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where NOT to hike – Saul, French Guyana

Two French hikers who got lost in thick jungle in French Guiana survived for seven weeks by consuming turtle meat, big hairy spiders and river water.

The men were rescued on Thursday, exhausted and dehydrated.

Loic Pillois and Guilhem Nayral disappeared on 14 February, having set off from the Grand Kanori rapids bound for the village of Saul.

Guilhem’s brother Gilles said “they ate palm seeds, insects, mygales (big spiders) and two turtles” to survive.

Mr Pillois, 34, emerged at Saul at 1000 (1300 GMT) on Thursday and told the authorities that his friend Guilhem, 34, was about six hours’ walk away to the south, the French news agency AFP reported.

Rescuers found him and brought him out by helicopter. One of them, gendarme Martin Andre, said Guilhem was “stretched out on the ground, completely exhausted, very thin, dehydrated”.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Lost Frenchmen ate jungle spiders

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original map – Lonely Planet

(via WildrLog)

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trekking in Laos

Though jungle treks have been popular in northern Thailand for decades, similar adventures in Laos are just starting to get popular.

Justine Vaisutis, Lonely Planet travel guidebook writer, published a brief article.

In a pocket of the world renowned for package holidays, shoestring extravagance and faux bling, Laos remains an unadulterated enigma. It’s the ideal asylum for fugitives from urban routine, with the majestic curves of Luang Nam Tha Province offering the best refuge of all.

Hemmed in by the mighty Mekong to the west and China’s great girth to the north, this province devotes almost a third of its ground cover to the Nam Ha National Protected Area — 550,000 acres of untamed forest.

The jungle, mountains, waterfalls, rivers and lofty plateaus in this conservation area, coupled with the culture of some 30 ethnic groups, created the ideal canvas for hiking, which in this densely forested region translates to “eco-trekking” — one of those phrases often hijacked by wily sharks with eyes for the tourist trends and appetites for commerce. …

I’m joined by seven fellow trekkers on my two-day escapade. Our destination is Ban Nam Lai, a small Akha village tucked high in the folds of a mountain. The Akha are woodsmen, and their affinity with the forest is legendary. Our multilingual guides each lead a trek once a month, sharing the vocation with 30 others, a number that ensures the tourist wealth is evenly spread and that no one discards his or her traditional source of income….

The progress and the crowds are inevitable, but we have a quiet faith that Nam Ha is destined for years of preservation yet.

Trek though jungles, mountains of Laos

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source – Flickr – Mat Honan

(via Two-Heel Drive)

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new language translation on this site

We’ve added the Google web page translation service and placed it in a more prominent position than our old AltaVista Bablefish link. Click on the desired flag near the top of the navigation column.

(I know how frustrated I get trying to translate wonderful trip report from another language.)

Since the scope of besthike.com is world-wide, we wanted to make it as easy as possible for non-English speakers to read this blog.

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example – Mandarin

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unbelievable cloud photos

Last September we posted rare “Mammatus” cloud photos.

Many of those same pics are in a larger, better collection of cloud and wind photos posted by the always interesting Dark Roasted Blend photo blog.

If you love great sky vistas — and what hiker doesn’t — check out Mammatus, Lenticular & Other Extreme Clouds.

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best section of the Colorado Trail?

Running 479mi from Denver to Durango, the Colorado Trail is a classic. It shares about 200mi with the CDT.

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planning – ColoradoTrail.org

For those of us who do not have a long month, what’s the best section?

Outdoor Magazine recommends:

… concentrate your efforts during a ten-day romp along a remote 95-mile ribbon that runs just east of San Luis Peak to Molas Pass, in the southwestern part of the state.

Start at Spring Creek Pass, 33 miles northwest of Creede amid the 13,000-foot-plus San Juan Mountains. Plan on grinding up to 15 miles a day along airy ridges, down steep gorges, and up winding switchbacks.

You’ll spend four days cruising above tree line, at nearly 12,000 feet, and the closest you’ll come to a town (Lake City) is about 17 miles, which means tackling thousands of vertical feet each day with a heavy pack.

Take a break and frolic in Snow Mesa, a flat, grassy expanse so huge it takes a few hours to cross.

Outdoor

Sounds great. We’ve added San Luis Pass to Molas Pass to our list of the best hikes of the world.

ColoradoTrail.org calls it Section 6 – San Luis Pass to Molas Pass (advanced difficulty).

Next, what’s the best guidebook?

The Official Guidebook (Colorado Mountain Club Guidebooks)

Colorado Trail: The Official Guidebook (Colorado Mountain Club Guidebooks)

Get packing!

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wet feet trekking Greenland

Christian Davies from Denmark recounts a 180km (112mi) trek from Kangerlussuaq (Sdr. Stromfjord) to Sisimiut (formely Holsteinsborg) on the west coast of Greenland.

One hiker had to be left behind.

His feet were all swollen and had deep blisters. Although we were so close to our destination we couldn’t tell for sure how long time, it would take to walk the last part of it.

The pace was about 1 km/h and it could be even lower for the last part. We shared our rations and made sure that he had food for 4 days and we all said goodbye to him. That was one of the most surrealistic thing I ever have experienced.

To finish the story shortly, everything went well and we got to the town. The one we left was brought home on a snowmobile by one of the locals in town.

After all this struggle and all these days with wet feets and the freeze dried food, I still miss that magical moment from that time. Non of us will never forget what we experienced together.

As for the picture goes, it shows a moment where we all were very tired and a bit exhausted, but there was still energy to take pictures and enjoy the moment.

Live Your Life

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USA Trail links listed by State

I’m off to Utah on business soon, tempted to squeeze in a short hike.

But what’s the best way to research hikes close to Salt Lake City?

I could search Google:

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NOT what I’m looking for. Google is still a pretty crude search tool.

Just at the right time Tom at Two-Heel Drive pointed me to the Slackpacker site.

Editor Rick Bolger posts hiking links by State. (With a musical recommendation to boot.)

Check out the Slackpacker Utah page. (Listen to Salt Lake City and Spirit of America by The Beach Boys)

There are some international hiking links as well. I’ll submit some recommendations.

Slackpacker.com

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great photos – Mono Andes

Mono Andes from Concepción, Chile is a big time outdoors photographer on flickr.

Here are just a few of his great photos.

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Volcano Villarrica

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Descanso

more Mono Andes HIGHLIGHT photos – flickr

He’s using every feature of flickr, including geotagging.

Here’s the map of his Araucanía photo set:

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source – flickr

You can see those photos and interact with the map on his Andes – Araucanía set page.

A couple more, to inspire a trip to Chile.

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source

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source

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trekking in Oman

locationoman.pngUntil recently I had never heard of hiking in Oman on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. .

Turns out there are excellent treks there.

I’ve subscribed to the Oman Expat blog. (Trekking category.)

It recommends the Trekking in Oman website:

The trekking season is generally from September to May, but the best period is October to April. Above 1,900 meter altitude trekking is possible all year round. The countryside is mostly rugged and the trails are loose, but trekking is by far the best way to enjoy Oman’s spectacular mountain-landscape.

Different types of trips with varying degrees of difficulty can be done; from the easy start in the Capital Area to the stunning Rim Walk in the Grand Canyon of Jabal Shams.

Trekking in Oman

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Grand Canyon of Jabal Shams – Oman Expat

There are even a couple of hiking guidebooks available:

• Adventure Trekking in Oman
• Oman Trekking Guide

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do you carry an MP3 player on the trail?

I’m often embarrassed to admit I do.

But look at this. Crow is up front with her electronic dependence.

For the upcoming PCT trip I’m bringing the iriver T10 2gb MP3 player with fm radio. It weighs 1.7 ounces 48 grams without battery. It has a little clip to clip it on to anything or clip it on to the neck lanyard it comes with.

… one AA battery; the battery is supposed to last 45 hours. I put a lithium battery in it because it is lighter and last longer then a regular battery, so I’m thinking maybe it will last 100 hours on one battery.

If I super compress my files, I think I can get 100 hours of stuff on it. It also records, so a person could record their thoughts along the way with the built in microphone.

… I have ordered a pair of Sony MDR-ED21LP Fontopia In-The-Ear Headphones …

… Last summer, my son downloaded, for me, 300 hours of “This American Life”, a NPR radio documentary show. Sadly I have listened to all 300 hours—twice. But that would have made great listening, on the trail.

For music on the trail, I find folk, country and show tunes the most effective hiking music, with most stuff by Johnny Cash being about the most perfect hiking tempo.

As The Crow Flies» Blog Archive » Radios and mp3 players for the long distance hiker.

I’ve carried a Rio Cali for years, finally losing it atop the highest mountain in Tasmania.

Apple 4 GB iPod Nano AAC/MP3 Player - Silver (2nd Generation)After some research I opted for an iPod Nano. The proprietary battery is a problem — but I plan to get the portable charger, as well.

Another planned add-on is the Griffin iTalk microphone.

I mostly listen to audio podcasts (BBC, CBC, NPR, TWIT, etc.) as well as books on MP3.

I only listen on the trail when I REALLY need it. But in the tent at night the MP3 is a Godsend.

What about you? Do you carry an MP3? What do you listen to?

Leave a comment below.