SNOW IS ALREADY sitting atop Hurricane Ridge.
Now is the time to make sure we get to enjoy it as much as possible.
The Hurricane Ridge Winter Sports Club’s annual Winterfest fundraiser returns to Port Angeles on Saturday night.
There will be food, films and all sorts of other fun awaiting those who attend the event set for 5-11 p.m. at Vern Burton Community Center, 308 East 4th St.
And as always, there will plenty of choice items up for bid in live and silent auctions.
“It ought to be good,” club president Lori Lynn Gray said. “It’s just a bunch of cool people who get together, have a few glasses of wine and raise a little money for the Ridge.”
Gray said the club is hoping to pack more than 300 into Vern Burton, with tickets still available.
Those can still be purchased in advance today at several area retailers for $45. Community tables of eight can also be bought for $320. Individual tickets are $50 at the door.
“We’re hoping that lots of people rush to buy tickets [Thursday] and [today] . . . because I’m cooking prime rib for 250, and I don’t eat red meat,” Gray said.
Along with the prime rib or chicken dinner, those in attendance will also get to enjoy live music and a series of short films featuring Peninsula skiers and snowboarders.
A silent auction will run throughout the night, with a live auction held immediately after dinner.
Among the items up for bid are a heli-ski trip to the North Cascades, a trip to Maui with accommodations on the ocean, several Western Washington winter ski packages and a ride in Dan Morrison’s sprint boat.
All of the movies shown are selections from last year’s VideOlympics film contest held last spring.
Those are “Long Story Short” by Ethan Strahan, “Never a Dull Moment” by the Z Boys, “Sick Day” by the McColl Brothers, “Tune into the Hurricane” by Tim Stanford and “Summit to Sea” by GBF.
Proceeds go to lift maintenance and operations, ski school and ski team operations and ski scholarships for underprivileged children in the community.
All contributions are tax deductible.
Advanced tickets are sold at Swain’s General Store, Necessities & Temptations, Brown’s Outdoor and Brian’s Sporting Goods and More in Sequim.
The start of ski season at the Ridge is scheduled for the weekend of Dec. 17, weather permitting.
While Hurricane Ridge Road opens to seven-day-a-week access once again this winter, organized ski operations are still limited to Saturdays, Sundays and holiday Mondays throughout the season.
For more information on skiing at the Ridge, visit hurricaneridge.com.
Fish on
The dawn of the steelheader is upon us.
Like clockwork, anglers were greeted by their fair share of cold, gray, blustery wetness as schools of steelies began invading North Olympic Peninsula rivers en masse this week.
Before the latest version of Occupy Bogachiel begins out west, it might behoove area anglers to go out and take their first stab at the early hatchery returners.
The Bogachiel Hatchery reported its first returning adults this week, counting 25 in its traps.
No doubt, there’s many more behind them.
“They are starting to pick up some steelies down on the Bogey,” Bob Gooding of Olympic Sporting Goods (360-374-6330) in Forks said.
“It’s not full-bore or anything, but it’s worth probably going down and taking a whistle at it.”
The Bogachiel typically sees the most dramatic hatchery steelhead run on the West End, with the season’s unofficial kickoff date Thanksgiving.
Plenty of those fish make it into the Calawah as well.
Other streams to the north like the Sekiu and a few on the Makah Reservation also see a return of hatchery steelhead, but the main event is on the Bogachiel and Calawah.
“They are planted in the Bogey, but they go up there and hold in the Calawah,” Gooding said. “It gets a bunch of fish because it’s much better holding water.
“Then they will go down and go into the Bogachiel [when they enter the traps]. They only have to move 500 yards.”
Those desperate to hook a salmon can still run into a few on the Dungeness and Sol Duc rivers.
The latter reported an additional 3,898 adult coho reaching its traps this week.
At this point, however, most of those fish are less attractive than a collection of Washington State coeds. (Yes, I’m still bitter about Arizona State’s loss in Pullman last Saturday.)
“By the end of [the fall salmon run] everybody is just as happy as when it started,” Gooding said.
“You’re glad it’s started, and then you’re glad it’s over.”
Getting antsy
If you’re going to bag a buck, now’s the time.
As just about any hunters knows, later November is a time of romance for the Peninsula deer population.
The bucks are in the rut and on the prowl for a little late fall lovin’.
“Most of the bucks, their hormones turn on and there they go,” Brian Menkal of Brian’s Sporting Goods and More (360-683-1950) in Sequim said.
“That’s one of your best opportunities is that four days of late buck.”
The late buck hunt runs through the end of the weekend throughout the Peninsula.
Large concentrations of deer can be found in the eastern half of the area, but there’s a few racks running around out west, too.
“The difference [between this hunt and others] is you don’t want to just sit and watch,” Menkal said.
“Get out and move around a lot. They are not just nocturnal [right now], they are moving during the day.
“They are moving around a lot, so you got to find good spots with good visibility.”
Bird’s the word
The Peninsula isn’t generally regarded as a major waterfowl hunting destination.
That being said, this season may very well be the best time for area hunters to give it a shot.
State biologists are predicting the best waterfowl hunting opportunity in more than 50 years, thanks in large part to favorable conditions up north.
“Waterfowl biologists are predicting the best fall flights of migrating ducks since 1955,” said Greg Schirato, deputy director of the state’s Wildlife Program, in a news release.
“The opportunities haven’t been this good in most hunters’ lifetimes.”
Schirato said the bounty is due to good rainfall in northern waterfowl breeding grounds last summer, as well as favorable conditions here for duck and goose production.
In conjunction, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife has launched a new waterfowl hunting feature at http://tinyurl.com/85svv9g.
The page provides information for hunters, ranging from the basics of duck and goose identification to details on hunting locations, equipment, licensing requirements and handling harvested waterfowl.
“I haven’t seen a proliferation of [birds] around here,” Gooding said.
“Generally, if it gets cold down here, it gets even colder up in Canada and it will run them out of there, so we might see some show up.
“It’s about this time we start seeing them around.”
Razor clam update
Clammers will have to wait a few more months to stick a shovel in Kalaloch Beach.
Olympic National Park announced that the popular razor clam beach will remain closed to recreational harvest through the winter with a chance for digs in April.
“Our superintendent [Karen Gustin] has made a decision based on the low population numbers and the poor digger success from last year and the public comment we have gotten,” Olympic National Park Coastal Ecologist Steve Fradkin said.
“We didn’t get many people at all who wrote in, but the ones that we did get,” didn’t think a harvest season was appropriate.
The April dig would occur April 7, 8 and 9, coinciding with digs scheduled by the state on beaches to the south.
Until then, clam fans will just have to be content with driving down to Moclips and beyond.
The next set of harvest dates are tentatively set for Nov. 25-26 at Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Mocrocks.
Copalis will also be included on Nov. 25.
Also . . .
■ I’d love to say that the masses made with the mushrooms in the final moments of “Mushroom Mania: A Fungus Festivus.”
Unfortunately, that would be a lie.
A little more than 30 submissions were sent in to the annual fungal photo contest, and winners will be announced soon in the pages of the PDN.
I’d tell you to keep an eye out, but I’m pretty sure you don’t care.
■ Those looking to wade out into the darkness in search of crab will have a prime set of evening low tides Thanksgiving weekend (Nov. 24-27.)
While my first suggestion would be to visit Dungeness Bay, spots like Oak Bay, Hollywood Beach and Pillar Point could be crawling with crustaceans as well.
For a listing of tides, visit http://tinyurl.com/5lw4d.
■ Admiralty Audubon’s David Beatty will lead a birding trip through Fort Worden State Park this Saturday.
Birders will look for their avian counterparts along the beach as well as the fields and forest around the park from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
To register for the trip, email Beatty at djb38@olypen.com.
■ Washington Trails Association will host an all-day volunteer work party the day after Thanksgiving, Nov. 25, at Mount Walker trail in Jefferson County.
Volunteers must pre-register 48 hours in advance. To do so, contact Washington Trails at 206-625-1367 or visit www.wta.org.
Send photos, stories
Want your event listed in the outdoors column?
Have a fishing or hunting report, an anecdote about an outdoors experience or a tip on gear or technique, why not share it with our readers?
Send it to me, Matt Schubert, Sports Department, Peninsula Daily News, P.O. Box 1330, Port Angeles, WA 98362; phone, 360-417-3526; fax, 360-417-3521; email matt.schubert
@peninsuladailynews.com.
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Matt Schubert is the outdoors columnist for the Peninsula Daily News. His column appears on Thursdays and Fridays.