Elk Knob State Park Summit Trail is Fitz Roy’s First Mountain Hike *We have added Elk Knob State Park as one of the Best Places to Hike in the Southern Appalachians. This is truly an excellent hike for everybody; a very well graded trail, excellent viewpoints, and not too crowded (yet.) Last weekend Minister of Expedition Planning Brian broke down […]
Everest, Traffic Jams…and Death.
I think by now almost everyone who follows news in the outdoor world has seen this incredible photo. A queue reported by CNN to be over 300 people waits in the ‘death zone’ (above 8000 meters) just below the summit of Everest. Of the over two hundred climbers who have died on Everest, most have died in the death zone. […]
Is There Still Time to Plan for the Tour Du Mont Blanc?
Want to hike the Tour du Mont Blanc — Europe’s most celebrated Alpine hike — this summer? Well, you better get cracking…The trekking season gets under way in less than six weeks. Realistically, you probably should have started planning for it already. Sylvia and I did the complete tour in late July of 2018. But we began our bookings in […]
Bucket Lists…North America
…And we keep on sifting through the bucket! Here’s some more landing pages for Epic Bucketlist Adventures, these ones all of the North American variety. We have done at least some hiking in all these places except, sadly, Canada. The good thing about North American BucketList items is they are fairly easy to reach. Most are more logistically easy to […]
Are These Really the Best Hikes in Every State?
Outside Magazine Online recently released a list of the Best Hikes in each State. We were made aware of it through Besthike.com as many people were…they were in turn clued on by the Adventure Blog, which we also follow. https://www.outsideonline.com/2393036/50-best-hikes-us We have bashed Outside Magazine in the past, and this is exactly the type of thing — a try to […]
Bucket List Hikes Landing Pages
Expanded Site Pages for our BucketList For a long time, we have wanted to create some reference pages for the various BucketList hikes we want to do. Our goal is to do as many of these hikes as we can over the next ten years — and then replace them with an all new bucket of BucketList hikes. In the […]
Hiker Killed In Attack On The AT
Man Arrested in Connection With Apparent Machete Attack on the Appalachian Trail in Virginia A murder has happened on the Appalachian Trail. News reports are saying that a pair of hikers were attacked by a man wielding a large knife or Machete while hiking the AT in the backwoods of Virginia. One of the two was killed; the other escaped […]
The Education of Mr. Fitz Roy
The Life and Training of a Hiking Dog Some updates from the life and training of a hiking dog… Sylvia and Brian continue to work molding expedition sled dog/surf dog Fitz Roy into a companion suitable for hiking. Fitz is intelligent, energetic and eager to please. But he is also very excitable (that’s the sled dog in him) and sometimes […]
The Most (Potentially) Dangerous National Parks
What are the Most Dangerous National Parks for Hikers? Last time we talked about safety in the National Parks and speculated if accidents in the parks are on the rise. We were unable to find any evidence this is so. But the parks remain wild and potentially dangerous places. The wildest of them are not places to tread into lightly. […]
Are the US National Parks Becoming Less Safe?
Are Accidents and Fatalities in the US National Parks on the rise? A man was seriously injured on Thursday falling into a volcanic crater in Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano National Park. The man was apparently trying to get a better view of the caldera when he plunged 70 feet down to a lower ledge; initial reports stated that he lost his […]