It’s difficult to capture spectacular Multnomah Falls in one photo.
original – flickr – SqueakyMarmot
original – flickr – by righto…. 2005
more photos on flickr.
Multnomah Falls – Wikipedia
waterfalls of New Zealand
When I lived in New Zealand I strongly felt the least appreciated wonder of the country were waterfalls.
Rarely are they highlighted in any list of “tourist attractions”.
That wrong has finally been righted.
A Guide to New Zealand Waterfalls
JOHNNY T. Cheng is a waterfall enthusiast who has published books on falls in Norway and Yosemite National Park in California.
His A Guide to New Zealand Waterfalls is a foray into New Zealand that covers more than 100 falls. This is a practical guide, with maps and clear driving directions plus the small details needed for choosing your visit and negotiating the falls once you get there.
Judith Elen in The Australian
girls love Paine Circuit, Patagonia, Chile
Recently a friend asked for a “best hike” recommendation for a female hiker, possibly travelling alone. She is very experienced with many serious treks completed in Europe and the States.
Immediately we suggested The Towers of Paine in Chile.
Paine is well policed and maintained. It is safe. No need to speak Spanish, though it helps.
As evidence, we link to a charming and entertaining trip report from two young women who just completed the most demanding itinerary, the Circuit. They LOVED it:
HIGHLIGHTS:
* Ascending John Garner Pass for a devastatingly beautiful view of Glacier Grey below on one side and Lago Paine on the other. I moment I will never forget.
* Eating chocolate surrounded by the Valle de Frances
* Seeing three shooting stars cross the Milky Way and a comet (and I was totally sober), whilst lying on a swing bridge, with a very energetic river flowing below us
* Drinking Pisco with Cowboys in the sunshine
* Making friends with Porters (Sherpas) and sharing our walks with them
* Watching ice bergs float past our tent whilst making a lovely cuppa tea snuggled up in my sleeping bag!
* That Condor moment! Seeing Condors sore majestically above the snowy peaks of Torres del Paine
* That vegetarian sandwich at Camp Chileno!
* The best drinking water in the world on tap! (We drank only the water that flowed through the Parque; no boiling no purification tabs). Ah, agua nectar!
* Realising what we thought may have been a clap of thunder and so the start of a wet day was only another ice berg making a splash into Lago Grey.
* Realising what we thought may have been another clap of thunder was merely another avalanche in the Valle del Frances.
* Meeting the boys from Ecuador at Camp Japonese (a camp only for climbers).
* The satisfaction of completing The Circuit when a lot of the locals thought we may be clinically insane!
Sophs in South America: Torres del Paine Circuit, Southern Patagonia, Chile.
organize a trip to Paine, Chile – besthike.com
movie – A Walk in the Woods
Essential reading for all hikers is A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, by Bill Bryson.
It’s the hilarious, somewhat fictionalized recounting of a failed attempt on the AT. Everyone loves Bryson’s buddy, the anti-hiker Katz (Matt Angerer).
Without question the immense popularity of Bryson brought thru-hiking to the attention of the world and even increased numbers on the AT.
There’s been a bit of buzz about a movie:
In 2005 Robert Redford announced that he was interested in adapting Bryson’s book into a film, and in playing Bryson himself. He also hoped that his erstwhile co-star and friend, Paul Newman, would team up with him to play the role of Katz, although he jokingly expressed doubt as to whether the health-conscious Newman would consider putting on enough weight (and eating enough donuts) to accurately portray the rotund Katz.
Personally, I would cast John Hodgeman as Bryson, and Jack Black as Katz.
gear – “kitchen sink” for hiking
Over at Backcountry.com, Rocky Thompson’s making fun of hikers who want to haul the “kitchen sink” with them on the trail.
… But I have friends who would buy this.
Get two of Granite Gear’s Kitchen Sink and you can haul them from the creek to your campsite by balancing them on a stick over your shoulders. Better yet, get your kids to do it. You can tell them it’s “ninja training†after they see Kill Bill. Or you could just get one Kitchen Sink and end up spilling water inside both your shoes while trying to scramble back to camp with an awkward bucket.
GRANITE GEAR OUTBACK KITCHEN SINK – BUY IT NOW (and prove me right)
source of the Tsangpo, Tibet
Outside Magazine on line selected a trek to remote Nepal and Tibet as the “2007 Trip of the Year” overall winner.
“The best of the best.”
The last time trekking guide Gary McCue set out to explore far-western Tibet, he happened upon an acre-size hot spring that tumbled from a mountainside near Lake Manasarovar. “I’d never seen a boiling creek just come crashing out of a hole in the ground,” he says. But it’s just the sort of surprise the Tasmania-based author of Trekking in Tibet: A Traveler’s Guide has come to expect from this part of the world.
Tourism may be booming—the controversial new Qinghai-Tibet Railway helped bump up visitation to Tibet by 30 percent last year—but much of this mysterious land of Buddhist temples and mist-shrouded peaks remains blissfully unexplored by outsiders.
This spring, McCue will return to the Himalayas on a quest to reach the source of the Tsangpo River, the mightiest of four rivers that flow from the sacred 22,028-foot peak of Kailas. The 42-day exploratory trek is the first commercial expedition to a pilgrimage site very few Westerners have seen since a Swedish explorer hiked nearby in the early 1900s.
After driving across the plains from Lhasa to Darchen, you’ll trek the perimeter of Kailas before camping in the Lha Chu Valley during the annual Saga Dawa full-moon festival. Then you’ll start the weeklong journey through a glacial valley to Tamchok Khabab, the river’s source.
The trip ends with a visit to the temple-strewn Limi Valley, a newly opened region of western Nepal. “It’s hard to find wilderness this wild and remote that doesn’t require Reinhold Messner-level skills to reach,” says McCue. “It’s the closest you can come to what the explorers experienced 150 years ago.”
OUTFITTER: Wilderness Travel, 800-368-2794, wildernesstravel.com; PRICE: $10,560–$13,160; DIFFICULTY: Challenging; WHEN TO GO: May–June
sacred Mt. Kailas – Wikipedia
amazing volcano photo – Hawaii
Wow!
Look what Tom picked as one of his Flickr Photos of the Day:
More links and details on hiking Haleakala National Park, Hawaii: Two-Heel Drive: March 2007 Archives
Half Dome, Yosemite National Park
leaving comments on blog posts
Bloggers greatly appreciate feedback, positive or negative.
And leaving a comment tells search engines like Google that the post was worthy of your attention, positive or negative.
We got some feedback by email, response form and by comment on a recent post:
the top 10 treks in the world – 5 months?
That discussion (cost, time, difficulty level) will be kept in the comment section of that post.
In fact, we were even inspired to add a new feature. You can now “subscribe” to any comment you leave on this blog. More dialogue is a good thing.
Note that we do not use a CAPTCHA on our commenting system. No need. This blog is 100% protected by amazing anti-spam service called Akismet.
“Peru Gets Tough On Tourist Attacks”
Rick McCharles
The Adventure Blog posted on an MSNBC.com report on “Peru cracking town on attacks against tourists”.
This caught my interest as I was on the Huayhuash Circuit in Peru in 2004 when an Israeli trekker was shot and killed by bandits.
A new law passed by the Peruvian congress make the maximum penalty for murder or severely injuring a tourist is now life in prison. The law covers both foreign and Peruvian tourists visiting sites in their own country. Armed robbery against tourists is fairly common in the country and in 2005 there was a fairly well publicized event in which 13 tourists on the Inca Trail were robbed. Since then, the goverment has begun getting tough on crimes against tourists, even taking the step to patrol the Inca Trail and increasing the security presence at Machu Picchu.
Peru could be the best hiking destination in the world. … Could be.
But we’d recommend you hike New Zealand instead if security is a big concern.
besthike.com 