Hike with CMLC at Camp High Rocks to Rich Mountain – Saturday, January 17th

Join Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy on Saturday, January 17, 2015 at Camp High Rocks to hike to the summit of Rich Mountain. With a stop at Cathedral Rocks en route, this hike is a beautiful upward trek to a scenic mountain top. Hikers will have a choice of stopping at Cathedral Rock or continuing up to the top of Rich Mountain. Camp High Rocks is a summer camp for...

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25th Wilderness Wildlife Week

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is one of the world’s most beautiful places to take in everything the great outdoors has to offer. During the annual Wilderness Wildlife Week events in Pigeon Forge, you’ll have a chance to learn about the fauna, flora and folks who call this rustic region home. This year’s 25th Annual Wilderness Wildlife Week takes place January 24...

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Guide to Hiking Long Island’s Greenbelt Trail System

If you want to go out and get working on that New Year’s resolution of getting fit and getting outside, consider exploring Long Island’s major hiking trail system – the Greenbelt. Long Island’s Greenbelt Trail is a 31.8-mile hiking trail that was completed in 1982 and extends from Sunken Meadow State Park on the Long Island Sound to Heckscher State Park on the Great...

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In My Shoes: Sharing and caring abound on the Appalachian Trail

After listening to my sister’s stories about her Georgia-to-Maine adventure on the Appalachian Trail, I’m thinking it might be a good idea for us all to spend some time on foot in the deep woods. Life on the trail, from what Pat tells me, while hugely demanding physically and emotionally, seems a lot like life ought to be here in “civilization.” On the trail, everyone is...

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EVTA on the move

The Elkin Valley Trails Association (EVTA) is bringing hiking — and much more — to Elkin, North Carolina and much of the surrounding area. Trial hikes along portions of the trail between Stone Mountain and Elkin have already taken place. The EVTA trail is part of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail that will stretch, when completed, from the Great Smoky Mountains to the Outer...

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Trekking to a mountain desert in Nepal is like visiting ancient Tibet

The “lost and forbidden” kingdom of Upper Mustang, tucked away in northern Nepal, is an arid and ancient land, like a flashback to the Tibet of the 1950s, when the Dalai Lama still reigned in Lhasa. Virtually untouched by modern civilization and isolated by rugged mountain terrain, the old way of life of the Lobas (people of Mustang) still exists, while its ancient...

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Ghost Town Hiking and Extreme Driving on an Epic Death Valley Camping Trip

It takes a certain masochism to experience Death Valley National Park as it’s meant to be seen. But torture yourself just a little, take a few extra steps, and you’ll be rewarded with a combination of natural and historical wonders that no place on Earth can match: gorgeous sand dunes sculpted by wind; a dried-up lakebed named the Racetrack for its power to move rocks;...

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Cultural concepts that may be different to you

From the end of October through the New Year and onto Valentine’s Day, it’s easy to forget that the holidays we celebrate are simply cultural constructs that we can choose to engage in — or not. The concepts and ideas we celebrate — like our spiritual beliefs and daily habits — are a choice, though sometimes it feels like we “have” to celebrate...

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A failed Soviet irrigation project brings eco-apocalypse to SE Ukraine

In 1976, it looked like a good idea: to divert the waters of the Danube into a salt-water lagoon on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, and irrigate millions of hectares of arid steppe land. But the result has been human and environmental disaster on an epic scale. Some environmental disasters happen in the blink of an eye, much too quickly for anyone to react: an oil...

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8 ways to hike more in 2015

If you’re like most people, all of your good intentions, inspired by the illusion of some cosmic do-over that comes with the new year, are already well on their way to oblivion. In one year and out the other, as the saying about resolutions goes. The problem with many resolutions is that they’re simply too vague. So maybe you’ve made a resolution to hike more in 2015....

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“Hike Death Valley” And Gain A Decal For Your Death Valley National Park Memorabilia Collection

Death Valley is an imposing place to go for a hike, though the staff at the national park is encouraging visitors to experience the park on a hiking trail through a new program that debuts in January. The Hike Death Valley program offers a list of hikes for visitors to take. Each hike has a point value assigned to it. For instance, hike the half-mile to Scotty’s...

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Veteran hikes the Appalachian Trail, canoes the Mississippi

His job wasn’t difficult, but it wore on him all the same. He craved adventure. He had to do something. That something, it turned out, was hiking the venerable Appalachian Trail in an unbroken streak from Georgia to Maine and, that not being enough, paddling a green canoe from the headwaters of the Mississippi River all the way to Baton Rouge, La. Jared McCallum...

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Kauai fire department rescues more than 60 hikers

Heavy rains on the Hawaiian island of Kauai led to major rescue efforts by the Kauai Fire Department. Dozens of hikers are lucky to be alive on Christmas Eve. More than 60 of them had to be rescued from Kalalau Valley on Kauai that morning. But officials say some of them weren’t even supposed to be there. A total of 62 stranded hikers were air lifted out of the valley...

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Ring in new year with hikes at State Parks

Start your New Year off on the right (or left) foot with a First Day Hike at a State Park. Explore history, view winter wildlife, enjoy fresh air and connect with nature at these fun, family-friendly events. First Day Hikes are a healthy way to rejuvenate with family and friends after the long holiday rush. These free, guided hikes are usually easy to moderate in...

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Trails Grant To Be Well-Spent By The National Park Service At Chesapeake Bay

National Park Service Chesapeake Bay was one of 37 national parks selected to receive a 2014 Active Trails grant from the National Park Foundation, the official charity of America’s national parks. Now in its sixth year, the Active Trails program supports healthy living by getting people out and active in national parks through projects that help restore, protect,...

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Delaware’s newest biking and hiking trail opens in Dover

The latest addition to Governor Jack Markell’s First State Trails and Pathways initiative opened in Dover December 18, 2014. State officials cut the ribbon on the Capital City Trail, a 10-foot-wide multi-use path near Legislative Hall. The trail connects to the St. Jones Greenway on its southern end and the Silver Lake Trail system to the north. Jeff Niezgoda, the...

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Rocky Mountain National Park: Hiking 100 miles to mark 100 years

In celebration of 100 years of trails and recreation, Rocky Mountain National Park officials are encouraging people to get out and enjoy the vast park’s excursions in 2015. Julie Nelson, of Loveland, CO advocates going further. She and her father, Bill Perry, have made a goal to hike 100 miles next year in celebration of the park’s 100th anniversary. She is...

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Why sunrises are more amazing in winter

When it comes to getting great sunrise and sunset photos, perhaps the best time of year to find success is during winter. There are two reasons why the winter months offer up the greatest opportunities. The first reason is that the sun rises later and sets earlier so you don’t have to get up at a frighteningly early hour or stay out past dinner time to capture the...

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An off-roading wheelchair made of bike parts tackles hiking trails

An engineer with an eye for cost-effective design is winning fans in the third world with an affordable wheelchair made out of bike parts. The original chair grew out of a project for disabled people in rural areas. Amos Winter, then a graduate student at MIT, designed a three-wheeled chair made from ordinary bike parts, with levers that riders pump to power it along...

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Volunteers, forest service crews rebuilding trail linked to century-old Mount Baker Marathon

An overgrown trail with a link to the Mount Baker Marathon, a storied race that occurred a century ago, is being cleared out and rebuilt as part of a Bellingham ultra-runner’s dream of launching a new version of the competition. Daniel Probst knows first-hand why the Ridley Creek Trail needs a makeover. He and other runners attempting an epic run, hike and climb from...

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Dwight McCarter: The Tracker

During his thirty years tracking lost souls through the Smokies and beyond McCarter rescued twenty-six people, many of them children. These days he’s still in the mountains, often thinking about those he found—and the few he didn’t. The last lost boy he found was named Phillip Roman. Phillip, who was ten years old, had wandered away from his family while they...

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Master plan to be prepared for NC’s Mountains-to-Sea State Trail

Ideas to be gathered from partners, stakeholders and the public will be a major component of a master planning process underway to guide completion of the Mountains-to-Sea State Trail, according to the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation. The 1,000-mile trail corridor will ultimately link Clingman’s Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains to Jockey’s Ridge State Park on the...

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Favorite Trails for Winter Hiking in Georgia

Explore these waterfalls and mountain summits in Georgia’s mild climate. From the chilly altitudes of Georgia’s southern Appalachian mountains to its more temperate southern coastline, all are beautiful year-round, but they’re arguably better in wintery landscapes and cooler temperatures. Don’t ditch your hiking boots when temperatures plummet and leaves fall: you’ll...

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Land near Appalachian Trail conserved

As the popular Appalachian Trail continues to morph and grow and attract more users and admirers, protecting the land that hugs the footpath and winds into its view is more important than ever, conservationists say. And now one of the more popular access points to the trail in Mitchell County, North Carolina has a little more elbow room in permanent preservation. The...

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Smokies Plans Alum Cave Trail Restoration

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials announced that the next full-scale, Trails Forever restoration will begin on Alum Cave Trail in 2015. The Trails Forever crew will focus restoration efforts on several targeted locations along the 5-mile trail to improve visitor safety and stabilize eroding trail sections. The restoration work will require temporary trail...

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Key Milestones in Hiking

Over the last several decades the sport of hiking has become increasingly more popular. According to the latest Outdoor Recreation Participation Report, 11.4% of all adults in the United States participated in hiking in 2013. But the burning question to a modern-day trekker is when did people take to the trail for pleasure? Ever since our predecessors began walking on...

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Losing place in Wyoming’s Red Desert

The Red Desert in Wyoming is huge. It encompasses 9,320 square miles and is the largest unfenced area in the continental U.S. I-80 cuts across its southern quarter. Highway 287 runs up its eastern side and then angles across its northern edge, following the route of the historic Oregon Trail whose 350,000 travelers between the 1840s and 1860s wanted no part of the arid...

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The most romantic proposal ever?

There aren’t many marriage proposals that can be seen from space, but for this traveller, an epic journey through Japan was also a unique marriage proposal. Japanese artist Yasushi Takahashi left his job to travel through Japan, covering more than 4,349 miles in six months, mostly on foot and sometimes by car, ferry or bicycle. GPS technology tracked his every step...

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