The Trail can change you.
Click PLAY or watch it on Vimeo.
It’s impossible not to love this woman. 🙂
Polar bear attacks hiker
… pulled from his tent and attacked by a polar bear in Torngat Mountains National Park in northern Labrador.
Matt Dyer, a lawyer from Maine, was badly injured during the attack at around 1:30 a.m. AT on July 24. …
The bear ripped through the electric fence the group had set up around their campsite that night.
When the campers realized what was happening, they acted quickly and fired flares to try to scare the bear away. …
Parks Canada strongly advises visitors to hire an armed bear guard during their stay, but it is not mandatory.
The Inuit bear guards are hired through the Nunatsiavut base camp set up within the park.
However, Castaneda-Mendez said his group was never offered the armed bear guard, and said that the outfitter they hired insisted it was not necessary. He said his group was under the impression the portable electric fence was an adequate deterrent. …
related – Polar bear attack survivor played dead to save his life
NEW – GR 20 Corsica
We’ve posted a new information page on the GR 20 in Corsica, France.
I hiked the more difficult, rugged northern half in 2011.
… The trail (conceived by Michel Fabrikant back in 1970) is long (even if you walk half of it) and tough. Don’t underestimate it! You need to be fit, well trained but most of all you must be highly motivated. …
The path is basic: i.e. there actually is no real path underfoot for 98% of the time. So much that on many occasions if you don’t see the next waymark or cairn you won’t know where to go. Seriously. In addition to that forget the flat path you’re probably used to; most of the time you’ll walk on rugged and tormented terrain, rocks, stones galore, granite slabs … you get the idea. Get used to it. …
The huts are basic. If we leave out the minor exceptions of the decent buildings at Haut Asco and Castel de Verghio, the huts are small rudimentary (some of them) bergerie-style buildings with small suffocating dormitories …
My advice instead is to bring your own tent. …
AT A GLANCE
one of the best treks in the world- 180km
- 15 days (many hike only half)
- 19,000m of ascent and descent
- sleep in tents or mountain huts (refuges or gîtes)
- hiking permit not required. Reservations for the refuges recommended.
- located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the Italian island of Sardinia
read more – BestHike GR 20 information page
fastest PCT ever – Heather Anderson
High Country News:
Heather Anderson, 32, arrived in the dark around midnight on Aug. 7, exhausted and alone.
… she set two even more impressive records, becoming the fastest woman to hike the PCT (in 60 days), and the fastest self-supported hiker – male or female – breaking a 2011 record by nearly four days. …
HCN: What motivated you to try to set a speed record?
HA: I first thru-hiked the PCT in 2005, and it’s one of those funny things you think about while you’re out there. I saw people attempting speed records and wondered how fast I’d be. I like the idea of seeing how far I can push my body. (I had) a lot of fears and weaknesses that I wanted to address, and there had never been a woman that had done a self-supported attempt of this length. …
HCN: How many miles a day were you hiking?
HA: Between 40 and 50 miles every day. I hiked a lot in the dark. That was one of the challenges that I knew I wanted to overcome. I was scared of mountain lions, and I’ve always been terrified of being out at night. In the past, if it was starting to get dark and I hadn’t found a place to camp, I’d literally be running down the trail almost crying. So on this trip I made myself hike three or four hours each night. I saw four mountain lions. …
Red Rock Canyon, Waterton
trip report by site editor Rick McCharles
Three teens from Calgary SOMEHOW had never been to Waterton Lakes National Park, even though it’s only 3hrs drive from their homes.
Almost immediately we came upon 4 bears grazing the hillside.
Like adjacent Glacier National Park, Waterton is a great place to see wildlife.
Due to bear problems in the National Park campgrounds, tenting was not allowed at Crandell Mountain Campground in 2013. We decided to stay outside the Park at Crooked Creek.
We shared the Creek with a family of Beavers.
Red Rock Canyon is a classic day hike, an easy loop.
More adventurous is to follow the Canyon up the mountain for as long as possible.
The guys ended up scrambling over and under logs, getting wet and generally having a blast.
All and all, a pretty good introduction to the joys of Waterton National Park.
more Waterton photos
Crypt Lake trail
Highly recommended. 🙂
We had a terrific adventure.
The Crypt Lake Trail is one of the premium hikes in Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada. It is accessed by a dedicated ferry service operating from the Waterton Park Townsite. …
Voted “Canada’s Best Hike” in 1981 …
The crux comes at the top.
… ledge is about 50 cm wide, and continues over to a steel ladder and access to the tunnel. For nearly 100 ft you crawl through a natural mountain tunnel before arriving at the cable traverse. This section of the hike involves a scramble along a sheer cliff, with the assistance of a steel cable. …
The hike is a total of 17.2 km round trip, with a gradual 2,300-foot elevation gain. …
Wildflowers of Banff Park
By luck we ended up camping next to outdoors author / photographer Ian Wilson. He and wife Jacinthe Lavoie self-published Wildflowers of Banff Park in 2012.
Here’s a sample photo — a Western Wood Lily.
Click through to see a SAMPLE of the entire book online.
We bought 2 copies and some Scenic Wildflowers Cards.
Best trails near Banff for wildflowers:
Johnson Lake
Spray River
Sunshine Meadows
Healy Pass
Bourgeau Lake
Eiffel Lake
The Plain of Six Glaciers / Lake Agnes trail
Molar Pass
Helen Lake
Nigel Pass
details on WildflowersOfBanff.com
Actually, we met Ian near Waterton. They had been there for months researching their next book — Wildflowers of Waterton Park.
Looking forward to that one! 🙂
If you have any questions, comments, or would like information regarding book orders or special edition books, please email hyacinthpress@gmail.com
Waterton – Akamina Parkway Repair
On June 19, 2013, Waterton Lakes National Park received over 200 mm of rain in less than 24 hours, twice the amount which normally triggers a flood watch.
Most facilities that were damaged by the June 19 storm were quickly repaired and re-opened. This includes all campgrounds, most trails and bridges, the Red Rock Parkway and the sewage lagoons.
The Akamina Parkway sustained the heaviest damage … and repairs began July 1. …
The Akamina Parkway remains closed during reconstruction. …
read more – Akamina Parkway Repair Updates
We were there this past week. Akamina Parkway is still closed.
That means road access to about ⅓ of the most popular hikes in Waterton have been inaccessible this season.
That means I was once again not able to complete the Fantastic Four hiking challenge, a sponsor of this site. 😦
Akamina Parkway repairs have actually been going well. Everything will be open again for 2014.
Parks Canada operates three vehicle-accessible campgrounds in Waterton:
• Townsite Campground
• Crandell Mountain Campground
• Belly River Campground
Right now — due to BEAR activity — you can only tent at Townsite.
We wanted to tent so opted instead for Crooked Creek Campground outside the Park, privately-operated, less expensive.
best hammock shelter ever?
Looks like it to me.
The Nubé (new-bay) is more than just a hammock shelter, it’s a safe haven for you and your gear wherever you are.
With it’s patent pending 3 in 1 system the Nubé is the most complete hammock shelter ever produced.
The Nubé protects you from torrential down pours, pesky insects, and keeps your gear elevated and protected …
The Nubé is designed to be compatible with any camping hammock …
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Nubé Weight (no stakes): 2 lbs (0.90 kg)
Total Weight (with stakes): 2.24 lbs (1.01 kg)
kickstarter – Nubé the Perfected Hammock Shelter
by Sierra Madre Research
– Richard G. Rhett Jr.
This should be available next year. They’ve already raised more than triple the money needed to start production. 🙂
related – How to Set-Up the Nubé (VIDEO)
new Overland Track guidebook
The Overland in Tasmania is one of our top 10 hikes in the world.
Warwick Sprawson walked it three times while putting together this volume.
All the information you need to hike and enjoy Australia’s greatest walking track in one compact book:
• getting there and away
• geology and history of the area
• detailed track notes, simply laid out
• a comprehensive guide to flora and fauna, complemented by beautiful photos• a tough waterproof map.
It is gorgeous.
For details or to purchase the hiking guide go to OverlandGuide.com.
