Top 100 Trails in North America

by Erik Olsen on

You have to hand it to the folks at Trails.com. What a tremendous amount of work must go into compiling their annual list
of the 100 Best Trails in North America. I mean, someone is doing one hell of a lot of walking.

OK,
the walking is done by people like you and me, who take to the trails and then submit votes on their favorite trails.
Which may explain, perhaps, why some of the best trails are located near dense urban areas. That, and because the scale
uses a Nielsen rating-type ranking to define both trail popularity and usage. You may also notice that trails like the
AP are listed several times, which makes some sense because the damn thing is so long and diverse…even though it
takes up space from other trails that might have made the list. No matter. So here are the top 20 trails in the country
according to the list:

Top 100 North American Trails:

1. Breakneck Ridge Trail
(Beacon, New York; Hiking)

2. Cohutta Wilderness Area Trails (Ellijay, Georgia; Hiking)

3. Glacier Gorge
(Estes Park, Colorado; Hiking)

4. Harriman State Park (Bear Mountain, New York; Walking)

5. Mount Whitney
(Lone Pine, California; Hiking)

6. Appalachian Trail: The Pinnacle (Hamburg, Pennsylvania; Hiking)

7.
Appalachian Trail: Springer Mountain to Hightower Gap (Suches, Georgia; Hiking)

8. Appalachian National Scenic
Trail – Pennsylvania Section (Rouzerville, Pennsylvania; Hiking)

9. Conundrum Hot Springs (Aspen,
Colorado; Hot Springs)

10. American River Confluence to Lake Clementine (Auburn, California; Hiking)

11.
Furnace Mountain / Trayfoot Mountain Overnight Loop (Waynesboro, Virginia; Hiking)

12. Dolly Sods Wilderness
(Petersburg, West Virginia; Hiking)

13. Appalachian National Scenic Trail: CT & MA
(North Adams, Massachusetts; Hiking)

14. American River Bike Path (Sacramento, California; Mountain
Biking)

15. Bear Mountain – Mount Riga State Park (Salisbury, Connecticut; Hiking)

16. Half Dome
(Merced, California; Hiking)

17. Appalachian Trail: Crampton Gap to Harpers Ferry (Burkittsville, Maryland;
Hiking)

18. Appalachian Trail (VA): Chester Gap to Harpers Ferry (Front Royal, Virginia; Hiking)

19.
Cougar Mountain Regional Wildlands Park (Issaquah, Washington; Hiking)

20. North Country Trail (Morenci,
Michigan; Hiking)

GADLING's TAKE FIVE: Week of February 6

by Erik Olsen on

Hey folks, we’re going to start a new feature called TAKE 5 where
we link to the FIVE best Gadling posts of the week so as to help you find stuff that you may have missed and to
highlight some of the things we want to bring attention to. This is our first post, and we’ll try to keep them going on
each Friday.

So here goes:

GADLING’S TAKE FIVE:

5. U2’s Dublin Hotel:
Neil Woodburn, who once served
drinks to the band members of U2 while working in Ireland years ago, talks about the hotel scene in the Irish city, and
talks about the Clarence Hotel, owned by the group, and apparently a fine place
to stay.

4. Red Corner: Moscow’s
Cafe Culture
Another post part of Neil’s Red Corner Series on what’s happening in the former Soviet Union. This
one takes a look at the emerging cafe culture in Moscow.

3. Africa Travel: Central
African Republic & Chad
As part of her excellent Travel Africa series, Adrienne Wilson helps you
understand what’s what for making travel plans to Central Africa

2. Latitudes Magazine
I urge you to take a
look at one of my favorite magazines on the Web, Latitudes Magazine, which is always chock full of great stories and
photos, as well as some multimedia surprises.

1. Countee Cullens’ Baltimore
As part of
Black History Month, Adrienne Wilson discusses the life and work of poet Countee Cullen and his connection with Baltimore.

Last Explorer?

by Neil Woodburn on

It’s so very rare these days to consider anyone a true “explorer.”  I mean really, what is there left to explore in this Starbucks infested world?  Hasn’t everything been discovered already?

Tell this to Ian Baker and he would vehemently disagree. 

While in Katmandu, Baker heard stories about a mystic waterfall hidden deep in a Tibetan valley that was virtually unknown to the outside world.  In true explorer fashion, he spent the next 15 years researching its possible location and mounting various expeditions to locate the hidden falls.  In the time honored tradition of all great explorers, Baker has written a book detailing this search. 

The Heart of the World: A Journey to the Last Secret Place, has all the ingredients necessary for any grand adventure: blood-sucking leeches, impenetrable jungles, Chinese bureaucrats, fraternizing with the natives, and the eventual discovery of what is being searched for. 

Pick up a copy today and read it down at your local Starbucks. 

 

Hiking to the North Pole – Audio

by Erik Olsen on

A week or two ago, I mentioned the epic trip by two
adventurer named Børge Ousland and Mike Horn, who embarked shortly thereafter in a an effort to walk to the
North Pole, yes, in the dead of winter. That is, yes, in the dark. The team, according to this piece over at National Geographic, is on the
move. But it looks like they did an audio
interview before they left. It’s damn cold. Forty below according to the dispatch, and the team has been dealing
with several problems like logistical ones and, well,. polar bears.

TWINF in New Zealand

by Adrienne Wilson on

Envy is certainly not
one of my finer qualities, nor one I wish to broadcast with the world when it gets the better side of me, but after
checking in with Lee and Sachi at their TWINF blog I can’t deny the feeling. In their entry on the Franz Josef Glacier Hike they have some of the most incredible,
breath-taking photographs of these gigantic mountains of solid ice, which they report have advanced over the last year
unlike most glaciers suffering from the effects of global warming. The entry is actually pretty short, but the pictures
say more than one could ever imagine. It is very much worth your time to go to their site and start planning your own
trek. If only I had the money!