Category: hiking

hiking the Overland Track, Tamania

On By Rick McIn hiking, photos, travel, traveloguesLeave a comment

Tasmania has the best hiking in Australia. And in February it has the most temperate climate Down Under.

I headed straight for the Overland Track, named one of the top 10 treks in the world by the incontrovertible on-line authority — besthike.com !

The Overland was even better than expected.

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another smug summit money shot

With perfect weather I was able to scramble 3 side peaks including Cradle Mountain.

Check my trip report and annotated photos.

A Park Ranger told an incredible tale. He had arranged private transport to the hospital for a man who walked out of the trackless Tasmanian wilderness after 47 days. The adventurer had attempted to climb unsupported in series all the major peaks in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (13,800 km²).

The bloke had lost one third of his body weight, finally quitting after failing to summit the second most difficult mountain.

Next travelogue on this trip >> Australia killed 2433 tourists in 7 years

holiday words of reflection

On By Rick McIn blogs, hiking, philosophyLeave a comment

Tom-mug.jpgA new friend, Tom Mangan from California, I met through the network of outdoor bloggers. I check his websites every day.

This holiday post got me assessing my place in this biosphere:

Christmas reminds me that I could be a more giving person, that I could spend more time with the aged, the young, the hungry, the suffering. Not in my nature to be that kind of person.

Yet if you were to ask me “So Tom, how do I start me a blog,” I could give till you’re blue in the face. If you were to ask how to hike off a few extra pounds, how to pick the best of 100 shots from your vacation, how to get a newspaper section to the press on time, you might find me generous to a fault.

I take a lot from the world … I use more fossil fuels than I have any hope of replacing. I eat food irrigated from precious natural water sources; I use products manufactured in distant nations where forests and rivers are being fouled so somebody can turn a buck selling me this stuff at “affordable” prices (which are merely a discount against the cost of repairing the damage down the road).

None of us give back as much as we could, or even what we should. But we should be giving back something. And just as the weight of everything you put in a backpack adds up, the weight of everything we do adds up too.

I don’t think I’m entirely self-deluded to believe that I’ve been doing at least a little bit of good in the world by posting pictures from the outdoors and writing about walking in the woods. At the very least I’m distracting people from further degrading the earth, and at best I’m encouraging them to get out in their own woods and maybe come to realize why we need these wild places.

Want to give something worth having? How about a down payment on giving your great-great-great-great granddaughter a planet as good as the one we’ve got now? You don’t need to be a tree-spiking enviro-terrorist to believe future generations have as much right to a livable planet as we do.

Call that my Christmas wish: that folks wake up and realize we’re not merely taking what’s here today for ourselves, we’re stealing it from those who come after us.

Busy being born: December 2006 Archives

Merry Christmas to friends and family

On By Rick McIn Cirque du Soleil, gymnastics, health & fitness, hiking, internetLeave a comment

mug2_2006.jpgHappy Holidays !!

Trust you are getting a change, a rest, some exercise. (A gift or two that you actually wanted.)

Year end update.

More of the same for me. I continue to focus on as few things as possible: gymnastics, hiking, fitness, travel, the internet.

2006 started with a family reunion in Mazatlán, travels through that country to Belize and Guatemala.

I made four different trips through the States this year. Still a love / hate relationship with the USA.

My new part-time work as a talent scout for Cirque du Soleil has taught me a lot. In fact I founded a gymnastics blog with a focus on other acrobatics sports including diving, sport acrobatics, circus, martial arts, X sports and more. It’s amazing what gymnasts can do.

My hiking website is doing great, as well. Certainly the best resource on the internet for those looking for the “best hike”.

I’ve been avidly following the wild, lawless internet where millionaires are literally made (and crushed) overnight. The future will be amazing. I am very optimistic My ruminations on the web (and other nonsense) I post on this, my personal blog.

That’s it.

Gone to Saskatoon for a catch-up with old friends over New Years. Then off to Australia in early January for a series of gymnastics conferences. Finally, some hiking in Tasmania.

And I’m waiting on Cirque for 2007 assignments. That is my highest priority right now.

: )

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eat, sleep, blog

On By Rick McIn blogs, hikingLeave a comment

I’ve been spending a lot of time on the computer the last few weeks.

Some interesting things happening with besthike.com, my most important site.

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A daily blog about t-shirts, t-shirt companies, and things that should be t-shirts.

Logic + Emotion blogger T-Shirts at Tcritic – Daily T-Shirt Blog

lyrics – Eagles – Desperado

On By Rick McIn hiking, musicLeave a comment

One of the downsides of being a Winehiker, or hiking with a winehiker, is the irresistible urge to sing around the campfire with lyrics forgotten. Gotta memorize this classic.

“Desperado”

Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses?
You been out ridin’ fences for so long now
Oh, you’re a hard one
I know that you got your reasons
These things that are pleasin’ you
Can hurt you somehow

Don’t you draw the queen of diamonds, boy
She’ll beat you if she’s able
You know the queen of hearts is always your best bet

Now it seems to me, some fine things
Have been laid upon your table
But you only want the ones that you can’t get

Desperado, oh, you ain’t gettin’ no younger
Your pain and your hunger, they’re drivin’ you home
And freedom, oh freedom well, that’s just some people talkin’
Your prison is walking through this world all alone

Don’t your feet get cold in the winter time?
The sky won’t snow and the sun won’t shine
It’s hard to tell the night time from the day
You’re losin’ all your highs and lows
Ain’t it funny how the feeling goes away?

EAGLES LYRICS – Desperado

Desperado

Desperado

another internet photo mystery solved

On By Rick McIn hiking, humour, photos, travelLeave a comment

After being, I think, the first blog to announce (twice) the “Stremnaya Road”, Bolivia actually the Guoliang Tunnel in China mystery solved , I am on to a new investigation.

This time declaring this Tibetan photo was not taken in Tibet:

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… check my hiking blog to see where tourists are allowed to scramble this cliff.

hiking Paria canyon, Arizona

On By Rick McIn hiking, photos, travel, traveloguesLeave a comment

I just posted a photo journal on my hiking blog: Paria – the best canyon walk in the world.

It links to my photos of the trip as well as a detailed description on how to organize 4 days wading in a river slot canyon. Certainly this is one of my favourite hikes anywhere.

Rick-Paria.jpg

137 Paria photos on flickr.

I also recommend the famous day hike nearby, called The Wave. (I had trouble on that one.)

» this is the last travelogue post on this trip.

hiking – survived Paria Canyon

On By Rick McIn hiking, travel, traveloguesLeave a comment

Just trudged out of amazing Paria Canyon.

It was four days walking in a cathedral of stone (with flooded floors). Simply gorgeous.

Paria Canyon is much safer than I expected. It is nearly impossible to get lost on a river hemmed in by huge cliffs. (Though 62-year-old James Aalberts managed it last week.) And I cannot see how anyone could drown in Paria no matter how high the tidal wave.

On my hiking blog, for photos, check this post: Paria – best canyon walk in the world

» next travelogue post on this trip – “security theatre”