Think of Great Outdoors Week, which starts Friday, as a loose net, scooping up all kinds of interesting wild things.

One of them is kick netting.

	Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette GO Week is about trying new activities, as students did at an Audubon Society event last year at McConnells Mill State Park. Click photo for larger image. The annual bicycle commuting promotion, which kicks off Monday The pedal-powered commute

According to Upper St. Clair's Citizens for Land Stewardship, one of dozens of groups involved in this annual outdoorsy promotion, kick netting is kicking up the bottom of a stream to drive aquatic critters into a net. Then the creatures -- mostly preadult insects -- can be removed, counted and analyzed to determine the quality of the water.

Is it science or is it fun? "It's both," says Jan Fleckenstein, president of the group, which shares the results with the state Department of Environmental Protection. The critters may not be cute, but some of them blossom into more attractive bugs, she says. "I'd definitely say most people find them more fascinating than get squeamish."

She and others will be kick netting in the McLaughlin Run watershed from 1 to 3 p.m. both this and the next two Sundays. To learn more about it, as well as about hikes the group is leading in Boyce-Mayview Park, visit www.usccls.org or call 412-831-3289.

Kick netting gets canceled if it rains, but most of the dozens of other activities go no matter what the weather during GO Week, which the group now called Venture Outdoors helped launch in 2002.

Once again, the week -- actually, 10 days -- culminates in the Venture Outdoors Festival, a smorgasbord of activities on the North Shore. This year's runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on May 20, and includes booths and demonstrations by nearly 100 different groups, stores, food vendors and other exhibitors.

Attendees can try their hands and feet at everything from climbing to fishing (no license needed) to dragon boat paddling, even tour the rivers on the Pittsburgh Voyager. Admission is free; parking is $5.

Venture Outdoors spokesman Michael Sobkowiak likes to say that any week of the year could be Great Outdoors Week because there are so many activities going on in the region. "It's not until you put them all together that you go, 'Wow, that's a huge, spectacular outdoor program we have here.' ... We're trying to create a mental image of 'Wow!' "

Throughout the week, the group will be offering a slate of its own activities, from Japanese Fish Printing at its Downtown office to a Tyke Hike.

Other big partnering events that are happening at the same time include Bike to Work Week, which itself includes many different events (bike-pgh.org), and the Working Hearts May Community Challenge, which all month invites individuals and teams to eat and exercise for better health (www.workinghearts.org).

But the week also embraces many smaller efforts, such as Great Wilkinsburg Clean and Green Festival (412-731-0511) on May 20. Groups may not even know that they're being "included" in the promotion, but as Mrs. Fleckenstein puts it about kick netting, "The more the merrier." She's delighted to get caught up in the event. "It reminds you that there are all kinds of people out there who love this kind of stuff."

Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette You can rent a kayak from Kayak Pittsburgh to paddle the rivers as Dodie Roskies did two summers ago. Click photo for larger image.

Outdoor recreation is fun, but it can also be seriously good for you, notes Sustainable Pittsburgh's Kimberly Adams: Besides just breathing in beauty and fresh air, participants can increase their aerobic capacity and reduce their stress. "This translates into a happier, healthier work environment."

The week's Web site is www.greatoutdoorsweek.org, but Venture Outdoors' site, www.ventureoutdoors.org, lists the full schedule of all around the region, several for each day. Here's a selection of highlights:

Friday:

Be an early bird at 8 a.m. to look for two dozen different warblers at Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve in Fox Chapel with the Three Rivers Birding Club (www.3rbc.org or 412-963-6100).

Clean the Panther Hollow Trail of trash and invasive plants from 9 to noon with Friends of the Riverfront (www.friendsoftheriverfront.org or 412-488-0212).

Roll on a regular Friday Night "City Sights" Street Skate with the Three Rivers In-line Club, starting on the Greenfield end of the Eliza Furnace Trail. Diehards with good night vision can stay on for an after-dark "L8 SK8" (www.skatepittsburgh.com).

Saturday:

Just wing it and show up at 8 a.m. for an International Migratory Bird Day hike at either Beechwood Farms in Fox Chapel or Todd Sanctuary in Butler County (www.aswp.org or 412-963-6100). Many groups will be doing bird counts, including the Upper St. Clair Citizens for Land Stewardship and the Westmoreland Bird and Nature Club (www.westol.com/~towhee/wcbc.htm).

Stroll through Sewickley's May Mart from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Allegheny Land Trust can tell you about its Audubon Greenway Project, and you can buy locally grown flowers, vegetables and herbs (www.alleghenylandtrust.org).

Paddle in the light of the full moon on a Venture Outdoors kayak trip at 7:45 p.m. on the Allegheny River ($30 or $20 for members; www.ventureoutdoors.org or 412-255-0564).

Or go underground, or caving, with the Sierra Club (www.alleghenysc.org).

Sunday:

Take your Mom for a walk and talk amongst the spring wildflowers at 2 p.m. at Jennings Environmental Education Center in Butler County (find the center at www.dcnr.state.pa.us).

Or, muck around the restored Akeley Swamp on a Butler County hike with the Allegheny Outdoor Club, which will meet at 1:30 p.m. (www.alleghenyoutdoorclub.org or 1-814-757-8158).

You also can get in on the big Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation's Race for the Cure starting at 7:15 a.m. at Schenley Park (www. pittsburghraceforthecure.org or 412-521-2873).

Monday:

From 4 to 5 p.m., take one of a series of free bird walks (there's one Wednesday morning, too) at Slippery Rock University (www.eelink.net/cgi-bin/risee/pcee/showevent?prog=PR6750 or 724-738-4050).

Tuesday:

Learn to identify LBM's (Little Brown Mushrooms) using a microscope at 7 p.m. with the Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club at Beechwood Farms in O'Hara (www.aswp.org or 412-963-6100).

Wednesday:

Wet your worm with the TriAnglers, Venture Outdoors' fishing group that meets from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. each Wednesday at Point State Park ($5; www.ventureoutdoors.org or 412-255-0564).

Learn to Row and Paddle with the Three Rivers Rowing Association from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at its Millvale training facility (www.threeriversrowing.org or 412-231-TRRA).

Or take one of the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy's weekly "Walks in the Woods" -- this one in Highland Park -- from 6:30 to 8 p.m. (www.pittsburghparks.org or 412-682-7275).

Next Thursday:

Ramble on your mountain bike with the Pittsburgh Off Road Cyclists, starting at 6:30 p.m. at Redfin Blues Restaurant on Washington's Landing (www.porcmtbclub.org or 412-795-PIGG or 7544).

May 19:

Don't take Downtown for granted; take a Grant Street Walking Tour at noon with the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation (reserve via www.phlf.org or 412-471-5808, ext. 527).

Gaze heavenward at a star party hosted on this and the following night by the Amateur Astronomers Association of Pittsburgh at Mingo Creek Park in Washington County (3ap.org or 724-348-6150).

May 20: Pick a walk: The Highmark Walk for a Healthy Community starts at 9 a.m. at Chevrolet Amphitheatre at Station Square and supports nearly 30 different groups (www.walkforahealthycommunity.org or 412- 544-2130). Or do a "hard core hike" of 15-plus miles on the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail starting at 8:30 a.m. with the Keystone Ramblers (keystone-ramblers.home.att.net).

You could plant yourself near the Fort Pitt Tunnel to help with a morning planting by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (www.wpconline.org or 412-586-2324).

Or go to the extreme of Ohiopyle State Park for the Yough X-treme Adventure Race, in which one- to four-member teams race over 50 miles (www.americanadventuresports.com).

Try your hand at lawn bowling with a free lesson at 1 p.m. at the Frick Park Lawn Bowling Club, which also offers free lessons all summer (www.lawnbowling.net or 412-782-0848).

May 21: Hop on one of the Pedal Pittsburgh bike rides across the city starting at 6:30 a.m. ($25; www.pedalpittsburgh.org or 412-232-3545).

Join some of the Western Pennsylvania Wheelmen for your choice of provocatively named morning bike rides: the regular Allen's Sunday Morning Ride, the Ear Lobe, the Southwest Sightseer or the Franken-Ride (www.wpwbikeclub.org).

Orient yourself to the Western Pennsylvania Orienteering Club as it hosts a meet at 11 a.m. at University Farm in Indiana County ($5; www.wpoc.org or 1-814 255-6606).

Again, there are many other activities to try. And you can always try something -- a new trail, a new park -- on your own.

Great Outdoors Week is a great chance to get to know groups and places you can enjoy year 'round. Venture Outdoors is working on, and welcomes input on, a new interactive Great Outoors or GO Guide map that allows any group to post its events and helps users plot their adventures in the region. You can view an early version at outdoor.3rc.org/.