Category: long hikes

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conceiving a Great Plains Trail

Steve Myers:

The ultimate goal is to establish, develop, maintain, preserve and promote a long distance, public, non-motorized trail running north/south through the short grass prairies of the Great Plains of North America

… a trail that runs from Canada’s Grassland National Park on the U.S./ Canada border to the summit of Guadalupe Peak in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas.

The trail will allow for hiking, horseback riding, and in most areas, mountain biking. …

About

I subscribed to Steve’s semi-official blog – The Great Plains Trail

Kurt Repanshek likes the concept: National Parks Traveler – Consider A Foot Path From Canada To Texas Through The Great Plains

I like the idea, too. Having lived in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan for 10yrs, I know the bleak beauty of the prairies.

(via Hiking in Glacier – Making a case for the Great Plains Trail)

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new Ulster Way, Ireland – 625mi

A very good looking website.

… the new Ulster Way – a 625 mile (1000 km) circular long distance walking route that is one of the longest in the United Kingdom and Ireland. …


The revised Ulster Way was officially launched on 16th September 2009. This website is designed to help you plan ahead so you can be one of the first to walk the new route! Please Note: All signposts and waymarkers may not yet be in place.

Walk Northern Ireland – Ulster Way

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1700mi 90lbs lost in 3min

I’ve been following Kolby Kirk — the Hike Guy — for some years. This is his best work yet.

Recorded on the Pacific Crest Trail during the 2011 thu-hiking season. 159 days, 1,700 miles hiked, and ninety pounds lost. Make sure you watch it all the way to the end.

Click PLAY or watch it on Vimeo.

I’m thinking to do a week or two on the PCT in 2012. I’ll need Kolby’s top 5 PCT NECESSITIES.

(via BuzzFeed)

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International Appalachian Trail Ireland 120sec

In April 2010 Greenland became the seventh chapter of the International Appalachian Trail. The route is on the Nussuaq Peninsula near Uummannaq Fjord.

Greenland was followed by Scotland in June, when the West Highland Way became the first IAT trail in Europe.

In October 2010 the IAT expanded further into Europe when nine new chapters joined … The new chapters include Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, England, Ireland, Wales, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland.

In 2011 the IAT plans to expand to Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco.

The Irish leg begins at the Slieve League cliffs in Co Donegal and proceeds eastwards along the Bluestacks Way and then the Ulster Way and finally the Causeway Coast Way terminating in Ballycastle, Co Antrim.

Click PLAY or watch the first Irish thru-hike on YouTube.

I’m thinking it would be easier simply to name ALL hikes in the world part of the IAT. 🙂

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Great Himalaya Trail – celebrities needed

… On January 15, two of Nepal’s prominent mountaineers will embark on a 1,700 km trail lasting 120 days with the aim of bringing tourists and investment to less visited and underdeveloped parts of the country as well as highlight effects of climate change.

To do this, Apa Sherpa, who holds the world record of summiting Mount Everest 21 times and Dawa Steven Sherpa, who has reached the peak twice, will take part in the marathon walkathon starting in Ghunsa in easterner Nepal and ending in Darchula in the far west. …

Hindustan Times – The mother of all treks and climate change

They are looking for … “global sports personalities and Hollywood and Bollywood stars to join some such portion of the trail and give the much needed publicity to the effort.”

The Great Himalaya Trail

(via Adventure Blog)

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Pacific Crest Trail Journal

Kolby Kirk is some kind of Da Vinci of the trail. Check this sample page from his 2011 PCT journal.

I saw JEFF THROPE link to that on Adventure Journal:

… After being laid off from his job in April 2011, Kolby Kirk (The Hike Guy) decided he would attempt to complete as much as he could of the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail.

Starting at the Mexican border near Campo, California, he walked for 159 days and nearly 1,700 miles. In that time, Kolby wrote 850 pages in his journals, a few of which he has started to scan …

Kolby is now working on a book …

Declination: Pacific Crest Trail Journals

More samples and links to Kolby via that post.

Adventure Journal was ranked #1 Adventure Blog by Ouside, by the way.

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walking home from Mongolia

Rob Lilwall and Leon McCarron are surviving (so far) a mid-winter a 5,000km winter expedition through the heart of China.

Carrying all of their gear, they will start amidst the wastelands of Outer Mongolia from where they will head south by foot through the Gobi Desert. Crossing into China, they will follow the Great Wall down to the turbulent waters of the Yellow River, where they will inflate the kayaks in order to paddle downstream to the legendary city of Xi An. Leaving the water, they will then hike onwards through the snow-capped mountains of central China, until finally they reach their finishing point at the glittering skyscrapers of Hong Kong.

The Expedition

Or follow them on Facebook.

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Thru-hikes are expensive

Take a Long Hike has a sobering post …

… Let’s consider the Appalachian Trail, 2178 miles long. The days of averaging a dollar a mile are long gone, although it can be done. Twenty-three years ago, Roland Mueser, in his later book, Long Distance Hiking–Lessons from the Appalachian Trail, came up with an average cost of $3200.00 dollars or about $1.50 a mile. But that was 1989. …

So what about today? Figure about $2.50 a mile, or $5500.00 for the A.T., and that is conservative. One recent blogger said he wouldn’t feel comfortable unless he had saved $10,000 for the hike. …

Take a Long Hike – Thru-hikes are expensive

Ouch.