Click PLAY or watch it on Vimeo.
That’s from The Best Way – El Camino de Santiago.
Thank Dave Brown for the link.
Walking on the Thin Ice
Warren Long sends a link to this odd and magically entertaining edit.
Published on Dec 2, 2012
Japanese polar explorer Yasu Ogita’s video “Walking on the Thin Ice”
Extreme Arctic expedition solo on foot
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
22,000-mile hike
Ok … not quite a “hike”. 🙂
… Next month, (Pulitzer winning foreign correspondent Paul) Salopek will begin a seven-year reporting assignment that will take him 22,000 miles (give or take) on foot, from Africa across Asia and the United States, ultimately ending up in Patagonia at the southern tip of South America.
The route Salopek is following is the one anthropologists believe was the first path humans took out of Africa to populate the rest of the world. He’s calling it the Out of Eden, a narrative trek that will examine the current state of the cultures Salopek visits, while also writing about their history and connection to the greater world. …
How do you pack your bag for a seven-year, 22,000-mile international reporting assignment?
(via Adventure Blog)
kickstarter – MyKu: Appalachian Trail
I’m Cheryl McCormick and my trail name is Clinker.
My project will be a compilation of photographs and haiku poetry, all created while backpacking solo, 2,187 miles from Georgia to Maine on the Appalachian Trail.
Once I return, the National Center for Nature Photography has agreed to a gallery exhibit of both my photographs and haiku poetry, documenting this endeavor in a creative fashion. I am launching this project on my 63rd birthday, April 5, 2013. …
Clinker is looking for $10,000 to pull off this adventure.
41 backers have pledged $3,853 as of my post.
Good luck Clinker. Yours’ is the first kickstarter hiking project I’ve seen.
Appalachian Trail at a glance
HikingBoots.com sends this excellent infographic.
After scrolling down, I feel like I’ve hiked the A.T. myself. 🙂
related – 75 REASONS TO HIKE THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL
NEW Scottish National Trail
Gore-Tex Scottish National Trail Launches
New Scotland End to End route is unveiled with accompanying book and BBC TV programme.
… a new long distance route linking Kirk Yetholm in the borders with Cape Wrath in the north west of the country linking various existing long distance trails to form a single 470-mile walk.
The trail is the brainchild of longstanding walking writer and broadcaster, Cameron McNeish, and, in parlour game parlance, is both a newly published book, authored by McNeish and a television programme produced by BBC Scotland and set to be broadcast over the Christmas / New Year period. …
Thus far the new route has no waymarking of its own, bar new plaques to be sited at Kirk Yetholm and Cape Wrath along with one at the Water of Leith Visitor Centre in Edinburgh and the Cape Wrath Trail stretch isn’t signposted at all.
In other words, for now at least, it’s mostly a line on a map …
… The GORE-TEX® Scottish National Trail will also have its own website showing the route and GORE-TEX® Footwear plans to link key sections of the route with local and regional outdoor shops to help drive footfall into local retailing outlets. …
BEWARE midges.
(via Hiking in Finland)
Jason Lewis circumnavigates Earth in 13yrs
Nimblewill Nomad – all 11 America’s National Scenic Trails
His quest began New Years Day, 1998.
Noon Sunday, September 9, 2012, Nimblewill Nomad reached the summit of Grand Monadnock Mountain, New Hampshire, thus completing his trek o’er the New England National Scenic Trail.
And as to the significance of that day? Well, it marks the successful conclusion of Nimblewill’s quest to hike all eleven of America’s National Scenic Trails. He now becomes the second person, behind Bart Smith, to have documented this accomplishment.
You might recall his hiking books: Ten Million Steps and Where Less the Path is Worn.
National Scenic Trails (18,734mi)
Appalachian National Scenic Trail
Arizona National Scenic Trail
Continental Divide National Scenic Trail
Florida National Scenic Trail
Ice Age National Scenic Trail
Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail
New England National Scenic Trail
North Country National Scenic Trail
Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail
Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail
Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail
(via gossamergear)
The Way – Randall St. Germain
The Way of St. James … (Spanish: El Camino de Santiago) … is the pilgrimage route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tradition has it that the remains of the apostle Saint James are buried. …
… existed for over a thousand years. It was one of the most important Christian pilgrimages during medieval times, together with Rome and Jerusalem, and a pilgrimage route on which a plenary indulgence could be earned …
.. many pilgrims continue from Santiago de Compostela to the Atlantic coast of Galicia, to finish their journeys at Spain’s westernmost point, Cape Finisterre. …
… pilgrim’s hostels with beds in dormitories dot the common routes, providing overnight accommodation …
Staying at hostels usually cost between five and ten euros per night per bed in a dormitory, although a few hostels … operate on voluntary donations. Pilgrims are usually limited to one night’s accommodation and are expected to leave by eight in the morning to continue their pilgrimage. …
Canadian Randall St. Germain did the 500mi (800km) French Way averaging 26mi (40km) a day.
Camino de Santiago in 20 Days: My Way on the Way of St. James is essential reading for anyone foolish enough to fancy the French Way.
Randall is not a professional writer. Unlike more poetic pilgrimage reports, Randall details the awful weather, dog bites, exhaustion, bed bugs, … 😦
It’s unvarnished.
Randall:
Never to be included on the final list of Pulitzer Prize nominees, or in Oprah’s Book Club, Camino de Santiago in 20 Days is not your granddaddy’s Camino book, either.
I wanted to maintain the integrity of my Camino from St. Jean Pied de Port to Santiago de Compostela. My writing had to be honest and based on events which actually happened. I know some of it may be dry, but I wanted to keep my journey intact and not make up anything, including dialogue. Believe me, if I made sh*t up, this book would be far more entertaining.
Randall carried a tent the entire Way — and never slept in it. Yet he hates the hostels. Hates smokers, snorers and farters. … In fact he’s not all that fond of people.
Randall’s foot problems alone are enough to turn away most pilgrims. Not to mention the lack of toilets.
Still interested? …
Check his website – Camino My Way
Or friend him on Facebook. As you might have guessed, Randall went back to the Camino …
Me? … I’m still leaning towards mountain biking The Way. Inspired and informed by Randall, I’ll be tenting it every night.
Mine was a review copy. Thanks Randall!
The Way – the film
The Way is a 2010 American drama film. It is a collaboration between Martin Sheen and his son Emilio Estevez to honour the Camino de Santiago (Way of St. James) and promote the traditional pilgrimage. …
Plot
Thomas Avery is an American ophthalmologist who goes to France following the death of his adult son, killed in the Pyrenees during a storm while walking the Camino …
Tom’s purpose is initially to retrieve his son’s body. However, in a combination of grief and homage to his son, Tom decides to walk the ancient spiritual trail where his son died. …
He reluctantly falls in with three other pilgrims …. Joost is an overweight man from Amsterdam who says he is walking the route to lose weight … Sarah … is fleeing an abusive husband, who says she is walking the pilgrimage to quit smoking. Jack is an Irish travel writer who when younger had desires to be great author like Yeats or Joyce but never wrote the novel he dreamed of. …
The film has been well received. It has garnered a “Certified Fresh” rating of 82% on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes …
The consensus description is: “It may be a little too deliberately paced for more impatient viewers, but The Way is a worthy effort from writer/director Emilio Estevez, balancing heartfelt emotion with clear-eyed drama that resists cheap sentiment.”
It is pretty good. I’m still leaning towards mountain biking The Way, however, rather than walking it.
I joined Netflix.ca in order to FINALLY watch this film. 🙂
besthike.com 