Andy Davidhazy took a photo of himself and the trail at every single mile over 2660 miles in 5 months.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
360 mile Bigfoot Trail, California
The Bigfoot Trail … begins in the Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness and ends in Redwood National Park at the Pacific Ocean near Crescent City, California. …
Northwest California’s Klamath Mountains foster one of the most diverse temperate coniferous forests on Earth and this route is a celebration of that biodiversity. …
Due to the strenuous nature of the trail and the fact that some section have been un-maintained for many years it is not a trail that can be hiked quickly. Experience using map and compass as well as the ability to read the landscape are necessary for a successful thru-hike. The Bigfoot Trail was originally proposed by Michael Kauffmann in 2009 …
Get the map from the official website.
Sage Clegg hiked it in 2014.
Anglesey Coastal Path, Wales
The Anglesey Coastal Path is a 200-kilometre (124 mi) long-distance footpath around the island of Anglesey in North Wales. The route is part of the Wales Coast Path. …
Or check the official map.
related – annual Walking Festival and Walkathon
toughest hike of the year?
Southwest Tasmania Traverse
Cam Honan:
Between February 27 and March 22 of this year, I completed a traverse of the southwestern region of the state. One of the wildest, most pristine backcountry areas on the planet, it was a hike I had dreamed of doing for almost two decades. …
200 miles (322 km) approx. …
Time: 24 days
Daily Average: 8 miles (13 km) approx. This included one rest/resupply day. Hiking, scrambling, bushwhacking, climbing, paddling, crawling, swimming, rock hopping…………yep……..the terrain really was that challenging …
Southwestern Horseshoe USA 2012
Cam Honan:
The Southwestern Horseshoe (SWH) is an approximately 1800 mile (2896 km) backcountry route from Arches National Park to Albuquerque.
… of all the thru-hikes I have done in the US, the Southwestern Horseshoe (SWH) was perhaps the one I was looking forward to the most. The Colorado Plateau in particular, with its hoodoos, rock monoliths, natural bridges and slot canyons, had long been on my backcountry radar, ever since reading the works of Colin Fletcher and Edward Abbey as a young man growing up in Australia. …
PCT – Only the Essential
An excellent travelogue. If you ever plan to do the thru hike, watch this video for sure.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (40min)
related – Gear Junkie linked to Bear Snack’s PCT VIDEO. Very pretty.
(via tywkiwdbi)
new – Scottish National Trail
The Scottish National Trail is an 864 kilometre-long long distance walking route running the length of Scotland from Kirk Yetholm to Cape Wrath.
Devised by outdoors writer and broadcaster Cameron McNeish, the Trail offers very varied walking, following long-established footpaths for much of the distance but becoming progressively more difficult as it heads north, finishing with a tough stretch of backpacking – with some pathless and demanding terrain – on the final stretch of the Cape Wrath Trail. …
Click PLAY or watch a teaser on YouTube.
Ash Dykes – Madagascar Traverse
… the first person in history to successfully walk the entire length of Madagascar, summiting its eight highest mountains on the way. …
How do you feel after walking 1,600 miles for 155 days from the south end of Madagascar to the northernmost point?
When I actually arrived & finished at the most northern point (Cap’D Ambre), I had to walk two days back the same way to reach civilisation, the small tracks were too bad for any car to attempt to pick us up. But it was a surreal, exciting and an extremely satisfying feeling!
Why did you choose to take on this challenge?
I knew it would be amazingly unique: over 80 per cent of all fauna and flora are found nowhere else in the world – so that alone would mix things up. I knew barely anything about Madagascar and hardly anyone talks about it. I wanted to get into its interior and really discover what it’s about deep within the island.
The island is also constantly changing, from desert, shrub land, jungle, savanna and mountains …
Click PLAY or watch an expedition preview on YouTube.
Greater Patagonian Trail update
My last day in Chile I was lucky enough to meet up with Jan Dudeck and his partner at the Santiago bus station.
We carbo-loaded on ice cream while I got a personal update on what happened on this their 3rd season on the long distance hike. Carrying an Alpacka packraft on sections.
Once back in Europe, Jan will be updating the wikiexplora page with new data. New alternative routes.
The Greater Patagonian is not an official trail but rather 1500km or more of connected best routes in Chile and Argentina. You’ll be lost for sure unless you have KMZ and GPX files downloaded from wikiexplora.
As they research possible new options Jan actually starts with cached Google Earth images. Then looks for the faint trails he sees there to mark waypoints on their GPS. They don’t bother carrying heavy topo maps.
I tried and failed on section 1 of the Greater Patagonian in January. But am very tempted to go back next Jan/Feb to try other sections.
Cam Honan – off-trail hiking
Great interview.
Are there extra safety precautions you take when you hike an unmarked route?
I generally leave a more detailed description of my proposed route with friends or family before setting out. For someone that is relatively new to off-trail backpacking, I would recommend erring on the side of caution in regards to food, water, sufficient layers, distance estimates, etc. You may also consider carrying a personal locater beacon, such as a SPOT or Delorme inReach. …
What kinds of maps do you use? What Scale? Have they been difficult to get? How much do you study the maps before starting?
In western countries such as the United States, it’s easy to find great topo maps (e.g. USGS 1:24,000 series). In developing nations, it’s often a very different story. Over the decades I’ve made do with everything from 1:250,000 overview sheets to a sketch map on the back of a napkin from a waiter in Arequipa, Peru (Volcan Misti hike, 1996). …
HIKER Q & A – CAM ‘SWAMI’ HONAN ON CREATING ONE’S OWN HIKING ROUTES
related – Cam’s 2015 – The Year in Pictures
besthike.com 