An excellent 2015 video from the World Wildlife Fund.
Should you be in the Office? … Or in the outdoors?
Click PLAY or watch it on Vimeo.
What’s the point of ADVENTURE?
Alastair Humphreys believes we should live a little more adventurously:
When I first got a taste for adventure it was simply for the fun of it. Climbing hills and looking around at the view from the top, riding a mountain bike downhill as fast as you can, leaning hard in a heeling dinghy: these things are fun and exciting …
By the time I was in my 20’s, however, my relationship with adventure had changed. “It doesn’t have to be fun to be fun” was my mantra. “Miles not smiles!” …
Adventure became about the challenge. Pushing my body and my mind …
After the masochistic personal challenges came the curiosity phase. I wonder if it’s possible to hitch a lift on a yacht across the Atlantic? What is running an ultramarathon in the Sahara like? Can I go have a look at life in a random part of India, far from the nearest tourist hotspot? …
The answer, time after time, was ‘yes’. …
not a beautiful hiking video
Kolby Kirk really likes this Pacific Crest Trail video by Peter H from Austria. A skillful edit.
Click PLAY or watch it on Vimeo. (10min)
solo female hikers
Hayley Littleton:
… I found the solitary joys of camping and being alone on the trail. Driving up the dark switchbacks in the night, I’d climb into my sleeping bag in the back of my car and wake up to the first rays of sunlight jutting out over the peaks. Shuffling into my boots and slinging a pack across my back, I ventured out in the crisp, quiet stillness. …
related – In Praise of Walks and Wilderness
man and dog 60 days off-trail
Ace Kvale turned 60 last fall, and to celebrate, he planned a 60-day, off-trail backpacking trip around Utah’s Canyon Country, leaving from his front door.
He had a dozen friends join him for different sections of the trip, and one friend who joined him for the whole thing: his blue heeler, 10-year-old Genghis Khan aka ‘Desert Dog’. …
Click PLAY or watch it on Vimeo.
related – Desert Dawg Adventure Blawg
(via Outside)
Epic Grand Canyon Hike
Have you been following Peter McBride & Kevin Fedarko?
Epic Grand Canyon Hike: A 650-Mile Challenge (Part 1)
Epic Grand Canyon Hike: Frozen Shoes and Low on Food (Part 2)
I liked the 3rd and final instalment best.
Click PLAY or watch Thirst and Threats in the Godscape on YouTube.
Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart …
An Adventure on the Pacific Crest Trail by Carrot Quinn
I’ve read a number of books on the PCT. I believe this is my favourite.
Carrot Quinn was raised in Alaska on welfare by a schizophrenic single mother. A rough life. In fact, she became a hobo riding the rails.
This book reads as a blog. That’s because it started as blog posts from the trail.
If you are one of those who disliked Cheryl Strayed’s memoir Wild … because it had too little actual hiking … know that this extended trip report is all about the hiking. 🙂
It’s funny. It’s real. It’s surprising. Carrot makes no apologies.She’s a big advocate of trail romance. Even sex.
I’ll certainly buy any of her other books that get released on audio.
related – Carrot did not love the Continental Divide Trail. She did love the Hayduke Route.
Dave Adlard on Adventure Sports
So, people ask me about this “adventure racing thing,” (and the mountaineering thing, and long hiking and, and…😉 ) and “the thing” is, many people have heard about it. About people who do this crazy race, or climb this or that hill, taking time out of their “normal” lives to traipse through the wilderness, maybe for a few hours, maybe for longer than a week straight, and a few crazy folks will think “YES. That. I want to do that.”
That’s how I started…
You write a blog. You post photos of breathtaking landscapes that most people will never see in a lifetime. The sunrise above the clouds, from 14,000 feet, with the shadow of the mountain stretching hundreds of miles behind you. Remote places you can’t drive to or even reach with a four-wheeler. Jaw-dropping scenes like these were a huge part of the allure of doing a race, or climbing that mountain. But when you were actually out there, you discovered it was so much more. The sum of so many things impossible to capture in a photograph. …
On Racing or Climbing, and why I do them…
Why spend MONEY on a hiking holiday?
Psychology Professor Thomas Gilovich from Cornell University has made four studies on the subject over decades and came to the conclusion that happiness is derived from experiences, not things. …
Experiences also reflect more of who we really are. They are closer to our inner selves as we are, according to Gilovich, “the sum total of all our experiences.” And as such, when they are shared, experiences allow us to get closer to others in a way impossible with inanimate objects that we can buy. …
Want Happiness? Buy Experiences, Not Things, Says a Cornell Psychologist
Don’t date a girl who treks
Brown Gal Trekker:
… For she lives life to the fullest
If you cannot catch up to her when she flies
Then don’t think she’d even shed a single tear
If you tell her goodbye
Don’t date a girl who treks
She will go exploring on her own when her heart so desires …
Click through to read the entire poem. It’s dedicated to all solo (or otherwise) female trekkers of the world.
