Never heard of Spoken City? Neither had I till a couple weeks back, but that didn’t stop me from soaking up a bit of free publicity. Spoken City wants to stick it to the W (you know, Walmart) and other…
Monthly Archives: September 2011
Iran has freed the American hikers; now can we stop blaming the victims here?
by tom • September 21, 2011 • 8 Comments
I just got the news that the two American hikers imprisoned in Iran for two years have been released. It’s been an article of faith in some quarters that the hikers had it coming — that they had no earthly…
Trail magic: why complete strangers do such nice things for thru-hikers
by tom • September 21, 2011 • 4 Comments
Magic is the impossible come to life. Thru-hikers along the Appalachian and Pacific Crest trails find it all the time: coolers of Cokes, boxes of Snickers, spare socks in an ammo tin. Right on the trail, hundreds of miles from…
Why the iPad matters to hikers (and especially to hiking bloggers)
by tom • September 20, 2011 • 8 Comments
Do hikers need iPads? (Please don’t throw anything at your screen; it won’t solve anything). I’m sure some’ll think the End of Times has arrived when they see the first gaggle of Boy Scouts gathered around an iPad on the…
Roan High Knob and Cloudland Trail
by tom • September 19, 2011 • 5 Comments
Roan High Bluff Overlook must be seen to be believed. Assuming there’s anything to see. The bluff is perched on an outcrop 6200 feet up in the Roan Highlands, one of the most storied locales in the Southern Appalachian Range.…
Fresh linkage: Tiny tent, homemade sailboat, hiking video, going French
by tom • September 16, 2011 • 0 Comments
EarlyLite reviews the Easton Mountain Product’s New Kilo 2P. Uh, Phil, the only way that’s a two-person tent is if one of the persons is a fetus. (Wise-cracking aside, savvy gear geeks have been wondering about these new uberlight Easton…
Latest links: Backpacking meals, Adirondack hikes, Smokies dash
by tom • September 15, 2011 • 0 Comments
Posting the coolest links that have landed in my RSS feed. How long will I keep this up? Let’s see how well it works. Hiking Lady swears by those shrink-wrapped backpacking dinners from Mountain House. Video clocks in at barely…
Best writing in the hiking blogosphere
by tom • September 14, 2011 • 12 Comments
One thing I noticed while building my Top 10 list: Great writing is hardly a requirement of great blogging (though it certainly helps to be pretty good). Here’s an example of great hiking writing, from the BigOutside blog. I’m slogging…
10 best hiking and camping blogs
by tom • September 12, 2011 • 22 Comments
Steven over at My Life Outdoors asked his readers to nominate the top outdoor blogs, which was a tidy coincidence: Today I wrapped up a quick-and-dirty analysis of more than 300 sites on my Twitter list of hiking and camping…