Santa Cruz Trek, Day 3: The Santa Cruz Valley **An older version of this post originally appeared in 2015 on the old legacy blog. We hope you enjoy this updated version! Waking on the third morning I was greeted, as I stuck my face from the tent, by a cow. This animal, standing about twenty feet away, took one look […]
The Other Side of the Mountain
The Santa Cruz Trek, Day 2: Punta Union We awoke the next morning to the sound of the guides already up and busy with the camp chores. Sylvia had, as she often does, suffered through the whole night from cold feet. We had brought along a pair of hand warmers to counter this but, considering the next campsite promised to be […]
Nevado Huascaran
The Santa Cruz Trek: Day One **An older version of this post originally appeared in 2015 on the old legacy blog. We hope you enjoy this updated version! Before we began our hike we had to get some logistical complications out of the way. In Peru, almost all logistics involve complications. These can involve traffic, cars not showing up at […]
A Slowly Dying Lake of Ice
Pastoruri Glacier…or, what’s left of it **An older version of this post originally appeared in 2015 on the old legacy blog. We hope you enjoy this updated version! Most trips to Huaraz include a side trip to Pastoruri Glacier, one of the few glaciers remaining in tropical South America. Except that nowadays, it’s more correct to say, what’s left of […]
Where the Roads Fade to Paths
The Santa Cruz Trek: Huaraz, Peru…Arrival *This is the third in our series of “reboot posts” of our Peru trips that were featured on our old legacy Blog, but have never appeared on BecauseItzThere.com. The first was our Trek to Machu Picchu via the Salkantay Route in 2012. The second was our successful hike of Colca Canyon and somewhat less […]
Into the White: The Santa Cruz Trek
The Santa Cruz Trek, Peru Can you name the single most impressive thing you have ever done? We can. In July of 2014 Sylvia and I embarked on what was the greatest hiking adventure of our lives…The Santa Cruz Trek in the Andes Mountain of Peru. We had already completed a tough hike just a couple years earlier when we […]
Our (mis)Calculations Prove Right!
The Standing Indian Loop, Day II The second day dawned crisp and sunny through the newly budding trees of Beech Gap; the night had proven to be nowhere near as cold as the previous one. Sylvia reported no issues with her ‘manos’ and was generally in better spirits, the lingering effects of her fall having passed on like bad weather. […]
West to go South to go North
The Standing Indian Loop: Day I We arrived at Standing Indian Campground just after 5 pm on Thursday….though we had another 30 mins or so delay as we had to backtrack into Franklin to stop at an ATM machine (we had forgotten to bring cash.) If you stage out of this campground, remember to bring it. The camp host warned […]
The Hundredth Mile Wilderness: The Standing Indian Loop via the AT
The Standing Indian Loop Three Day Backpacking Adventure *We have added the Standing Indian Loop to our list of Best Hikes in the Southern Appalachians. The SIL is a surprisingly straightforward two or three-day backpacking adventure on the Appalachian Trail and adjacent side trails, located entirely within North Carolina’s Nantahala National Forest. We loved the wilderness character of the hikes […]
Two Miles of Wow…The Best of the Linville Gorge Wilderness, Continued
Part II: The Chimneys, Linville Gorge Wilderness, NC *Along with Table Rock, we have added the nearby Chimney’s to our list of Best Hikes in The Southern Appalachians and Carolinas…and with an exclamation point! Both can be regarded as a single hike…Making for two solid miles of WOW! We just can’t say enough about the hiking around the Linville Gorge! […]