Hike EUROPE

In the beginning of 2018 we decided to completely change our lives and do what we love. We quit our office jobs in order to travel and hike around Europe.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Montenegro – Durmitor national park (stunning mountains with many hiking trails)

Montenegro/Albania – Prokletije national park (gorgeous landscape without crowds)

Bosnia and Herzegovina – Prenj mountain range (beautiful green fields surrounded by rocky mountains)

Switzerland – Grindelwald area (avoid cablecars and you will hike almost alone)

Montenegro – Tara canyon (most iconic bridge over biggest canyon in Europe and 2nd in the World)

Italy – Dolomites (most epic mountain range in Europe with many hiking options)

Austria – Schladminger tauern (beautiful green fields, massive green mountains)

Palm Springs to Paradise Cafe – day 5

Trip report by BestHike editor Rick McCharles

Day 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Tent sites don’t get much better than this.

Another gorgeous night. No fly. And my broken tent held up for the night on the ridge.

It was windy.

My gear got sooty from the 2013 forest fire burn.

It’s a stark and beautiful landscape.

I LOVE this section of the trail. Every step gorgeous.

Inspired, I left a Summit Stone for a PCT hiker to discover.

I was in a philosophical mood. In camp I was listening to an audio book about a man who lived alone for a year in Patagonia exploring the effects of deep solitude.

Here I left the State Park and entered San Jacinto Wilderness.

A father and son recommended a campsite where they had stayed the previous night. I found it using two popular PCT apps.

That’s Guthook. A paid app that most PCT hikers use.

I also used the free (no longer updated) Halfmile PCT app.

Though hidden from the trail, GPS found the place oft used by rock climbers. I was pleased to find a camp chair and large tarp for keeping my gear clean.

Day 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

NEW book – Reaching Beyond Boundaries

A Navy SEAL’s Guide to Achieving Everything You’ve Ever Imagined

I recommend this book for anyone who loves outdoor adventure.

It’s philosophy from the astonishing and inspiring life of Don Mann  … but I read it because of co-author Kraig Becker who adds his expertise as the Adventure Blogger and Podcaster

For the last decade, decorated Navy SEAL, accomplished athlete, and bestselling author Don Mann has been traveling across the country giving motivational talks and in the process inspiring hundreds with the secrets behind his awe-inspiring achievements. …

As an elite Navy SEAL, Mann performed seemingly impossible tasks on a regular basis. Here he details the lessons he learned from his training and shows how the rest of us can apply those teachings to our daily lives in terms of learning to push beyond our internal boundaries and achieve the goals we’ve set for ourselves, both professionally and personally. …

Amazon

I recommend the audio version of the book because it’s read by Don Mann. That ownership makes his extreme stories come to life for me. When you hear Don’s voice, you know he’s the real deal. The kind of guy who could push himself to the point of passing out during extreme exercise. The kind of guy who will not quit.

The book intersperses Don’s life storyhundreds of outdoor races included — with stories of the people who inspired him.

Reinhold Messner, for example.

Before reading this book I’d never heard of the fantastic first American, all-woman summit of Annapurna in 1978. That blew my mind. They were decades ahead of their time.

I recommend this book even if you are an armchair adventurer. It’s going to make you want to get up off the couch and get outside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Republican Senator wants to sell off Federal Public Lands

The GOP in the USA — in general — want the richest corporations and donors to get even richer. They have very little interest in protecting the environment nor encouraging outdoor recreation.

For example, Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah.

Senator Wants to Eliminate Federal Public Lands

If you love the outdoors campaign against Republicans.

Utah can blame Rob Bishop (R) and Jason Chaffetz (R)

In 2017, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert signed a resolution urging the Trump administration to rescind the Bears Ears National Monument. The resolution served as a flashpoint that ultimately reduced the size of both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante national monuments significantly.

It also triggered a backlash from the outdoor industry. The Outdoor Retailer convention pulled out of Utah in protest, moving the show to Denver.

Robert Macfarlane ‘outdoors’ books

Robert Macfarlane is a British writer, PhD at Emmanuel College, Cambridge,  and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

He’s also much smarter than you and I.

Macfarlane’s first book, Mountains of the Mind, was published in 2003 and won the Guardian First Book Award, the Somerset Maugham Award, and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. …

The Wild Places was published in September 2007. …

The Old Ways: A Journey On Foot, the third in the ‘loose trilogy of books about landscape and the human heart’ …, was published in June 2012

Landmarks, a book that celebrates and defends the language of landscape, was published in the UK in March 2015. …

I started Old Ways … Found it brilliant, eloquent, academic intimidating, dense. Too much for me, in fact. I didn’t finish.

It’s as much poetry as prose. 

Some day I’ll download all Macfarlane’s books to Kindle. Read them in the tent on a long, long, long hike.

I’m expecting an honorary PhD in the outdoors for that study. 🙂

 

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