Avenza makes a simple, yet elegant app for iOS and Android devises.  The app is called PDF Maps and it shows your position on a map.  Beyond that,  it allows you to download free USGS topographic maps for the U.S. as well as a variety of other free and paid maps from around the world.  If […]

The Backbone Trail opened officially today, June 4, 2016.  The trail begins at Thornhill Broome Beach in Point Mugu State Park on the coast just west of Malibu, California.  It extends 67 miles up, into and through the length of  the Santa Monica Mountains to Will Rogers State Historic Park near Santa Monica, California. Decades of Development […]

  Next Saturday, June 4, is National Trails Day. The event is coordinated by the American Hiking Society and includes events in every state.  These include hikes, biking and horseback rides, paddling trips, birdwatching, geocaching, gear demonstrations, stewardship projects and more.  It’s a great opportunity to kick off your summer adventures with one of many pre-planned […]

May is National Bike Month in the U.S.  During the month, the benefits of bicycling are highlighted in an effort to encourage more people to get their bikes out of storage and onto the roads and trails. Urban Bicycling People around the world enjoy bicycling on a daily basis and you can too.  If you […]

This post is about you being safe from animals.  It seems that there are regular reports of people doing crazy things around wild animals.  Whether it is putting a bison calf into the back seat of a car at Yellowstone National Park or arguing with a bear that is exploring a kayak, people continue to […]

There are a lot of survival tools that are designed to be about the size of a credit card.  The idea is that they are small enough that you can always have one with you when an emergency happens.  The Chief Scout got me two that I’ll review here.  One is a ToolLogic Credit Card Companion and […]

The Trans Canada Trail is a patchwork of interconnecting segments that not only crosses Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but also reaches to the Arctic Ocean.  The southerly portion of the trail crosses Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, with a detour through Prince Edward Island, then tracks along Canada’s southern border as far as Manitoba.  From […]

While much of nature operates in silence, the wilderness exudes a multitude of sounds from the sweet songs of endless species of birds, to the coyote’s wail, the elk’s bugle, the wind through the canopy of trees, the tumultuous crashing of a waterfall, the crack of thunder as lightning splits the sky . . .   These […]

Whitewater parks are becoming increasingly popular across the United States, but what are they?  In most cases these parks are in a river that has been modified to enhance the opportunities for recreation, generally kayaking and sometimes surfing or stand up paddle boarding.   Done properly a smooth-flowing stream can become a complex whitewater adventure. In […]

  A great way to explore is day hiking.  An even better way is to set up a base camp and day hike in all directions over several days.  Camping trailers make outstanding base camps, as opposed to those big RV’s, because you can park the trailer and get deeper into the woods with your […]