Unable to convince members of Maine’s congressional delegation to introduce legislation for a North Woods national park, supporters are now hoping President Obama will use his authority to designate a national monument as a step toward eventual park status. In June 1916, President Woodrow Wilson accepted the donation of roughly 6,000 acres on Mount Desert Island to...
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In July 2013, the Mountain Fire burned more than 26,000 acres in Riverside County, California with both the fire and the immediate rainstorm destroying miles of the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail. Almost 15 miles from Garner Valley near Paradise Corner to Saddle Junction had to be closed for safety reasons. Much of this trail remains closed. For the past two...
Learn MoreThe 11,000 pictures Jeb Bradley has snapped of New Hampshire’s White Mountains may sound like a lot, but maybe not when spread across The Grid. Bradley, a Republican state senator from Wolfeboro, is among five dozen diehard hikers who have completed The Grid challenge, in which hikers summit each of New Hampshire’s 48 mountains higher than 4,000 feet in each month of the...
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For years, I have shied away from advertising here at Meanderthals, choosing to place the focus on hiking and conservation rather than garish commercialism. I know that you would much rather look at scenic photos from the Smoky Mountains than flashing, blinking promotions that smack you upside the head and eventually simply get ignored. Over the years I have turned down...
Learn MoreBuilt at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, Harpers Ferry, WV has become America’s chronicler of centuries of confluences: of a coastal collection of states and a people striking out across a continent, of freedom and shackles, of North and South. The town, of course, was seared into our nation’s consciousness by the failed slave insurrection here in...
Learn MoreAs part of the ongoing, multiyear revision process for the Forest Plan for the Pisgah and Nantahala national forests in Western North Carolina, the U.S. Forest Service is evaluating more than 300,000 acres in the forest for potential wilderness designation. Wilderness areas are the nation’s highest form of land protection, designed to protect unspoiled areas for future...
Learn MoreFor fiscal year 2015, a record-breaking 6,827 volunteers reported approximately 272,477 hours to maintaining and protecting the Appalachian Trail (A.T.) for hikers to use. Since the ATC began collecting reports in 1983, individuals have contributed more than 5 million hours to the A.T., resulting in a volunteer network that is recognized worldwide. The record number of...
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In the Southwest, the obvious draw for a marathon hike is the 817-mile Arizona Trail. Like many people with a day job whose long-term plans include hiking the entire route from Mexico to Utah, you can chip away at the miles in opportunistic grabs and passage-long chunks. Turns out, this bit-by-bit style is the way most hikers approach the Arizona Trail. Sirena Dufault,...
Learn MoreAmericans have often been told that meeting scientific climate targets is impossible without threatening jobs and costing a fortune. But a new report shows that the opposite is true. “The Clean Energy Future: Protecting the Climate, Creating Jobs and Saving Money,” by the respected economist Frank Ackerman and his colleagues at Synapse Energy Economics, shows that the...
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The first LifeStraw water filter was introduced by Vestergaard in 2005 for public health use in developing countries. The filter converts microbiologically contaminated water into safe drinking water that meets US EPA standards for water quality. Since then, the LifeStraw brand has expanded to include additional water filters and purifiers with more features (e.g.,...
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You know the last place you want to be the day after Thanksgiving is fighting traffic and stampeding hordes of deal-obsessed shoppers in the malls. So instead, head outdoors for some respite from the crass commercialism of Black Friday. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park – by the way, the most popular national park in the country, for many good reasons, one of...
Learn MoreTo find the largest waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge, all that’s required is a drive out Interstate 84 to the many viewpoints and trailheads east of Portland, OR. To find the largest trees in the Gorge, however, you’re in for a lot more work. In an area with a long history of logging, precious few groves of old-growth trees remain intact. The ones that...
Learn MoreThere’s a bargain to be found in the woods this holiday season. The San Francisco nonprofit Save the Redwoods League is offering free passes on Black Friday – Nov. 27, 2015 – to redwood parks from Monterey and Santa Cruz to the North Coast. The idea is to offer individuals and families a chance to start a new Black Friday tradition by walking among big...
Learn MoreMary Moynihan has the math all worked out. She will need to average 21.8 miles per day, which comes out to about 12 hours per day. She will need to hike at a speed of 2½ to 3½ mph. And if her math is correct, she will hike a total of nearly 8,000 miles — in one calendar year. It’s called the Calendar Triple Crown, and only a handful of hikers have ever accomplished the...
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In 1968, the Appalachian and Pacific Crest Trails became the first “National Scenic Trails,” but ten years later Congress designated the third. Splitting the country’s midsection like a corkscrew, tight-roping the Rocky Mountains from Mexico to Canada, the 2,700-mile Continental Divide Trail is acclaimed as the third jewel in the hiking world’s Triple Crown. The CDT has...
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In June 2008, the PA Appalachian Trail Act was amended by Act 24, requiring the 58 PA municipalities along the Appalachian National Scenic Trail (A.T.) to take action to preserve the natural, scenic, historic, and aesthetic values of the Trail and to conserve and maintain it as a public natural resource. The legislation was prompted by a Commonwealth Court case related...
Learn MoreThe trio of do-gooders — Seth Orme, Joe Dehnert, and Paul Twedt — named their effort the Packing It Out initiative. Their goal was the removal of more than 1,000 pounds of litter as they hiked from Georgia to Maine. They hit the trail in March, and by August 15th had met the goal. To remove this much debris they relied on the help and generosity of good samaritans who...
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The Skylands Region is home to rolling hills and endless acres of farmlands. It also boasts the highest point in New Jersey—aptly named High Point State Park in Sussex County. The Gateway Region is the most urban part of the state, but that doesn’t mean it offers less hiking than the state’s other regions. The best thing about hiking these parts is the potential for...
Learn MoreGarlic mustard, Japanese stiltgrass, Oriental bittersweet, and other non-native invasive plants are creeping across backyards, parks, forests, and roadsides throughout the southeastern U.S. Scientists are still trying to understand what drives their relentless spread. Invasions are often assessed by measuring species richness, or the number of non-native species known to...
Learn MoreNeal Clark has been watching his feet a lot this fall day. The young environmental lawyer chose flipflops for this tour of the Utah desert with the blithe self-assurance of someone comfortable outdoors. Remarkably, he’s stumbled into thorns only once. Now, he cautiously threads a gap between banks of cryptobiotic crust. The castle-like colonies of microorganisms anchor...
Learn MoreSnowed under by an avalanche of empty plastic bottles, in 2011 National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis told the system’s 408 parks, national monuments and historic sites that they could stop selling bottled water at their concession stands and offer public water bottle filling stations instead. According to Jarvis, the environmental impact of single-use plastic...
Learn MoreAustralia’s Carmichael coal mine project has been under major scrutiny by large conservation groups and prominent Australians for months. Now, progressive think tank the Australia Institute has found just how damaging the emissions from burning coal at the mine could really be. The coal mine project, which is a backed by India’s Adani Enterprises and approved by the...
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There is a sign at Arches National Park featuring a quote that reads: “Let the people walk.” It’s a line taken from Ed Abbey’s 1968 nature writing classic “Desert Solitaire.” It might seem like an odd choice: Arches, and its nearest city, Moab, Utah, have become virtually everything “Cactus Ed” hated....
Learn MoreHiking Horsetooth Rock is a rite of passage for northern Colorado residents, and it’s especially spectacular at sunrise. The wind was fairly calm that morning, but it can be gale force – so make sure to have layers with you. There were only four other people up there for sunrise, and no other dogs. Getting down Horsetooth with a 75-pound dog is much more difficult than...
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The Green Mountain Club said they listened to member feedback to improve and update their most celebrated publication, without changing the features hikers value. This is the most complete map of the entire Long Trail system in Vermont. “We are not only excited about the detail of the map but the aesthetics are wonderful as well.” Still printed on quality waterproof...
Learn MoreLamping Homestead may be one of the most isolated hikes in Ohio. It is a long ways from anywhere, in rugged southeast Ohio. The 5-mile loop doesn’t cross any roads in the rolling Appalachian foothills between Haney and Pleasant ridges in southwest Monroe County. It is managed by the U.S. Forest Service as part of the 240,900-acre Wayne National Forest that includes...
Learn MoreMore than a month after a Tennessee woman was injured on a solo hike in the Cold Mountain area of a Haywood County, NC, she visited the sheriff’s office yesterday to thank the rescue crews who spent days searching for her. Julie Hays and her husband Craig personally thanked Sheriff Greg Christopher and others yesterday. More than 200 people from more than 60 local, state...
Learn MoreAs the world prepares for the most important global climate summit yet in Paris later this month, news from Greenland could add urgency to the negotiations. For another major glacier appears to have begun a rapid retreat into a deep underwater basin, a troubling sign previously noticed at Greenland’s Jakobshavn Glacier and also in the Amundsen Sea region of West...
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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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