besthike.com - the blog

The Get Outdoors blog keeps telling me hiking is in decline. (Numbers down at Yosemite, for example.)
If so, perhaps we need to do more to get kids on to trails as they are doing in New Zealand:

Hut and campsite fees for children and young people aged under 18 will be free from July next year […]

Everyone except Bob thought it impossible. But I was there with him on the summit of White Mountain in California. Congratulations 4WheelBob!
Check Tom Mangan’s Two-Heel Drive blog for details.

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Rick McCharles, editor of BestHike, is gone hiking until Sept. 2nd.

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I’ve only been there twice. But on those trips I’ve seen the best rainbows of my life.
(Is there any scientific support for this “crackpot at the end of the rainbow” theory of mine?)

Tombstones, Yukon
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Larry Smith of AeroVest™ asked me to test their ultralight, air inflated survival vest.
It works exactly as advertised. I highly recommend this product. And it’s very inexpensive at $15.
I tested it in the Tombstone mountains in the Yukon, not far from the Arctic Circle, inflating the vest in the evening and then sleeping […]

I first heard of Tombstone Mountain in 1999 from contributor Kelly Mock. It remained in my mind a vaguely mythical hiking destination until this summer.

There are a number of ways to hike Tombstone. The best is to chopper in, hike out. At $20 / minute of flight time, we each paid over $200 each […]

Obviously there is great hiking in Alaska. The State has two-thirds of the Nation’s parkland.
Why did I have so much trouble finding great hiking?
I bought Hiking Alaska, 2nd: A Guide to Alaska’s Greatest Hiking Adventures by Dean Littlepage. (The second Falcon guide I purchased this year if you are keeping track.)
Littlepage provides a good overview […]

Where are these photos from?
Patagonia in South America?
Or the Yukon in Canada?

While hiking in the Tombstone range of the Ogilvie Mountains in the Yukon I was struck at how similar were those mountains to Paine and Fitz Roy in Patagonia.
In fact, I came to call Tombstone the “Patagonia of the North”.
The first photo is […]

Rick McCharles, besthike editor
Tomorrow morning Tom Mangan and I head out to rendezvous with wheelchair hiker 4WheelBob …
Read the details on Tom’s Two-Heel Drive blog (which is far better written than this one).

4WheelBob thinks he can wheel himself to the summit of White Mountain in the Eastern Sierra near Big Pine, CA. I’m going to […]

Any idiot can hike in California.
But hiking the far North takes smarts. Route finding skills. Bush whacking skills. Survival skills.
GPS is essential, we feel.
Don’t count on calling in rescue with a satellite phone. They are far from 100% reliable.
If you plan to trek Alaska in future, start your research with Eric […]