Getting your mind right can do wonders for a hike, and for your perspective on all the stuff you’re hiking to get away from. I always sorta suspected as much, but I found just how true it is this morning…
McAfee Knob might well be the most-documented stop along the Appalachian Trail. (Click for the essential turn-by-turn guide at Hiking Upward.com). A rocky slab juts out from a rock face, creating a perfect promontory for snapshots giving the impression you’re…
Getting lost is inevitable on a hike — the wilderness offers too many temptations to take a wrong turn. While getting lost tops the list of hiking risks, the worse threat is staying lost long enough for something bad to…
The June 2011 Outdoor Blog Carnival poses two simple questions: what makes a great trail, and what’s your favorite example? Carnival host Outdoor Vancouver nails the first one in Top 8 Qualities of a Great Trail (and Brooks-Range Dispatch has…
I combined an excellent Appalachian Trail loop with a pilgrimage to the famed Neels Gap/Mountain Crossings store and hostel last weekend. If you’ve ever gotten a Trail Journals jones, you’ve heard of Mountain Crossings: it’s where the outfitter’s staff patiently…
Max Patch is all about the timing. The grassy mountaintop near the North Carolina-Tennessee border is sublime on a clear morning from mid-May to mid-June, when rhododendrons and flame azaleas light up the nearby trails. The rest of the time,…
Rest easy, weary hiker, you need no longer fear the stratospheric price of $1.99 for my mobile hiking guides at EveryTrail.com. Actually, we stopped charging for new guides a couple months back, but about four dozen of my guides were…
This is a surprisingly vigorous 3.2-mile hike from the city park of Blowing Rock, North Carolina, to the base of Glen Burney Falls. The town itself is mainly a tourist destination named for the legendary Blowing Rock, a crag where…
Jobs, kids and lives in general provide a zillion excuses for not hiking (and a raft of other nots: eating right, exercising, calling your mom). I needed to hang around the house this weekend, so the least I can do…
