When most people think of Ireland, they imagine bucolic green fields dotted with fluffy sheep, or cobblestone streets lined with signs advertising Guinness. But there is a lesser-known side to the Emerald Isle. It is deep in the grey, barren mountains of the Connemara region, in County Galway, hiking through land that has remained virtually untouched for thousands of years. The only remnants of human activity are scattered relics left behind by the few others who have been devoted enough to traverse this inhospitable environment.
During the Act of Settlement in 1653, Oliver Cromwell famously ordered Irish landowners to go “to Hell or to Connacht”, one of Ireland’s ancient kingdoms. The two were synonymous in his mind because of the rocky ground conditions and mountainous landscape. Today, Connacht encompasses five counties in the western part of the country, including Galway. But while farming has destroyed most of Ireland’s forested regions, the Maumturk mountain range in Galway’s Connemara region was agriculturally useless, and it was left to grow wild.
Culture and information are fluid in this part of Ireland, which is home to the country’s highest number of native Irish language speakers. As such, climbing these mountains requires an equal amount of science (in the form of a good relief map and compass) and reliable local knowledge. The Maumturks, a range of six peaks across Connemara, can also be spelled as Maamturks or even Mhám Toirc, and then sometimes colloquially referred to as “The Turks”.
For some, hiking the Appalachian Trail is a bucket-list item. Completing the 2,185-mile trail has come to signify extreme stamina and perseverance.
But of the thousands who hike the trail each year, says John Odell of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, only a small fraction are through-hikers who complete the whole trail from Maine to Georgia or vice versa. The vast majority are day users or short-term campers who have the opportunity to enjoy a part of the trail while knowing that it’s part of something much bigger.
To celebrate and raise awareness of the world-famous trail in our backyard, the regional office of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy is hosting Kick Off Your Boots, a fund- and friend-raiser at the Isis in West Asheville on Nov. 6, 2014.
“This fun event will offer a great chance for members of the outdoor community to connect with one another,” says Julie Judkins, the conservancy’s community program manager. “Come meet regional Appalachian Trail Conservancy staff and volunteers all while learning more about our efforts to protect the world’s most famous long-distance hiking trail.”
What: Kick Off Your Boots fundraiser, including live music, AT-related activities, giveaways and a “hiker chic” contest.
When: 6 p.m. Nov. 6, 2014. Bands Pleasure Chest and Blind Boy Chocolate & the Milk Sheiks start at 7 p.m.
Where: Isis Restaurant and Music Hall, 743 Haywood Road, Asheville, NC.
Tickets: $15 in advance, $20 at the door, $65 VIP admission.
Sweat and muscle for trail work in Rocky Mountain National Park comes, in part, in the form of Conservation Corps provided through the Rocky Mountain Conservancy.
This past spring the Conservancy sent 36 conservation corps interns out into the field in six crews for an 11-week internship as part of its Conservation Corps Program. Half of this group worked in the national park (the other half worked in the surrounding Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest) to protect landscapes against ecological damage and provide safe and sustainable recreational experiences for visitors.
This year’s maintenance season proved particularly important as the severe floods in September 2013 caused heavy erosion, damage to drains, and trail braiding throughout Northern Colorado’s public lands. By mid-summer the crews in the park had completed maintenance runs on the Cub Lake, Emerald Lake, Deer Mountain, Gem Lake, Bierstadt Lake, Finch Lake, and Ute trails.
On these trails the crews cleared downed logs and brush from the paths, improved drainage, built erosion-control structures, and erased social and braided trails. At one point all six crews worked with park staff on the Ouzel Falls Bridge Project in the Wild Basin area.
At three miles long and 2,000 feet in elevation, the hike up Mission Peak is not for the faint of heart: The trail is dry and nearly bald, and climbing it can be painfully hot. The incline near the top is rocky and preposterously steep.
But for those who make it to the top, the payoff is big. In addition to a panoramic view of San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and, sometimes, the Sierra Nevada set off against a cornflower sky, there is a pole to climb, one where hikers can pose in a victory stance for a photograph that proves they made it. About four years ago, cellphone images of climbers on the pole near the peak with arms outstretched like eagle wings began cropping up on Facebook, Instagram, Yelp and even dating sites.
But what has become a rite of passage for some has turned into a nuisance for the neighborhood. Every Saturday and Sunday, 1,500 to 2,000 people come to climb Mission Peak, and there are only 42 parking spaces. In a community of $2 million villas whose residents thought they were buying serenity, hundreds of hikers park along the streets.
“It’s a park that’s being loved to death,” said Richard Dolesh, a vice president of the National Recreation and Park Association, a nonprofit group that promotes public parks. The park district is also trying to influence human behavior. Its website trumpets “other challenging trails” in the area. It recommends another way up Mission Peak — one with adequate parking, shade from oak trees and a gentler climb. But most hikers seem to prefer the tougher workout.
The most important item in your outdoor wardrobe, hiking boots grant you the ability to traverse challenging terrain, work to keep your entire body comfortable and supported while carrying heavy loads and help regulate temperature and dryness. They’re also a difficult purchase to get right, particularly if you’re buying online. Here’s how to do that.
What type of boots are right for you? First, ask yourself how you plan to use them. In an ideal world, you’d have a different pair of footwear for every different condition, backpack weight and length of hike. But, that’s not economically feasible for most of us, particularly given the high cost of quality boots — the only kind you should be buying. So, you’ll need a compromise.
Leather or Textile? The great debate. Textile boots are lighter and more affordable. Leather boots are heavier and more expensive, they’ll also last much longer, often a decade or more of constant wear, and can be resoled thanks to using stitches rather than glue in that area.
Fit: Develop some understanding of your foot size and shape and when and where it feels best. When trying on a boot, you want your toes to be able to freely wiggle and shouldn’t feel any pinching in that area. Your foot should lay flat inside the boot, again without feeling bunched up or constricted.
While hiking hundreds or thousands of miles, particularly all alone, is no small feat — between the weather, the physical exertion and the mental and emotional discipline — hiking little-traveled routes adds still more challenges.
Kelley Wiley Lane learned that firsthand this summer when she hiked the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail, which meanders for 1,200 miles from the Continental Divide in Montana to the Pacific Ocean.
While most hikers go from east to west, Wiley Lane started July 3, 2014 on the Pacific Coast because there was still too much snow at Glacier National Park. She hiked down the Washington coast, through Olympic National Park, and walked along the perimeter of the Shell oil refinery en route to the Pasayten Wilderness. She arrived in the Pasayten in mid-July, just as the Carlton Complex Fire was raging.
From high in the mountains, Wiley Lane saw a blanket of smoke but had no access to information until she found a trail-closure sign near Slate Peak. She got a ride to Winthrop, where she planned her next steps — literally. With the uncertainty posed by the fire, Wiley Lane decided to head to the eastern end of the trail in Montana and start hiking back the other way. She finished her hike at Slate Peak on Oct. 4.
In 1914, one of the most unusual events in Northern Colorado’s history was an invitation tendered to two Arapaho elders living on the Wind River Reservation by the Colorado Mountain Club. Gun Griswold and Sherman Sage were selected by Colorado Mountain Club during a trip to the reservation. It was believed that these individuals had lived in the Estes Park region before it was settled.
The purpose of the invitation was to have them take a two-week long pack trip through the mountains and to record what they could remember about the area, especially names and events. During their progress, they documented Arapaho names for local landmarks. The elders, interpreter Tom Crispin, host Oliver Toll and wrangler Shep Husted crossed the Continental Divide four times.
Oliver Toll kept a detailed journal of the trip and 48 years later, published his journal as “Arapaho Names and Trails.” The first edition came out in 1962 and the second improved edition was published in 2003. It links the past occupation of the area by Indians to the present.
They rode their horses into what would become Rocky Mountain National Park to a ranch in Upper Beaver Meadows. They climbed up over Trail Ridge down to Poudre Lakes and then up to the crater at Specimen Mountain. The party crossed the Continental Divide at Milner Pass.
In early October 1775, Gen. Benedict Arnold and a contingent of 1,100 American soldiers made the portage over the Great Carrying Place between the Kennebec River and the Dead River in Maine on their wilderness expedition to Quebec City. The lengthy and difficult portage greatly weakened Arnold’s army, which ultimately failed in its attempt to wrest control of the city from the British and thereby expand the Revolutionary War, forcing it to retreat in defeat in the dead of winter.
Hikers today can explore this incredible 13-mile segment of history thanks to the Arnold Expedition Historical Society, which recently opened the Great Carrying Place Portage Trail after seven years of hard work and 239 years after Arnold and his troops passed through.
Hikers can walk the Great Carrying Place Portage Trail in short segments, make it a long day hike, or turn it into an overnight journey with a stay at the AT lean-to on West Carry Pond. Guides recommends hiking the trail from east to west “to more closely emulate the experiences of the soldiers of the 1775 expedition.”
Halfway down the track, Nixon stops. He thwacks his machete into a stump to free his hands and reaches over a stone wall, groping for something in the vegetation beneath. A moment later he pulls up a clear plastic bag and hands it over. It is full of human bones. “Incas.”
Since the Spanish never found this place, Nixon, the custodian, is surely right about the bones. They belong to the people who built Choquequirao, one of the most remote Inca settlements in the Andes, and were stashed here by the archaeologists who, over the past 20 years, have been slowly freeing the ruins from the cloud forest. The site that has emerged looks like a film director’s fantasy of a lost city. A time lapse of clouds is drifting across the ridge, above a geometry of Inca stairways and terraces cut into a steep, jungly spur above the Apurímac river, 100 miles west of Cusco in southern Peru.
Inevitably, it’s been called the “sister” of Machu Picchu. But while Peru’s poster girl is surrounded by the paparazzi crush of up to 2,500 visitors a day, Choquequirao (the Quechua name means “cradle of gold”) is almost entirely deserted. It’s not hard to see why: at least two days of mules, sweat, and wild camping separate these ruins from the nearest road or hot shower. The reward for those adventurous enough to make the trek is an Inca sanctuary that still feels, in Rudyard Kipling’s phrase, like “something lost behind the ranges.”
Ken Czarnomski has always loved sketching and writing, but as a department chair for the sustainability and construction management programs at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, his projects consisted mainly of razor-straight lines and technical engineering language. There wasn’t a lot of room for freehand sketches or colorful commentary.
After retiring, Czarnomski began looking around for ways to pick up some of those hobbies he’d left untouched as a working professional. At the same time, he wanted to find a way to give back to his community, Haywood County. So, he started sketching hiking maps.
Czarnomski’s Purchase Knob map came out in 2013, and now Czarnomski has released a second, a full-color one-pager of the Sam Knob area of the Shining Rock Wilderness. The maps are scaled, labeled and surrounded by illustrations of the plants, wildlife and features such as rocks and waterfalls that make the areas what they are.
And to sweeten the deal, they’re free, available through the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority and its visitor’s centers.
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy has announced a five-year strategic plan that will advance the health and long-term management of the Appalachian Trail. The plan, which was the culmination of a two-year collaborative process between the ATC and the ATC’s board of directors, is a vision and strategy that will build on the organization’s stewardship of the trail while also aligning with the priorities of the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service.
The new strategic plan, which is the first to be created and put into action since the Appalachian Trail Conference became the Appalachian Trail Conservancy in 2005, identifies the following key goals: Proactive Protection, Engaged Partners, Effective Stewardship, Broader Relevancy, and Strengthened Capacity & Operational Excellence. Together, these goals not only reinforce the idea that the Trail can be enjoyed by a variety of users in multiple ways, but also that the A.T. should be readily accessible to all who wish to be a part of the experience.
Reaching younger and more diverse populations has been identified as a high priority for the Conservancy. The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that within the next 50 years white Americans will comprise just 43 percent of the U.S. population, while Asian, Hispanic and African American populations will grow substantially, making up 45 percent of the 2060 population.
Blue Ridge Parkway officials announce the closure of a small section of motor road between existing gates at Milepost 420.3 near US Forest Service Road 816 (Black Balsam Road) and Milepost 423.3 at NC Highway 215. Both lanes of the motor road in that section will be closed to all visitors beginning November 3, 2014 through May 2015.
During this closure, Devil’s Courthouse Overlook at Milepost 422.4 will be accessible from the south by foot, bicycle or skis atNC Highway 215. The Art Loeb Trail crossing at Milepost 421.2 will be accessible from the north at Black Balsam Road. Visitors inside the closure are encouraged to use extreme caution and watch for construction related traffic also in the area.
Devil’s Courthouse Tunnel was originally constructed in 1941. This project will make repairs to the aging drainage system and concrete lining inside the tunnel. The work requires that portions of the overhead concrete lining be removed, creating potentially hazardous conditions for visitors that require a full road closure. The tunnel will be sealed and inaccessible to any traffic during this project.
The Blue Ridge Parkway is recognized internationally as an example of landscape design achievement and Parkway tunnels are a significant design feature along the historic route. Twenty-five of the twenty-six tunnels along the Parkway are in North Carolina, with all Parkway tunnels representing 36% of the entire National Park Service tunnel inventory.
Newly released US Topo maps for Maine now feature segments of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail (A.T.). Several of the 715 new US Topo quadrangles for the state now display parts of the A.T. along with other improved data layers.
“Located within a day’s drive of 2/3rds of the U.S. population and open year-around to all visitors, the Appalachian Trail is America’s most readily accessible long-distance footpath,” said Matt Robinson, National Park Service GIS Specialist for the A.T. “Having its route accurately depicted on these new US Topo maps just makes it even more accessible to all who wish to explore this great resource.”
The Appalachian National Scenic Trail is a public footpath that traverses more than 2,100 miles of the Appalachian mountains and valleys between Katahdin, Maine (northern terminus), and Springer Mountain, Georgia (southern terminus). It winds through scenic, wooded, pastoral, wild, and culturally resonant lands along this ancient mountain range. With more than 99% of the A.T.’s corridor on Federal or State land, it is the longest continuously marked, maintained, and publicly protected trail in the United States.
The USGS partnered with the National Park Service and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy to incorporate the trail data onto the Maine US Topo maps. This NST joins the Ice Age National Scenic Trail, the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail the North Country National Scenic Trail and the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail as being featured on the new US Topo quads. The USGS hopes to eventually include all National Scenic Trails in The National Map products.
Along with neighbouring Banff, Jasper National Park is a Unesco World Heritage site, recognised for its beauty, animal and plant life, and staggering variety of landscapes; including glaciers, alpine meadows, steaming hot springs, cerulean lakes and some of the highest peaks in the Rocky Mountains.
The 44km Skyline Trail is one of the most beautiful – and challenging – stretches of the park’s 1,000km of trails. The route gains 1,380m in elevation and reaches the highest point of any hiking trail in Jasper, the Notch, at 2,511m above sea level.
But the wilderness faces threats. Last year, despite opposition from environmental groups, the glass-bottomed Glacier Skywalk was built overlooking the park’s Sunwapta Valley, 103km south of the town of Jasper. And this year, Parks Canada approved a plan for 15 new glamping-style campsites and a day lodge at the mostly undeveloped Maligne Lake – a move many fear will set a precedent for further development.
While some people complete the hike in two days or stretch it to four or five, the most popular is the three-day option.
This past week, the Society for the Protection of NH Forests announced that The Everybody Hikes Mt. Major fundraising campaign has acheived its goal of $1.8 million for acquiring 980 acres on and near the mountain.
“We are very grateful that the campaign received more than 1,900 gifts ranging from $2 to $340,000. Gifts came in from 31 states, from as far away as Hawaii, Arizona and Oregon,” the newsletter reported.
Not only was the Forest Society involved in the effort, it was in partnership with the Lakes Region Conservation Trust and the Belknap Range Conservation Coalition.
It resulted in the purchase of three parcels of forests, trails and wetlands on Mt. Major, East and West Quarry and Piper mountains, as well as in the Moulton Valley all in the Alton and Gilford areas. A fourth parcel is in the final stages of acquisition.
Mount Major is easily one of the most hiked and beloved mountains in the state of New Hampshire.
Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail is closer to the forefront of popular culture. But tackling the 2,650-mile trail during winter is an unheard-of feat — for now. That’s something backcountry adventurers Justin Lichter and Shawn Forry want to change.
The two men are embarking on an attempt to traverse the entire route during a season when conditions are at their most treacherous and unforgiving. The attempt takes all the challenges of grueling, multi-month backcountry journeys and adds freezing weather, deep snow, avalanches and even more isolation to the mix.
“We’ve been thinking about this trip for five years,” said Lichter, 34, of Truckee, during a recent interview. “If it is a weak winter it increases our odds,” added Forry, 33, of Midpines, Calif. “But it also takes a little away from it.”
While the PCT has been part of the National Scenic Trails System since 1968, there’s no official record of anyone having made a recent credible attempt to through-hike it during the winter months, said Jack Haskel, trail information specialist for the Pacific Crest Trail Association.
Thirty square miles of sand, more Saharan than Coloradan, appears as though it has been dumped into a nook of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. The tallest dune rises 750 feet.
With 250,000 annual visitors, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is not the most popular national park in Colorado. Not by a long shot. But flip a quarter and you may very well catch a glimpse. The park was iconic enough to be selected to represent Colorado on a new quarter, released by the U.S. Mint in 2014.
Go in September or October. There aren’t lines, or really many people, to slow you down that time of year. At night, the stars seem infinite — as infinite as the grains of sand that formed the dunes.
The Great Sand Dunes, according to geologists, were created after a huge lake that covered much of the San Luis Valley receded. Predominant southwesterly winds then blew the leftover sand toward a curve in the towering Sangre de Cristo mountains, where it piled up. Opposing winds, coming down from the mountains during storms, cause the dunes to grow vertically. The unique ecosystem has been protected as a national monument since 1932, expanding in size and becoming a national park in 2004.
In the dune field, there are no marked paths or trails — anywhere you want to climb is fair game, as long as you stay off what little vegetation clings to life there. It seems like a crazy concept if the dunes you grew up nearest were of the delicate, “don’t touch” coastal variety.
On October 28, 2014, the public is invited to join trail project partners to celebrate the 5-mile extension project joining the Saugatuck and Aspetuck trails – a connection that will provide hikers, joggers and others a continuous 18-mile long trail system in the heart of Fairfield County, Connecticut.
Aquarion Water Company, the Connecticut Forest & Park Association, The Nature Conservancy and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) collaborated on the trail extension.
The Connecticut Forest and Park Association and over 120 volunteers contributed more than 1,500 hours toward completing the trail.
The trail system passes through the towns of Newtown, Weston, Easton and Redding in Centennial Watershed State Forest– a 15,000-acre land protection project collectively owned and managed by Aquarion Water Company, the Connecticut DEEP and The Nature Conservancy.
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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