Hiker Blog

Visitors to the San Francisco Bay Area will no doubt stroll through Fisherman's Wharf, climb Coit Tower atop Telegraph Hill and view the Pacific Ocean from Cliff House. via CNN

If you've spent anytime hiking or camping you know the value of keeping your stuff dry. via Cool Hunting

Geri Koeppel Special for The Republic Oct. 24, 2007 08:27 AM Ah, the heat has finally broken, and that brings both good and bad to our idyllic community. via Arizona Republic

Filed under: Hiking, Stories, United States

Chris McCandless

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"And there were a lot of friends around us."

Ruby Jenkins on a hike up Sherman Peak Trail on her way to the mountaintop at close to 10,000 feet. via Bakersfield Californian

"I can't go on. I almost got killed."

Thirty-six women from around the nation set out to reach Mount Shasta's 14,162-foot peak on a July morning last summer to honor loved ones whose lives were taken or threatened by breast cancer. via Missoulian

A NAKED rambler has been cleared of causing distress to a fellow cliff-top walker after his case was thrown out of court. via This is Dorset

The Meshomasic Hiking club has scheduled a 'new members' hike for Sunday beginning at noon at Hurd and Seymour state parks. via Hartford Courant

Filed under: Biking, Hiking, History, Paddling, North America, United States

I've been to Washington DC more than a few times now, but I can still be surprised. And it happened again this weekend.

It turns out that DC is the ending point for a very special national park: the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, where it dumps into the Potomac River.

Unbelievably, the canal starts near the Pennsylvania border, in Cumberland, MD, more than 185 miles away, and ends here in DC, in the Georgetown neighborhood. And, yes, you can bike or run the entire length.

The C&O Company formed in 1825, started digging three years later, and finished the canal twenty-five years later, at a cost of $11 million. By the 1920s, the traffic had ceased, a victim of competition with the railroad. It uses 74 locks because of the 605 foot elevation change over its length, and it had up to 500 boats regularly operating on it, mostly moving coal in the 1870s. [Check out Quick Road Trip: Washington, D.C. Part Two for a first person account of a ride on the canal boats.]

Next time you're in Georgetown, head down to the canal and take a stroll. Just don't forget to turn around before you end up in Pennsylvania.

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It's a mighty lonesome feeling when you're backpacking into 20- to 30-knot winds with sheets of rain in your face, and your truck is parked 25 miles down a rugged ocean shore known as the Lost Coast. via MiamiHerald.com