Picture, in your mind, an Appalachian Trail (A.T.) view that inspires you. Now have a fellow A.T. hiker do the same. Did the view they selected look anything like yours? Most likely not. Since the A.T. traverses so many regions, the views along its 2,193 miles vary significantly, sometimes even within a few miles. From craggy mountains in North Georgia, to rolling farmlands in Pennsylvania, to the rugged Saddleback Range in Maine, the Trail provides visitors with a diversity of views to admire, each tied to the environments surrounding the...
read moreIt was well after dark on a recent evening when Philip Carcia, a record-breaking hiker, emerged from another 28-mile day in the woods, his legs streaked with mud and crisscrossed with bloody cuts, into a desolate parking lot near New Hampshire’s border with Maine. Mr. Carcia, 36, has been living out of his red Toyota Yaris on the outer reaches of the White Mountain National Forest all summer, attempting to break the record on an obscure and extreme hiking challenge known as the Redline: a journey through all 650 trails in a...
read moreYou may find yourself traveling back in time. Hop down a series of stone steps, take a sharp left turn, and feel your heart skip a beat. There, sprawled out below a sandstone plateau dotted with piñon pines and juniper trees, stands the 800-year-old remains of Cliff Palace, an ancient city of the Ancestral Puebloan people. The largest and best known of Mesa Verde National Park’s native dwellings, Cliff Palace is a wonder to behold. The site contains 150 rooms and 23 kivas (circular ceremonial spaces), indicating that it was once a...
read moreThe Triangle Land Conservancy‘s newest nature preserve, the Bailey and Sarah Williamson Preserve, is now open. The 405-acre property, at 4409 Mial Plantation Rd., Raleigh, offers nine miles of walking and biking trails that connect to the Neuse River Greenway. It’s the eighth nature preserve for the Triangle Land Conservancy, a nonprofit that works to conserve land in North Carolina’s Triangle region. The Williamson Preserve is the first of the nonprofit’s nature preserves to include working farms on the site. Project...
read moreOfficials at Utah’s Zion National Park are grappling with unprecedented amounts of graffiti throughout the park as visitors continue to flock to the canyon. These days, besides their normal job description of welcoming visitors, park rangers face the additional challenges of managing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic response as well as the presence of a toxic cyanobacteria bloom in the North Fork of the Virgin River, which runs through the park. The graffiti, which has been found along the popular Narrows hike, the Kayenta Trail and on the...
read moreAn example of National Forest stewardship in action. As with many mountain communities in Colorado, visitation to the Gunnison Valley is at an all-time high. Land managers observe that they have never seen our public lands as busy as they have been in recent years. The area is surrounded by 1.7 million acres of National Forest, and the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service also manage well-known recreation areas and parks in the region. The valley has been nicknamed “the American Serengeti” for its abundance of wildlife, the...
read moreAs promised yesterday, Meanderthals will shift gears for awhile and introduce you to shared information on the Internet that can help you be a better steward in the outdoors. Today, it’s how to improve your route finding from the REI Co-op. On many hiking or mountaineering adventures, you’ll leave the well-trodden trail behind to set off for the summit. Doing so is an exciting opportunity to explore new terrain and test your abilities. But to stay on course, travel efficiently and choose a suitable route up the mountain, you and your...
read moreHave you been paying attention to social media in the Southern Appalachians region in recent days? No doubt you have seen the disturbing photographs from Max Patch, one of the iconic hiking locations along the Appalachian Trail, and in all of the South. Max Patch, and so many others of our favorite destinations, is being overcrowded to a slow, painful death. After any summer weekend you may find hundreds of pounds of trash discarded and left behind, spoiling the scenery for those that follow. It’s laziness plain and simple. Especially...
read moreAkron and the Ohio and Erie Canalway Coalition are moving forward with plans to design the six-mile “Rubber City Heritage Trail” on a stretch of an abandoned elevated rail line. The trail will be constructed on the former Akron-Barberton Belt elevated railway corridor, and is intended to resemble the High Line in New York City. It will be 10-feet wide and can accommodate hikers and cyclists. The Rubber City Heritage Trail will serve primarily the residents of Akron by making trail connections to libraries, schools, parks and grocery stores....
read moreIn June 2019, hiker Rue McKenrick left his home in Bend, Oregon, and headed into the Three Sisters Wilderness to then walk south along the Pacific Crest Trail. When he hit the end of the Sierras, he turned east, walking across the Mojave Desert in California through Death Valley. He’s kept walking and, in the last year, has averaged 20 to 30 miles a day, notching more than 8,000 miles total. But McKenrick isn’t on a casual cross-country hike: He’s scouting and mapping the American Perimeter Trail, informally considered the newest and longest...
read moreHiking is a wonderful thing. It’s great exercise and it’s good for the psyche. But with more newbies hitting the trail, and concerns about social distancing, it’s time to take a fresh look at trail etiquette. Many people aren’t riding together anymore due to COVID, so if four friends go hiking, they each drive a car. “This, along with more people seeking outdoor recreation, has resulted in a parking problem at the trailheads,” says a mountain guide. We’ve heard stories of 2-mile backups at popular trails, and trailside parking lots full by 7...
read moreAs climate change alters habitats and disrupts ecosystems, where will animals move to survive? And will human development prevent them from getting there? Now you can see those migrations in motion. New research from The Nature Conservancy and university scientists revealed that only 41 percent of the natural land area in the United States retains enough connectivity to facilitate species tracking their preferred climate conditions as the global climate changes. As part of that study, scientists modeled the distribution and habitat needs of...
read moreOK ladies, whether you’re a seasoned hiker or new to the trails, it doesn’t take long to realize that the right gear, from hiking boots to hydration packs, will make a trip exploring the great outdoors much more comfortable. Same goes for apparel — as we creep closer to the fall and winter seasons, it’s just about time to exchange your favorite shorts for a pair of durable, comfortable leggings that will keep up with you on the trails. This is a review of six pairs of leggings that are specifically designed for hiking and...
read moreNEEF’s National Public Lands Day is the nation’s largest, single-day volunteer event for public lands. Established in 1994 and held annually on the fourth Saturday in September, the event brings out thousands of volunteers to help restore and improve public lands around the country. This year, the COVID-19 pandemic has upended many aspects of daily life in this country, and our public lands are no exception. Due to social distancing requirements remaining in place for the foreseeable future, many public lands sites will be unable...
read moreOn a recent hike, John Gallen Jr. came across an injured hiker. The hiker had stumbled, fallen and was bleeding. With his first aid kit, Gallen was able staunch the bleeding from what appeared to be a small severed artery. He helped the hiker to safety. Falls can happen to anyone on the trail, but being prepared can make a difference. Gallen, an experienced hiker, said the first aid kit is something he never hikes without, whether it’s a familiar local stroll or a trek through the Andes or Himalayas. “I think she was younger than...
read moreMost people would agree: River otters are adorable. But beyond their playfulness, the otters have an important role in determining the health of a river system. At N.C. State University, scientists this year released studies on river otters that they plan to use as baselines for future research. The first study examined the toxicological effects that metals, such as mercury, cadmium, arsenic and lead, are having on the otters. North Carolina’s river otter populations are relatively healthy compared with populations in other areas of the...
read moreThe moment your stomach starts rumbling and your energy levels take a nosedive, your instinct’s to comb through your snack stash for whatever — be it a sugar-filled granola bar or bag of pretzels — excites your tastebuds. But if you’re trekking up a mountain or through a secluded pine tree forest, you’ll need to be a little more strategic with your snack choices — and when you eat them in the first place. In fact, hikers should consider eating a snack every 60 to 90 minutes between meals, depending on the intensity of the hike, says a...
read moreIt’s still 2020 and the pandemic-/-climate change apocalypse just got even worse. The West Coast is burning. Residents of the San Francisco Bay Area awoke to dark orange skies, as a thick layer of smoke settled over Northern California. (Smoke scatters blue light, allowing only red and yellow to reach the ground.) It’s hard to overstate how really, terribly bad this fire season has been. In California alone, wildfires have blown through 2.5 million acres of land since the beginning of the year — about 10 times more than last year, and much...
read moreConservation Trust for North Carolina recently donated three properties totaling 123 acres to the National Park Service for addition to the Blue Ridge Parkway. The land, made up of three tracts, contains a significant section of Woodfin Creek upstream of the Woodfin Cascades, between Parkway mileposts 446 and 450 in Jackson County. Each of the tracts adjoin other properties protected by CTNC that will also be donated to NPS for inclusion in the Blue Ridge Parkway. All of the land is highly visible from Waterrock Knob and is part of a growing...
read moreWhen Mandy Keathley began hiking the John Muir Trail, she expected the over 200-mile journey to take about 18 days. The 32-year-old hadn’t made plans for the summer. So when she got a month off from work, she figured it was the perfect time to spend a few weeks in the open air. She packed a 45-liter backpack with her tent, sleeping bag, stove, food, water filtration and clothes. What she didn’t expect was for her solo hike to go up in smoke and end — about a week after it started — in a predawn evacuation on a military helicopter. Hundreds of...
read moreWhen you stand on a ridge or mountaintop in Western North Carolina, maybe from Wayah Bald in the Nantahala National Forest or Waterrock Knob on the Blue Ridge Parkway, it might look like miles of rippling green and blue mountains. But what you’re really looking at is a checkerboard, said Carl Silverstein, executive director of the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, an Asheville-based nonprofit land trust. Visualize these forests as black and white boxes of public lands and private lands, he said. And blending them into a beautiful,...
read moreIn 2009, President Barack Obama signed legislation creating the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail — known informally as the Pacific Northwest Trail. It runs from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, hugging the Canadian border, but it sometimes exists more on paper than on the ground. Some 1,200 miles long, the Pacific Northwest Trail was cobbled together from existing trails and forest roads, so every now and then you get to the end of a trail and the guidebook tells you: Bushwhack seven miles until you get to the next trail. That’s...
read moreTrish Jennings watched customers dining 6 feet apart outside her Bit & Spur Restaurant and Saloon on an evening in mid-August, missing the usual gregarious chatter of outdoor adventures. Springdale, a small southwest Utah town sits just outside the gates of Zion National Park, and most of the restaurant’s customers arrived after a day exploring the park’s 2,000-foot-deep canyon. Jennings, 53, and her staff are accustomed to swapping hiking and camping stories with thousands of visitors every summer from all over the world,...
read moreWhile she’s been captivated by the Appalachian Trail since she was young, Elizabeth Anjos, who ran cross country at Greeneville College, mostly sticks to road racing. But in 2015 when Scott Jurek broke the AT record, she started thinking more seriously about going for the record for the 2,190 miles stretching from Georgia to Maine, most recently set by Belgian dentist Karel Sabbe, who did it in 41 days, 7 hours, and 39 minutes. She had ideas between that mark and Jennifer Pharr Davis’ 2011 record, which still stands as the women’s record, of...
read moreSubaru of America, Inc., the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), and National Park Foundation (NPF) announced that through an innovative partnership three of America’s most iconic national parks are at the forefront to reduce the amount of waste that parks send to landfills. As part of the multi-year Don’t Feed the Landfills Initiative led by NPCA, Subaru of America Inc., NPF, and park concessionaires, Denali, Grand Teton and Yosemite national parks have made incredible progress to shrink the environmental footprint in...
read moreThe nonprofit that helps organize long-distance hiking trips on the Pacific Crest Trail announced that applications for the 2021 permitting cycle will not open as planned this October. Organizers with the Pacific Crest Trail Association wrote on their website that because of the ongoing pandemic and continuing spread of the coronavirus they’re not opening permits in October. Instead they’ll be monitoring the situation for next year and will reevaluate 2021 permits by mid-January. They cited the fact that, so far, more than 14,000 people have...
read moreThe U.S. Forest Service released a proposal that would fast-track fracking and drilling across the country’s 192 million acres of national forests and grasslands. The proposed rule would reduce requirements that the Forest Service approve oil and gas leasing plans, sidestep National Environmental Policy Act review, and prevent public involvement before the public lands are leased out for fossil-fuel extraction. “This proposal would basically make the Forest Service a rubber stamp for the fossil fuel industry,” said Michael Saul, a senior...
read moreAt age 4, Virginia Ward could identify every tree in the woods near her home. By age 12, Ward was rappelling off the highest cliffs in Western North Carolina, helping Blue Ridge Parkway plant ecologist Dr. Chris Ulrey in his important work to study rare plants. Now 15, Ward, a sophomore at Nesbitt Discovery Academy who lives in Fairview, has won the prestigious 2019 Youth Award as part of the George and Helen Hartzog Awards for Outstanding Volunteer Service, an annual recognition of volunteer excellence in the National Park Service. Ward was...
read moreCairns are rock stacks that can serve as critical trail markers, and some carry cultural significance, as well. Others are purely decorative, built by visitors who enjoy designing these towers in nature, often for the sake of sharing images of delicately balanced stones on social media. Besides the fact that it violates the Leave No Trace program’s ethos that should be honored by visitors to our national parks and other public lands, here’s why you should resist the urge to create a rock pile, during a pandemic or otherwise. Trail designers...
read moreSince the pandemic started, storefronts in towns around Alaska may have emptied, but trails? “They’re jammed with people, and that’s all the trails — trails up in the Chugach all the trails here in town,” said former Alaska Governor Tony Knowles, standing on the Coastal Trail near downtown Anchorage. Park use around Alaska is up over 150% since the start of the pandemic, according to data from Google, which is why Knowles says now is the perfect time to start thinking about a trail project even more ambitious than the Coastal Trail. It’s...
read moreA Conservation Corps North Carolina (CCNC) crew of young adults worked with volunteers from the North Carolina High Peaks Trail Association to complete high priority trail work on the Black Mountain Crest Trail in the Nantahala National Forest. The CCNC crew consisted of five 18 to 24 year-old AmeriCorps Members led by a trained Crew Leader. The crew worked on the Black Mountain Crest Trail project August 3-12, 2020. Together, crew members and volunteers completed 7.3 miles of trail maintenance from the base of Celo Knob at...
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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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