A Raft of Adventures : When a Vacation in Vegas or Some Such Place Starts to Spell B-o-r-i-n-g, There Are Trips That Can Put You in the Center of the Action

Travel sharpens our sense of the world.

Adventure travel sharpens our sense of ourselves in the world, demanding that we participate rather than simply observe.

Here are five action-packed trips--circumnavigating Alaska’s interior in a float plane, gold panning in the Sierras, mountain biking in the Mammoth lakes area, Channel Island-hopping and rafting on the Salmon River in Idaho--that will inspire you to action.

ALASKA

Every Sunday from mid-June until early September, Pat Magie and a party of six travelers set out in a float plane to circumnavigate Alaska’s interior. “We’ll see at least 100 glaciers. Maybe 200,” estimates Magie, who runs the Alaskan Wilderness Outfitting Co. in Cordova, Alaska.

Glaciers aren’t all one encounters on a journey that covers 2,500 miles in seven days, winding through the passes of the Wrangell Mountains and the Brooks Range, along the Yukon and Kobuk rivers, and across Prince William Sound.

Magie has plenty of tales to tell about summers at the Arctic Circle. He and his companions once saw a female grizzly and her cub climb a snowbank, slide to the bottom on the slick snow, then climb back up to repeat the E ticket ride a few more times. He has seen caribou having the eminent good sense to stand in patches of snow to avoid the hordes of bugs waiting for them in the grassy meadows.

Magie, who has been a pilot for 33 years and has racked up more than 30,000 hours of flying time, runs Wilderness Outfitting with his daughter and his son-in-law. The company has been putting on the grand tour of the state since 1982. At $2,795 a person plus round trip airfare to Alaska, it’s no bargain-basement affair, but neither is the package.

For those who haven’t flown in one, the float plane is one of Alaska’s great resources. The trip uses two aircraft, a twin-engine Beechcraft that carries the crew and travelers, and a DeHavilland Beaver that acts as the freight plane, going ahead to the evening’s camp site to set up for the arrival of the travelers.

There are about three hours of flying a day, Magie says, and that is broken up by frequent stops. The travelers leave camp about 10 a.m. and average three or four landings a day, visiting Eskimo villages, picturesque sites, and fishing in backcountry lakes and rivers. Magie also plans the overnight stays for places with good fishing, usually arriving in camp by 4:30 in the afternoon.

Magie prides himself on his outfit’s camp cooking. In addition to the dozen or so varieties of fish that make themselves available to fishermen in the group, the chefs whip up such wilderness delicacies as eggs Benedict, salads, ribs, chicken, steak, Belgian waffles, blueberry pancakes and pies.

The accommodations are plush by camping standards, with two people per three-person tent. Magie rigs up a portable shower at each camp.

Travelers can usually expect balmy weather, with days in the 80s and nights in the high 50s. There’s very little rain in the northern parts, although southwest Alaska can be wet, Magie points out.

The Alaska circle trip has been popular with couples and families. Magie has taken children as young as 7 or 8, but as he points out, “It takes somebody with a little adventure in their systems.”

For more information, contact Alaska Wilderness Outfitting Co., Box 1516, Cordova, Alaska 99574, (907) 424-5552.

GOLD PANNING

“In truth, there’s more mining for gold now than there ever was in the Gold Rush. Dredgers, sluicers, high-bankers, you name it,” says Errol Rodman, an affable gold panner from Roaring Camp whose graying beard and well-worn cowboy hat effectively cultivate the sourdough look.

Roaring Camp lies 50 miles east of Sacramento, tucked away in Pine Grove in the Mokelumne Canyon on the Mokelumne River. It’s a rough-and-ready resort where you can learn the gold-hunting techniques used by the Forty-Niners, including panning, dredging, sluicing, crevicing and dry washing.

Don’t plan to get rich--or even to break even--with your new-found knowledge about the gold fields, but if your gold fever cools, you can go fishing, hiking, or take pictures of the countryside and wildlife. Reminders of Indian, Spanish, Chilean and Chinese settlers still can be found in the hills.

Well-hidden in the Sierra foothills, Roaring Camp has small cabins that can be booked a week at a time ($295 per person), a swimming hole, wildlife museum and a trading post.

For dedicated panners, Rodman will demonstrate a Rube Goldberg device that sends water cascading down a sluice box lined with Astroturf. Because gold is eight times heavier than sand and loose gravel, the bits of gold hang up in the trays while the gravel is swept away.

Roaring Camp’s season is May through September. Roaring Camp Mining Co., P.O. Box 278, Pine Grove, Calif. 95665, (209) 296-4100.

MOUNTAIN BIKING

If you enjoy powering down mountainsides regardless of the mode of transportation, join the mountain biking crowd. The Mammoth Lakes area has become as popular in summer for mountain biking as it is in winter for skiing.

The Mammoth Adventure Connection has been busy developing mountain biking as a summer attraction at Mammoth, and it has tailored stay/ride packages for everyone from easy riders to full- bore cycle freaks.

The Adventure Connection offers a menu of rides. The routes are well-suited to families, but they can be organized to satisfy the more athletic and more adventurous riders, notes Jennifer Renner, the Adventure Connection’s marketing director.

The Reds Meadow ($25 per person) route, which includes the Minaret Vista, a picnic lunch along the San Joaquin River and a stop at Rainbow Falls, is popular with families. Trailers are available for infants and small children.

Another ride popular with families is the Lakes Basin Historical Tour ($20 per person), which covers historical sites around the Lakes Basin and in Mammoth City.

More ambitious cyclists can ride to Bodie ghost town, reputed to be the largest unrestored ghost town in the West.

For the adventurous, the Kamikaze Trail Ride covers five challenging miles from the top of Mammoth Mountain at 11,053 feet, to the bottom at 9,000 feet. Novices can negotiate the Kamikaze without too much trouble, the degree of difficulty depending on how fast one wants to sail down the mountain. The skiers’ gondolas are used in summer to carry the bikes up the mountain. Gondola lift tickets are $18 a day for adults, $9 for children 12 and under.

The stay/ride packages include two or three-night stays at Mammoth Mountain Inn. There are standard and deluxe packages ranging from $278 to $344 per couple for two-night stays, and $388 to $486 for three-night stays. The package includes breakfasts, use of a mountain bike and helmet, a guided Kamikaze ride including the gondola trip, van support, map, water bottle and T-shirt. Mammoth Adventure Connection, P.O. Box 353, Mammoth Lakes, Calif. 93546, (800) 228-4947 or (619) 934-0606.

CHANNEL ISLANDS

If your offshore experience has been limited to boat rides to Catalina, Channel Islands Adventures offers a $135, daylong, island-hopping flying adventure to Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz islands. “You get a nice aerial perspective of the Channel Islands,” marketing director Kris Connolly says.

The trip leaves Camarillo Airport at 10 a.m., overflying Anacapa Island with its thick kelp beds, seals and sea lions. On Santa Rosa Island, the second largest of the Channel Islands, a park ranger guides visitors on a 1 1/2-hour tour of the beach and a nearby canyon. Then it’s off to Santa Cruz Island.

At Christy Ranch on the west end of the island, guests are fed a hefty, ranch-style barbecue lunch.

Afterwards, they are taken on a four-wheel-drive sightseeing tour to Christy Beach, to wander the tide pools and caves along the beach. Then the plane flies to Fraser Point, where there are excellent vista views of the mainland and Santa Rosa Island. “We try to stay flexible and do what the group wants to do out there,” Connolly says.

The trip ends in Camarillo about 4:30 p.m. Channel Island Adventures, 305 Durley Ave., Camarillo, Calif. 93010, (805) 987-1678.

RIVER RAFTING

While river-rafting alone recharges the spirit and limbers the body, Echo: The Wilderness Co. heightens the fun with a variety of theme vacations.

On the “Klutz Trip,” a six-day journey down the Main Salmon River in Idaho, John Cassidy of “Juggling for the Complete Klutz” fame will turn you into a juggling master in the relaxing hours when you’re not paddling down the river. Out of his trunk full of tricks, Cassidy produces such paraphernalia as devil sticks, harmonicas and pink lawn flamingos, and teaches you to impress your friends with such skills as cut ‘n’ run and the koosh ball nose bonk.

Now in its third year, the Klutz Trip attracts families with teen-agers. This year’s trip begins July 21 ($714 adults, $598 children).

For younger children, the four-day River Trip for Kids on the Rogue River in southern Oregon provides a Kids’ Raft for youngsters who want the challenge. (If they don’t like that idea, they can ride with their parents.)

A fun director organizes kids’ activities, leaving adults with time to themselves. While there’s no age limit, the children are usually 12 or under.

The Rogue offers exciting rafting, warm water and sandy beaches. It is home to deer, river otter, blue herons and bald eagles, and the fun director shows the kids how to recognize animal tracks.

There are two Trips for Kids, July 18 through 21 and July 31 through Aug. 3. The July 31 trip features Nancy Cassidy, well-known author of books and cassettes of “Kids Songs.”

“Nancy is a wonderful singer and kids gravitate toward her,” says Echo co-owner Joe Daly.

The cost of the Trip for Kids is $469 for adults and $409 for children.

Echo offers a spectrum of rafting opportunities, including wine-tasting trips, hiking/rafting and cycling/rafting combinations, and trips on California’s Tuolumne and American rivers. Echo is based at 6529 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, Calif. 94609, (415) 652-1600.