Sacred Cows Of Yellowstone

This somewhat tongue-in-cheek post is well worth the read. As usual, Skyler Baguta’s aim is true.

She doesn’t name Tom of The Trout Underground as specifically destroying the Park. But we get the idea.

(Come to think of it, I seem to recall Tom telling me he doesn’t fish Yellowstone.)

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I have a bit of pity & some sympathy for the poor journalists in this part of the country. I just plain pity the journalists in the rest of the country.

When it comes to reporting about Yellowstone National Park they have a long list of topics that they cannot report about. They have, after all, advertising and public sentiment to deal with. The scribes, either through fear or ignorance refuse to address the problems caused by the Sacred Cows of Yellowstone.

Read the rest of this article: The Sacred Cows Of Yellowstone « A Step Apart

Trail Sluggs – West Coast Trail blog

Here are hikers doing it right.

They posted a blog dedicated to organizing an upcoming trek on our #1 hike in the World. Good luck guys!

Some of their posts:

27 LBS PACKLIST

The Gear List

Communal Items – Share the Load

WATER STRATEGY

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Trail Sluggs

FalconGuide’s Trailhead on-line community

Welcome to the FalconGuides Trailhead. This is your starting point to a community filled with experts and enthusiasts who all share a passion for the outdoors and an interest in sharing their stories, photos, and experiences with others.

FalconGuide’s Trailhead | Falcon Guides

Thanks to Tom for pointing out this interesting new experiment:

It’s all brand-new now, so it’s hard to judge how well it will turn out, but it’s worth a look. The “trail finder” is just a link to trails.com, a subscription service I’ve never felt compelled to invest in.

Two-Heel Drive

I’ll join and report back here. Quick to criticize what I don’t like about Falcon Guidebooks, this way I could be part of the system working to improve them.

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new hiking blog – Take a Load Off

I like the look of a new site put up by Matt Hornsby.

Take a Load Off – Lightweight Backpacking
Backpacking adventures, missteps, stories, and advice.

Matt describes the process of cutting down his 50lb+ pack to something more … reasonable. And asks for advice on his gear list. Check it out:

Take a Load Off – Lightweight Backpacking: Packing

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I’ve subscribed, of course, to Matt’s RSS feed.

vote for YellowstonePark.com

I read a lot of bad news regarding US National Parks on The National Parks Traveler blog and, to a lesser extent, on the Park Remark blog.

Increasing user fees, inefficient management, corrupt political manoeuvring. It can be depressing.

Here’s some good news regarding a Yellowstone National Park tourism site:

A grungy layout meant to give a park feel does the job well, and bits and pieces also use flash to add effect and features. What surprised me was the the site is also up a Webby Award – not something many national parks find themselves looking to score.

Devlounge

Excellent!

A way to promote National Parks with the internet.

At first I thought this was the official Park site. Foolish me. Of course this is a private venture supported by advertising and sponsors.

The official government Yellowstone website is surprisingly good as well — but I immediately clicked into one of these:

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Plan Your Visit

(Here’s the correct page: Plan Your Visit.)

Lets compare their two hiking pages:

» YellowstonePark.com: Top Things #5
» government site: Hiking in the Park

The government site comes out ahead.

Regardless, I will vote for YellowstonePark.com in the Webby Awards for Best Tourism Site. I like what they are trying to do. With podcasts, RSS feeds and video, it is a richer experience.

Independent National Parks websites have a greater chance, long term, of giving me the information I need to organizing for hiking. Government monopoly bureaucracies are far too inefficient to compete with the private sector in anything.

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YellowstonePark.com

Trekking Visions – best treks

Klaus & Sebastian are kindred spirits. Just weeks ago, they launched a terrific new site called Trekking Visions listing the world’s best hikes:

We are a team of two trekking lovers and we have a mission – to present you the best treks of the planet. Naturally it is an ongoing and never ending task but naturally this is part of the fun.

As of now this site is still in a very early stage with lots of data and information still missing. It’s quite an effort to collect all this and it will probably take the rest of 2007 to complete the site. So if you find the site to be a little premature you’re absolutely right – just give us a little time. Till then feel free to enjoy what we’ve prepared so far.

trekkingvisions – Home

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Check their photo galleries.

They plan to add a blog with RSS feed and I will be first to subscribe. For now I’ve linked to Trekking Visions under WEBSITES in the right hand navigation.

check out Florida Hikes

Guidebook author Sandra Friend runs the Florida Hikes website. We’ve linked to it under WEBSITES on the right hand navigation.

She’s just revamped the site and it looks great.

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Happily, Sandra will be advising besthike.com on the very best hikes in Florida. And will introduce us to other experts in the region.

She’s is always on the trail in Florida and networks with the SE hiking community. Sandra’s friends with Mike DeWitt of Florida Trail video fame.

Sandra got a good photo of Mike, exposing the fact that he is no ultralight walker:

Now here’s a real comparison in pack weight for long distance hikers. To the left, Mike “Smileage” DeWitt, with a pack that many of us gals could crawl into and sleep in, it’s so danged big. He won’t say but I’m guessing it tips the scales past 50 pounds. To the right, the esteemed Nimblewill Nomad and his pack, roughly 12 pounds with water. I split the difference when I’m hiking….

floridahikes.com » Pack Weight

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Florida Hikes! – website

Here’s just one of Sandra’s guidebooks:

Walks, Hikes, and Backpacking Trips in the Southern Florida Peninsula, First Edition

50 Hikes in South Florida: Walks, Hikes, and Backpacking Trips in the Southern Florida Peninsula, First Edition

new language translation on this site

We’ve added the Google web page translation service and placed it in a more prominent position than our old AltaVista Bablefish link. Click on the desired flag near the top of the navigation column.

(I know how frustrated I get trying to translate wonderful trip report from another language.)

Since the scope of besthike.com is world-wide, we wanted to make it as easy as possible for non-English speakers to read this blog.

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example – Mandarin

unbelievable cloud photos

Last September we posted rare “Mammatus” cloud photos.

Many of those same pics are in a larger, better collection of cloud and wind photos posted by the always interesting Dark Roasted Blend photo blog.

If you love great sky vistas — and what hiker doesn’t — check out Mammatus, Lenticular & Other Extreme Clouds.

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3300 miles around the Alps

We recently posted Andrew Skurka’s audacious 7000mi Great Western Loop. I doubt there are any unbelievers.

In Europe Judy Armstrong has already begun a 3300mi quest she’s calling the Alpine Challenge, the first to attempt to circumambulate the Alps.

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Judy has a fantastic website — AlpineChallenge.info posted in four languages!

Check the brilliant way she shows the map of her intended route.

And her detailed gear list: 7.13kg (15lb 11oz).

You look terrifically well organized Judy. Good luck!