microbrewery and take teatime at a teashop on its "Off the Bus" tour, which takes kayakers off the boat and on to an electric scooter (prices vary depending on trip; maineislandkayak.com; h2outfitters.com).

FIREWORKS PADDLE? No trips planned, but viewing should be beautiful in and around Casco Bay.

Boston

Bostonians are known for their devotion, so it’s no surprise that even in the harshest winters, rowers streak through the Charles River to catch the best views of both Boston and Cambridge. Charles River Canoe & Kayak provides hundreds of canoes and kayaks in every season in and around the city of Boston.

FIREWORKS PADDLE? Thousands of patriots hit the water to watch the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular along the city's historic Esplanade. You can rent kayaks from Charles River Canoe & Kayak, but get there early because they fill up quickly. Pick up from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and return by 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning ($89; paddleboston.com).

New York City

Push offshore and you’ll find the Big Apple no less hectic—or thrilling. “You’re out there in a kayak dealing with the wind, the waves, the current, boats going in all different directions—and then you look up and there’s Manhattan,” says Randall Henriksen, owner of New York Kayak Company. Sign up for his “Sushi Run” across the Hudson to Mitsuwa Marketplace on the Jersey shore, where dripping-wet customers are welcome ($150; nykayak.com).

FIREWORKS PADDLE? While we couldn't find any tours operating on the night of the 4th, you can still watch this year’s fireworks display above the Hudson from vantage points all over the city.

Portland, Oregon

In a city known for its musical fanaticism, culinary diversity, microbrews, and adventurous outdoor spirit, it’s only fitting that Portland’s urban kayaking scene combines them all. Starting July 2nd, the largest blues festival west of the Mississippi moves into Waterfront Park and brings with it some of the most exquisite food offerings, beers, and tunes around. Rent a Kayak at the Portland Kayak Company ($100, 2-day rental; portlandkayak.com) and park it at the River Place Marina. After filling your belly at the festival, avoid the evening crowds by taking to the water.

FIREWORKS PADDLE? Paddle out under the Hawthorne Bridge with Portland Kayak Company to watch a spectacular fireworks show while the New Orleans funk band, Bonerama, serenades you with our country’s birthday song.

Seattle

Tucked between the white slopes of Mount Rainier and jagged Olympic peaks, Seattle is a downright stunning city. As if its natural beauty isn’t enough, it also boasts one of the most architecturally pleasing skylines around. While daytime paddling in the Sound is a joy in itself, Seattle has a secret: It waits for the sun to begin its descent behind the Olympic Peninsula to really flaunt its stuff. Book a sunset paddle trip with Alki Kayak Tours and catch a glimpse of the city in all of its orange-and-purple-soaked glory ($45, 7-9:20 p.m., kayakalki.com).

FIREWORKS PADDLE? The trip finishes up right after sunset, which should give you plenty of time to head less than a mile up the road to Hamilton Viewpoint Park for a stunning view of the Seattle firework display over Elliot Bay.

Toronto

Toronto, conveniently located on the northern edge of the vast Lake Ontario, wins our urban kayaking, Canadian-style, vote. Hop on an evening “social paddle” with Harbourfront Canoe Kayak Center (paddletoronto.com), and cruise into Toronto Harbor to explore the 13 islands that make up the bay's outer edges. Just a 20-minute paddle across the bay, the islands have been turned into parks by the city and boast an impressive display of wildlife for an urban center.

FIREWORKS PADDLE? While we can’t expect our northern neighbors to celebrate American Independence Day, Harbourfront Canoe & Kayak Center still has a good time. Upon returning around 8:30 p.m. from the social paddle, expect a BBQ waiting bay side and an evening spent with new-found friends and like-minded adventurers. Bonus: Harbourfront asks for donations at the BBQ to support different environmental funds as well as the World Vision child they adopt every year. Eat well and feel good about your contribution to the world, all at once ($30, 6:30-8:30 p.m., paddletoronto.com).

A Look at Schwarzenegger's Plan to Terminate State Parks

Text by Christian Camerota

Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger has a plan to help remedy California's budget debacle: terminate state parks.

With the state in dire financial straits--partially as a result of private and commercial property values run amok and a slew of bad mortgages--it seems only fair to focus on shutting down what little public land remains. A report in the San Jose Mercury News in May indicated that Schwarzenegger's initial proposal was to close 80 percent of California's state parks (220 out of 279), with an estimated savings of about $143 million, or far less than 1 percent of the state's $24 billion budget shortfall (mercurynews.com).

If you're looking for irony here, there's plenty of it. Just consider the fact, as an LA Times article points out, that keeping an eye on unmanned wilderness is actually pretty pricey. When parks close, they become havens for criminal activity that must be closely monitored. Because their verdure is unmaintained, it also means that wildfire potential skyrockets. The cost of fighting and extinguishing one large-scale fire could potentially wipe out all the money saved by closing the parks.

So, it turns out that this is as bad an idea as, say, putting an Austrian-born bodybuilding action movie star in charge of one of the largest states in the union.

No, we jest. Kind of.

But it is testament to the idea's absurdity that Schwarzenegger sees fit to peel funds off an agency with a total budget of only $387 million. It's hard to believe that there's not more wiggle room in the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's $10 billion dollar spending, or maybe the Department of Business, Transportation & Housing's $12 billion in expenditures. Heck, how about lopping some limbs off the $40 billion dollar K-12 Education expense tree and telling the kids to just go out and play in the park, instead?

The good news, if that's what you want to call it, is that the federal government has vowed to step in and seize six of the parks, should they be closed, according to an AP report released yesterday. And we all know how effective the federal government is at managing things (see: economic stimulus plan). So, that's good. Maybe there's hope in some of the parks being "too big to fail."

For more information on efforts to save the parks, you can visit this website, which is updated frequently with related news: savestateparks.org

Botched Tiger Relocation of Sibling Cats Needed DNA Test

Text by Paul Kvinta

The Indian Forest Service can't seem to get it right when it comes to protecting tigers. First, they allow one of the country's most high-profile tiger reserves, Sariska National Park, to be completely poached out of the big cats (read more in "Cat Fight," June/July 2009). Now, their dramatic and face-saving effort to reintroduce tigers to the park has apparently flopped as well. Experts fear that the one male and two females that were helicoptered to Sariska last year from nearby Rhanthambhore National Park—both reserves are in the northern state of Rajasthan—all share the same father, which won't exactly make for a diverse gene pool.

A quick and dirty DNA test before the relocation could have prevented this fiasco, says India's leading tiger scientist Ullas Karanth in the Hindustan Times:

“Why take chances when a DNA test can resolve such issues? These relocation drives seem like knee-jerk exercises done in a hurry but we cannot compromise on science.”

India has about 1,400 wild tigers, more than any other country and about a quarter of the world's population. The country remains the last best chance for tigers on the planet, but at this rate....

Editor's Note: You can help save the tigers, currently tied with lions as the most endangered big cats on the planet, by donating to Tiger Watch , a conservation group that tracks down poachers and works with local people to protect the tigers. Learn more about Tiger Watch and their stalwart advocate Dharmendra Khandal in our feature story "Cat Fight."

We Are All Made of Stars: Amazing Photos From Journey to the Stars

Text by Caroline Hirsch

In the early universe, only 300 million years after the Big Bang, the first stars form from clouds of gas drawn together by the gravity of the mysterious substance called dark matter. See more photos below.

All images courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History

We are all made of stars...

It's important to be reminded of that every once in a while. The realization hits you with confounding awe: We are but specks in the universe, linked to everything on this planet, and, indeed, the stars above us!

As Whoopi Goldberg marvels in the narration to the Hayden Planetarium's new space show, Journey to the Stars, we have about a teaspoon-full of star matter from 13 billion years ago in our bodies today.

But more than just the narration, it is the visuals that will blow you away. Witness the birth and lifecycle of stars, like our sun, through spectacular images gathered from many earthbound and space telescopes; these images have been seamlessly combined with never-before-seen visualizations of physics-based simulations from NASA and space scientists around the world.

Catch the show at the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space at New York City's American Museum of Natural History starting July 4th.

Almost five billion years ago, the Sun (circled) and its siblings were born in a cloud of gas and dust, forming a cluster of stars much like this one.

In the stellar nursery within the Orion Nebula, young stars are forming before our eyes from a giant cloud of interstellar gas and dust much as the Sun did almost five billion years ago. 

Traveling some five billion years into the future, viewers witness a startling sight: our own familiar yellow Sun has ballooned into a red giant nearly engulfing Earth.

Stars formed in huge numbers during the era of galaxy assembly, with the rate peaking at about ten billion years ago, when our Milky Way Galaxy first formed.

Adventure Philanthropy: What it Takes to Summit Kilimanjaro - Roadmonkey Dispatch #2

Text by New York Times reporter and Iraq war correspondent Paul von Zielbauer, who started Roadmonkey as a way to combine adventure travel and giving back and engaging with local communities. He is currently taking guests up Kilimanjaro, followed by volunteering at a school in Dar es Salaam, Tanzanina. Paul will be checking with us along the way.

In my previous post, I described the nervous energy that each of our ten Roadmonkey expedition members felt as we began our seven-day ascent to–we each hoped–the summit of 19,345-foot Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest point Africa.

Day One began with a hike into rain forest marking the beginning of Kilimanjaro’s Lemosho route, one of the most difficult paths to the top of this spectacularly scenic and extraordinarily physically and mentally demanding mountain. Looking back at photos of that first day, each of us–eight women and two men, from New York City, San Francisco, Michigan, Colorado, and Montreal–were so fresh, clean, and, frankly, naïve about the hardship that lay ahead. In between catching our collective breath in between hill climbs that first day, we were still all talking, laughing and taking trailside photos of fresh elephant poop.

“We had no idea what we were in for,” Jolie Altman, of Birmingham, Mich., later said, rather wistfully.

Any illusion that this expedition would be little more than an extended uphill day hike evaporated into the dry mountain air on Day Two. Rain forest gave way to a sort of volcanic, high-desert moonscape grown over by green and brown bush and small white and red buttercup-like flowers. And our chipper conversation gave way to extended periods of silence as we walked nearly nine hours–covering about ten miles of challenging uphill terrain along a six-inch-wide path carved from the unforgiving bush. We arrived at our camp, called Shira-2, physically exhausted, mentally drained and, in a couple of cases, having run out of water two hours earlier.

“Not a day I would choose to repeat anytime soon,” said Christine Burke of New York City.

We began Day Three refocused and serious, like prize fighters who had run into an opponent with unexpected power.

Finally came Day Six and the summit attempt, the moment our group, hardened by five days of hours-long traverses, rock scrambles and lung-straining uphill hikes, had been anticipating–not without some anxiety.

The nine-hour hike to Mt. Kilimanjaro’s summit begins at midnight, in ink-black darkness, with our headlamps blazing up an almost insanely steep rocky trail. Step, pause, (breath) step. Step, pause, (breath) step. Repeat. For nine hours.

I can’t overstate how difficult this was, especially after very little sleep over the six previous days. As the sky lightened, around 5:30 am, several expedition members began to suffer symptoms of altitude sickness: throbbing headache, nausea and almost falling asleep in between uphill steps. One of us actually collapsed, feeling unable to breathe; our guides quickly wrapped her in a thermal blanket and calmed her until she could walk again.

Two other Roadmonkeys were so exhausted they burst into tears as they reached the wooden signpost marking Mt. Kilimanjaro’s summit point. But we did it: from enormous dedication and an incredible show of guts, all ten of us reached the roof of Africa….an accomplishment that none of us will likely ever forget.

Now, we head to Dar es Salaam to begin our volunteer project, painting classrooms, building desks and installing a clean-water drinking system for about 100 underserved children. Kili has given us strength to do just about anything.

Climber-Author Bo Parfet: “The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly”

Text by Tesuhiko Endo

When adventurer, entrepreneur, and author Bo Parfet began his quest to climb the Seven Summits, he was a 230-pound corporate financier working 100-hour weeks in New York City and subsisting off a steady diet of cheeseburgers and coca-cola. 

“I literally stopped at a sporting goods store on my way to the airport (en route to Kilimanjaro) and bought whatever gear I thought I needed,” he told ADVENTURE while in Manhattan for a presentation at the Explorer’s Club.

This doesn’t seem like the best approach for climbing any mountain, much less the highest in Africa. And of course, it wasn’t. But Parfet survived the experience (barely) and, in doing so, caught a climbing bug that would take him around the world in search of the highest peeks he could get his crampons on. Check out all his high altitude hi-jinks in his book Die Trying.  

“People thought I was nuts,” he admits. But Parfet said that such reactions to his habit of tempting fate on high mountains only encouraged him. “The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly,” he offered while flipping through a brief slide show he was preparing to show to the people who were eagerly awaiting his presentation. 

Despite a penchant from dropping somewhat grandiose quotes into conversation, Parfet is not your typical self-aggrandizing mountain climber. “I’m not Lance Armstrong, I’m not Ed Viesturs, I’m just a normal guy who was really unhappy with his life.” He explained. “Anybody can make a change in their lives, but it’s a bit like jumping off a cliff–the cliff of change, I call it–you come up to the edge and look down, then you get scared and back off. What most people don’t realize is that going back and forth is usually more painful than actually making the jump.” 

Luckily for Parfet, he took the plunge and although it has meant its fair share of pain (food poisoning on Kilimanjaro, the flu on Everest, and enough altitude-related aches and pains to hobble a mountain goat) he has loved every step of it. A good illustration of this is that one of his favorite climbs was Puncak Jaya (Carstensz Pyramid), in Papua, New Guinea. This expedition involved dodging civil war, eating roasted rats, being smuggled through a heavily guarded gold mine, and handing out a small trust fund’s worth of bribe money.  

Despite the difficulties, or indeed, because of them, he has also always made a point of giving back. 

“I literally went around my office with a baseball hat taking donations and was able to scrape together enough money to send two African kids to medical school.” Although his projects became a bit more ambitious in the years to come, they were always done with the same goal. “I would like to be part of every country that I visit, and for me, philanthropy is a way of achieving that interest.”

He may have come a long way, but Parfet isn’t slowing down just yet. When he’s not at his day job running his own real-estate company, he is planning the first ascent (and subsequent first descent on skis) of an unnamed mountain in the Himalaya in 2010. It’s pretty busy schedule, but he seems to prefer it that way. “One of my favorite quotes,” he said just as our time was running out, “is from Mahatma Ghandi.  It goes: 'Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.' ” 

Adventure in 60 Seconds: Last Week in Exploration

Text by Tetsuhiko Endo

The annals of modern history are filled with the names of English people who were willing to put themselves through a lot of hardship and danger in the name of adventure. But what about their northern cousins, the Scots? Any Jacobite worth his tartan will tell you that a Scot is twice as strong and three times as brave as anyone born south of Hadrian’s Wall. A concerned Scottish reader noticed this and passed us a link to Mark Beaumont, one Scot who’s not about to be upstaged by the English, or anyone else. Last year he broke the record for cycling around the world by doing it in a leg cramp-inducing 276 days and now he is back to his old tricks with a solo ride down the entire length of the American Cordillera which stretches from Alaska to Argentina. Also, just to make sure he gets enough exercise, he has already climbed Mt. McKinley and will take a stab at Aconcagua to finish things off with style if/when he reaches Argentina in February, 2010. Follow his blogs and his tweets on his BBC page. 

OCEANS

Whereas rivalry is often a driving factor behind adventure sports, it was the spirit of international camaraderie that buoyed the Woodvale Works Team to victory in the Indian Ocean Rowing Race last Thursday. By rowing between western Australia and Mauritius in 58 days 15 hours and 8 minutes, the team composed of eight Brits, three Americans, and one Belgian, managed to knock six days off the previous route record, as well as establish a slew of “firsts”. Among them, the first parapalegic (Angela Madsen) to row across the Indian Ocean (indianoceanrowingrace09.com)

While the Woodvale Works Team popped open bottles, one of the other rowers in the in Indian Ocean, Sarah Outen, was getting popped out of her boat. According to her blog, she was bilging out her boat in heavy seas when the entire vessel was rolled by a large swell. Luckily, she was wearing a life line that kept her from being swept away and was able to climb back aboard, shaken, but unhurt save for a mildly sprained wrist. As she nears the final third of her trip, she remains strong and in good spirits. Still, click  over to her blog and send a her a message when you get the chance–capsizing in the Indian Ocean is deserves a kind thought or two.

Not everyone was dodging large swells last week. A group of Australian surfers took an hour ride to an open ocean big wave spot off the coast of southern Australia and lucked into some beastly breakers. Take a deep breath and check out the photos on Surfline.

JUNGLES

Speaking of large waves, the Amazon River is home to what is arguably considered the largest tidal bore in the world–the Pororoca. That, however, is the last thing Ed Stafford and his guide, Cho Sanchez River are worried about as they continue their quest to walk the length of the river. In order to get around an un-crossable section near the Brazil/Colombia border, they are going to have to leave the river and hike inland – a move that will cut off their aquatic lifeline and expose them to food shortages and natives who have not had as much contact with the outside world. Let’s hope, for Ed’s sake, that Cho knows what he’s doing.

MOUNTAINS

In Pakistan, currently home to some of the un-friendliest natives in the world, the Taliban, climbers now are less worried about people, and more about the mountains they are beginning to climb. Firstly, ADVENTURE is sad to report that Italian skier Michelle Fait perished in a fall while skiing down the southeast Spur of K2. He and Swedish partner Fredrik Ericsson were to attempt K2 without supplementary oxygen and then perform a ski descent, reports explorersweb.com.

One man who is no stranger to loss on that mountain is Russian, Serguey Bogolomov who was part of a failed attempt on the mountain that cost the lives of four of his fellow climbers in 2006. He’s back in Islamabad, according to explorersweb, to attempt the mountain for the fourth time. (k2climb.net).

Finally, one woman who has not gotten much press regarding her attempt to become the first woman to climb all fourteen 8000’ers is Korean Oh Eun-Sun. However, with a strong showing in the Himalaya, she is now in the Karakoram attempting Nanga Parbat. If she summits, a chopper will be waiting for her at base camp to whisk her directly to the Gasherburns. Success on these two peeks could catapult her past Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner and Edurne Pasában in the race, not that anyone is keeping track. (k2climb.net).

The Most Dangerous Dive: Last Call For Diving’s Greatest Prize?

The Andrea Doria shipwreck will never have its own Travel Channel special. A visitor finds no reefs thronged with colorful sea creatures, no bikini-clad sirens frolicking in warm aquamarine water. But what the Doria does have is mystique. Its reputation as the Mount Everest of scuba diving dates back to a foggy evening in 1956, when the 700-foot Italian luxury liner collided with another ship, killing 51 people and sending the Doria to the ocean floor, 250 feet beneath the notoriously turbulent waters that swirl a hundred miles off the eastern tip of Long Island. Worldwide media coverage quickly drew undersea adventurers. Those who reached the Doria in its early days surfaced with tales of a site that looked every bit the part of a romantic Hollywood shipwreck. The liner became a must-do for serious technical divers, even as new technology made deeper wrecks accessible—and as the Doria claimed the lives of 15 victims over the years. Now, with the boat breaking down and new points of entry opening up, divers are drawn by the chance to enter previously blocked compartments, and by the knowledge that each season may be the Doria’s last. “It’s just a matter of time before she implodes,” says Richie Kohler, who has dived the Doria 126 times and leads expeditions there. “For divers who have been waiting until they get more vacation dollars saved up, well, I’d say it’s now or maybe never. --Brendan Spiegel

1. If natural deterioration progressed this winter as expected, the cargo holds—said to be laden with the stuff of scuba lore, like jewels and 50-year-old bottles of whiskey—may be open for the first time. 

2. The Doria’s engine room is another never-before-seen feature that divers hope to glimpse this summer. Until now, access has been blocked by the ship’s steel hull, which is splitting.

3. When divers emerge from the Doria–usually out of Gimbel’s Hole–they face strong, unpredictable currents capable of sweeping them miles from their boats.

4. Scoring china from the vestiges of the first-class dining room is a major coup. But souvenir hunting can be deadly. “We’d risk our lives to find the saucer that matched a teacup,” Kohler says.

Illustration by Emily Cooper

Adventure Photo Challenge: Sport Climbing Tonsai Beach, Thailand

This photo was taken by Denver ADVENTURE fan Lori Debardelaben using a Canon Power Shot SX200IS. We in the edit office were pretty envious of the fun these folks were having as they climbed the limestone cliffs, plunging into the ocean below, as needed. 

Check in daily to see other featured reader photos in our photo gallery or join us as fan on Facebook to submit your own adventure images.

Deal of the Week: Calling All Wrangler Wannabes - 50 Percent Off Montana's Lazy E-L Ranch

Normally we’d steer clear of a deal called “Red Neck Bailout,” but this one is too good to pass up: This summer, Lazy E-L Ranch, in Roscoe, Montana, is offering wrangler-wannabes a 50-percent discount on weeklong stays, knocking the starting price per person from $1,895 to about $950 (covers six nights and all meals). The 108-year-old cattle ranch sits on 12,000 acres of rolling terrain beneath the Beartooth Mountains and sleeps guests in three old-but-plush cabins (past visitors include Roy Rogers and Robert Redford). Spend your mornings herding cattle on horseback—Lazy E-L has some 2,300 yearlings to tend—and afternoons however you please. You can hike the Beartooths, raft the nearby Stillwater, or cast to trout on the ranch’s West Rosebud River. Yellowstone’s East Gate Entrance is also less than two hours away....

THE CATCH: Cabins are booking up fast and only certain weeks remain from now through the end of September—your best bet is to call the ranch directly and ask about what’s left. Also, the discount applies to the maximum price for each cabin. So if, for example, you book the three-person cabin, which typically costs $5,685 ($1,895 x 3), expect to pay half of that ($2,842.50), even if you only have two people in your party.

I’M IN: Visit lazyel.com or contact 406-328-6858