Author: Rick Mc

Career gymnastics coach who loves the outdoors, and the internet.
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hike Monkman Provincial Park, B.C.


Bluepeak was the first blog to announce the opening of the Monkman Pass Memorial Trail in Northern British Columbia.

This 63-km long trail follows the route that Alex Monkman and his band of pioneers established in the 1930s. Most of this little-known, but spectacular trail is in Monkman Provincial Park, leading from Kinuseo Falls over the Rocky Mountains to Hobi’s Cabin on the Herrick River. There are very few facilities along the route – this is a true wilderness experience.

The most famous feature is Kinuseo Falls.

waterfall
original – flickr – wgelnaw

Monkman Expeditions can guide you on the new historical trail.

But it looks quite doable for experienced wilderness hikers independently.

Start planning your future adventure. First you have to get there …

map
map

related:

  • map of the Monkman Pass Memorial Trail
  • Monkman Provincial Park – Wikipedia
  • Monkman Provincial Park – official website

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    Tiger Leaping Gorge a best hike?


    It’s on our list of best hikes in Asia.

    tiger-leaping-gorge-map

    It should be one of the best trekking adventures in China.

    But ceaseless Chinese development may have already ruined it. (Though a proposed hydroelectric dam that would have submerged the Gorge was cancelled in 2007.)

    tiger-leaping-gorge
    larger version – flickr – livepine

    Tiger Leaping Gorge (Chinese: 虎跳峡; pinyin: Hǔtiào Xiá) is a canyon on the Yangtze River …

    Around 15 km in length, the gorge is located where the river passes between 5,596 metre Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (玉龙雪山; Yùlóngxuĕ Shān) and 5,396 m Haba Xueshan (哈巴山; Hābā Shān) in a series of rapids under steep 2000 metre cliffs. Legend says that in order to escape from a hunter, a tiger jumped across the river at the narrowest point (still 25 metres wide), hence the name. …

    The hiking path (“the high road”) is well-maintained and marked, although sometimes narrow, and is used by the Naxi as part of everyday life. This trail is longer than the lower road, approximately 22 kilometres (14 mi), but more varied, with fantastic scenery—mainly mountain views—a challenge for most but well worth it. It features a surprising variety of microecosystems, waterfalls and a fair number of guesthouses for trekkers. …

    Wikipedia

    I hiked it about 11yrs ago. And it was already too developed for me. By the sounds of the trip reports I’ve read, it’s gotten much worse.

    Someday the Chinese governments will learn to preserve their best wilderness areas. This is part of a World Heritage Site. And yet it’s still threatened.

    Read a positive trip report with photos by Edbo on Shutterfly.

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    waterproof backpacks and bags

    Famously, in his classic book A Walk in the Woods, author Bill Bryson was outraged that top-of-the-line backpacks were not waterproof.

    That’s finally changing.

    Shopping my favourite gear store (Mountain Equipment Co-op) with Christmas gift certificates, I was surprised how many waterproof backpacks were on the shelves. Their website lists 16 products in the hiking section.

    MEC carries Outdoor Research (OR) and Seal Line. Both looked great.

    For example, the OR Drycomp Summit Sack:

    or-drycomp-summit-sack`

    Only $55.00 CAD. Cheap.

    For myself, I picked up a $10 MEC Sil/Pu Pack Liner.

    What gear did you buy yourself for Christmas?

    Leave a comment.

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    57,000 New Jobs in US National Parks?

    As reported in Treehugger:

    57,000 New Jobs Could Be Created in US National Parks

    With the economy foundering at the moment, it’s not surprising that many people are proposing projects to the incoming Obama administration that will create new jobs and benefit the economy as a whole. A new report from the National Parks Conservation Association does its part for promoting reinvestment in the US National Parks system as another worthy area for green investment.

    The report says that they are $2.5 billion worth of job-creating projects in the National Parks, and furthermore that for every dollar invested there it could bring back four dollars in value to the public. …

    … read more

    Certainly spending money on infrastructure is a good strategy for economic recovery over the coming years.

    I’d be thrilled if building up the National Parks infrastructure is part of that. In the USA and around the world.

    Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado
    Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado

    larger version – flickr – SC Fiasco

    Next … we need to convince State governments to invest in State Parks. Florida, for example.

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    eBook for The Overland Track

    The best walk in Australia — our #10 best trek in the World — is Tasmania’s Overland Track.

    John & Monica Chapman self-publish the best guidebook for the OT. (Chapman’s guidebooks are the best in the world, in fact.)

    But personally I prefer the just released Overland Track eBook (PDF format) by Frank & Sue Wall.
    .


    What hiking gear you will need?
    What food to take?
    How to organise your meals?
    How to get the start of the walk and home again?
    What are the best transport options?
    What first aid kit you need?
    Can you walk the Overland Track solo?
    How hard is the Overland Track?
    What is the best way to get to Cradle Mountain?

    Why is an eBook better than a hard copy guidebook?

  • easy for the authors to update
  • links to web pages and email addresses
  • downloads instantly
  • I can carry it on my iTouch

    • And DIRT CHEAP at A$7 for 18,000+ words and heaps of photographs

    Check out a couple of sample graphics:

    overland-track

    Beautiful.

    hiking-clothing

    Brilliant.

    This is exactly the kind of information I need when planning a major hike.

    Thanks to Frank in Oz for putting this together based on his past 10 OT tramps.

    Download a free sample of the eBook from this page: Hiking the Overland Track – the downloadable book

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    Ian Adamson attending our Adventure Race


    Ian’s agreed to add our new event — Adventure Week 2009 — to his busy calendar.

    Ian is the most successful adventure racer of all time with six world championship wins, 15 world championship podium finishes and 14 international adventure race championship titles. He is a three time and current world record holder for endurance kayaking (262 miles in 24 hours.) Ian has competed internationally in adventure racing, canoeing, kayaking, orienteering and sailing.

    Ian has been a professional adventure athlete since 1997 and currently races as co-captain of Team Nike.

    IanAdamson.com

    ian_k2lg

    I’m planning on kicking his butt in at least one of the races.

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    legend of Kayak Bill

    Rocco forwarded us an amazing feature story in Sea Kayaker magazine:

    … We asked the clerk at the Echo Bay general store about the kayaker, “Oh, that’s Kayak Bill. He has a camp at Eden Island, and a bunch of other camps around. He does a few odd jobs sometimes, but mostly he lives off the land. He started off from Vancouver about ten years ago to paddle to Alaska, but after wintering at Eden Island, he said he didn’t need to go any farther.” …

    Kayak Bill – A Requiem

    It’s well worth the read. Thanks to the author Keith Webb.

    kayak
    original – flickr

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    Israeli hikers lost, again

    Israeli hikers are the most adventurous of all, in my experience.

    That’s why I’ve so often joined up with them on treks around the world.

    Unfortunately, they often get themselves in trouble. Like these two who decided to leave their group and strike out on their own for an easier itinerary:

    hikers

    Happy ending: Romi Givon (21) and Tal Bar (21), the two Israeli hikers who went missing for two days in the Villarrica National Park in Chile were found safe and sound on Tuesday afternoon, according to Tami Bar, Tal’s mother.

    …

    Ran Givon, Romi’s father, along with an Israeli rescue team, was scheduled to fly to Chile in the evening to assist in the search.

    The 138,600 acre Villarrica volcano is dominated by the Villarrica volcano, which towers at an altitude of 9,338 feet and in considered most active volcano in South America. The weather in the area is notoriously fickle, and is characterized by heavy rain, fog and low temperatures. …

    YnetNews

    The story of Omri Kidron did not end happily.

    When I hiked the Huayhuash Circuit in Peru, two Israelis were shot resisting bandits. At least one died of his wounds.

    Please, please be careful out there.

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    redirecting from the OLD blog

    I want to steer people from the OLD blog:

    https://besthike.com/blog/

    … to this, the NEW blog:

    https://besthike.wordpress.com/

    I tried a WordPress plugin called Redirection.

    It’s working for the home page. But I really need to redirect the individual pages, as well. Leave a comment if you have any advice for me.