Category: health & safety

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best SAFE hikes in Australia?


More often than not on our list of best hikes in the world we promote “challenging” adventures.

The very dangerous West Coast Trail is our #1 pick. One in every hundred hikers has to be evacuated!

What if you don’t want to be evacuated?

From Our Hiking Blog:

We have come up with a short list that meets the following criteria:

– No death defying stunts required to complete the trip
– Relatively mountain / drop off free
– Challenging enough to make you feel a sense of accomplishment
– Multi day with at least 3 nights camping required
– Generally isolated and away from too much infrastructure

Before we give you the list, recall that Australia is chock full of dangerous animals. My friend from Canberra found a poisonous snake in the back seat of his car while putting his infant daughter into the car seat. I’d rather risk a Grizzly than meet a Brown Snake on the Trail.

The walks, in no particular order, are:

  • Great South West Walk – Victoria
  • Wilsons Promontory Circuit Walk
  • Overland Track – Tasmania
  • Australian Alps Walking Track
  • Thorsborne Trail – Hinchinbrook Island – Queensland
  • Bibbulmun Track – Western Australia
  • Great Ocean Walk – Victoria

    • Read the entire entertaining post – Hiking with Bathmophobia – 7 hiking trips that won’t scare you to death (too much) !

    wallaby
    photo – besthike editor Rick McCharles – Overland Track, Tasmania – 2007 trip report

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    Survivorman is back – Survive This

    … When Les Stroud announced his retirement from “Survivorman” last year, wilderness-TV fans shed some tears, but we all hoped he’d be back. We’re happy to report the time has come: Les Stroud returns to Canadian TV this week with “Survive This,” in which eight teenagers with varying levels of outdoor skill are thrust into the Northern Ontario woods to survive with no tools outside of their clothes. …

    Daily Dirt – SURVIVORMAN RETURNS—THIS TIME, FOR THE KIDS

    teenagers

    I’ve got some teenagers I want to nominate for next year’s series.

    YTV – Survive This

    === related

    The Pulse blog’s Steve Howe will be watching any TV show related to wilderness safety. Check his recent post: EASTER VANISHINGS AND RESURRECTIONS – A quick survey of the missing, the found, and the lucky

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    Lake Vesuvius Lakeshore Trail, Ohio


    The WARNING SIGNS on this trail are over zealous. From one trip report circulated by email:

    It was a beautiful day, no rain and warm sun shining down on the steamy well watered ground.

    We decided to take full advantage of the rare sunny day in Ohio. Just a piece up the road is Wayne Forest State Park.

    We set out for the park and to our delight a hike around Lake Vesuvius. The map showed a fairly flat 8 mile trail all the way around the lake.

    Perfect!

    The fearless leader Scott jumped out in the lead and set a good pace, until……

    the WARNING sign……..

    warning-sign

    Would we be able to make it? Should we turn back now? OH MY 7 more miles to go EEKKK! I quickly calmed Scott down and told him we would be just fine! Let’s just enjoy the beautiful early spring flowers and push on ahead!

    So we hiked on looking for the perfect place to have lunch.

    We resisted the lunch recommended to us by the nice Forest Service man, Mr. Boggs. He said in a heavy Kentucky accent “Ain’t nothin’ better then sittin’ on a log with a good Balona’ sandwich, yew should russell yer selves up one”

    After lunch we continued hiking and then It hit us…..

    THE SECOND WARNING SIGN!

    warning-sign2

    6 MILES! Maybe we should turn back? The sign says it will take us another 5 hours! That’s about 1 mile per hour how could we ever do that?

    But the healthy lunch I made for Scott wasn’t full of Balona’ and this time he was the one to say we should press on!

    And so we did, up little hills, around big rocks, through a few mud bogs. The sun was warming up the ground and Canada Geese were defending their soon to hatch eggs.

    We never saw another hiker. I was sure it was because these Ohio hikers can’t handle the big miles. Look at us we’re doing just fine!

    But I spoke too soon! that was not it at all,

    And we soon found out.

    Now, I can’t say for sure. But maybe, the nowhere to be found, other hikers knew something we didn’t?

    like what was waiting up around the next bend!

    copperhead

    Now this California girl had no idea what this nice specimen of a snake was, but my fearless leader Scott knew just what it was. A COPPER HEAD!

    We turned around and headed back to the car. Not that we couldn’t do the miles, but just in case the warning was more about the snakes!

    Back at the Ranger Station, Mr Boggs informed that indeed that is a Copper Head, “Out early this year!”

    GREAT! I hope they like Balona’ Sandwiches better then hikers in shorts exposing bare skin for the first of the season bite!

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    Trail on Kilimanjaro – part 2

    Entertaining!

    Its day three of Trail Magazine’s attempt on Mt Kilimanjaro via the Machame route, and things are starting to get tough. The mountain is getting seriously spectacular but the air is getting thin and exhaustion is kicking in. As midnight on the last day approaches, will it be a glorious dawn on Africas Highest mountain or a whopper of a disappointment? Join Trail Magazines Simon Ingram to find out…

    Click PLAY or watch Part 2 on YouTube.


    official website of TRAIL and Country Walking magazines – Live for the Outdoors

    To see a 6min highlights clip of Day 1 and Day 2 of the Machame Route, click through to The Adventure Blog.

    best hike – Kilimanjaro information page

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    avoiding trailhead vehicle break-ins

    From Rocky Thompson:

    Colorado police arrested a four-person burglary crew that would run a smash-and-grab on cars parked at trailheads. The four thieves-who are kind of like supergroup combination of Bonnie and Clyde plus Thelma and Louise-would wait until hikers had left their cars before smashing windows and stealing credit cards to buy video games and electronics. …

    car-broken

    The Goat Hikers Targeted by Criminal Masterminds

    I’ve tried just about everything over the years, including leaving an empty vehicle unlocked.

    There’s no perfect solution. Each trailhead needs be considered individually.

    In Hawaii last year I left my rent-a-car miles from the (reportedly dangerous) trailhead at a campground. Walked the extra distance to the trail, for security.

    At many trailheads in Canada there’s no worry. Remote hikes in the Rockies are almost all safe.

    Leave a comment if you’ve a strategy to share.

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    Lost in the Yellowstone

    Lost In the Yellowstone: Truman Everts’s Thirty Seven Days of Peril is a surprisingly engaging read. One of the best survival stories ever.

    50

    One Amazon customer review:

    21ea4q50hgl_sl500_aa180_Today, being lost in Yellowstone National Park is as simple as turning on the wrong road after you lost your complimentary map or you can not locate the restroom in the Old Faithful complex. For Truman Everts, being lost in Yellowstone was a struggle between life and death. Everts’s account details his 1870 adventure in Yellowstone after finding himself separated from his travelling companions.

    The separation began Everts’s thirty-seven day struggle for survival in a pre-developed Yellowstone in which Everts had to find what little food and shelter he could just to survive.

    Readers will find this account to be a real-life struggle for survival reminiscent of Jack London’s fictional work. The editor, Lee Whittlesey, does a superb job of editing Everts’s story by providing the reader with additional information and the historical background of the book.

    The work is also illustrated with many early day photographs of Yellowstone which provides an stunning visual account of early-day Yellowstone National Park. This book will be appreciated by anyone looking for an exciting true-life adventure story as well as historians of the American West. People who have been “lost” recently in Yellowstone will also appreciate the book, even if their modern-day adventure pales in comparison to Evert’s

    His bad luck was horror show. Everything went wrong. He was treed one a night by a cougar, for example.

    Almost his only food for 37-days was the root of a plant commonly known today as Everts thistle or elk thistle.

    It’s a shame he could not catch fish. (He did gulp down a couple of mineral tainted minnows.)

    yell-early-anglers

    Yellowstone photo from 1923 – National Parks Traveler

    related – Yellowstone Park – Lost in the Yellowstone Wilderness: The Story of Truman Everts

    related – guidebook – Yellowstone Treasures: The Traveler’s Companion to the National Park

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    kids forced to climb Mt Everest

    Smiths Medical today announced the opening of a new high altitude medical laboratory. Located at 11,154 ft (3,400m) on Mount Everest’s slope, Smiths Medical High Altitude Laboratory’s initial research will include studying nine healthy British kids and how they react to a low oxygen environment. …

    everest3

    medGadget

    Smiths, I volunteer to replace these poor young people.

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    sleeping bag – bear costume

    Cure your fear of bears by pretending you are the mighty hunter and have slayed the terrifying bear. Then strut around the room wearing the huge bearskin to show off your prowess. OR take the sleeping bag camping and you can scare the be-jezuz out of your friends when they wake up next to you.

    Both are possible with this incredible new sleeping bag by artist Eiko Ishizawa. This fun design is so cool (and a little creepy looking) that we just had to share it with all of our readers. …

    the-sleeping-bear-1

    My Bad Pad

    (via campingblogger on twitter)

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    NEW – Sierra Summits Sunscreen

    I’ve often doubted the effectiveness of expensive sun block.

    Here’s a product even I will pay big bucks for ….

    Sierra Summits High Altitude Adventure Sunscreen, a zinc oxide mineral blocker for face and body. Oil free and Fragrance free, SPF 40, won’t burn eyes, has light elegant feel on skin. Formulated for sensitive skin types to perform and protect at altitude, on water, and closer to the equator, where UV rays are more intense.

    melanoma

    For shipping only, they will send you a free sample.

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    7 trekkers die in the mountains


    Himalayas?

    Andes?

    Nope. The UK.

    Icy conditions in the fell country lead to seven trekker deaths on Wales’ Mt. Snowdon and the English Peak and Lake Districts.

    Terrible.

    I had no idea that winter walking in the United Kingdom was so dangerous.

    tents-mt-snowdon

    The lesson here? Easy is all about conditions. When the slopes and trails are wet, or muddy, or icy, or the lightning’s flying and the wind’s howling, your easy hike just turned into a big deal. Whenever you go into the woods in winter, never scrimp on safety and travel equipment like poles, crampons, axes, skis, snowshoes, gaiters, goggles, bivy gear and clothing.

    You have two choices out there: If you’re ready for the conditions, have fun. If you’re not, turn around. It’s a simple decision, but one that people often have a hard time making. If you let desire pull you onward when you’re not prepared….well, you can learn from the examples above, or learn it on your own. Always do your suffering vicariously.

    Hike safe. – Steve Howe

    Backpacker – Danger in the British Isles