Walking the the 700-mile-long desert section of this long-distance trail can be uniquely challenging. Extreme temperatures, long waterless stretches, and high winds test the mettle of even the most experienced hikers. In this video, we give tips on how to travel safely through this spectacular but harsh environment, from the Mexican border to the foothills of California’s tallest mountains.
Women’s only adventure travel is one of the fastest growing segments in the entire industry and U.S. based Call of the Wild is a company that specializes in delivering fantastic ladies only options. The company has been in business for more than 30 years, and during that time it has pioneered this style of travel, offering trips to far flung places, both domestically and abroad.
This winter, Call of the Wild is offering some great trips that are sure to appeal to the active traveler looking for a little adventure. For instance, their Snowshoes and Sequoias Weekend is a three day expedition to Sequoia National Park during which time the ladies will have the opportunity to learn how to snowshoe in a breathtaking mountain setting. And at the end of a busy day, they’ll return to their rustic lodge for a fantastic meal and a glass of wine around the fireplace. This trip is scheduled to take place from February 11-13 and costs just $650.
If you’re in the mood for something a little more tropical this winter, than perhaps the Hawaii Explorer will be more to your liking. This seven day vacation sends travelers to Kauai, otherwise known as the Garden Isle, for a little fun in the sun. Visitors will take day hikes to visit some of the islands most breathtaking vistas and stunning beaches, while humpback whales play off shore and the island blooms with life. This trip runs from March 6-12 and can be booked for $2195.
New to Call of the Wild’s 2011 winter catalog is their Discovering Death Valley option. This trip sends a small group of adventurous women to Death Valley National Park, where they’ll soak up the natural beauty of the place while exploring the sand dunes and rocky canyons located there. And when they’ve had enough excitement for one day, they’ll return to a comfortable hotel and enjoy fine meals at local restaurants. The Discovering Death Valley trip is $1315 and will take place February 26 – March 2, when temperatures in the park are comfortable and moderate.
If you haven’t planned your winter escape for 2011 yet, then perhaps its time you gathered up a few girlfriends, picked an adventure, and heeded the call of the wild. After all, we can all use a little more adventure in our lives.
Typically at this time of year a certain breed of shopper purposefully wanders the fish stalls of their favorite grocer taking stock of the piles of fresh oysters carefully arranged on crushed ice or to pick up and judge the heft in their hands of tightly packed tins of caviar, which sell for anywhere from $50 to $2,000.
They will do so with some reluctance this year though. Oysters from the Gulf are still suspect due to all the fresh water that cycled through them during diversionary efforts to keep the oily waters at bay this past summer. And caviar, whether from the Caspian Sea or the coast of Alaska, whether farmed or wild, is coming with new warnings based on the fact the sturgeon population is feeling more pressure from overfishing.
Maybe this just might be the year to lay off those two favored treats and replace them with something slightly less traditional: Squid.
I know, a big bowl of calamari hardly compares to one of caviar… but, man, there’s a lot of squid out there these days. I’m sure some of those very popular sustainable fish chefs have already dreamed up some special calamari entrée just for the season.
How much squid is out there? It’s estimated that around-the-world squid in mass outweighs the human population. And that’s with sperm whales alone munching down more than 100 million tons of squid each year.
Along the coast of California, the squid season has been so abundant the state Department of Fish and Game reports its annual limit of 118,000 tons has already been taken and the squid season is now closed until March 31. Marine biologists credit a rush of colder-than-normal water for the banner year; usually February is prime time.
At the same time, certain squid are booming thanks to a slight warming of sea temperatures, in places like Alaska and Siberia. Many squid, octopuses and other sucker-bearing members of the cephalopod family don’t appear to be too troubled by the minor increase. In fact, when it’s a little warmer, some thrive. The populations are thought to be exploding because of the overfishing of other fish that used to dine on young squid. Plus, as the fishing industry captures more and more of the animals’ predators, such as tuna, cephalopods are seeing their numbers expand.
Warmer waters can help squid “balloon” in size because their enzymes work faster when warm. A young giant squid can grow from 2 millimeters to a meter in a single year, the equivalent of a human baby growing to the size of a whale in twelve months.
There’s also been a boom in Humboldt squid along the Pacific coastline ranging from California to Peru. The big tentacled variety can grow more than seven feet long and weigh more than one hundred pounds. A feisty fish, once on the line, the big squids can be slightly dangerous to haul into your boat. They have a nasty, pecking beak, like to spray black ink and have the ability to expel up to two gallons of water into the faces of unexpecting fishermen (“like a giant squirt gun”).
A downside to the boom in giant squid is that they also have giant appetites, which means they are making a big hit on salmon, for example, thus reducing the amount of the pink fleshy fish for human tables.
The giant squid are also proving to be a menace to divers, being both aggressive and carnivorous, a mean combo when the tentacles of one of the rust-colored, six-foot long creatures latches onto your air tank, or leg.[
[Image via wikimedia commons]
On a long-distance hike like the Pacific Crest Trail, food is the all-important fuel that keeps the hiker going, mile after mile.
A long-distance hiker can burn more than 6,000 calories in a day, and that means a lot of food. Hikers strive to keep their trail-diet nutritious, delicious, and lightweight. On our journey, Katie and I learned some important lessons about the right way to cook and eat on a long-distance hike. This video takes us from grocery shopping (in bulk!), to the test kitchen, to the trail.
It was big news last April when the U.K. announced – backed by nine prominent international environmental groups – that it was turning its Chagos Island group in the Indian Ocean into the world’s largest marine reserve.
But a cable included in the Wikileaks dump suggests that reasons other than “environmental protection” may have been the impetus for the set aside.
Known as “the other Galapagos,” the Chagos Islands are regarded as one of the world’s richest marine ecosystems. The 55-islands that make up the chain are home to the world’s largest coral reef atoll (the Great Chagos Bank), 220 species of coral, nearly 800 species of fish, dozens of nesting seabirds types, endangered green turtles and critically endangered hawksbill turtles, coconut crabs and endemic plant life which has thrived there for the past 4,000 years.
One reason for the creation of the 545,000 square kilometer park – twice the size of the U.K., bigger than California and France — was to ban commercial fishing from the area for at least five years, maybe longer.
“This measure is a further demonstration of how the U.K. takes its international environmental responsibilities seriously,” said U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband upon the reserve’s announcement.
But the allocation sparked a resettlement fight that had been going on in European courts for a couple decades. Between 1967 and 1973 roughly 4,000 Chagossians were deported from the islands to make way for a giant U.S. nuclear air force base on the group’s largest island, Diego Garcia. Since then, other than endangered turtles and coconut crabs, the only inhabitants of the islands have been American military. The former Chagossians have been living in exile in Britain, Mauritius and other islands since, many hoping to one day return home.But setting the islands aside as a marine reserve essentially shut the door on those claims for good, with both environmentalists and human rights activists apparently choosing to look the other way.
At the time, leaders of those wanting to return home claimed loudly that environmental groups were being “used” by the government.
“The fish have more rights than us,” said Roch Evenor, secretary of the UK Chagos Support Association, who left the island when he was four, said at the time of the reserves creation.
“The environment groups were beguiled [into giving their support],” said former high commissioner of Mauritius, David Snoxell. “If the government designates a protection area they would be erecting a psychological, legal and economic barrier against the Chagossians, and send a strong message that they would not be welcome in their homeland. It would be highly prejudicial.”
Now, thanks to Wikileaks, it looks like those concerns were correct.
As reporter Dan Bacher uncovered in cables sent from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Director, Overseas Territories to the U.S. embassy, setting up the marine reserve effectively “stymied the return of the former islanders.”
The U.K. Guardian published the embassy cable on its website. “We do not regret the removal of the population,” Colin Roberts wrote in May 2009, “since removal was necessary for the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) to fulfill its ‘strategic purpose.’ “
He went on: “Establishing a marine reserve might, indeed, be the most effective long-term way to prevent any of the Chagos Islands’ former inhabitants or their descendants from resettling in the BIOT.”
Apparently the British government was less concerned with protecting endangered marine life and more about protecting its relationship with the U.S., which has allegedly used Diego Garcia as a destination for deposing terror suspects.
While the marine park set up banned fishing from the islands, when it was being conceived British officials assured the U.S. that its creation would in no way impede the island’s uses for military purposes.
The park was announced with the blessing of the U.K. government, the Obama administration and the support of nine prominent environmental groups ranging from the Pew Environment Group to Greenpeace.
[image via Wikimedia commons]
