By the fifth day on the trail, the author thought he’d grown accustomed to the exotic eating habits of Matt Misterek. Earlier on their 93-mile hike around Mount Rainier, he’d seen him pull from his pack hardboiled eggs, pizza and even a small bag of ice. But as the author peeled the wrapper off of a protein bar, the same lunch he’d had the previous four days, he couldn’t...
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Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park dedicated two new TRACK Trails for children during a ribbon-cutting ceremony April 26th. The new trails follow the C&O Canal towpath and incorporate self-guided brochures for the children to follow that help with their discovery. TRACK Trails are being developed for all 13 national parks in the Greater Washinton,...
Learn MoreTheir knees are a bit cranky, and a couple wore knee braces as they hiked the trail. Another had had a hip replacement. And the number of hikers on this trip with arthritis? Too many to count. A sprightly bunch though, this group of retired doctors, teachers and nurses who are part of the Snoqualmie Valley Trails Club. Recently, they hiked five miles around Squak...
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June 29 marks the 75th anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s signing of the law that established Olympic National Park. The park commemorates its 75th year with a new logo and new online features and events planned throughout 2013. “This anniversary gives us a chance to reflect on the outstanding natural and cultural heritage protected within the park,”...
Learn MoreIn the grand scheme of a 300-mile hiking trail, 11 miles does not seem like much. But it is a proposed 11-mile connector trail that Bob Scullin calls “a critical little segment.” Scullin, a board member of the Chinook Trail Association, used this phrase as he updated members at the association’s 25th annual meeting in Vancouver. The Vancouver-based...
Learn MoreA multi-state group headed by local attorney, David Brickley, is working to create a Sept. 11 National Memorial Trail to connect sites in New York City, Washington, and Pennsylvania associated with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. The trail, shaped like a triangle, would connect the New York City World Trade Center site with the Pentagon in...
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Volunteers working with the Washington Trails Association contributed nearly 100,000 hours of work across the state this year. The nearly 2,700 volunteers contributed $2 million worth of service to state’s public lands, according to the group. Among the numbers from this year’s effort, work was done on a record 170 different trails. The effort included 636 day trips, 26...
Learn MoreAlex Hinkle undertook an epic hike this past summer when he attempted to traverse the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail, which runs from the U.S.-Mexico border to the U.S.-Canada border. Starting in Southern California, Hinkle and a few friends he made along the way reached Stehekin, Wash., 84 miles short of the Canadian border, before they were stopped by inclement...
Learn MoreMost every employee of the National Park Service has an ideal park at which he or she would like to work, and the expansive wilderness in Port Angeles’ backyard is at the top of Sarah Creachbaum’s list. “It’s Olympic National Park — do you need to say more?” Creachbaum said with a laugh from her superintendent’s office at park headquarters in Port...
Learn MoreA section of trail in Soaring Eagle Park near Sammamish, WA remains closed after a number of reports of attacks by an aggressive owl, and a woman was attacked on Bridle Trails State Park near Kirkland last weekend. While no one has been seriously injured, it’s not the first time such attacks have been reported. The birds are likely barred owls, which can be...
Learn MoreThe popular hiking and horse trail at Liberty Lake Regional Park will undergo a series of improvements starting next week. The trail will be closed to the public during the work from Oct. 22 through Oct. 27. Part of the work involves blasting rock to create a safer and wider path near Liberty Creek Falls, said Paul Knowles, park planner. That section of the trail is...
Learn MoreMount Ellinor Trail in Olympic National Forest’s reopened, ending a formal closure put in place three months ago when several hiking parties reported being harassed by insistent mountain goats. The animals had gotten very close to the hikers and then failed to retreat when attempts were made to chase them away. The mountain goats at Mount Ellinor and other locations in...
Learn MoreRoad 2361210 in Olympic National Forest has been closed for decommissioning and conversion to a trail. The closure, which took effect September 17th, is from milepost 0 to milepost 2.7 at Pine Lake. This road is on the Hood Canal Ranger District, on the east side of the forest. For some time, the road has been closed to vehicle traffic but open to foot traffic with...
Learn MoreThe Washington Department of Natural Resources is starting to develop trails for Reiter Foothills, and they need your help. The state agency is looking for volunteers to help place markers that will be used to guide the design of new trails for hikers, equestrians and mountain bicyclers. Two days have been set aside for the project. The first is set for 9 a.m. to 3:30...
Learn MoreFew trails in the country offer greater biological and climate diversity over a relatively short distance, ranging from arid, wildflower-studded shrub steppe to alpine meadow to rain forest. At times you can survey them all from the same spot. The new William O. Douglas Trail in central Washington offers hikers, bicyclists, and horseback riders dramatic contrasts between...
Learn MoreA California man who was six miles from finishing the Pacific Crest Trail was airlifted from the remote wilderness in Whatcom County, WA after he broke his ankle. Timothy Nye, 60, of Sacramento, CA, had been hiking for five consecutive weeks, starting his final leg of the trail in Central Oregon, said a Whatcom County Sheriff’s Deputy. Nye was south of Castle Pass...
Learn MoreIt’s a scenic jewel hidden in plain sight. Yet it’s one of the least-visited national parks in the country. North Cascades National Park in Washington, created in 1968, has its champions though, and some of them want to see the park expanded to include more than 200,000 acres of federal land left off the original proposal that many people probably even today...
Learn MoreSunshine and snow conditions combine for picturesque high-elevation hiking in Northwestern Washington. But in many cases, pack your snowshoes. The Mount Baker Highway (Highway 542) is open to the Heather Meadows Visitor Center and the Austin Pass picnic area. The melt-out on trails in the Heather Meadows area is later than usual, but all the trails in this area now are...
Learn MoreHiking up to six miles every day isn’t for the faint of heart. Luckily for Chris Marshall, he doesn’t have one. Marshall, the first SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart patient in the Pacific Northwest to leave the hospital using the Freedom® portable driver, has logged more than 400 miles of hiking since being discharged from University of Washington...
Learn MoreIt has become one of the Pacific Northwest’s hottest tickets. Every $22 permit to climb Mount St. Helens is sold out through mid-September. Reservations for peak summer hiking days began hitting the 100-people-per-day limit in early spring. So far, 13,934 permits to ascend the volcano have been sold, more than the 13,851 permits issued for all of 2011, according to...
Learn MoreDennis and Sandy Evans are so dedicated to the construction of the Iron Goat Trail near Stevens Pass, they even got married on the hiking trail back in 1995. The Marysville couple, now in their late 60s, have spent the past 20 years volunteering their “free” time each summer to help build and maintain the popular 10-mile trail in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie...
Learn MoreWhen most people think of beaches, they think of long stretches of white sand filled with brightly colored umbrellas, muscular guys playing football and plastic buckets in the shape of castle turrets. Chances are they do not think of rugged, windswept expanses littered with boulders, starfish and driftwood, bald eagles flying overhead as gray whales spout water in the...
Learn MoreA popular trail on Mount Ellinor will be closed for at least two weeks after several reports of aggressive goats along the path, Olympic National Forest officials say. An emergency order closes both the upper and lower portions of Mount Ellinor Trail No. 812. The Upper Big Creek and Mount Rose trails remain open. Violation of the order could bring a fine of up to $5,000...
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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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