Best hikes, treks, tramps in the world.
On The Adventure Blog, Kraig linked through to a terrific hiking site:
screenshot
Click through to the interactive map on Adventure Zone. You will be impressed with the amount and detail of information on hiking in Namibia, Swaziland and South Africa available.
My #1 destination in South Africa is the Drakensberg. But clearly there are many, many more great hikes.
There are manuals on “how to build trails”.
I wish the guys who built Canyon Trail on Kauai, Hawaii had read one.
Have you seen this “danger” on the hiking trail in the past?
The spikes are used to hold the step logs in place. Works great … until the rains come.
Here the kids were simulating a “worst case scenario” injury.
Shout out to my old friend Greg Kolodziejzyk.
He made a fortune in the early days of the internet selling fonts to Adobe. Went on to more successful business ventures.
But these days Greg’s passion is extreme adventure. He wants “To conquer the world by human power.”
He has several sites including these two:
Adventures of Greg Pedal the Ocean
Here’s a Discovery Channel interview describing Greg’s world record attempt to cross the Atlantic by pedal power.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
You’ll see he’s still in the testing phase of the home-made craft. Greg’s trip is scheduled to start in December this year, and is expected to take around 40 days.
He’s considering alternative itineraries, including Canada to Hawaii. Since I’m enjoying the “Garden Isle” of Kaua’i so much right now — my vote is for Hawaii.
Good luck buddy!
(via Straight to the Bar)
The most popular way to see the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific” is Canyon Trail, 3.6mi (5.8km) with a short side trip on Cliff Trail to the lookout.
The goal is Waipoo Falls where Kokee Stream drops into the canyon.
I thought the “moderate difficulty” trail might be a bit much for the kids, but there is so much to do and see, they were entertained throughout.
Our only problem was worrying about any of them falling hundreds of feet off the edge of the cliff.
In the end, they all made it back to the trailhead, almost under their own steam.
more photos of our Waimea Canyon Trail hike – flickr
Guidebook: Hiking Kauai, the Garden Isle
Will this help open up the country to independent hikers?
A political party seen as the more royalist of two groups seeking power swept the first parliamentary elections ever held in this secluded Himalayan kingdom, Bhutan’s election commissioner said Monday.
The Bhutan Peace and Prosperity Party took 44 of the 47 seats in the new parliament, Election Commissioner Kunzang Wangdi said. …
Turnout was slightly more than 79 percent of the 320,000 registered voters, Wangdi said. Even in remote corners of the largely rural country — in tiny hamlets where voting machines were delivered by yak — the election went smoothly, officials said. …
The vote ended more than a century of absolute monarchy in the mountainous land long known as a quirky holdout from modernity, allowing television and the Internet only in 1999.
The election came with a twist: It was the king, not the people, who pressed for democracy. …
photo Paula Bronstein/Getty Images – About.com
The only person more excited than me about the new North Coast Trail on Vancouver Island, Canada, is BluePeak editor Rogier Gruys.
Rogier linked to an article in Wild Coast Magazine in which the authors claim the NCT is even better than the famed WCT, our #1 hike in the world.
High praise!
We’ll need to hike the North Coast Trail during the summer of 2008 to see for ourselves. The article includes an excellent map:
screenshot – original
Don’t start packing yet. The official website today still states:
The Trail is not complete. Hikers are requested to avoid using any part of the route until after construction is finished.
I’ve finally done it.
Made the trekker’s pilgrimage to the volcanic island of KauaÊ»i (also spelled Kauai). My first trip.
There are more miles of hiking trails here than on the rest of Hawaiian islands combined. It’s the “Garden Isle”. The one used in the opening fly-in scene for Jurassic Park.
The most useful website I’ve found is Hawaii Trails:
The second highest peak is Mount WaiÊ»aleÊ»ale near the center of the island, one of the wettest spots on Earth with an annual average rainfall of 460in (11.7m). The resulting floods have eroded deep canyons, including what Mark Twain dubbed the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific” — Waimea Canyon, 10mi (16km) long and up to 3000ft (900m) deep.
We’ll head first to Waimea. I’m using Robert Smith’s hiking guidebook:
Tornado, Rockwell Pass, Sequoia National Park, California, July 7, 2004.
Elevation at Rockwell Pass: ~11,600 feet. Base of tornado at ground level probably at least at 12,000 feet.
Scott Newton, 2004
Scott Newton, 2004
details and more photos
We had hail and lightning on the John Muir trail in 2007 at very high elevations. But certainly nothing like a tornado.
Scary stuff.
Thanks Rocco for forwarding the link.
There’s a move under way in the U.S. Senate to have Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne reverse the National Park Service’s ban against the public carrying concealed weapons in the national parks. …
The president of the Association of National Park Rangers responded that Kempthorne’s rationale is “hypocritical in some cases and just plain wrong in others,” …
There is a very amusing audiocast currently playing on The Official Parody Site of George Bush’s Weekly Radio Address. Playing only for 1wk.
From National Park Traveler:
Grand Teton National Park … beginning this Saturday, March 15, all backpackers camping below 10,000 feet in the park’s backcountry will be required to use approved, portable bear-proof canisters for food storage—except at certain designated backcountry campsites where food storage facilities are provided.
Although food canisters are not required for areas above 10,000 feet, proper food storage will still be compulsory in those locations. It doesn’t sound as if rangers will allow you to use the Ursack or UrsaLite food storage systems. …
Bear-Proof Food Canisters Mandatory for Most Backcountry Travel in Grand Teton National Park
Steve Sergeant of the Wildebeat is an expert. In a comment on that post:
Bear-resistant food canisters are also required in most of Sequoia/Kings-Canyon National Park as well. In addition, large areas of wilderness on Forest Service land in the Sierra Nevada also require you to use such canisters.
We explored the history and effectiveness of bear cans in a two-part edition of the WildeBeat:
The Story of Bear Cans, part 1
The Story of Bear Cans, part 2
Personally, I have learned to love my canister. I often take it on hikes even when not required. The extra weight is often worth the convenience.
This is the one I use:
besthike.com 