Musings
Last Adventurer
#preservethegood

As you’ve seen above, #preservethegood could mean anything – it could mean helping someone in a time of need; it could be picking up trash on a trail, or a wilderness area; it could be educating people on leave no trace principles; it could be making a difference in any way you want; and it could be just about anything you want as long as you are focused in keeping the magic and the unique positive things in this world and this life. In terms of tangible things, I encourage you, my readers and followers to use the hashtag when you post a photo of something amazing; or when you’re talking about something exceptional you – or someone else has done to improve the world. I look forward to seeing how all of you end up preserving the good in 2015, and you can rest assured that as always, I will keep preserving the good where I find it as well, because as Plato says, “Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.” 

#preservethegood
Hiking, State Parks
Last Adventurer
Canyon Trail to Waipoo Falls

As I mentioned previously, Waimea Canyon is a site that is most definitely one of the “must-view” locations on Kauai, and in the world; and as I also mentioned, the best way to experience it is to hike it. While there are many great hikes through the canyon, the best hike in my book is the Canyon Trail to Waipoo Falls. It is the best hike to me because at four miles roundtrip, it is accessible, it has stunning views of the canyon from inside the canyon, and it ends at the top Waipoo Falls. It also allows the hiker the chance to swim in a waterfall, which is a once in a lifetime experience.

Canyon Trail to Waipoo Falls

National Parks

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Key Summit

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Key Summit

From the sand dunes of the Farewell Spit, to the volcanic terrain of Tongariro National Park, to the lush forests of Rakiura National Park and the tropical beaches of Abel Tasman, New Zealand has almost every type of backcountry terrain that a hiker could want. With so many picturesque and jaw dropping locations, it is hard to find first, a bad hike in all of New Zealand, and second, “the best” hike in all of New Zealand. However, if you are a person who likes superlatives and stunning alpine views, the best hike in all of the three islands of New Zealand (North, South, and Stewart) might just be Key Summit.

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Gear List: Shorty's Well Route

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Gear List: Shorty's Well Route

In my opinion, the largest challenge of the Shorty’s Well route is determining the right gear to take for the climb. If you are considering the route, you should be aware that you will need a variety of gear to deal with the various conditions and temperatures from -262 feet of elevation to 11,043 feet of elevation.

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Shorty's Well Route

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Shorty's Well Route

Start in darkness. End in darkness. This is what I was thinking at 11:49 p.m. on March 14, 2015. At that point, David Wherry and I had been mountaineering for almost twenty-four hours straight. Minutes before, we had exchanged a few words about how it would be nice to be back at the car before the next day began at 12:01 a.m.; but despite this conversation, we are still shambling along at a crawl into the Badwater Basin our normally powerful gaits reduced to pitiful zombie-esqe shuffling.  My legs hurt. My back hurt; and as of 11:32 p.m., my feet had finally started hurting. I felt more dead than alive. At that moment, a mere quarter mile from the car, I was thinking of nothing but two things: “Start in darkness; end in darkness” and its “not mountaineering until someone draws blood”.  What we had been doing was mountaineering; there was no doubt in my mind about that. As we finally reached the car, there was one thing I understood fully though: the Shorty’s Well Route was indeed the “impossible hike” and the hardest mountaineering route in North America.

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Fort Point National Historic Site

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Fort Point National Historic Site

Although California is a "young" state historically to many people, it does have a rich pre-European history, and a rich post-European history. From Fort Ross, the first Russian settlement in California, to the Kings Highway (El Camino Real) and the many missions present on it, California has many historic locations - some of which are secret, and some of which are not. Although it is hidden in plain sight, Fort Point is perhaps one of the more obscure destinations in California, even though it is the state's only Civil War fort.

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The Ten Best Caves of California

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The Ten Best Caves of California

California is a state with natural beauty that stretches the entirety of the state to each of its borders. It is also a state where the beauty above ground in some areas pales with the beauty below ground. Like a sunset on an unknown beach, each of these areas offer solitude, otherworldly beauty, and in some cases, some of the most unique terrain on the planet. Even if you've never explored a cave before, each of these spots will interest and intrigue you, and provide you a great introduction to the world below your feet.

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Best Caves to Explore in Lava Beds National Monument in a Day

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Best Caves to Explore in Lava Beds National Monument in a Day

The most unique thing about Lava Beds National Monument are its many lava tube caves, which were created by lava flows over a period of fifty thousand years from 10,000 to 60,000 years ago. As the lava flowed from the Medicine Lake volcano, the surface cooled and solidified. Underneath the surface, lava continued to flow to various areas, eventually emptying the “tube” underneath. Over the course of time, the rock cooled, cracked, and collapsed, producing openings to the surface. Today, there are over 700 lava tube caves in the National Monument, of which over twenty (20) can be explored.

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The Hard Way

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The Hard Way

To me, Halloween is the best time to celebrate this danger – and risk with stories that deal with any of the topics above – or any wilderness danger topic that I failed to mention. For the last two years, I’ve covered some of the dangers I’ve seen in the wild with Tales of Terror from the Yosemite Backcountry in 2012, which is a story about me facing an unknown problem on a trail patrol in 1998; and Freedom of the Open Road in 2013, which is a story about me facing problems from my fellow man while camping in Colorado. I’ve also been lucky enough to get a story from Melissa Avery about her experiences with the unknown in Peru (More Than Myth), and will have a great post from Missouri Howell later this month about the unknown in Missouri.