websites – Page 8 – besthike.com

April 23, 2007

US National Parks Week

Is George Bush turning GREEN?

The entire national park system is in the news this week, as President Bush has designated April 22-29 as “National Park Week.”

Some might think it’s a somewhat curious time to celebrate the parks with a week-long celebration, as school is still in session and so families can’t easily visit the parks, and many of the northern Rockies parks are still cold and occasionally snowy, if not entering their mud season. …

National Parks Traveler: National Park Week

National Parks Traveller points to the Parks Service webpage listing special events by State: National Parks Week.

April 22, 2007

vote for YellowstonePark.com

I read a lot of bad news regarding US National Parks on The National Parks Traveler blog and, to a lesser extent, on the Park Remark blog.

Increasing user fees, inefficient management, corrupt political manoeuvring. It can be depressing.

Here’s some good news regarding a Yellowstone National Park tourism site:

A grungy layout meant to give a park feel does the job well, and bits and pieces also use flash to add effect and features. What surprised me was the the site is also up a Webby Award – not something many national parks find themselves looking to score.

Devlounge

Excellent!

A way to promote National Parks with the internet.

At first I thought this was the official Park site. Foolish me. Of course this is a private venture supported by advertising and sponsors.

The official government Yellowstone website is surprisingly good as well â€” but I immediately clicked into one of these:

Plan Your Visit

(Here’s the correct page: Plan Your Visit.)

Lets compare their two hiking pages:

Â» YellowstonePark.com: Top Things #5
Â» government site: Hiking in the Park

The government site comes out ahead.

Regardless, I will vote for YellowstonePark.com in the Webby Awards for Best Tourism Site. I like what they are trying to do. With podcasts, RSS feeds and video, it is a richer experience.

Independent National Parks websites have a greater chance, long term, of giving me the information I need to organizing for hiking. Government monopoly bureaucracies are far too inefficient to compete with the private sector in anything.

YellowstonePark.com

April 21, 2007

best hikes in Florida

If you travel to Canada, the BEST thing to do is get into the outdoors.

But when I travel to Florida, hiking is the LAST thing on my mind. (I’m on my way to Cirque du Soleil in Orlando.)

That’s a shame. There’s great hiking in Florida.

Guidebook author Sandy Friend recommends some of her personal favourites:

Florida Trail, Big Cypress National Preserve. Wading a watery wilderness festooned with tropical plants. Close to Miami.

Florida Trail, Ocala National Forest: Prairies and pines in the world’s largest sand pine scrub forest. Very popular.

Florida Trail, Suwannee River: 60mi clambering in and out of floodplain channels on high bluffs with giant trees.

Florida Trail, Eglin Air Force Base: Diverse habitats and coastal scenery.

Torreya Hiking Trail: Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Trail: Rugged ravines, bluffs, and ridgelines.

Garden of Eden Trail: Difficult day hike. Serious topography.

Citrus Hiking Trail: Great karst formations on a 43-mile loop. You can walk pack-on into one cave and explore many others.

Myakka Hiking Trail: Backpacking through broad open prairies in Central Florida

Florida Trail, Lake Okeechobee: More than 100mi around one of the nation’s largest lakes; great views the whole time.

This post is just an appetizer. If you really want to research hiking in Florida, get one of Sandy’s guidebooks:

50 Hikes in South Florida: Walks, Hikes, and Backpacking Trips in the Southern Florida Peninsula, First Edition

50 Hikes in Central Florida: Hikes, Walks, and Backpacks in the Heart of the Peninsula

50 Hikes in North Florida: Walks, Hikes, and Backpacking Trips in the Northern Florida Peninsula

Lake Okeechobee – FTA / Bob Coveney

April 19, 2007

Trekking Visions – best treks

Klaus & Sebastian are kindred spirits. Just weeks ago, they launched a terrific new site called Trekking Visions listing the world’s best hikes:

We are a team of two trekking lovers and we have a mission – to present you the best treks of the planet. Naturally it is an ongoing and never ending task but naturally this is part of the fun.

As of now this site is still in a very early stage with lots of data and information still missing. It’s quite an effort to collect all this and it will probably take the rest of 2007 to complete the site. So if you find the site to be a little premature you’re absolutely right – just give us a little time. Till then feel free to enjoy what we’ve prepared so far.

trekkingvisions – Home

Check their photo galleries.

They plan to add a blog with RSS feed and I will be first to subscribe. For now I’ve linked to Trekking Visions under WEBSITES in the right hand navigation.

April 11, 2007

check out Florida Hikes

Guidebook author Sandra Friend runs the Florida Hikes website. We’ve linked to it under WEBSITES on the right hand navigation.

She’s just revamped the site and it looks great.

Happily, Sandra will be advising besthike.com on the very best hikes in Florida. And will introduce us to other experts in the region.

She’s is always on the trail in Florida and networks with the SE hiking community. Sandra’s friends with Mike DeWitt of Florida Trail video fame.

Sandra got a good photo of Mike, exposing the fact that he is no ultralight walker:

Now hereâ€™s a real comparison in pack weight for long distance hikers. To the left, Mike â€œSmileageâ€ DeWitt, with a pack that many of us gals could crawl into and sleep in, itâ€™s so danged big. He wonâ€™t say but Iâ€™m guessing it tips the scales past 50 pounds. To the right, the esteemed Nimblewill Nomad and his pack, roughly 12 pounds with water. I split the difference when Iâ€™m hikingâ€¦.

floridahikes.com Â» Pack Weight

Florida Hikes! – website

Here’s just one of Sandra’s guidebooks:

50 Hikes in South Florida: Walks, Hikes, and Backpacking Trips in the Southern Florida Peninsula, First Edition

April 6, 2007

USA Trail links listed by State

I’m off to Utah on business soon, tempted to squeeze in a short hike.

But what’s the best way to research hikes close to Salt Lake City?

I could search Google:

NOT what I’m looking for. Google is still a pretty crude search tool.

Just at the right time Tom at Two-Heel Drive pointed me to the Slackpacker site.

Editor Rick Bolger posts hiking links by State. (With a musical recommendation to boot.)

Check out the Slackpacker Utah page. (Listen to Salt Lake City and Spirit of America by The Beach Boys)

There are some international hiking links as well. I’ll submit some recommendations.

Slackpacker.com

March 26, 2007

gear – hiking with kids

Many of our contributors stopped hiking nearly so much … AFTER they had children.

Others find a way to get out into the wild with their kids.

It’s getting easier. Stephen Gilfus let us know of a site catering to little hikers:

Taking your children with you into the backcountry can be an exciting and rewarding adventure for children and parents, alike.

… Most of the widely available products don’t meet the needs of little outdoor adventurers, kids backpacks are like book bags and most sleeping bags are for indoor use.

UpsideOver has worked hard to provide you with the best selection of kids camping gear and camping gear for kids!

You should equip your child with proper hiking footwear, socks like SmartWool, hiking poles for kids, and an appropriate outdoor kids sleeping bag. The quality of the pack for your child is also important. Think about other accessories like kids hiking poles and kids water bottles specifically sized for children.

UpSideOver.com

Actually, they are looking for family gear testers:

… recieve select gear at a fraction of the cost they would normally pay. … A huge discount (15% to 40% ) towards your purchase of the gear you are going to test and review.

Gear Reviews

And we like their impressive list of recommended books for hiking with kids including Best Hikes With Children in Arizona.

March 5, 2007

“Walking and Hiking in Europe”

“annie en hans” from the Netherlands contacted us about an excellent site called “Walking and Hiking in Europe”.

It seems to be an archive of walks completed over the years with brief summaries and a few small photos each.

Not all the links work in all browsers, but “Walking and Hiking in Europe” will be of interest to avid European hikers. It’s also posted in Dutch.

February 28, 2007

where’s the best hike?

The main purpose of this website is to:

list the best, most memorable hikes, long & short, in the world. Hikes that can change your life.

Most are challenging, multi-day adventures. But we also include the very best day hikes: the Tongariro Crossing (New Zealand) & Zion Narrows (USA), for example. We do not (yet) include off-trail scrambles or climbs.

This site helps you get started organizing the trek of a lifetime. The best guidebooks are listed to help you plan. (Be sure to get the most recent edition.)

Currently we are researching the best hikes on Earth adding an information page overview for each.

This is a work in progress. Can you help? Do you know of a fantastic hike that is not yet listed on this site? Did you notice any errors? If so, please e-mail us through contact links on every page.

This page is in the blog section. Here we post what’s new in the hiking world. Updates to our database of the world’s best hikes. And issues facing hikers.

February 21, 2007

Snowman Trek, Bhutan

Rogier Gruys is an expert on the West Coast Trail in Canada, the hike we rated #1 in the world. Rogier’s BluePeak Travel Photography pics of the WCT are still the best we’ve ever seen.

But Rogier likes the Snowman Trek even better.

Very few have ever done that long Himalayan trek (minimum 19 days) due to high cost (US$200 / day) and high risk.

The Snowman trek is the most difficult trek in Bhutan because one has to walk and camp at high altitude for nearly three weeks. As long as one has no problems with the high altitude and the weather is good, it is not a particularly difficult trek. But, if something were to happen along the way, someone would have to carry you down to the nearest house, or try to find a telephone to get a helicopter from Thimphu. Both are often several days’ walk. Initially, many people planned and wanted to go with us on the trek, but in the end they all bailed out and only two of us went.

Snowman trek description, Bhutan

BluePeak photo – high resolution version – flickr