From Allie Comeau on the Sierra Trading Post blog:
According to reports, he’s taking Katie Holmes and their daughter, Suri, on a cross-country camping trip this summer.
Photo Credit: Vanity Fair, 2006
… they’re bringing along a team of bodyguards and a Scientology advisor so they’ll be traveling in more of a troupe than a family (but at least they won’t have to worry about bears). …
From an excellent article by hiking author John McKinney:
“Walk out the door and find good health. There is no fever that a 10-mile hike can’t cure,” suggests Garrison Keillor, the wry host of National Public Radio’s Prairie Home Companion.
Millions of Americans who like to hike believe that hiking contributes to good physical and mental health. And yet, until recently, nearly all evidence offered for the benefits of taking a hike was anecdotal, and very little hiking-specific scientific research supported that belief.
hiking Mt. Washington, BC by ski lift
In 2004, Austrian researchers announced the results of an intriguing study demonstrating that different types of hiking have different influences on the fats and sugars in the blood. For the study, one group hiked up a ski resort mountain in the Alps and descended by cable car, while the other group rode the cable car up and hiked down. After two months of hiking, the groups switched hiking programs and repeated the experiment.
As expected, hiking uphill proved to be a great workout and provided measurable health benefits. Unexpectedly, researchers from the Vorarlberg Institute for Vascular Investigation and Treatment discovered that hiking downhill also has unique benefits.
Both uphill and downhill hiking reduced LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. Only hiking uphill reduced triglyceride levels. The study’s surprise finding was that hiking downhill was nearly twice as effective as uphill hiking at removing blood sugars and improving glucose tolerance. A second study of uphill/downhill hiking was conducted this summer, but results have yet to be announced.
Book fast if you want one of the 30 spots. Late July 2009.
It’s a fund-raiser for the trail association.
Hiking a long-distance trail from end to end in one push, or thru-hiking, is a badge of honor for those who have accomplished such a feat. It takes a lot of planning to coordinate food, water, campsites, and the like. Plus, you have to be extremely fit to carry your lodging and all of your food on your back for days on end.
But there’s a great way to get a similar experience without sacrificing all of your weekends to planning from now through May. The Tahoe Rim Trail Association, steward to the 165-mile Tahoe Rim Trail in Nevada and California, is offering people the chance to participate in a 15-day guided thru-hike with support in the way of food and other supplies. You’ll still need to be in good shape and carry a backpack with personal gear and one- or two-days’ worth of food and water. But that’s pretty cushy, by most thru-hikers’ standards. …
I’ve come to do the legendary Zuni Acoma trail, famous for hard going and rugged terrain as it traverses ridge after ridge of charcoal colored lava flows. The route also makes up a section of the 3,100 mile Continental Divide Trail, running from Canada to Mexico.
I’m fortunate to be hiking with Bureau of Land Management ranger Karen Davis, an Acoma Indian, and park ranger Susan Olin. I’m eager to learn as much as I can about the cultural elements in this part of New Mexico, a place that has seen 10,000 years of human habitation, but where, ironically, the peak population actually occurred around 1000 AD, when nearby Chaco was in it’s hey day. And I’ve got a lot to learn about the natural history in this quirky place where volcanic vents, spatter cones, sandstone arches and elaborate cave systems add variety to the usual New Mexican lodgepole forests and pinion trees. Having experts along will add a crucial element to this journey. …
In celebration of its 40th anniversary, Mountain Travel Sobek is doling out 40 free adventures. Travelers who book a trip by Apr. 17 can bring a friend for free. Destinations include: Machu Picchu, Morocco, the Swiss Alps, and more.
The Norwegian Trekking Association has a nice website: English, German and Norwegian.
Today, DNT is Norway’s largest outdoor life organization, with more than 210,000 members (2006) in 55 some local member organisations across the country, from Kristiansand in the south to the North Cape in the north. …
The local member associations operate cabins, mark routes and ski tracks and arrange trips and courses. Together they maintain a network of about 20,000 km of marked foot trails and about 7000 km of branch-marked ski tracks. DNT activities are based on extensive volunteer work. Each year, volunteers together work more than 175,000 hours. …
Here’s their information on arguably the most popular walk in the country, the Besseggen traverse:
More than 30 thousand hikers traverse Besseggen each year, making it Norway’s most trekked route. With good reason. The splendid view of the wild Jotunheimen and steep trails imbue a feeling of having mastered the mountain. The hike isn’t particularly difficult or exposed, but it’s airy, with lake Gjende 400 metres below on the south side and Bessvatn a few metres below on the north side. When you’ve also gone up the gigantic Bukkelægret scree slope, you’ve had a real hike. …
click photo for more padraic woods photos on flickr
Smiths Medical today announced the opening of a new high altitude medical laboratory. Located at 11,154 ft (3,400m) on Mount Everest’s slope, Smiths Medical High Altitude Laboratory’s initial research will include studying nine healthy British kids and how they react to a low oxygen environment. …
A growing number of unclad hikers are wandering the Alps, near Appenzell. Some Swiss legal experts say that banning nudity in public would be unconstitutional.
In recent years, it has become fashionable for a growing number of Swiss and some foreigners to wander in the Alps clad in little more than hiking shoes and sun screen. Last summer, the number of nude hikers increased to such an extent that the hills often seemed alive with the sound of everything but the swish of trousers. …
