Author: Rick Mc

Career gymnastics coach who loves the outdoors, and the internet.
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HikingLady.com

Carol Roberts is an avid hiker, backpacker and outdoorswoman from California. Check out her website.

HikingLady.com is dedicated to women hikers who love the outdoors! My goal is to share tips and secrets learned over years of hiking, backpacking, camping, and exploring the outdoors. I want to provide unbiased advice and opinions (and your comments too!) to ensure that you will love the outdoors as much as I do.

There are so many simple things that you can do to make your time outdoors more enjoyable. So instead of suffering through blisters, freezing at night in a sleeping bag that isn’t right for you, or wearing a backpack that doesn’t fit your female frame, take a look around HikingLady.com and learn from my experience and share your own tips (and stories from your hiking adventures!) …

about HikingLady.com

screenshot
screenshot

HikingLady.com

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best way to cost a tent site?

$23 / night for a walk in campsite at Thomas Raddall campground in 2009. That’s $23 / person!

The same charge is levied for 6 adults with 3 tents. That’s less than $4 / person.

Nova Scotia Parks … FEES

click for official brochure (PDF)
click for official brochure (PDF)

I drove down the highway and stayed at the hostel. … The hostel that costs $25 / person. Hot shower. Kitchen. WiFi.

Charging $23 for a solo tenter is far too high, Nova Scotia.

… I like how tenting at a campground is billed in Europe. There’s are separate charges for each tent, each vehicle and each hiker. A very fair system, I find.

Leave a comment if you have an opinion.

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BIG in Europe: Nordic Walking

My stand on hiking canes remains unchanged.

I think they’re great for the elderly and infirm.

elderly-couple-hiking-poles

Just kidding.

I’m astonished at how popular this new activity is in Europe. It’s HUGE compared with North America.

Europe has dedicated Nordic Walking paths.

Nordic walking is defined as fitness walking with specially designed poles. … Hikers with knee pain discovered they could walk more powerfully with a pair of trekking poles, often eliminate or reduce hip, knee, and foot pain, and backpackers found relief from painful backs when using poles. …

Wikipedia

Nordic-Walker

Check out a video tutorial by trekkingpoleguru.

Swedes call it stavgång. In Norway and Denmark it is stavgang. And to the Estonians it is kepikönd.

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camping, hiking, kayaking on the rise

On Paul Gilbert’s blog:

… In just the last year, the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority has seen a jump in camping of 10 percent increase over last summer, and an astonishing 75 percent increase since 2004. …

kayaks

… Tom Doyle, Vice President of Information and Research at the National Sporting Good Association, says the increase in visitation is no fluke. “In our last national survey, we found that camping has dramatically increased, from 46 million campers (nationally) in 2005 to 49.4 million last summer.”

Those figures show no sign of slowing either. Camping, hiking, kayaking – all three areas remain on the rise according to Doyle. Meanwhile, tent sales nationally have been trending up the last few years.

“I fully expect the increase in camping to continue,” Doyle said. “People are foregoing expensive travel.” …

Regional Parks

(via TrailVoice on twitter)

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$80 US Parks Pass FREE from Amazon

Promotion Details

While supplies last, get a National Parks and Federal Recreation Land Annual Park Pass for free (an $80 value) when you purchase $299 or more of eligible outdoor recreation gear sold and shipped by Amazon.com. To take advantage of this offer, please review and follow the steps below:

Add eligible outdoor recreation gear to your cart totaling $299 or more (before shipping, gift wrap, and taxes) shipped and sold by Amazon.com.

Add the National Parks and Federal Recreation Land Annual Park Pass to your cart.

Proceed to checkout.

The value of the National Parks and Federal Recreation Land Annual Park Pass ($80) will be deducted at checkout. Verify that your discount has been taken to ensure that your order qualifies for this offer before clicking the “Place your Order” button.

Once you’ve placed your order, your products and the Park Pass will be shipped to you.

This offer applies only to select Amazon.com purchases. Items eligible for this offer will feature a promotional message indicating that it is an eligible item. Applies only to products sold by Amazon.com. Does not apply to products sold on our site by third-party merchants or through third-party areas such as Amazon.com Marketplace, or Auctions.

Amazon

annual-park-pass

(via Trailspotting)

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besthike pilgrimage to the Alps

by site editor Rick McCharles.

Jeff asks whether the Tour of Mont Blanc truly is the best hike in Europe.

He’s planning a hike in the Alps in the next couple of weeks.

And it sounds to Jeff … and to me … that the more difficult, longer High Route would be the better adventure.

I may see Jeff on the Trail. Today I start at Mont Blanc … and walk to the Matterhorn. That could be 180km … if I don’t cheat.

Mont-Blanc

The Matterhorn
The Matterhorn

I’m using Chamonix to Zermatt: The Walker’s Haute Route by Kev Reynolds as my guidebook.

besthike must ajudicate, once and for all, if the High Route is better than the TMB.

That’s our mission.

… Actually, the TMB and the High Route have one common section. It may be a … tie.

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hiking and biking Sportgastein

Sportgastein is the highest ski resort in the ski-intensive Gastein valley in Austria.

In the Summer it’s a lovely place to hike or bike. The best destination out of the alpine town of Bad Gastein.

A few pics from my two days there.

Sportgastein-Rick-bike

Sportgastein-horses

kids-climbing-a-small-mountain

It was more work than I expected climbing up to Nidersachsenhaus. Great views though.

more of my Sportgastein photos on flickr

everyone’s Sportgastein photos on flickr