DIGEST

• Best times for anglers

  This table lists top fishing times and days for the coming weeks. For best results, begin fishing one hour before and continue one hour after the times given. Times apply to all time zones (X indicates best days).

• Search for wild rice a real treat as grain remains valuable resource

  With a final paddle stroke, our canoe glides across the tea-colored water and noses into a bed of shimmering green stalks.

• Go light when selecting backpacking foods

  The type and amount of food to take on a backpacking trip can prove a difficult decision.

• Adventure Web: Trail Monkey (www.TrailMonkey.com)

  Online Adventure site of the week: Trail Monkey (www.trailmonkey.com)

• Hiking, camping hints include preventing, treating injuries

  More than 11,000 people were treated for camping - and hiking-related injuries in 2007 according to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission.

• Dry box has good shape for canoes, rafts

  The plastic Mojave dry box is a great alternative to metal dry boxes, and because of its shape, it fits snug against raft frames or in the center of a canoe.

• Dr. Collins: Listen up hunters: Don't forget to protect your hearing

  With hunting season just around the corner, we need to think about protecting our ears from loud noises. So take your earphones off that blasting MP3 player and listen up - if you still can.

• Big island, small surprises: Little destinations offer visitors wonderful opportunities to explore and enjoy Vancouver Island

  There is such a "wow" factor about Vancouver Island.

• No beaten paths here: You'll probably have to ask how to find the Snow Mountain Wilderness — and isn't that the point?

  SNOW MOUNTAIN WILDERNESS, Calif. - If you've found your way to the trails here, you know X marks just about as secret a public hiking spot as you can get in populous California.

• Scenic route: Still under construction, pathway meanders through Portage Valley

  PORTAGE VALLEY, Alaska - Despite a cold rain and low-hanging clouds that transformed Portage Valley into a gray canvas, we pulled our bikes from the car, piled on our rain gear and pedaled into the mist. We'd come this far to experience one of the newest riding trails to emerge in the past few years, and rain wasn't going to deter us.

• Stay dry after a swim

  The last weeks of summer mean an end to many warm weather favorites. The ice-cream man stops rolling around town. Kid-run lemonade stands close up shop. And the local pools are drained and closed for the season.

• Beginner-friendly biking trails curve down Alyeska mountain

  At first, it looked as if Warren Rowe and his crew of downhill mountain bike trail builders had accomplished very little.

• Fishing on the Bighorn River

  River fishing begins in a swirl of water, sometimes around a pair of waders, other times, as now, when a drift boat slips its neat geometric shape into swift currents and points itself toward lower elevations.

• No limits in fly fishing for this angler

  When Lance Benson called light tackle charter captain Eric Herstedt to book a fly fishing trip, they discussed species, tackle-the usual prospective guide/client talk.

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