The most complete digital topographic ever made of the Earth has been released by NASA.
The map, known as a global digital elevation model, was created from images collected by the Japanese Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, or ASTER, instrument aboard NASA’s Terra satellite.
The 3-D effect is achieved by merging two slightly offset two-dimensional images (called stereo-pair images) to create depth.
The ASTER data cover 99 percent of Earth’s landmass and span from 83 degrees north latitude to 83 degrees south.
You know you’re going to be hiking next year. Why not do it in style in one of the hundreds of US National Parks? Get a head start on your 2012 vacation planning with the Park Service calendar of fee free days.
America’s Best Idea – the national parks – gets even better with several fee-free days at more than 100 national parks that usually charge entrance fees.
There are plenty of stories about people who display extraordinary endurance as “thru-hikers,” those who cover the entire 2,181-mile Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine in a northbound marathon of consecutive months, spring through fall. In August, for instance, a 28-year-old woman finished in 46 days, the fastest-ever thru-hiker.
But let’s not overlook the stick-to-itiveness of 82-year-old Jim Tschinkel of Delmar, a “section-hiker” who recently finished the Appalachian Trail – 20 years after he began. “I hike like a tortoise,” he said. “I’m not fast, but I’m steady.”
He celebrated the completion on Sept. 4 at Springer Mountain in Georgia with his wife, Joan, and a grandson, Christopher, who hiked the final three days. Tschinkel received a certificate from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, a group that considers him a “2,000-Miler,” or section-hiker, in deference to the grueling feat of the thru-hiker.
The idea for the Outdoor Blogger Network was born, appropriately enough, on a riverbank, via a conversation between two Outdoor bloggers.
Rebecca Garlock, The Outdooress – and Joe Wolf, Flowing Waters – were talking about a myriad of topics and blogging ideas after spending a day fly fishing for trout in Oregon. It was one of those times when things just clicked. They shared a vision that we needed a centralized place on the web for people to find the best Outdoor related blogs.
Year 2 will be focused on providing information and platforms that have either been requested, or things to enhance everyone’s experience. But to celebrate the 1st year anniversary, get ready Outdoor Bloggers, this week is going to be full of giveaways. As in thousands of dollars worth of outdoor gear to be given away.
Three pairs of shoes and 734 miles later, Jake Bramante emerged from Lincoln Lake trailhead as the first person in recent history to have hiked every Glacier National Park trail in one season. After a long winter and months of snow, Bramante began hiking in May.
Paul Travis is director of development for the nonprofit Glacier National Park fund, which partnered with Bramante and helped publicize his hike. “May and June was crazy weather. He couldn’t access a lot of trails until July and even then, some of those – the high country – wasn’t open until August,” Travis said.
Travis said the next part of the project is to schedule Bramante on speaking engagements. “He’s going to do a talk next spring for us, showing photos and talking about his experiences,” Travis said. “His whole goal was to do this in a year, and he’s the first.”
There’s no telling what you might stumble across when hiking in Western Washington. Bigfoot, vampires, bundles of cash. Maybe even Paul Bunyan. The region is steeped in nearly as much intriguing pop culture as it is good options for fall hikes.
Here are seven hikes that will give you a taste of the region’s pop culture, or at least get you close to the legends.
The Dolomites cover 90,000 acres of the Italian Alps, ending at the Austria-Italy border, and the region boasts a heady mixture of both cultures. The Ladin culture, established when the Romans invaded the territory in the first century, also endures, with its own language and cuisine, such as crisp spinach-stuffed pancakes and barley soup.
Call it an Alpine fever dream. Or disorientation from a nearly utopian week in Italy’s vertiginous, bone-white Dolomite Mountain region, hiking through verdant valleys and along exposed ridgelines, dining on impeccable rustic fare and drinking too much red wine. Or just chalk it up to childlike enthusiasm mixed with overconfidence.
Whatever it is, after hiking 1,500 feet to the top of Mount Lagazuoi and admiring the panoramic views of the cliffs jutting into an azure sky and the narrow Falzarego Pass far below, I decide to skip the gondola ride down — the easy way to the valley floor — and elect to hike instead.
A 2.75-mile trail opened recently at Finger Lakes State Park in Missouri for hiking and mountain biking.
The Kelley Branch Mountain Bike Trail is the first in the park devoted exclusively to hiking and biking. Development and construction began two years ago. The trail is one-way and has been approved for both pedestrians and cyclists. It features a small waterfall at the south end and an old mining bridge.
The new trail is within the 90-acre Kelley Branch Restoration Area. To preserve the land, the path was cut using hand tools rather than machinery.
It starts in the picnic area in the southwest sector of the park with a portion running along the Kelley Branch stream. Yellow blazes on trees indicate the path’s direction. The trail is a one-way loop considered moderate in difficulty. It takes an estimated two hours to hike, with steep hills 20 to 30 feet high.
If you’re like us, you don’t fire up your laptop and spend hours poring over maps reliving past trips and plotting new adventures. Instead, you want that info handy if you’re in a bind on the trail. Now you can do both on BACKPACKER’s new Map Maker iPad app.
Loaded with colorful, richly detailed topos, aerial images, and street maps you can cache on the tablet, this powerful tool lets you import trips and GPS data, drag-and-drop waypoints, zoom in on that key river crossing on your dream trip, and much more. Sync with the smartphone app BACKPACKER GPS Trails (iPhone and Android) for a complete in-field navigation experience.
View seamless topo maps by MyTopo, and aerial imagery by Bing Maps. Search for peaks, mountain passes, creeks, lakes, waterfalls, glaciers, cities and more.
Fall weather will show hikers one thing: It sure is changeable. One day it’s summer-like and the next you need to wear your mitts and wool hat. Sometimes it happens in the same day.
That’s typical in fall, the second-most changeable season after spring. Expecting conditions to change is part of planning for a safe hike any time of year. It’s especially important when it comes to fall hiking. Having a safe hike is important in any season, and it’s no different in autumn. What follows are a few tips to make your fall hikes a little more comfortable and safer.
October is known for its goons, ghosts, goblins and the occasional thing that goes bump in the night – including zombies.
Zombies are referred to as the “living dead” or “walking dead,” but the “hiking dead?” Metro Parks, Louisville is hosting the first ever Zombie Hike at Jefferson Memorial Forest on Saturday, October 22.
The public is invited to come dressed in their zombie best and hike through the “undead” forest. Folks can stay for a camp fire, s’mores and a screening of “Night of the Living Dead.”
Now when you hear “hiking yoga” as a single workout, you may think, “how in the world can these two worlds collide?” With yoga poses like downward facing dog requiring a mat, how does someone do yoga and hike at the same time?
Hiking yoga is a chance for people who may have been a little intimidated to walk into a studio and feel like “Oh do I need a mat and a prop and I have to be quiet?” The nice thing about getting people out onto the trails is that it’s a little disarming and people arrive to experiment with the idea of yoga. Limited in the number of postures one can do on a hiking trail, the tendency is to do the ones that people feel more comfortable with.
WATERBURY (AP) – The last section of the Long Trail damaged by the remnants of Hurricane Irene has reopened.
Officials say three miles of the trail in Shrewsbury remained closed for a month while the rest of the Long Trail had reopened weeks earlier.
The Green Mountain Club said that it had proposed a detour of the damaged section of the Long Trail and Appalachian Trail around the washouts in Shrewsbury. Officials say the U.S. Forest Service has posted and opened the detour.
Officials say many side trails in the Green Mountain Forest remain closed.
The Colorado River Delta, where the Colorado River ends in a series of wetlands at the Gulf of California, is less than 10% of its original size and getting smaller. Without a dedicated flow of water into the Delta, several indigenous communities, 380 bird species, and freshwater marine wildlife are in danger. To protect the Colorado River Delta: tell Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar to help save what Jacques Cousteau once called, “the aquarium of the world.”
Upstream water diversions from the Colorado River have reduced what was once two million acres of wetlands to less than 10% of its original size, and have nearly eliminated the Delta’s estuary. Native plants and wildlife areas withered from the lack of water, and many formerly prolific animals and wildlife are rapidly disappearing. On a human scale, the drastic changes have forever altered life for several indigenous communities on both sides of the border. At this point, the very cultural survival of the Cocopah Indian Tribe in the U.S. and the related Cucapa Tribe in Mexico – who once thrived in the Delta – is in jeopardy.
It’s not a lost cause. With help from groups like the Sonoran Institute, there’s still a chance to return water to the Colorado River Delta, and make sure the mighty river once again reaches the sea.
Julie Gayheart is always looking for an excuse to go hiking in the mountains, to escape the heat and cityscape of her home in Charlotte. So when she heard about the new Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy Hiking Challenge — a set of eight hikes on scenic land preserved by the CMLC — Gayheart and a friend signed right up. When she discovered the prize for finishing the challenge was a white squirrel patch, that was all the incentive she needed to hike all eight in one September weekend.
As leaf color is hitting its peak in WNC might be the best time to start the challenge. Hikes range from easy to moderate and are between one and four miles. Destinations include natural features such as waterfalls and 360-degree mountaintop views. Six of the hikes are on public lands or have full-time public access, while two hikes are on private land.
I am Jeff Clark, founder of Internet Brothers, publisher of Meanderthals, and a passionate hiker. I live in western NC near the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are just out my doorstep, 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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