For lovers of the Blue Ridge Parkway, every day is public lands day. But on September 26, 2015 why not make it official with a volunteer project? National Public Lands Day is billed as the nation’s largest, single-day volunteer effort for public lands. Last year, more than 175,000 volunteers and park visitors celebrated at more than 2,100 public land sites in all...
Learn MoreDeep in the wilds of British Columbia lies a rugged valley – cherished alpine backcountry that deserves permanent protection. At the headwaters of the Columbia River, Jumbo Creek cascades out of deep snowpack, past crumbling glacial ice, wildflowers, and grizzly tracks. The Jumbo Valley has long been revered for its beauty, and to the Ktunaxa Nation, it is known as...
Learn More
More than half the members of the U.S. Senate are urging chamber leadership to pass a bill reauthorizing a federal conservation program before it expires at the end of the month. Fifty-two senators, including 12 Republicans, signed a letter from Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) calling on Senate leadership to push a Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) bill this month. The...
Learn MoreThe Koolau mountain range, as majestic as it appears today, ascending skyward like a verdant curtain of green on Oahu’s Windward Coast, looked very different just 500,000 years ago. Then the western half of a million-years-extinct massive caldera—which extended eight miles between modern-day Kaneohe and Waimanalo, and four miles east to Kailua’s Mokulua islets—the range...
Learn More
Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Cassius Cash announced that Steve Kloster has been selected as the new Chief Ranger. Prior to this position, Kloster was the Tennessee District Ranger, as well as serving as interim Chief Ranger during several temporary assignments totaling 27 months. Kloster succeeds Clayton Jordan who was recently selected as Smokies...
Learn More
Late September is an exciting time in Cataloochee Valley as the elk herd begins their annual mating dance ritual known as the rut. Cows, calves and yearlings live in loose herds or groups throughout most of the year, and are seen wandering the vast meadows of the valley all spring and summer. The bulls, however, live in bachelor groups or alone. It is rare to happen upon...
Learn MoreAmerica’s hundreds of protected Wilderness areas have names as varied as their landscapes, with wide-ranging origin stories to boot. Names matter. The word “wilderness” still wrongly carries connotations of danger, desolation, even abandonment (consider the way we use it in popular idioms). This was all the more true in 15th- through early-20th-century America. The...
Learn MoreIt’s been at least half a millennium since California has been this dry. The snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains — which provides nearly a third of the state’s water supply — is the lowest it has been in 500 years, according to a new study published in Nature Climate Change. The researchers compared blue oak tree rings during known time periods of precipitation,...
Learn MoreTop administration officials wrote Congress this week to urge it–once again–to change the way it budgets for firefighting in light of the disastrous wildfire season in the western United States. The Agriculture Department just informed lawmakers this week that it will have to transfer $250 million to fighting the forest fires now raging, which brings this fiscal year’s...
Learn MoreThe entirety of the AT in Great Smoky Mountains National Park goes from Fontana Dam in the south to Davenport Gap in the northeast. While it’s just a small section of the full Georgia-to-Maine trail, the part of the trail in the Smokies is 71 miles long. It usually takes about a week to complete. Backpackers need to get reservations and permits from the park service in...
Learn MoreA southwest Colorado man was convicted and sentenced to six months in prison for trashing Uncompahgre National Forest land, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Forest Service and the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office announced. Benjamin Yoho, 41 of Telluride and Ouray, was convicted after a one-day bench trial before U.S. Magistrate David West in Durango on charges of...
Learn MoreThe fastest way to see California’s iconic Donner Pass is to cruise Interstate 80 between Truckee and Reno. But if you really want to experience the environment and culture of one of the state’s most scenic and historically significant places it helps to get your feet dirty. And one way to get the most out of a trek through the region is to participate in the Donner...
Learn More
The China Creek Trail, located on the Grandfather Ranger District in Avery County, North Carolina is reopened to hikers following trail relocation and restoration work. The 2-mile trail begins in Blowing Rock and passes through both Pisgah National Forest and National Park Service land. The China Creek Trail was relocated to follow portions of the historic Upper...
Learn MoreA judge has rejected a bid by North Carolina’s environment agency to block Duke Energy, the country’s largest energy company, from removing toxic coal ash from more plants than required under a new state law. Duke Energy has asked to add three power plants to the list of four plants where they will begin scooping the ash, which is leaking arsenic, lead and other...
Learn MoreIf you couldn’t carry enough water to make it 20 miles, should you be out here? California is in the grips of a severe drought. Creeks that Flash remembered soaking her feet in years before were just rivers of sand now. How long before sections of the Pacific Crest Trail were basically unhikeable? Coming up were 40-mile dry stretches, with handfuls of volunteer...
Learn MoreTennessee Valley Authority will begin maintenance work on Fontana Dam on Monday, Sept. 21, 2015. Work is planned to continue through March 30, 2016. During this time, the dam will be closed to vehicle traffic. The dam will remain open to foot traffic. Hikers will need to walk behind the visitors center and then up the steps to access the dam. If you are planning a hike...
Learn MoreNational Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis issued a policy memorandum prohibiting the use of electronic smoking devices in all places where tobacco smoking is prohibited in national parks. “Protecting the health and safety of our visitors and employees is one of the most critical duties of the National Park Service,” said Director Jarvis. “We are therefore...
Learn MoreFrom Tuesday until Saturday, September 15-19, 2015 South African citizens will have free access to most of the country’s national parks. This is in celebration of the 10th annual South African National Parks week currently running under the theme “Know your national parks”. The week was officially inaugurated by Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa at...
Learn MoreWaterton Canyon, near Denver, is closed because of bear activity. The popular trail was closed Aug. 28, 2015 because two momma bears, each with twin cubs, and other bears were actively foraging in the canyon. Part of the problem is not the bears, but people trying to get the perfect picture of them. “We’ve actually seen people using selfie sticks to try and get as...
Learn More
Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness straddles the North Carolina / Tennessee line near the southern borders of the states, with about 75% of its 17,000 acres contained in NC. Six trailheads provide access to more than 60 miles of trail within the designated wilderness, which typically follow ridge tops or drop into the shady drainages. Perhaps the most atypical trail...
Learn MoreOctober is national adopt-a-dog month, according to the American Humane Association, the perfect time to pick up a new hiking partner. But before you hit the trail it’s vital that you prepare your pup. Start with a simple 5-mile stroll. A test hike. He passed, and now you’re on to something a little tougher. This, say veterinarians, is a good approach....
Learn MoreFrom a distance, New England’s beloved Mount Monadnock looks distinctly unthreatening. Veteran hikers seeking a challenge might be dubious at first, but this balding geezer of a mountain is plenty rugged. Monadnock rises 3,165 feet in Cheshire County, near the town of Jaffrey in New Hampshire’s southwestern corner. The name comes from a Native American term...
Learn MoreThe popular trail to the summit of Scotchman Peak north of Clark Fork, Idaho, has been closed temporarily because of recent incidents with aggressive mountain goats, the Idaho Panhandle National Forests has announced. The news is no surprise to groups that have been posting signs and trying to educate hikers for several years regarding the consequences of feeding the...
Learn More
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy, its Appalachian Trail Community partners and 31 AT maintaining clubs invite families to take a hike on the AT during the fifth annual Family Hiking Day on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015. Held trail-wide on National Public Lands Day, Family Hiking Day is a program developed by the ATC to introduce and welcome families of all ages and abilities...
Learn More
The project began when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt visited the newly constructed Skyline Drive in Virginia in 1933. Then U.S. Senator Harry Byrd of Virginia suggested to the president the road should be extended to connect with the recently established Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Roosevelt convened the governors of Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee...
Learn MoreThe winding, shadowed, natural trails on Dothan, Alabama’s new Forever Wild property are exactly what city officials envisioned when they began putting together the complex land deal a few years ago. Part of Dothan ’s Forever Wild trails will be open to the public Oct. 3, 2015 with a grand opening and a few planned activities. Work is still being done that will...
Learn MoreA new study has confirmed the existence of a positive feedback operating in climate change whereby warming itself may amplify a rise in greenhouse gases resulting in additional warming. The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, shows that in addition to the well understood effect of greenhouse gases on the Earth’s temperature, researchers can now confirm...
Learn MoreState park rangers in western North Carolina apprehended four people recently for plant poaching at the Yellow Mountain State Natural Area in Mitchell County. It was the first such incident in state parks in recent years, though officials say poaching of galax, gensing and other plants is becoming more of an issue. Four people were given citations Aug. 28, 2015 by Ranger...
Learn More
I am Jeff Clark, founder of Internet Brothers, producer of this blog, and passionate about hiking. I live in Western NC near the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are just out my door, so the content will focus on these areas, but let me know what you would like to see on the site. 
Copyright © 2011-2023 Internet Brothers. All Rights Reserved. ISSN 2324-6057
Designed by Elegant Themes | Powered by Wordpress | Logo by Design Aspirations