ITALIAOUTDOORS ANNOUNCES THIRD ANNUAL “CHEFS ON BIKES” CYCLING TOUR IN NORTHERN ITALYScheduled June 24-30, New Tour Mixes Cycling with Culture and Culinary Arts  Cycling Through VineyardsItaliaoutdoors, a provider of small-group, personalized recreational vacations in Northeastern Italy, announces their 2012 “Chefs on Bikes” tour, a guided cultural and cycling exploration of the culture, foods and wines of Northeastern Italy.   Scheduled for June 24-30, the 7-day/6-night tour invites cyclists to learn from the culinary expertise of Chef Kathy Bechtel and is priced at $3895 per person, based on double occupancy.  With a route covering 20-35 miles per day, the tour travels through the Veneto at the foot of the Dolomite mountains and along the shores of the Adriatic Sea.  Recognizing the different riding levels of participants, the small-group size (maximum 8) allows for daily customization, including longer rides, and an immersive culinary and cultural experience.  “Chefs on Bikes” follows one of the former trade routes that distributed spices and goods from the East throughout Western Europe, meandering through flat farmland, by 16th and 17th-century villas, around volcanic hills, and into the foothills of the Pre-Alps.  Days begin with gentle, scenic bike rides, followed by a culinary exploration with cooking lessons and wine tastings led by Chef Bechtel.  Accommodations are in elegant four-star villa hotels in Mira, Vicenza and Asolo. The program includes all transfers, all breakfasts and snacks, five dinners with wine, plus entry fees to museums and other venues.  The program can also be scheduled as a private group trip of 4-12 cyclists. Kathy...

REPOSTED FROM BOUNDARY COUNTRY CATALOG

3 to 7 Nights Lodging/Breakfast and bag trail lunch

Spend a few days hiking the Superior North Shore through lush forests, past scenic waterfalls, over scenic ridges and along river gorges. After your day's hike, enjoy dinner and then sleep in comfort at a different lodge each night.

Featured in "1,000 Places to See in U.S. and Canada Before You Die." The rugged natural beauty of Lake Superior and the civilized touches of the Lodges, Inns and Bed and Breakfasts of Minnesota's North Shore bring you one of North America's finest hiking experiences, Lodge to Lodge Hiking along one of the continent's finest trails, the Superior Hiking Trail.

Reposted from the Classic Journeys Catalog:

 

It's amazing. An adobe wall changes colors constantly…amber at dawn, fiery at sunset, powder gray in moonlight. That trick of light and nature drew Georgia O’Keeffe, Ansel Adams and generations of other artists to New Mexico. But it’s just one of the reasons we love it here. Every view seems to have a backdrop of mountains.

REPOSTED FROM THE CLASSIC JOURNEYS CATALOG The wildly popular book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil has inspired any number of pilgrimages to the coastal South. But our journey digs deeper than the guidebook landmarks. Of course, we walk our fair share of moss-draped lanes—but instead of admiring fine restorations of prosperous homes from the outside, we go in for private tours and even dinner under the chandelier. We meet up with the Gullah culture, too, with its strong West African traditions and visit the country's most unique living history museums. On the sea islands and in the tidal estuaries, nature has always nibbled at the edge of civilization down here. And you'll see just how close it is on our forays onto barrier islands and lazy floats on streams populated by dolphins and woodstorks. To our mind, there's just no other region in America with such a distinctive meld of history, climate and way of life, and we'll share it all with you in gracious style on our walking tour of Charleston & Savannah....

REPOSTED FROM THE CLASSIC JOURNEYS CATALOG The wildly popular book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil has inspired any number of pilgrimages to the coastal South. But our journey digs deeper than the guidebook landmarks. Of course, we walk our fair share of moss-draped lanes—but instead of admiring fine restorations of prosperous homes from the outside, we go in for private tours and even dinner under the chandelier. We meet up with the Gullah culture, too, with its strong West African traditions and visit the country's most unique living history museums. On the sea islands and in the tidal estuaries, nature has always nibbled at the edge of civilization down here. And you'll see just how close it is on our forays onto barrier islands and lazy floats on streams populated by dolphins and woodstorks. To our mind, there's just no other region in America with such a distinctive meld of history, climate and way of life, and we'll share it all with you in gracious style on our walking tour of Charleston & Savannah....

RePosted from The Country Walkers Catalog

Re-Posted From the Great Freedom Adventures Catalog:

By Karen Terzano The Bear Vault arrived today and I think I am going to have a love - hate relationship with this thing. It’s hard, and bulky, and heavy. I won’t send it back because there are State and National parks which require hikers/campers to use them, but I don’t think it will come along on this journey. I won’t often be sleeping rough in bear country, so I’ll put my food in a bear bag, hang it from a tree at night, and won’t worry if a critter walks off with it. I’ll never be far from a town, and besides, I have love handles to live off of. **grin** I am expecting the Kindle Book Reader I ordered to arrive soon. At 10.2 oz, its 8” x 5.3” x 0.36” dimensions, and its capability to carry 1500 books at a time, makes it highly attractive to me. (Books often make up 2 – 3 lbs of my pack weight). I had debated about getting a netbook for this trip, primarily to be able to surf the web for lodging, campgrounds, etc., but I’m hoping the Kindle, coupled with my usual Moto Q’s ability to do basic GPS stuff, emails, word docs, etc., will cover all my electronic needs, and maybe save me a pound or two. I hope to be ecstatic with how the Kindle performs. I am busy making up my own “guide book” as best I can, marking out routes on maps cut from atlases, and...

Exodus to "Little Egypt"

Day 1: Chicago to Carbondale, via Amtrak
Day 2: Carbondale to Golconda
Day 3: Golconda to Paducah, KY
Day 4: Paducah, to Cairo & back to Chicago

Most people think of the Land of Lincoln as Chicago plus pancake-flat prairie, but Southern Illinois is completely different. Just a trainride from Chicago, (with bikes on board) is a loop that reveals the area's unique history and culture.

  Been here? Tell us about it. Got a suggestion? Let us know. Santa Barbara Inn 901 East Cabrillo Boulevard Santa Barbara, CA 93101 (800) 231-0431 Show on Google Maps ...

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Auberge Sonoma 151 East Napa Street Sonoma, CA 95476 (866) 700-3648 Show on Google Maps ...

  To get back to Point A? Hop on Amtrak. (photo courtesy SantaBarbaraCarFree.org)       ...

Is this great or what? Here we are in our nice little campsite, and someone left wood in the fire-pit for us. I guess the blessings that we sometimes receive at the missions are starting to pay dividends. Peregrino RonSent from my iPhone...

Marina is our last stop along the coast for awhile. Now (4/13/11) we head inland toward Mission San Juan Bautista. Except for the unseasonably cold weather(especially in a tent at night) it's going well for the 3 of us. Today, we will have finished 3/4 of the entire trek.Sent from my iPhone...

> Tonight we are camped at Laguna Seca. It was a 25 mile day today, the longest planned for the entire hike. Our story has been on local TV, so we have had a lot of people stopping us and asking about particulars. Tomorrow, we will be camped in Monterey. We plan to get to Carmel the following day. Peregrino Ron> > > > Sent from my iPhone  ...

> Date: April 9, 2011 10:00:50 PM EDT > Subject: El Camino Real > This was last night's digs in Gonzales. I really have to find a way to avoid this for later peregrinos. Peregrino Ron > Sent from my iPhone  ...

> Subject: El Camino Real When we arrived at Mission Soledad on 4/7, they were just getting ready for a cathechism (sp?) so we were invited to talk about our pilgrimage. Afterwards, we posed for this group picture. Peregrine Ron >> > > > Sent from my iPhone  ...

> Subject: El Camino Real > > > By the way, did I tell you that Lake Nacimiento was pretty full? > Peregrino Ron> > > > Sent from my iPhone  ...

> Subject: A green field on the way to Greenfield. Ron > Sent from my iPhone  ...

> Subject: El Camino Real > > I don't know if you got this photo or not at King City. Ron >> > Sent from my iPhone  ...

{jcomments on}> Subject: El Camino Real > > This is one of two motels in Greenfield on El Camino Real. Yesterday's leg from Ft Hunter-Liggett was a long one. Today's was much shorter to balance it out a bit. Tomorrow, we will be at Mission Soledad. I am really looking forward to it, because the folks there have offered to let us camp there. They have been very supportive of the whole adventure from the very beginning. These nest few days should be OK if the weather holds out. Saturday, however, will be the longest leg of the trip, about 25 miles. I hope someone builds a motel or campground in there before the weekend. Peregrine Ron> > > Sent from my iPhone  ...

> Subject: I thought you should see this story > > Men journey to California missions on foot > > > Sent from my iPhone  ...

> Today, we made it to our 12th mission, San Antonio de Padua. We are at a primitive campground on Ft Hunter-Liggett. This is the most isolated of the missions, so it's important to plan ahead. Tomorrow it's about 20 miles on to King City. That should get us past the 500 mile mark. > It is kind of interesting how we got to this hike. After retirement, my wife read an article about Shirley Maclaine hiking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain. So... off we went to give it a try. We did the last 200 miles of the 500 mile hike, and we were addicted. The next year we went back and did the whole thing. This is international urban-type hiking at it's very best. You always have a cheap place to stay at night, a local bar at which to buy dinner and meet other pilgrims from every country imaginable. At the end of the camino in Santiago, are the final remains of St James(Santiago) the apostle. > But when you get home, everyone wants to know why anyone would go all the way to Spain for a hike. "Isn't there anyplace over here to walk?" I finally decided that there should be a similar place over here, but so far there wasn't. Hopefully, El Camino Real or "el Camino de las misiones de Alta California" will someday fill that void. > Peregrino Butch > Sent from my iPhone  ...

Location: Fairfield County, CT., and a little bit of NY

Type: Village, countryside

Distance: Just under 30 miles, (or 20 miles if you take the train partway)

Duration: Three Days, two nights

Difficulty: Easy to moderate (second day was 14 miles).

Highlights: Small towns, historic inns, great food and drink.

It's easy to travel inn to inn along Fairfield County's trails and mainstreets. This walk, from the Silvermine Tavern in Norwalk, to Ridgefield's Stonehenge Inn crosses into New York state for a stretch. Though it was late fall when Anne Lutz Fernandez (author of the recently published book Carjacked, The Culture of the Automobile and its Effect on our Lives) trekked the twenty-something miles from inn to inn and back, this is an ideal walk for (almost) any season. And  it's a cinch to hop on the train if you only want to walk in one direction.

Location: Beaches skirting the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary; Santa Cruz, Capitola, Moss Landing, Monterey (California)

Type: Seaside, mostly beaches

Distance: 40 miles; 7.5 to 12 miles daily

Duration: Five days, four nights

Difficulty: Moderate to strenuous; soft sand and terrain can be strenuous on Monterey County beaches

Highlights: Incredible beaches and dunes, both populated and remote; inns, great food and drink (s'mores on the beach)

 

I’ve taken countless strolls on the beaches in the twenty plus years I’ve lived in Santa Cruz County, but I did not appreciate nor truly understand the Monterey Bay until I walked inn to inn along 40 miles of its beaches from Santa Cruz to Monterey.

This is a walk, timed for low tides, that transports you from bluff to dune, from surfer’s paradise and the screams of the boardwalk to the solitude of nothing but the surf and your feet upon miles of untracked sands. Flip off your phone and you are practically alone in this universe, save for your companions and a perch fisherman or two.

Type: National Forest, riverside, hut to inn

Lodging: Mixed.  Primitive shelter, Luxurious Inn

Duration: Three-five days

Difficulty: Strenuous.  20 mile days, but with a layover.

Highlights: Incredible scenery, and a great rustic inn and the end.

Editor's Note:  This report comes from our new friend John Aebi-Magee, who regularly puts in fifteen to twenty miles a day.  It appeared previously at his site, Walking Inn to Inn, and he has kindly given us permission to republish it.  A multiple award-winning environmental entrepreneur,  John is the moving force behind the Sustainability Store, Earth Care Paper, Ultralight Living, and Wool Revolution.  Please visit them.  --PS

 

The McKenzie River National Recreation Trail is a 26 mile trail that runs from the north end of Clear Lake to McKenzie Bridge. The trail follows the McKenzie River and passes two spectacular waterfalls. This walk starts and ends at the stunning Clear Lake. Even though there were two 20 mile days, the walk is easy. There are no steep hills and the trail is very well maintained. I did not see a single hiker on either 20 mile day during the first week of June. There were a few mosquitoes, but not too bad. The trail is fairly monotonous, but if you like old growth, solitude, and the sound of a rushing river, this is a great walk to choose.

THE WORLD HAS ONLY A HANDFUL of really famous streets. The most famous is probably the Champs- Élysées. From there you might think of London’s Downing and perhaps Oxford Streets, Barcelona’s Ramblas, Tokyo’s Ginza, Mexico City’s Paseo de la Reforma, possibly Berlin’s Ku- Damm (Kurfürstendamm), Jerusalem’s King David Street, Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg, and several in the American West: The Strip in Las Vegas; Sunset, Wilshire, and Hollywood Boulevards and Mulholland and Rodeo Drives in Los Angeles; and San Francisco’s Embarcadero and Lombard Street. Possibly Boston’s Memorial Drive or Commonwealth Avenue.

Oh, and the one near me: Broadway.

Broadway is famously in Manhattan, but it continues north through the Bronx and traverses Yonkers in Westchester County before finally getting a new name north of Tarrytown: Albany Post Road. Under that alias and others, including U.S. Highway 9, it continues up the Hudson River to Albany and from there nearly to the Canadian border— about 330 miles. For many years, though, the street at the southern tip of Manhattan that became Broadway was quite short. The story of Broadway’s birth and growth links to my own New York story.

 

From MLK's Birthplace to Stone Mountain: Walking Into the Past. And Beer.

Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Type: Urban/Suburban
Distance: roughly 24 miles
Duration: Three days/two nights
Difficulty: Moderate
Season: Mid-June in Atlanta and unseasonably warm - you get the picture
Highlights: Historic sights, backyard gardens, great beer, great food

In recent years, a non-profit group called the PATH Foundation has been carving out trails for walkers and bikers around Atlanta, and one of those starts right down the street from the Martin Luther King Center and continues 18 miles east all the way to Stone Mountain, a massive granite dome emblazoned with icons of the Confederacy that nod to a past the progressive city would rather forget (and these days often does).

Uptown, Downtown, Around Town.

Location: New York

Type: Urban/New York City

Distance: 30 miles

Duration: 2-4 Days

Difficulty: Traveler's Choice

Highlights: Spring, great food, music… ummm – IT’S NEW YORK.

“It occurred to me as well that for all the walking around I have done in the quarter century I have either lived, or wished I was still living in New York City, I had never really walked AROUND Manhattan. Never gone to the river and turned left or right and not stopped until I got back to where I started.”

 

A walk around the island, lodging at the summer house, keeping company with the birds, and keeping the sea on the right.

Location: Nantucket, MA

Type: East Coast/beach

Distance: 28 miles

Duration:3 days

Difficulty: Ranked as 3

Highlights:Spring/The Summer House

First of all, Happy Birthday to John Muir who was born, entirely by coincidence, on our launch day.

I like to think of old Muir not so much in his most famous element, singing his hymns to the pristine in the high Sierra. Rather, I imagine him a little earlier in life, telling his mid-western neighbors and fellow factory workers of his plans to set out of his front door on what became his “Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf.” I imagine those neighbors’ faces when Muir said, in effect: “nope, no plan. No reason. Just going to count the plants.”

It’s an amusing tableau, but Muir’s neighbors were probably far less surprised than my own would have been had I followed through on Dog’s suggestion a while back that we quit just walking around the same old Florida lake day after day and walk back home to Massachusetts. Had I voiced that plan to my neighbors they would have called in a shrink, I think, or homeland security. Nina, meanwhile, would have raised an eyebrow.

Moon Over Marin

Location: Marin County, California (Mt. Tamalpais, Stinson Beach, Muir Beach)

Type: Seaside/Mountain

Distance: Trail to Muir Beach about 3.5 miles

Duration: An hour, maybe a bit more

Difficulty: Ranked as 2

Highlights: Great food, great bed, full moon

Bike Trip: This trip can be done as a 12-mile bike trip

Duration: 2 days, 1 night, with time-outs

Difficulty: Downhill=1, Uphill=3

The Boston Post Road is older than Boston, having been worn two feet deep in places by the feet of a couple of hundred generations of Algonquin walkers. Its first English name was the Pequot Path, which ran from the coast of Massachusetts along various routes toward the Hudson. First scouted by English Colonists in 1673, the Boston Post Road may be the oldest European road of any significance in North America. Like its Spanish counterpart, El Camino Real, (which was begun exactly a decade later with the building of the first Mission in Baja California,) the road is sometimes called “the King’s Highway.” But in many of the old New England towns through which it runs, it’s just called Main Street.   Do you have a story about this or any other legacy route?  Or a tip about where to stay, eat, or walk along it? (Gary Denton walked the southern route of the Post Road: read his blog about it in "Traveling Now.) Though the post route extended to Philadelphia and beyond, its heart is comprised of three vaguely parallel routes between the Boston city line and the intersection of Broadway and Wall Street in New York City. So any time you walk up Broadway in New York, or through Harvard Square in Cambridge, you’re on the Boston Post Road.  Granite milestones marked the way in the 18th century, and many of them still exist. As the country grew, so, naturally did this important road.  Much of it...

This trail follows ancient ways from the bottom of the Adirondacks to the top of Maine. Along the way it has something for every paddler’s taste, including some fine inn-to-inn stretches. You can find out everything you need to know about the trail at the official website.  You can also read our own trip report about a prime stretch of the trail in the heart of the Adirondacks. Or you can read a vaguely similar story by Weekendwalk editor Paul Schneider that appeared a few years ago in the New York Times. Check it out and make your plans.  Let us know how it goes when you get back.   And, as always... If you’ve already paddled parts of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail (or anywhere else for that matter) and want to leave some advice on routes, lodging, restaurants anything else, send us an email or post your own trip report and we'll add it to the library.  {WISroGIS map_id='62' ~} More about American Legacy Routes and How You Can Add Your Pictures and Experiences to our Maps...

  American Legacy Route: Sherman's March {WISroGIS map_id='89' ~} Between November and December of 1864, Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman led his army from the recently captured Atlanta, Georgia, 300 miles across the state to the port of Savannah.  It was not a pretty picture.  “Bummers,” as the foragers were called, scoured the countryside for supplies and destroyed any railroads or other infrastructure the confederate army might find useful. If you have walked or otherwise re-created any part of Sherman’s march and have suggestions of where to stay, what to eat (not foraged), what to see, we want to hear about it.  Any other ideas, tips, travel stories, photographs, family anecdotes, links are also welcome. And of course: we are always looking to hear from long-haul walkers who want blog the whole thing for us. Or just one day’s worth—we’ll put the pieces together.  If you want to have a piece of the map to play with on Google My Maps, let us know, we’ll set you up with a sandbox here at weekendwalk.com. Below are Sherman’s orders to his troops regarding provisions.  You, on the other hand, should just bring a credit card.  “... IV. The army will forage liberally on the country during the march. To this end, each brigade commander will organize a good and sufficient foraging party, under the command of one or more discreet officers, who will gather, near the route traveled, corn or forage of any kind, meat of any kind, vegetables, corn-meal, or whatever...

American Legacy Route:
The National Road

Feet Needed: The National Road.

The National Road was begun by the Federal Government  in 1811 to open the way for settlers into the Ohio Valley.  It originally ran from Cumberland, on the Potomac in Maryland, to Wheeling, which was at that time still in Virginia.  The road eventually made its way as far as Vandalia, Illinois.  In many  places the original inns still stand, and the old stone mile markers can be found.  Not to mention the world’s biggest Ketchup bottle.  

To see the map and add your wisdom... click read more.

Westward Ho “Last spring, 1846, was a busy season in the City of St. Louis. Not only were emigrants from every part of the country preparing for the journey to Oregon and California, but an unusual number of traders were making ready their wagons and outfits for Santa Fe. Many of the emigrants, especially of those bound for California, were persons of wealth and standing. The hotels were crowded, and the gunsmiths and saddlers were kept constantly at work in providing arms and equipments for the different parties of travelers. Almost every day steamboats were leaving the levee and passing up the Missouri, crowded with passengers on their way to the frontier...”  So begins Francis Parkman’s classic account of a trip up the Oregon Trail, a route that rivals that of Lewis and Clark, or the Pony Express for its resonance in the American story.  Heck, there’s even a video game about it.  It was along this route, up the Platte and over the mountains that the great trains of covered wagons--prairie schooners--rolled on what was usually a four- to six month trip from Missouri to the west coast.   {WISroGIS map_id='45' ~} We’ve already got one story in the library that covers a tiny piece of the trail--Dana Dugan’s great story about walking in Boise--but we need to hear from you about the rest of the route.  We want to know about great hotels to stay in – fancy or frugal. Tell us what you know about the interesting places...

I’d guess most people wouldn’t think of Boise, Idaho as a “green” town; yet it’s known as the City of Trees. This has always amused the heck out of this East Coast girl. Trees? Well, sure, I thought: There are a few that have been trucked in over the years.

At least, that’s how I considered the matter before spending two days walking the town. Though Boise is Idaho’s capital, and its largest city, getting around its downtown core is more like strolling a small town. Each neighborhood brings its own delights. And surprise – who knew there were so many flowering trees?

Location: Colorado and Utah

Duration: 6 days

Endurance: Moderate

Price: $2,598 per person

Outfitter:  Country Walkers

Location: Yosemite

Duration: 6 days

Endurance: Moderate

Price: $3,698 per person

Outfitter:  Country Walkers

Location: Yellowstone Park

Duration: 6 days

Endurance: Moderate

Price: $2,898 per person

Outfitter:  Country Walkers

Location: Bryce and Zion Canyons, Utah

Duration: 6 days

Endurance: Moderate

Price: $2,698 per person

Outfitter:  Country Walkers

Location: Grand Canyon

Duration: 6 days

Endurance: Moderate

Price: $2,998 per person

Outfitter:  Country Walkers

Location: Alaska: Kenai Peninsula Duration: 6 days Endurance: Moderate Outfitter: Country Walkers Price: $2500+