Posts

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planning for The Wonderland Trail

Trail Cooking has a terrific overview page on The Wonderland Trail around Mt. Rainier close to Seattle, Washington:

… I have seen a lot of chattering about hiking plans for this coming summer, more than usual, especially about the Wonderland Trail here in Washington – our gorgeous 93 miles loop around (well more like up and down) Rainier’s flanks.

With the El Nino weather pattern this winter settling in good since Fall 2010 could be a prime year for thinking about thru hiking it. The snow levels are much lower than usual meaning an earlier hiking season and or not walking on as much snow in the higher altitude sections. Much of the destruction that occurred back in fall of 2006 has been fixed as well. …

Trail Cooking & The Outdoors – Winter Daydreaming: Planning A Wonderland Trip

more Wonderland Trail photos by siolanthe

I’m dreaming of Wonderland myself.

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Inca Trail closed until April

Via The Adventure Blog I learned the bad news:

… the Instituto Nacional de Cultura (INC), the agency controlling the Inca Trail, has informed them that no one will be able to operate treks on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in March of this year due to the recent flooding.

INC will refund all permits purchased for trekking the Inca Trail in March. …

Detour

Actually, Machu Picchu may open. The Inca Trail itself will be closed.

If you were planning a trekking holiday in South America, don’t panic. Here are 4 alternatives in Peru we like better:

• Ausangate Circuit TOP 10
• Huayhuash Circuit
• Alpamayo
• Santa Cruz Trek

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Perky Jerky

Kate feels this disgusting product is just the thing to give a tired hiker a kick in the pants.

Perky Jerky is the world’s first all-natural performance enhancing meat snack. Put simply, we’ve combined the most tender and flavorful beef jerky, with an extra dose of energy (caffeine, from the Guarana we add) to provide a jerky experience you won’t find anywhere else.

Perky Jerky

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visit Aloba Arch, Chad

One of the top 10 natural arches in the world, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to travel to see it in Chad.

It’s one of the poorest countries in the world, literally in the middle of nowhere.

But I’d love to see remote Aloba Arch, always included on lists of the Most Incredible Natural Arches On Earth.

Span: 77m; Height: 120m
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America’s 10 Most Spectacular Day Hiking Areas

Camping Tourist has a post somewhat misnamed – 10 America’s Most Spectacular Day Hikes

I like their choices, however.


Mt. Katahdin, Baxter State Park, Maine

Coyote Gulch, Escalante Subdistrict, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Utah

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Naples, Florida

Grayson Highlands State Park, Virginia

Lost Coast, King Range National Conservation Area, Northern California

Maroon Bells Snowmass Wilderness, White River National Forest, Colorado

Mount St. Helens, Washington

Na Pali Coast State Wilderness Park, Kauai, Hawaii

Wrangell St Elias National Park, Kennecott District, Alaska

Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, California

click through for details and photos – America’s Most Spectacular Day Hikes

Mount St Helens

As an aside, I note that the text from that post has been stolen and reposted on several other sites.

That’s a shame.

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why haven’t I hiked Crater Lake?

Crater Lake is a caldera lake located in the south-central region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and famous for its deep blue color and water clarity. …

I kicked myself for driving past, in the past, after I watched this video. It looks superb.

[clearspring_widget title=”Beautiful Places in HD” wid=”4818aa96925a19fd” pid=”4b685d30201387a6″ width=”425″ height=”271″ domain=”widgets.clearspring.com”]

Tony’s show is one of the top ranked video podcasts on iTunes in the “Places & Travel” section. The easiest way to get every one is to subscribe on iTunes. It’s free.

But you can check out the other videos first on the official website – Beautiful Places in HD.

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Santa hikes the Grand Canyon

Hank Leukart calls his Without Baggage blog posts “Essays“.

Magazine quality writing. One of my favourite sites.

I’m one of those readers who believes Hank’s secret motto is, “Whoever dies on the craziest, most dangerous adventure, wins,”

This time Hank was frustrated he couldn’t get a permit to hike the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim.

Solution? Do it late December when no sane person would want a permit. Who cares that the North Rim is closed in winter.

Starting at the south rim Bright Angel Trailhead, Hank and his brother couldn’t find the biggest hole in the U.S.A. with both hands. They were lost immediately. Not an auspicious start.

And why not put a Santa Claus suit in with your lightweight winter camping gear?

Why not?

In the end, it turned out that the Santa suit was the best decision they made.

… Early the next morning, Brian puts on the Santa suit and goes to fill his Camelbak with water. A twenty-something-year-old woman interrupts him.

“Santa! Do you mind if I sit on your lap and get a picture?” she asks.

“Of course not,” my brother says. “It’s my job.”

Highly recommended.

part 1 – santa claus snowshoes the grand canyon, rim to rim to rim.

part 2 – hiking in santa claus’s bright celebrity spotlight.

part 3 – how i came to believe in santa claus.

… hardest single trekking day of their lives …

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Fire Rainbow in the sky

The atmospheric phenomenon known as a circumhorizon(tal) arc, or “Fire rainbow”, appears when the sun is high in the sky (i.e., higher than 58° above the horizon), and its light passes through diaphanous, high-altitude cirrus clouds made up of hexagonal plate crystals. Sunlight entering the crystals’ vertical side faces and leaving through their bottom faces is refracted (as through a prism) and separated into an array of visible colors.

When the plate crystals in cirrus clouds are aligned optimally (i.e., with their faces parallel to the ground), the resulting display is a brilliant spectrum of colors reminiscent of a rainbow.

The example shown above was captured on camera as it hung for about an hour across a several-hundred square mile area of sky above northern Idaho (near the Washington border) on 3 June 2006. …

Oddee

Snopes confirms this is for real.