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Five Favorite Family Adventures
In my 20s, I was fortunate to scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef, bike the entirety of the Big Island, whitewater raft down an unchartered river in British Columbia, and backpack in the Mojave Desert. Then we had our first child and suddenly all my outdoor gear was collecting dust in an apartment closet. Going stir crazy one day, I called my dad who gave me the wise advice to simply bring my son with me on my adventures. Next thing you know, I’m biking the hills of Vermont with Jake on the back of the bike, helmet covering his sleeping body. You don’t have to give up your life of adventure once you have children. Indeed, kids thrive on the excitement and unscripted spontaneity of each outdoor challenge. It also doesn’t hurt that many of the finer outdoor activities are located amidst some of the most exquisite scenery on the planet. Now I travel with Jake, 17, and Melanie, 15, as much as possible, and they’re the ones teaching me how to improve my sport.
VBT Offering New Walking Vacations in America’s National Parks
A couple weeks ago, I wrote about how Xanterra Parks & Resorts, the people who run all of America’s national park lodges acquired Austin-Lehman Adventures, now called Austin Adventures. A year prior, Xanterra purchased VBT Walking and Bicycling Vacations. Now we’re beginning to see the results of that acquisition. VBT has just announced that they will be offering walking tours at 5 American national parks in 2014, the first time they have offered walking vacations in the States. Travelers can explore the Grand Canyon, Zion, Grand Teton and Yellowstone while staying in lodges right in the heart of the parks. Vermont-based VBT is also launching a walking vacation closer to their headquarters in Acadia National Park. Walks include one of my personal favorites, Zion’s Narrows, where you walk in the Virgin River through a 1,000-foot-high slot canyon that’s a mere 20 feet wide at times. If you can’t wait until next summer, VBT will offer a 6-day cross-country skiing jaunt in Yellowstone this coming January and February, the most serene time of year to visit the park. Add several nights after the trip to ski downhill at nearby Big Sky.
See You Again in 2020!
It seems like yesterday that I was writing a story for Men’s Journal on the best trips to take over the new millennium. Now it’s 20 years later! This year has been a banner year for ActiveTravels, reaching long-term goals on both sales and membership. It’s a privilege to write about my journeys all these years and to send clients to the countries and states that excite me the most. 2020 marks the 30th year of being in the travel industry and there’s no way I’d still be here without your support, especially post-2008 recession, when publications folded and half my editors found other lines of work. I’ve been blogging ever since and I’m excited to report that next year, this blog will finally be updated as we make important changes to the ActiveTravels website. Thank you for your support and please stay tuned.
Hong Kong Week–Checking out the Prince Edward Neighborhood of Kowloon
We arrived into Hong Kong at sunrise Sunday morning after a 15½-hour direct flight from Boston on Cathay Pacific (great airline which I’ll delve into further on a later blog). We dropped our bags off at the Intercontinental (soon to be the Regent again) and then took a taxi over the Prince Edward neighborhood. There was already a line at One Dim Sum by the time we arrived. They gave us a menu with checklist to fill out and soon we were dining on the first of many delicious har gow on our trip. Afterwards, we walked over to the nearby Flower Market to see row after row of fresh orchids, exotic fare like proteas, and numerous mandarin orange trees that people purchase to celebrate the Chinese New Year. We bought a cute stuffed animal, a pig to celebrate the Year of the Pig, and then wandered over to the Bird Market, where hundreds of parrots, parakeets, finches, and love birds are for sale. The birds were adorable. The food they ate-buckets of crickets, worms, and other assorted bugs, not so adorable.
The Long Trail Turns 100
On March 21, 1910, 23 avid hikers (or trampers as they were called at the time) sat in a room in Burlington, Vermont, and had the wacky idea to create the first long-distance hiking trail in America. The Green Mountains had been largely unappreciated, so James P. Taylor (1872-1949) made a promise that his group would “make the Vermont mountains play a larger part in the life of the people.” They called their organization the Green Mountain Club and remarkably finished a 273-mile long route that snakes through the Green Mountains the entire length of the state. The high-country trail is a narrow, unforgiving footpath in the wilderness that winds through the finest greenery of this sylvan state. A century later, as our leisure time becomes more and more diminished through overwork and lack of vacation time, the Long Trail seems too long for most of us. Only 120 hikers took a month out of their life in 2009 to complete the entire route and become certified “end-to-enders” by the Green Mountain Club. If you ever wanted to take advantage of James P. Taylor’s dream, the centennial celebration would be a good time.
Maine Huts & Trails Week: Day One, Hiking to Stratton Brook Hut
I’ve been pining to get to the Maine Huts & Trails for some time now, ever since I first heard about this new nonprofit group and their lofty ambition to build 12 eco-lodges in the glorious western Maine wilderness. It seems my patience has paid off. Seven years after the Poplar Springs Hut was first built in 2008, there are already four huts in the network across a 45-mile span. Spearheaded by the passionate Charlie Woodworth these past 3 years, who made the wise decision to move their office from Portland to Kingfield to be closer to the huts, a consortium of big-name players like L.L. Bean, New Balance, and the Sugarloaf Ski Area are now squarely behind the project. Yet, perhaps the most important group involved, especially for those of us who want to sample the huts in the warm weather is the Carrabassett Valley New England Mountain Biking Association or NEMBA , who are using the latest round of funding to create some of the finest singletrack trails in the East. Runs that surprisingly connect the huts and give you the rare chance to go mountain biking lodge to lodge.