Category: hiking

visiting Death Valley

On By Rick McIn hiking, travel1 Comment

Of all the wonderful parks in the S.W. USA, … my favourite is Death Valley.

It’s so weird.

With so many things to do. And see.

Click PLAY or watch Beautiful Places In HD – Death Valley on YouTube.

The best hike there is Telescope Peak.

hiking Waterton this summer …

On By Rick McIn hikingLeave a comment

I’m going to complete the Triple Crown myself and get my name on the Glory Board.


3 hikes
up to 55km
2650m elevation gain

I can’t resist. Waterton is the best kept secret in Canadian hiking. Tourists flock to Banff in the Rockies, leaving Waterton National Park to us local insiders.

… Crypt Lake (9km), Akamina Ridge (20km) and the Alderson-Carthew Summit (16km) in one summer.

I’ll do the 3 during one trip, I think. Either end of June. … Or in August.

I’ve done Crypt and Alderson-Carthew in the past. But never Akamina. It looks great.

Details on ExperienceWaterton.com.

Leave a comment if you want to use the Triple Crown challenge as an excuse to get your butt to Waterton.

youngest ever to climb Everest

On By Rick McIn health & fitness, hikingLeave a comment

It’s easy to criticize the parents for letting their “child” do something so dangerous.

But this kid is no rookie. He’s already completed 6 of the 7 summits. In December he’s scheduled to attempt Vinson Massif in Antarctica.

A 13-Year-Old Kid Has Summited Everest

in Monument Valley

On By Rick McIn cycling, hiking, travel3 Comments

Gorgeous.

I’d been to Monument Valley before. But the Valley itself was closed for the (very cool) Red Bull Air Race: Photo by Timothy K. Hamilton

This time I did the only independent hike allowed in the Park, the Wildcat Trail (3.2mi). I had low expectations, but it turned out to be superb. I felt like a Mormon trailblazer.

At dusk I tried finding a mountain bike trail just outside the Park. That was a FAIL.

It’s amazing how all this flat desert is mostly impassable.

… moseying off in the general direction of the Grand Canyon.

freezing in Utah

On By Rick McIn hiking, travel3 Comments

Kelley Durbin told me …

“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving.” — Lao Tzu

LauTzy is right.

That’s why I’m holed up in a “camping cabin” at The Thousand Lakes RV Park, Torrey, Utah. Instead of being huddled up in my tent. (As I was the night before.)

Forecast tonight is for 29° F, 60% chance of precipitation (rain or snow). Actually it was the howling wind that finally drove me indoors.

Hmm. … May is considered the best hiking month here.

Tomorrow hiking Navajo Knobs. And driving on to the Muley Twist Canyon tomorrow night. Wish me luck.

… now, where did I pack my snowshoes?

DOH – bumbling through Nevada

On By Rick McIn cycling, hiking, travel2 Comments

I rushed out of the fantasy world of Vegas to search out the best hikes in Southern Nevada for my hiking site.

Of the first 4 I tried to hike this weekend, something went wrong on ALL.

1) snowed in …
2) access road now “NO trespassing”
3) needed an odometer to find the unmarked parking lot. (My Honda has a broken odometer.)
4) part way down the remote 30mi washboard access road I realized I had left behind my oil cap. Merde!

Still, I’m loving driving around the sunny S.W. equipped with a mountain bike!

Here I’m being challenged by a desert tortoise.

driving Mojave National Reserve

tortoise - driving Mojave National Reserve

I carefully, slowly lifted him well off the highway in the direction I thought he was trying to go. … Unfortunately he seemed to be walking the yellow line when I found him.