This story from a Connecticut paper about the waning interest in backpacking drops this interesting tidbit: Even more dramatic is the drop in long-distance backpackers who set out each year to hike the entire 2,174-mile Appalachian Trail from Georgia to…
Backpacking
Links and comments about backpacking, camping and long distance hiking at Two-Heel Drive
Funnybone’s advice for PCT wannabes
by tmangan • November 14, 2006 • 1 Comment
His Pacific Crest Trail adventure complete, Chuckie V. dispenses bits of wisdom. Hike your own hike. Basic advice here. Anybody who tells you this more than once really means “Hike your own hike MY WAY.” Ignore them; they’re imbeciles. Gear…
Chuckie V reaches Canada
by tmangan • November 8, 2006 • 0 Comments
Chuckie, trail name Funnybone, on reaching the final milepost on the Pacific Crest Trial: I wound my way down the last set of switchbacks when I came to a clearing. There it stood, Monument 78, a miniature Washington Monument looking…
One for the Trail Journals greatest hits file
by tmangan • November 6, 2006 • 0 Comments
From Funnybone’s PCT journal: It was an hideous day, the kind that reminds you that you’d rather be indoors reading or sitting in front of the telly or perhaps even doing the dishes or standing in line at the Department…
This one’s for Fedak
by tmangan • November 3, 2006 • 1 Comment
In honor of his broken leg, here’s a link to a woman who broke hers on a trail in Corsica, possibly monkey-wrenching her plans to thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail next summer. In August, I was hiking with my husband…
Another “Our Hike” update
by tmangan • October 30, 2006 • 0 Comments
From an e-mail that came in this morning regarding Robin Grapa and Patty Laatsch finishing their near-5,000 mile hike of the American Discovery Trail: They finished 8 months, 23 days and 5 hours after they started the journey at Cape…
Rolling Thunder’s last update
by tmangan • October 26, 2006 • 0 Comments
The New Zealander is back on his job covering the news back home, but he has one last post summarizing what it’s all about to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from stem to stern in one season. Read the whole…
For all you Whitney wannabes
by tmangan • October 20, 2006 • 1 Comment
If you haven’t hiked to the highest point in the Lower 48, WildeBeat tells you how to get there. When I first started hiking I figured I had to do Mount Whitney. After all, there is a trail right to…
Thru-hiking for the cure
by tmangan • October 11, 2006 • 0 Comments
This one’s for my mom, who’s been involved with Race for the Cure for years: Steph Wilson is hiking the PCT next year and raising money for breast cancer research. In the small-world department, Steph was transcriber for speedy PCT…