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NEW podcast – Cicerone Hiking guidebooks

As publishers of nearly 400 outdoor travel guidebooks, Cicerone Press are a specialist team who love the outdoors and want to inspire and guide you on your next outdoor adventure.

In this episode, hosts Amy Hodkin and Hannah Stevenson introduce themselves and speak to Joe Williams about the history of Cicerone, our team of expert authors and the areas and activities covered in Cicerone guidebooks.

Whether walking, cycling, trekking, scrambling, mountain biking, running or skiing, Cicerone offers guidebooks written, edited and tested by outdoor experts.

Find out more and view our full range of guidebooks on the Cicerone website, www.cicerone.co.uk.

https://player.acast.com/cicerone-podcast/episodes/an-introduction-to-cicerone

You can also search for @CiceronePress on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and join our Facebook community group, Cicerone Connect.

I used their Aconcagua guidebook, for example, when hiking independently to French Base Camp.

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2020 VIRTUAL Banff Mountain Festival begins

2020 Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival is going virtual.

October 31 – November 8, 2020.

75 films. 40 events including curated film programs, authors and guest speakers.

One price, but you can enjoy the Festival with friends & family..

Details.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Photo by Andre Furtado on Pexels.com
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Hiking Strathcona Park on Vancouver Island

Here’s our list of the best hikes in Strathcona, so far:

I spent over 3 weeks hiking Strathcona Provincial Park on Vancouver Island June – October 2020.

Fantastic.

The real experts on this park are Mike Blake and his team at MB Guiding.

If you are looking to organized a guide trip — climbing the Golden Hinde, for example — go with MB Guiding.

If you’ve never been to Strathcona before, easiest access is via the Paradise Meadows trailhead out of Courtney / Comox which gives easy access to the Forbidden Plateau.

Well signed, well organized, well maintained, there are loops of increasing difficulty depending on your time and the weather.

One loop is wheelchair accessible, for example.

There are trails ideal for kids, as well.

Three campsites on the Forbidden plateau are first-come, first-served. Great value at CAD $10 / person / night.

If you want to tent, I’d recommend you head for the furtherest campsite – Circlet Lake.

From there are fantastic day hikes to Moat Lake, Castlecrag and/or Mt Albert Edward.

There are even better trails in Strathcona in the more remote section of the park around Buttle Lake. That’s where you find the main car campgrounds.

My favourite was Cream Lake via the Bedwell Lakes trails.

Cream Lake

Nearly as good for me was Elk River with a tough side trip up to Elk Pass.

Landslide Lake

There are many, many more great hikes, of course, well documented in the best hiking guidebook – Exploring Strathcona Park by Stone.

I’ll return to do more.

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Seal Bay, Courtenay, British Columbia

Trip report by BestHike editor Rick McCharles.

Seal Bay Regional Nature Park, Courtenay, B.C. offers some of the best walking in the Comox valley.

Easy access. A city bus gets you to the trailhead.

Many of the trails are hikers only. A few allow bikes and horse.

Click PLAY or get a glimpse on YouTube.

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Hiking with a TRAILER rather than Backpack

– Easy transportation of luggage on bus, train or airplane

– Prevent common hiking injuries from carrying weight

– Easy to manoeuvre on a variety of terrain

– Easy to handle on steep and rocky ascents and descents

– Ergonomically designed for easy of use and hiking with an armrest

– Holds enough gear to support one, two or three hikers

– Easy to take apart and reassemble

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Radical Design made that one. Not inexpensive.

This father and son walked Camino de Santiago keeping the gear for both in one trailer. 40KG is maximum load.

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Hiking Della Falls, Vancouver Island

Della Falls is located within Strathcona Provincial Park on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. … total height of 440 m (1,440 ft).  

The Canadian Government recognizes Della Falls as the tallest officially measured waterfall. That’s certainly not correct. James Bruce Falls in B.C. is much taller by any criteria, for one.

Meg Cuthbert:

Access: Boat access only, from the far end of Grand Central Lake near Port Alberni.

Canoe Distance: The canoe from Scout Beach Recreation Site is about 20 kilometres, the lake is tip-to-tip 35 kilometres long.

Hike Distance: 16 kilometres one-way from the trail head to Della Falls.

Canoe Difficulty: The wind on the lake tends to pick up in the afternoon, so at times the paddle was quite difficult. Be prepared to lock it in.

Hike Difficulty: The hike is a moderate difficulty, mostly due to the pack on your back. The elevation gain over the 16 kilometres is only 350 metres

Her group paddled in by canoe.

Read her 2019 trip report – Della Falls – Canoe, Hike, Canoe

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Most hikers book rides on the Della Falls Water Taxi. Both ways.

The real experts on Strathcona Provincial Park are MB Guiding. If you want to hire a guide or get up-to-date information, be sure to check their Della Falls page:

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Camping in the Rain

Any idiot can tent in perfect weather.

To stay comfortable in the rain requires the right gear. And skills.

1. Plan for Rain

4. Clothing Layers

5. Bring Waterproof Bags

7. Pick a Good Tent Site

Click through for more:

Camping in the Rain: 10 Tips to Stay Warm and Dry

Photo by Sangeet Rao on Pexels.com
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MountainLion.org on that cougar encounter

Mountain lions are much less dangerous to hikers in North America than snake bites, lightning strikes and even bee stings.

But plenty of people have been freaked out by a recent viral video.

 “The encounter might have been avoided altogether, but once it happened, the runner did a lot of things right,” says Denise Peterson, a Utah resident and region coordinator with the Mountain Lion Foundation.

“But individuals and the media are getting a lot of things wrong …

26-year-old Kyle Burgess has told reporters that he was running on a trail in Provo’s Slate Canyon when he saw kittens on the gravel path ahead of him. Thinking they might be bobcat kittens, he started recording video on his phone. When the mother lion appeared, he immediately knew he had made a dangerous mistake.

In the six minutes that follow, the video shows Burgess doing many things correctly: he backed away slowly, continued facing the lion, spoke loudly and firmly, and didn’t try to run away.

The lion followed him for several minutes, occasionally hissing and lunging. “She clearly did not view him as prey,” says Debra Chase, CEO of the Mountain Lion Foundation.

“The behavior was meant to chase him away, which it did very well. The mother lion was reacting to a perceived threat to her young.” …

Mountain Lion Foundation Issues Plea for Proper Reporting on Utah Encounter
CC BY-SA 2.0