A toxic chemical used in the controversial drilling practice known as fracking has been detected in the drinking-water supply of Pennsylvania homeowners, according to a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The chemical—2-Butoxyethanol or 2BE, known to have caused tumors in rodents—showed up as “white foam,”...
Learn MoreThe 52-mile Lost Coast Trail runs about 255 miles north of San Francisco. It was named the Lost Coast because of depopulation in the area in the 1930s and because the terrain is too steep and rugged to build a road. If you look at a map, you can see how Highway 1 heads inland north of Fort Bragg. There are two distinct sections of the Lost Coast Trail. The northern...
Learn MoreRangers in the San Bernardino National Forest call them “red trees.” Instead of the typical deep green color, large swaths of pine trees now don hues of death, their dehydrated needles turning brown and burnt-red because of the state’s worsening drought. “Unlike back East, where you have fall colors, here it’s because the trees are dying,” said John Miller, a spokesman...
Learn MoreA coalition of big insurance companies, consumer groups, and environmental advocates are urging the United States to overhaul its disaster policies in the face of increasingly extreme weather due to human-caused climate change. According to a report released by the SmarterSafer coalition, the U.S. needs to increase how much it spends on pre-disaster mitigation efforts...
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Beginning in May, the Montana Wilderness Association is offering more than 150 free day hikes, field trips, trail building and maintenance projects, wildland inventory outings and backpacking adventures across some of the state’s most magnificent backcountry. Now in its 53rd season, MWA’s Wilderness Walks program continues to offer hikers of all ages and experience...
Learn MoreCalifornia’s old-growth coastal redwoods are the tallest trees on Earth, and the old-timers thrive in the foggy, rainy territory between Mendocino and the Oregon line. For many locals, these trees don’t just dominate the landscape; they connect with matters of life and death — even now, years past the timber industry’s glory days. Bgin with the 32-mile...
Learn MoreBefore there were roads, there were only trails. Before there were wheels, there were only feet. Before the Norsemen and Columbus stumbled upon North America, the continent was crisscrossed by a trail system chiseled into the earth by animals large and small and the silent moccasins that followed them. Three hundred years ago, the southern Appalachians were home to the...
Learn MoreUnlike its neighbor Yosemite, at Lassen Volcanic National Park there were no crowds at the entrance gate, in the parking lots or on the trails. Only 400,000 people will make their way to Lassen this year; nearly 4 million will visit Yosemite, most of them during the summer. “Not many people have discovered this park,” said Karen Haner, Lassen’s chief of...
Learn MoreHiking trails have been identified as one of new niche tourism markets aimed at enhancing values of farms around the capital of Namibia that offer unique landscapes. New hiking trails are being promoted by the Namplace project, which is mandated to advocate and educate the public about landscape conservation in the identified pilot landscape conservation areas such as...
Learn More1934 was a big year for conservation in the southern Appalachians. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established in June, and in October, on a roadside somewhere outside of Knoxville, Tennessee, The Wilderness Society was born. The story of The Wilderness Society’s conception has been told different ways, but all versions involve a heated roadside discussion...
Learn MoreThe hiking trail guides in Idaho adore the mountains to the north and south but ignore most of the Snake River Plain. That big, empty swath of sagebrush and lava is the high desert, and hiking authors largely direct their readers elsewhere. That doesn’t stop folks from poking around in the desert with maps. You’ll find lovely native wildflowers. And sculpted...
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Late in the day the trucks reached their destination and the four men stepped out into the backcountry of western Arizona. In the back of the trucks, they had enough gear for a few nights of camping — cases of beer, baling wire and tools for repairs, shovels for digging. And they had a body bag, full of dry ice and the corpse of Edward Abbey. The day was sunny, but it...
Learn MoreMost of the best-known wilderness areas are out west, but states east of the Mississippi River still contain millions of acres of stunning land protected under the 50-year-old Wilderness Act. Befitting a pioneer nation, many of our most revered natural landscapes, from the Grand Canyon to Yosemite, are in the west. However, the roots of American conservation lie firmly...
Learn MoreA small herd of about two dozen bison could be grazing on restored grassland south of Chicago as soon as this fall. Officials plan to introduce a mix of young and mature bison at the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, where the U.S. Forest Service and other groups have been trying to restore grassland at a site that was used as a U.S. Army ammunition plant for many...
Learn MoreOn the 45th anniversary of Earth Day, President Barack Obama looked out on the tall grasses of the Florida Everglades Wednesday and declared that the sweeping wetlands illustrate the dangers posed by climate change. “This is a problem now,” he said. Obama visited the South Florida landmark to warn of the damage a warming planet is already inflicting on the...
Learn MoreThe Green Mountain Club, maintainer and protector of Vermont’s Long Trail, is asking hikers to take extra care from now until Memorial Day. It’s mud season, and hiking trails are especially prone to erosion at this time of year. Hikers walking on saturated soils or on the sides of trails cause irreversible erosion and damage vegetation. Vermont officially closes...
Learn MoreShorty’s Well to Telescope Peak is regarded by some as the hardest hike in North America. It starts below sea level, and climbs to over 11,000 feet. Distances vary from hiker-to-hiker, and for us it was nearly a 40 mile round trip hike without reaching the summit of Telescope Peak. Aside from the washed out road that makes up the first eight miles, there is no trail....
Learn MoreIt took more than a year, but crews at Joshua Tree National Park, aided by professional conservators from the University of New Mexico, have largely “erased” graffiti scratched into the Barker Dam, a historic site inside the California park. Barker Dam is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The year-and-a-half partnership culminated with a...
Learn MoreIf, after the long, snowy and cold winter, you’re ready for some colorful spring wildflowers, consider heading to New River Gorge National River in West Virginia this weekend, April 24-26, 2015, for the 12th Annual New River Gorge Wildflower Weekend. This three-day event showcases the biologically diverse southern Appalachian forest at New River Gorge National...
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Michigan’s recreational trails offer jaw-dropping glimpses of the Great Lakes stretching out against the horizon. They feature cliffs that look like they were squirted with giant tubes of fingerpaint. And miles of soft sand to trudge ‒ a scenic way to tighten the glutes. Wander off the public parks and more breath-taking vistas await (as well as the occasional...
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Today is the fifth anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, an event that triggered the nation’s worst-ever oil spill. The well leaked for three months and dumped over 200 million gallons of oil into the sea. The explosion itself killed eleven men; the resulting pollution killed a stupefying amount of wildlife, including 800,000...
Learn MoreState Police are reporting a number of car breaks across the state at parks and hiking trailheads this week. “Last year there were numerous car breaks at various hiking access locations in Vermont. This is in part due to the ongoing heroin and opiate challenges the state currently faces,” police officials said. Addicts are searching for money and items to...
Learn MoreA 27-year-old female hiker died after falling 500 feet off the Makapuu Tom Tom Trail in East Oahu. The tragic accident is just one of many search and rescue attempts firefighters have responded to this year alone. Oahu hiking clubs fear the recent increase in accidents will cause landowners and the state to close down more trails. Landowners have already cracked down on...
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Sometimes your hiking plans just don’t work out. That happened when our plans were kiboshed by a closed and padlocked gate. They say when the world gives you lemons, go take photographs, or something like that. There isn’t much more beautiful in Spring than Lake Lure and Chimney Rock State Park. Morse Park on Lake Lure features beautiful vistas of the...
Learn MoreThe closing of Mount Ascutney Ski Resort five years ago left an economic and recreational void in the village of Brownsville, Vermont. Thanks to the Sport Trails of the Ascutney Basin (STAB) and its partnership with the town of West Windsor, the area has once again become a destination. The western base of Ascutney now features approximately 34 miles of non-motorized,...
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While shoveling scoop after scoop filled with rocks, you wonder why anyone pays money to work out. If you want to do some heavy lifting, the good folks at the Washington Trails Association would be thrilled to have you. They’ll put you through the trail-work grinder for free — rain, cold or shine. Twenty-plus volunteers, from kids on up, arrived on a Sunday at Tiger...
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The Appalachian Trail has put Wind Gap, PA on the map – a map of communities along the 2,180-mile trail, that is. Designation as an Appalachian Trail Community means Wind Gap will be highlighted in guidebooks and hiking maps, and the recognition could be a financial benefit to the borough. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy created the Appalachian Trail Community...
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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. 
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