Here’s a fine little piece on hiking in
Newfoundland. A young couple heads up to the northern reaches of North America to hike Gros Morne and experience the
“lungbusting” steepness of the mountain. It’s good, especially if you have any interest in heading up
thereabouts.
Newfoundland is a big time goal of mine, as I’ve always imagines its bleakness and sprawl as supreme virtues, the
ideal NYC getaway.
Folks eager to get out of town or city for a day of wandering in the hills
might like this link over at
Backpacker Magazine. The site gives fairly detailed directions and GPS
coordinates to some great local hikes.
They seem to have every state covered, although I wish the trails were organized that way. As it is, they organize by
trail name, which seems kinda kooky. But whatever. Some of the trails are familiar. In Los Angeles the Palos Verdes
Loop is always a winner, as is Seattle’s Mt. Pilchuck. Find your state and head out.
I generally do not gush about new sites. Sure, I say they’re “great” or “interesting” or “cool”. And often I dis the
ones I don’t like. But I want to bring your attention now to a truly excellent new adventure travel/sports site called
Stellar.
Now I will say up front as a bit of a disclaimer that they are running
several of my features, which is mighty cool of them,
but having spent the last half-hour or so cruising around reading some of the other features and watching the videos on
ski legend Scot Schmidt and
photographer Ace Kvale
(QuickTime), I will say without hesitation that this is one of the best adventure sports sites I’ve seen in a
while. They are brand new, so there are some wrinkles, but when they get jamming, I am betting that they will be
big time. We’ll be following them more for sure.
If you get a chance check them out. And post comments on what you think.
Here’s the good news: America’s National Parks are some of the finest in the world. The
National Park Service does such a fine job taking care of our natural and
historical jewels, that you don’t have to go far to experience the wonders of our National Parks. Here’s the bad news.
Lots of people do this, and some of the parks are ridiculously crowded.
If you have ever spent a summer week in Yosemite Valley, you know what I’m
talking about. The valley becomes so congested in summer with motorhomes and cars and grill smoke, that it sometimes
more closely resembled Disneyland than a wonder of the world. The same goes for Zion National Park, which has a
reputation during July for Los Angeles-style traffic jams.
Now the NPS is trying to fix all that. According
to this piece in the
Washington Post, the folks at Zion have begun a shuttle service through Zion to ease the congestion problems. Now,
you may say, whoa, wait a minute, why should I celebrate riding a shuttle in a magnificent place like Zion. You
shouldn’t. But for the time being it is the next best alternative to preventing visitors into the park. It ain’t
pretty, and I’m not sure there isn’t a better solution down the road. But for now, that’s what they’re doing.
So if you are planning a summer Zion trip, beware. You may be seeing the park not from your car window, but while
sitting next to some chatty dude and his wife from Las Vegas.
It was just a few years ago that I was in Seward after a wonderful multi-day hike into the nearby mountains, and
after a stomach expanding meal of fish and chips on the water, we watched the
Mount Marathon running race. It takes place very fourth of
July in the town of Seward, a very relaxed and charming town in Alaska that reminded me of how Seattle probably used to
be.
The race is grueling for those who have to run it. It’s basically a dead sprint to the top of a mile-high mountain and
down. Hard core. And every year some uber-athlete wins, and some poor guy falls on his face and gets a full-body
raspberry. I actually
wrote about it last year…although it looks like the MSNBC redesign dumped the link.