The Great Eastern Trail

From Section Hiker:

I love the Appalachian Trail, but on weekends and in the summer time, it can feel really crowded.

In fact, the ATC estimates that 4 million people hike on the AT each year, and a lot of their trail maintenance and stewardship efforts go toward mitigating their impact on the surrounding environment and other visitors’ experiences. Repairing overuse damage, building privies, and adding more campsites is necessary to contain an ever increasing number of visitors each year.

So when I learned about the Great Eastern Trail (GET), I was intrigued. It’s a new 2000 mile, long distance trail that will lie west of the AT and pass through Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virgina, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York, linking the Florida Trail to the North Country Trail. …

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larger version

click through for more information on this terrific under construction thru hiking adventure – The Great Eastern Trail

It will (eventually) link the Florida National Scenic Trail in the south to the North Country National Scenic Trail in New York.

Grab-and-Go hikes in Florida

Guidebook author Sandra Friend has done it again. Added another cool online feature.

A new free resource for hikers: head on over to the Florida Trail website to download yourself a set of Grab-and-Go Hikes. … These are mini-guides to popular day hikes (many with opportunities for camping) along the Florida Trail, and include mileages, directions, and a map.

Quality is excellent. Here are screenshots from the Big Oak Trail PDF download:

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Florida Trail Association – Grab-and-Go Hikes

Check out, too, Sandra’s main website: FloridaHikes.com

share hiking routes on Google Maps – routiki.com

Warren Long has a friend developing a social networking site for outdoors people.  Routiki.com — a work in progress — is a place to share Running/Walking/Biking/Hiking routes on top of GoogleMaps.

Click PLAY or watch an explanation on YouTube.

Check it out for yourself: Routiki.com

I’m still waiting on the perfect solution for mapping the best hikes in the world in one place. GoogleMaps is one option. But is it the best?

Leave a comment if you have advice for me.

trekking in southern Africa

On The Adventure Blog, Kraig linked through to a terrific hiking site:

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Click through to the interactive map on Adventure Zone. You will be impressed with the amount and detail of information on hiking in Namibia, Swaziland and South Africa available.

My #1 destination in South Africa is the Drakensberg. But clearly there are many, many more great hikes.

North Coast Trail vs West Coast Trail

The only person more excited than me about the new North Coast Trail on Vancouver Island, Canada, is BluePeak editor Rogier Gruys.

Rogier linked to an article in Wild Coast Magazine in which the authors claim the NCT is even better than the famed WCT, our #1 hike in the world.

High praise!

We’ll need to hike the North Coast Trail during the summer of 2008 to see for ourselves. The article includes an excellent map:

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screenshot – original

Don’t start packing yet. The official website today still states:

The Trail is not complete. Hikers are requested to avoid using any part of the route until after construction is finished.

Northern Vancouver Island Trails Society

hiking the John Muir Trail in 2008?

I’ve been section hiking it for the past three years. Can I get there once again?

And I’ve got friends planning to honeymoon hike this coming summer.

If you are considering it yourself, check out this great new resource. It’s a virtual JMT hike via photo pages.

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Click through to the start page. And follow the links. Within 5min you’ll have a good overview of our #2 hike in the World.

If that’s too low tech for you, there is a .kmz file you can load into Google Earth for a fly over.

The site is called Hiking the John Muir Trail, a great starting point. It’s very professionally put together.

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Mt. Whitney at sunrise from above 12,000′

Leave a comment if you plan on hiking the Sierras in California this year.

besthike information page – John Muir Trail

hiking the Canary Islands, Spain

If I was flying there today, I’d head for the Island of Gran Canaria.

The Canary Islands are an African archipelago which are part of Spain and consist of seven islands of volcanic origin in the Atlantic Ocean. They are located off the north-western coast of mainland Africa (Morocco and the Western Sahara).

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Wikipedia

roger_eileen_hiking_in_gran_canaria_spain.jpgThat’s the home of Rambling Roger and his wife Eileen. They are super experienced hiking guides. Or they can set you up with the best guidebook and maps for your independent hiking.

The guidebook is self-published by Roger, available hard copy or PDF.

I don’t know much about Gran Canaria. Let’s see some “interesting photos” on flickr.

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original – roca del cangrejo – flickr – maccanti

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original – flickr – maccanti

Nice!

Will contact you when I get there, Roger.

Modern Hiker makes us look bad

Obviously our best hikes map of the world should be interactive in the way used by Modern Hiker in California:

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This is a home-grown Google Map with hiking information in Los Angeles and Southern California. Every trail I’ve written up for the site is accompanied by a pin, color-coded by difficulty. Clicking on a pin will give you a thumbnail image and short description, and a link to the in-depth review.

This is a great way to get a visual idea of where these trails are in relation to you, and is a great resource for planning your next hiking trip.

click through to test it: Mapping Out Your Weekend – Modern Hiker

Man! We suck at maps on this site.

the best trip reports are on Trailspotting

This is elegant simplicity. Exactly the way the internet should work.

Clean. Succinct. But dense with the information you most need: maps, guidebooks, etc.

Check a sample hike for format: San Bruno Mountain Summit Loop, California.

Here’s a sample of the Google Maps integration:

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I am inspired.

Well done, Trailspotting.