GearJunkie contributing editor Jeff Kish is hiking the 1,200-mile Pacific Northwest Trail this summer.
Check one of Jeff’s photo rich trip reports – Alone With Lions: Thru-Hiking The ‘PNT’
Thanks Kolby.
#1 tool for your hikes?
Morry Banes surveyed hiking bloggers with a simple question:
What’s the no.1 tool for your hikes?
I like this answer better than my own:
Chad Poindexter from Sticksblog.com:
In my opinion, the “no. 1 tool for hikes” (for anyone) is the tool between their ears.
Before anyone steps out for a hike, a backpacking trip, or anything in which they will be away from immediate help, one should take the time to learn about what they are getting themselves into.
Look at maps, at weather forecasts, and how much use the area gets. …
read the rest – Experts Roundup – What’s the no.1 tool for your hikes?
Simien Mountains, Ethiopia
Once you’ve been up on the Roof of Africa in the Ethiopian Highlands, you won’t want to come down
Jemima Sissons:
… I spent my first few days in Ethiopia exploring the capital, Addis Ababa, then caught a flight to Gondar in the north, where I met Mulat and our driver, Melsie Nuru, and started preparing for our four-day, 50-kilometer trek across the Simien Mountains.
The Chinese-built roads make the three-hour drive to the base camp at Sankaber an easy whiz through lush pastures and past goat herds weaving their way across the road, oblivious to traffic. Soon the roads give way to dirt tracks, and after leaving the final village, the real adventure begins. It is unimaginable to contemplate this stretch without an SUV, as we lurch from side to side through unfathomably deep mud, on a number of occasions jolting within a hair’s breadth of the precipitous edge.
When the car finally stops, the cook and driver go off to set up camp, while my guide and I begin our trek. …
Wild Horses Monument, WA
The trail leads out of the parking area and climbs steeply to the fifteen surprisingly lifelike horse sculptures. These beauties stand on a bluff overlooking the Columbia River. Constructed out of welded steel plates, they are the work of Spokane artist David Govedare. The tempered steel ponies were put on the bluff in 1989 for Washington State’s Centennial Celebration. …
treking Iceland north to south
A short video showing some of the highlights of our traverse of Iceland during the summer of 2014. It took us 21 days to cross about 500km from the northern shore at Hraunhafnartangi to the southern coast at Skogar. …
We had 2 food parcels on the route – one in myvatn and another in landmannnalaugar. This meant the maximum amount of food we had to carry was 12 days giving a backpack weight of between 15 and 25kgs. We also got caught in a storm in the highlands midway through and had to use our SPOT device to get picked up by Iceland’s amazing Search and Rescue volunteers …
(via Hiking in Finland)
Grizzly v Hiker
Grizzly gets right of way.
besthike pics on the Overland
Embark used one of our Overland Track photos. Nice. 🙂
Hikers back from the Overland tell me that some of our pics are posted in the lodges. 🙂
The Overland is one of our top 10 hikes in the world.
Snoqualmie Falls Trail WA
Snoqualmie Falls is a 268 ft (82 m) waterfall on the Snoqualmie River between Snoqualmie and Fall City, Washington, USA. It is one of Washington’s most popular scenic attractions, but is perhaps best known internationally for its appearance in the cult television series Twin Peaks. More than 1.5 million visitors come to the Falls every year …
… the river trail descends 300 feet in half a mile passing though temperate rain forest with moss covered Bigleaf Maple, Douglas-fir, Sword Fern and Salal and places to step off the trail and rest or enjoy the scenery …
Jim Nix
Rattlesnake Ledge, WA
trip report by site editor Rick McCharles
Though I’d rushed through Snoqualmie Pass dozens of times over the years – to or from Seattle – this was the first time I’d ever stopped to hike.
4.0 miles, roundtrip
Gain: 1160ft
Highest Point: 2078ftNo pass or permit required. And, no, there are no rattlesnakes.
This is a fine hike on a well maintained, albeit busy trail through the forest with views of the Cedar River watershed, Mount Si, Mount Washington, Rattlesnake Lake and Chester Morse Lake.
As soon as you arrive in the parking lot you have a view of Rattlesnake Ledge’s sheer rock face across Rattlesnake Lake. At this point it seems amazing to think you will be up there by the end of your hike, but a look at a trail map will reveal some well-engineered switchbacks …
WTA – Rattlesnake Ledge
It’s super popular. Hikers. Dog walkers. I saw many trail runners. (I walked up. Ran down, myself.)
Careful. In 2009 two different hikers fell to their deaths.
related – A lookout of legendary proportions
‘String Bean’ crushes the PCT
A 23-year-old Seattle man has smashed the speed record for hiking the full length of the Pacific Crest Trail. Recent college grad Joe McConaughy crossed into Canada on Sunday, exactly 53 days, 6 hours and 37 minutes after leaving the Mexican border on the storied trail. McConaughy says he felt elation and disbelief at the finish of the 2,660 mile journey. …
There is no official time keeper for long distance trail records. McConaughy had a support team and a satellite tracking beacon to verify his time. He says he ran the downhill and flat sections and generally hiked the uphills.
Even McConaughy sounds astonished by the pace he maintained. “I can’t believe that I averaged 50 whole miles a day over some of the toughest mountains in the West …
Seattle Runner Smashes Speed Record For Full Length Of Pacific Crest Trail
Click PLAY or watch an interview en route, near Bend, Oregon.
The long distance hiking fraternity recognizes a separate record for trekking border to border alone, without an accompanying support team. Heather ‘Anish’ Anderson of Bellingham continues to own that record of 60 days, 17 hours.
(via Fedak)
besthike.com 