Best hikes, treks, tramps in the world.
My only utensil is a metal spoon which I keep handy in my hip pack. (Of course I have the Swiss Army Knife too for slicing.)
Scoutmaster posted a comic round-up of more expensive alternatives if you want to impress others at the campground:
… a spoon is a spoon – one of the few things in life that cannot be substantially improved upon- although we try. Do we really need this many sporks (or over priced specialty camping spoons) in the world?
(via Two-Heel Drive)
Originally uploaded by txago.
One day …
You too should climb to the Lost World, Roraima on the border of Venezuela, Brazil & Guyana.
It’s the highest “tepui” (flat-topped, cliff-edged mountain) at 2810m (9219ft). Recommended 6-day, 5-night round trip trek to the summit.
information page – besthike.com
Kokoda is one of the great (difficult!) established walks of the world. We got a strong endorsement for the lead guiding company from one of our Aussie contributors who joined one of their tours in 2006.
That company is Kokoda Trail Adventures.
The Kokoda Trail is one of the world’s great treks, linking the southern and northern coast of Papua New Guinea, it is a challenge to be enjoyed by the fit bushwalker. …
The 96 km Kokoda trail passes through rugged mountainous country of rainforest, jungles of fern, orchids, birds and clean mountain streams which tumble into steep valleys.
The unspoilt villages throughout the Kokoda Track will welcome you and the Koiari and Orokaiva people will greet you with smiles and tempt you with seasonal fruit and vegetables.
Visit Kokoda and enjoy the adventure of your lifetime.
It’s tough, even if you have porters carry your packs.
But it’s popular. Kokoda guided only 24 hikers in 2000. But in 2006 they led 850. (more stats)
It may be time to start planning a trip to PNG. No independent hiking is allowed, so far as we know.
hikers and guides at the Isurava Monument
Paul Nickodem posted an entertaining, succinct trip report of his speedy Chilkoot Trail hike on MountainZone.com:
We flew out of Juneau on tiny Skagway air, which is just a Piper Archer four seat aircraft. I was the co-pilot as we flew up the fjords and channels toward Skagway (population 1,500). My pilot was a 21-year-old girl from South Dakota and when she told me her age, I felt like wrenching the controls from her. The landing in Skagway would have made even the most gnarly world traveler cringe.
A major pucker factor as we skimmed a ridge and then stood the plane on its right wing as we banked into the deep corner of the mountains that Skagway is built into. …
It’s a trip through time. 53kms (33mi). Recommended 5 days, 4 nights. Best months mid-July to mid-Sept.
details on organizing to hike the Chilkoot Trail – besthike.com
Klondike gold rush of 1898
We’ve pooh-poohed the “doom and gloom” mongers in the past.
And we’ve even been part of the problem, criticizing drastic increases in National Park fees.
But perhaps this IS serious.
If the population does not want to visit National Parks, the Parks themselves will suffer most.
… attendance at Yosemite has dropped 17%, Death Valley at 28%, and camping and back-country trips are down 24% overall.
The Economist says “The importance of this decline can hardly be over-estimated for big environmental organisations such as the Sierra Club: they have depended on what one expert calls “a transcendent experience in natureâ€, usually in childhood, to gain new members and thus remain powerful lobbyists for environmental causes.”
No Child Left Inside: Economist on National Parks (TreeHugger)
What do you think?
Do we need to rally those who love the outdoors? Ask everyone to purchase an Annual National Parks pass in their country to support the outdoor cause?
National Geographic Adventure Magazine named them “Adventurers of the Year”, calling them “The New Magellans”.
Colin Angus (along with Julie Wafaei for much of the time) had powered himself around the globe using exclusively human power.
National Geographic Adventure Magazine
official website – Angus Adventures
But British adventurer Jason Lewis claims that Angus’ circumnavigation does not count because it did not “pass through two antipodal points on the globe” (co-ordinates on exactly opposite sides of the Earth).
His own human powered circumnavigation attempt is still happening.
Looks like Guinness Book of World Records is siding with Lewis. (Canadian newspaper report)
official website – Expedition 360
route of Jason Lewis
The dispute certainly trivializes accomplishment.
A professional trip report, wonderful photos, on the Pyrenearn Haute Route was posted by big-time hiker Andy Howell. He’s just finished his HRP “Pyrenees project”.
The report starts on this page and continues on up the blog.
Andy obviously loves the region.
Recommended guidebook – Pyrenearn Haute Route: High-Level Trail Through the Pyrenees (Cicerone)
(via Two-Heel Drive)
For years we’ve admired the work of Rogier Gruys, travel photographer from Vancouver, Canada.
His site — Bluepeak.net — has long been one of our favourites.
Now Rogier’s added a blog. We’ve subscribed to it from our RSS reader. And added a link under BLOGS in the right-hand navigation.
The URL — bluepeak.net/blog/.
Newsvine tipped us to this NYT article.
(Not that we were worried about the Maoist terrorists in the past.)
WITH political stability returning to Nepal, so too are adventure-oriented travel companies, many of which had discontinued their trips to the country over the last few years.
For the first time since 2002, Country Walkers, based in Waterbury, Vt., is returning to the Himalayan nation of Nepal with special tours in the fall, said to be the ideal time for trekking in the region.
Other outfitters, like Mountain Travel Sobek of Emeryville, Calif., and Wilderness Travel of Berkeley, Calif. — which had halted all trips but those to the Khumba or Everest regions in the northeast — are now offering trips to the Annapurna region in central Nepal. Mountain Travel Sobek is also starting treks to the remote Dolpo and Humla regions in the northwest, which they deemed off limits because of the political unrest.
After more than 10 years of bitter conflict, the Nepalese government signed a peace deal with Maoist rebels in November. …
And Maoists have stopped collecting money from tourists along trekking routes.
… GEOGRAPHIC EXPEDITIONS, which continued to operate trips to Nepal during the unrest but only to the Kathmandu region, is planning two new excursions. One, a rigorous 27-day trek through the Kingdom of the Mustang in the spring and fall, starts at $4,695 a person for a group of eight people. Another 31-day trek, Around Manaslu, to be offered in the fall, starts at $4,995 a person for eight people.
There are some added benefits to being among the first tourists to return to Nepal. “For the moment,†said Mr. Steigerwald, “it’s really a treat to be there without crowds.â€
photo – Mt. Taranaki
We’ve just subscribed to Outdoor Video Magazine, a classy looking blog with quality posts some of which include short video clips.
Most people that go to New Zealand spend most of their time on the South Island, especially if they are outdoor enthusiasts. This is a mistake in my humble opinion. The North Island is almost equally cool, and it actually beats the South Island in terms of it’s variety of scenery and terrain, although it lacks the big mountain ranges obviously. It has spectacular volcanic scenery, crazy coloured lakes and rocks, a Mt Fuji look-alike to summit, beautiful coast, and tropical forest.
I wouldn’t normally recommend a Lonely Planet book, I don’t think they do the best travel guides. However, in this case I will make an exception and say the Lonely Planet’s Tramping in New Zealand is an excellent purchase. Its well written, really easy to follow and find tramps (that’s Kiwi for hikes by the way), and has a range of difficulty from easy to pretty hard (e.g. the 10 day North West Circuit on Stewart Island).
The ‘have to do’ hikes on the North Island in my opinion are: Tongariro Northern Circuit, Mt Taranaki and then something in the East Coast/Hawke’s Bay; either the Lake Waikaremoana Track or if you want something less busy and a bit wilder the Manuoha to Waikareti Track.
Hiking in New Zealand – North Island · Outdoor Video Magazine
besthike.com 