Not solo.
Not silent.
Plenty of awesome drone footage.
Perhaps the most amazing hike in the world. Kraig did 11 days with 5 guys who are subscribers to his channel.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Kraig Adams does Huayhuash, Peru
Author: Administration
Cycling Vancouver Island
Trip report by BestHike editor Rick McCharles
My favourite month in Canada is September.
Weather is still good. Yet the tourists have mostly headed home.
I’d always wondered if it was possible to cycle logging roads — then bushwhack to the trailhead of Della Falls on Great Central Lake.
As expected, it’s nearly impossible. I never made it. 
But I’d wanted to do a gear check on my old Ghost touring bike in any case. Della Falls was an excuse to get out into the wilderness.
The only official campsite in the area is Lowry Lake. Very nice. But I passed by too early in the day. So ended up wild camping 2 nights.
Logging is horrible on Vancouver Island. Very few people see the vast swaths of clearcut hidden away from pavement.
BUT they certainly make the island wilderness accessible for anyone on a good bike.
I ended up camping 2 nights. The first on a sand bar in the Ash river. There are more bears than people in this part of the island. I thought I’d keep myself well clear of any animal trails.
The second night I pitched on a quiet lake where I’d stayed twice in the past.
My meandering route ended up looking something like this.
Vancouver Island is fantastic.
Climbing Holandsmelen Hill, Loftofen, Norway
Trip report by BestHike editor Rick McCharles
On leaving the famed Haukland beach, I walked to the nearby trailhead of Holandsmelen.
The unmarked, but well worn trail is easy to follow and relatively bog-free by Lofoten standards. That means it takes 20 minutes before your shoes are soaked rather than the usual 10 minutes.
I found a possible campsite close to the trailhead parking lot — then hid my gear in a waterproof bag in the trees.
What I liked about Holandsmelen, relative to other Lofoten peaks, is that the going is not an unrelenting climb. There are flat sections on this half dayhike.
As usual, the views from the top are Lofoten breathtaking.
Here’s my favourite photo from the hike. I believe these tiny berries are edible.
Once again, sunset was long and astonishing.
Hiking the Drakensberg, South Africa
The Drakensberg escarpment stretches for more than 1,000 kilometres (600 miles). Some of the best hiking in Africa.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. One of the best hiking videos I can recall. Ever.
Harmen Hoek:
In March 2022 I solo hiked for 8-days in the Drakensberg mountains on the border of South Africa and Lesotho.
My route started in Cathedral Peak in uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa.
I hiked up to the escarpment via Organ Pipes Pass where I headed north towards the Mnweni area. I got down the escarpment via Rockeries Pass for resupplies and back up (bushwacking) via Fangs Pass.
North at the top of Tugela Falls in the Amphitheater of Royal Natal National Park I met up with my dad to spend one last night up the escarpment.
We got down via the infamous Sentinel Ladder.
Favorite hike in the world. The weather, terrain, views, people and remoteness make this hike really unique. Also the most challenging hike to date.
Trespassing Across America – by Ken Ilgunas
An excellent book. Even if you have no interest in hiking or pipelines.
In fact, you won’t learn much about hiking. A thru hiker would not be impressed. Ken’s gear was too heavy. And he hiked the wrong months of the year.
Ken Ilgunas has a Masters in English from Duke. He’s a terrific writer.
This book has given me the best insight into how poor North American rural people think. An insight into why they vote for political Parties that make the rich richer, the poor poorer. Worse education and health care.
Children and grandchildren leave for big cities. Life is tough for those remaining.
Ken mostly sought out small town religious leaders, asking them for advice on where he could tent safely. He was astonished by the generosity of those spiritual leaders.
Ken worked as a backcountry ranger in Alaska. And was forced to take a job as dishwasher in a high Arctic oil camp.
Jobs there were high pay — very low quality of life.
Those arguing for the Petrotoxin industries usually shout JOBS, JOBS, JOBS. Ken came away thinking these were actually lousy jobs. High rates of alcoholism and drug abuse.
In September 2012, I stuck out my thumb in Denver, Colorado, and hitchhiked 1,500 miles north to the Alberta tar sands. After being duly appalled, I commenced my 1,700-mile hike south following the route of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast. It would become a 4.5 month journey across the Great Plains. To follow the pipe, I couldn’t take roads. I’d have to walk across fields, grasslands, and private property. I’d have to trespass across America.
The book is about my journey–fleeing from cows, taking cover from gunfire, and keeping warm on a very wintry and questionably-timed hike. But it’s also about coming to terms with climate change and figuring out what our role as individuals should be in confronting something so big and so out of our hands. It’s about taking a few months of your life to look at your country from a new perspective. Ultimately, it’s about embracing the belief that a life lived not half wild is a life only half lived.
Most of the folks he met were supportive of Keystone XL Phase IV — but over the months Ken didn’t come away with even one good argument in support of the project.
Few jobs. Short term jobs. MOST of the money kept by the corporation, not those people who had dirty oil flowing over their property.
Most of the dirty Canadian oil is shipped overseas.
There are plenty of pipelines in North America. If you must ship Petrotoxins, pipelines are likely the least terrible way.
But Keystone XL became symbolic of the debate over how to slow or reverse climate change.
On January 20, 2021, Biden revoked the permit for the pipeline on his first day in office. It may never be completed.
#7 day hike – Caminito del Rey, Spain
One of our top 10 day hikes in the world
Why?
Once called the most dangerous pathway in the world.
- Caminito del Rey is near Ardales in the province of Málaga, Spain, Andalusia
- first built 1905, the walkway had fallen into disrepair and was partially closed for nearly 15 years due to deaths
- re-opened in 2015
- new pathway still offers a walk of 2.9 km
- 1 metre (3 ft) wide climbing over 100 metres (330 ft) above the Guadalhorce river
- the entire trip from the start at the town of Ardales to finish at Álora would be about 8km and might take 3-4 hours
- originally built to provide access to workers at hydroelectric power plants Chorro Falls and Gaitanejo Falls
World → Europe → Spain → Caminito del Rey
For details click over to our Caminito del Rey information page.
The Hatchet by Gary Paulson
Hatchet is a 1986 Newbery Honor-winning young-adult wilderness survival novel written by American writer Gary Paulsen.
Brian Robeson is a thirteen-year-old son of divorced parents. As he travels from Hampton, New York on a single-engine Cessna bush plane to visit his father in the oil fields in Northern Canada for the summer, the pilot suffers a massive heart attack and dies.
Brian tries to land the plane but ends up crash-landing into a lake in the forest.
He must learn to survive on his own with nothing but his hatchet—a gift his mother gave him shortly before his plane departed.
… He discovers how to make fire with the hatchet and eats whatever food he can find, such as rabbits, birds, turtle eggs, fish, berries, and fruit. …
Over time, Brian develops his survival skills and becomes a fine woodsman. …
I enjoyed the short book. But it’s far from realistic. The Alone (TV series) documented just how difficult it is to survive on the much easier west coast of Vancouver Island.
The film adaptation is even more over the top.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Many readers asked the author WHAT would have happened to this teenager if he had to try to survive the Canadian winter. Brian was rescued by floatplane in The Hatchet.
So — in 1996 — Paulson published what would have been a sequel IF Brian had not found the emergency beacon.
… still stranded at the L-shaped lake during the fall and winter, constructing a winter shelter, building snow shoes, being confronted by a bear, befriending and naming a skunk and learning how to make a bow more powerful. …
There are more books in this series. I’ll read those as well as I’ve grown to wonder how Brian adapts to civilization.
There are 3 other Brian books. All quite good.
- The River (Hatchet: The Return) (1991)
- Brian’s Return (Hatchet: The Call) (1999)
- Brian’s Hunt (2003) – bear attack
I thought Brian’s Return was quite good. He meets a mysterious Indian mentor in the woods.
FINALLY – the Camino de Santiago
I’ve many times been asked IF I’d done the Camino. Surprisingly, the answer was NO. Until now.
The Camino de Santiago … known in English as the Way of St James … is a network of pilgrims’ ways or pilgrimages leading to the shrine of the apostle Saint James the Great in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tradition holds that the remains of the apostle are buried.
As with most hikes that can be cycled, I prefer to cycle. At least 10% of pilgrims cycle rather than walk or arrive on horseback. They are known as ‘bicigrinos’ or ‘bicigrinas’, bike pilgrims.
My PLAN is to ride León to the famous cathedral. About 325km. Perhaps a week. No rush.
The total length starting in France is 825km.
You need to cycle at least 200km in order to receive a Compostela certificate in Santiago (as opposed to minimum 100km walking).
Nearly 350,000 Compostela pilgrim certificates were issued in 2019. I won’t be lonely.
The Camino Francés, or French Way, is by far the most popular of many routes. Roughly 60% of pilgrims choose this camino over other options.
Though no guidebook is needed, I picked up a paper copy of Mike Wells’ Cycling the Camino de Santiago (2019). I’d listened to a good interview with the author.
Wish me luck.
Many folks only know the famous pilgrimage from the 2010 Martin Sheen movie. It’s very good, by the way.
Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.
Our TOP 10 Hikes on Earth – VIDEO
Hiking Valencia, Spain
trip report by BestHike editor Rick McCharles
One of the best urban hikes anywhere is in Spain’s 3rd largest city. Home of paella.
While many tourists stick to the historic centre, the best walking is on a long green space to a complex designed by local architect Santiago Calatrava — the futuristic City of Arts and Sciences (Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències), which contains an opera house/performing arts centre, a science museum, an IMAX cinema/planetarium, an oceanographic park and other structures such as a long covered walkway and restaurants.
It’s impressive.
Usually called Turia Garden, the park is officially 9km long. But expect your mileage to be quite a bit longer. I was on it at least 5 hours with side trips.
To start, I caught the subway to the Zoo on the far left of this map.
One essential stop is the Botanical Garden of Valencia (Jardí Botànic).
You really need several hours to explore the massive City of Arts and Sciences. There is a lot to do and see.
Click PLAY or get a glimpse of this urban hike on YouTube.
