Hiker Blog

Anyone familiar with the trek and have any footwear suggestions? I'll be there the first week of November this year and I'd love to just wear some waterproof trail-runner shoes and gaiters, rather than big ... via Lonely Planet

Anyone familiar with the trek and have any footwear suggestions? I'll be there the first week of November this year and I'd love to just wear some waterproof trail-runner shoes and gaiters, rather than big ... via Lonely Planet

"Thanks I like lemons. What else have you got?"

Greetings To All, First time posting, you are all such a great resource. Heading to SEA from Australia on October 31st and wondering if its worth it to bring a small one person tent and water filter? Do people ... via Lonely Planet

County Search and Rescue volunteers rescued two hikers stranded in West Clear Creek Sunday morning. via Arizona Daily Sun

"It's definitely not a beginner's hike"

Taking kids on a foliage hike is a great way to enjoy the fall outdoor experience. via Middletown Times Herald Record

Filed under: Climbing, Hiking, Learning, Paddling, Scuba Diving, Stories, United States, Hotels and Accommodations

We've written about how you can mail a postcard in a cave, stay the night in a volcano cave--or some other caves, bungy jump in a cave, paddle in a cave, and go to church in a cave. There's a whole lot more you can do in a cave and I'm sure one of us have mentioned it, but these will do for now. Missouri is the place to go for even more cave fun. It's not called The Cave State for nothing.

The reason Missouri has such cave wealth has something to do with mining. When you dig sand, limestone and lead from underground, huge caverns are the result. These left behind caverns make for terrific underground recreation facilities since the temperature stays constant year round regardless of what the weather is doing above ground.

Here's what you can do in Missouri's caves besides walking through them. You can:

• play tennis at Underground Racquets Ltd. housed in a limestone cavern in Carthage.
• scuba dive at Bonne Terre Mine in Bonne Terre that used to be where lead ore was extracted,

And in the future, hopefully, you will be able to ice-skate and kayak at Crystal City Underground, once a sand mine.

Filed under: Climbing, Hiking, Learning, Paddling, Scuba Diving, Stories, United States, Hotels and Accommodations

We've written about how you can mail a postcard in a cave, stay the night in a volcano cave--or some other caves, bungy jump in a cave, paddle in a cave, and go to church in a cave. There's a whole lot more you can do in a cave and I'm sure one of us have mentioned it, but these will do for now. Missouri is the place to go for even more cave fun. It's not called The Cave State for nothing.

The reason Missouri has such cave wealth has something to do with mining. When you dig sand, limestone and lead from underground, huge caverns are the result. These left behind caverns make for terrific underground recreation facilities since the temperature stays constant year round regardless of what the weather is doing above ground.

Here's what you can do in Missouri's caves besides walking through them. You can:

• play tennis at Underground Racquets Ltd. housed in a limestone cavern in Carthage.
• scuba dive at Bonne Terre Mine in Bonne Terre that used to be where lead ore was extracted,

And in the future, hopefully, you will be able to ice-skate and kayak at Crystal City Underground, once a sand mine.

"We're in the wilderness out there too, so in a way it's the same thing as here"

Jorge Castaneda knelt on a rocky ledge with a map of the Sierra Nevada spread before him.

'There aren't street names,' the 18-year-old city kid said only half-jokingly just before his first backpacking trip. 'How are we supposed to read these maps?'

Castaneda was with a group of young men from inner-city Oakland and Los Angeles heading into the Yosemite backcountry for a five-day, 20-mile excursion sponsored by an outdoor education program called WildLink.

The group's aim is to help them forge a connection with public lands that will keep them coming back, and hopefully beef up the ranks of those who spend their free time hiking, climbing, fishing or otherwise enjoying open spaces. Read more

The air is still crisp from the cool evening before, and I love to catch glimpses of the leaves beginning to change colors. via Fitsugar

'Share this patchwork of history, art and architecture as we walk along Europe's northeast coast in Belgium and the Normandy and Brittany regions of France. via Des Moines Register