There are a lot of hiking fans around the globe, who would not like to miss the opportunity of getting on the perfect hike, alone or with friends and family. That is why such folks are on the lookout for best hiking ideas and locations that can make for their superior hiking pleasure. Now if you want to look at some of the best hiking places and ideas, what better place to look than at special hiking blogs that are able to provide you the highlights and the lowdown of the best hiking spots that you can check out. After all, there are so many places that you may not be able to check out individually, but which hold great promise for hike lovers.

Some of the usual suspects in the best hiking places list are Kilimanjaro, Everest Base Camp as well as the Appalachian Trail which do deserve to be in this list. But if you want your best hiking list to be more broad based, do look at Cinque Terre in Italy as well as the Timberline trail in Oregon, USA. After all, you need to know all these exotic spots that you can easily check out and make the best use of, while planning your nest hiking trip.

When you think of Mount St Helens, you think of an imposing volcanic mountain which is beautiful as well as picturesque in its majestic rise. The mountain has a crater and it is here where a hiker has slipped right into the crater of Mount St Helens. The hiker is Joseph Bohlig, who was posing for a photograph at the edge of the crater. He was standing on an ice shelf on  Mount St Helens, when the ice shelf suddenly collapsed, taking Joseph into the crater and on to the ground inside it. His hiking partner had to scramble down the mountain to call for help, but then Joseph’s condition inside the crater is still not known.

While rescue teams made their way up Mount St Helens, weather conditions became quite worse, preventing effective rescue operations. It was also tough to press a helicopter into service due to these weather conditions. If the weather clears up, it would be possible to send a helicopter down into the depths of the crater itself. The Mount St Helens became famous in 1980 when it suddenly erupted sending ash and hot lava flying out for several miles in a huge surge. But after that, it has remained rather quiet and muted.

No matter where you go in the world, there is nothing among adventure travel ideas that can beat adventure travel in the Himalayas. After all, people who want to get the thrill and challenge of their lives would not miss out an opportunity to travel up the Himalayas and if possible, also the inimitable Mount Everest. This is what Simone Moro and Denis Urubko would like to do. They are some of the best mountaineers in the contemporary world, and if you look at their profiles, you would see that it is strewn with some of the highest mountains on the planet. Now they are teaming up for an exciting itinerary of adventure travel to the Himalayas this spring.

The main aim of the trip is to try and climb the Lhotse mountain, without the benefit of supplemental oxygen, sherpas as well as fixed ropes. This is quite an adventure, with all the dangers that the travel is fraught so totally with. The route itself is also brand new, which means that they have so much more to report and write home about in terms of the daunting task. They will first do a warm up on the slopes of Mount Everest so that they get acclimatized on the slopes before getting up on their ultimate trek up the Lhotse.

Kayaking is really great fun. And when you get on a solo kayak expedition, the fun just multiplies manifold, due to the fact that there is such a great sense of adventure that it just blows your senses away. The wind, the sun and the blue water below, all seem to come together to create a feeling and a setting that is all so unmistakably inimitable. Is there any wonder then that when Hayley Shepard planned an expedition to South Georgia Island, it was quite hailed as one of the most promising and exciting adventures of all time.

After all, getting to the South Georgia Island is no kid’s play as it is located in the Southern Ocean and is quite close to Antarctica too. To add to it the weather is not too great also, as it can change at any time for the worse. Apart from the biting cold, the prospect of huge waves is quite daunting as well as challenging to say the least. And for a woman to be able to navigate these in a kayak is quite something. Well it may not be much for a seasoned kayak expedition hand like Hayley, it is not easy for anyone, either male or female.

Getting up to the Everest Base Camp is an unforgettable experience. You get transported back in time to when Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made their journey on the slopes of Mount Everest, the highest point on planet Earth. Well, a trek up the mountain slopes up to the base camp can be rather grueling as it calls for unmatched commitment and indefatigable determination to conquer the elements and counter the enormous odds that face you. Well, if you do not have the grit and the fortitude, it’s better for you to just sit at home and watch the expedition on TV. While a lot of people do want to get up on the mountain, it is one thing to want to get up there and quite another to make dreams come to life.

A true living legend in Everest terms is Apa Sherpa who has the record for the highest number of successful summits on Mount Everest. There is something about Apa which seems to drive him to undertaking these expeditions time and again, an inner force that just attracts him to the top of the mountain peal with unfailing regularity. But then that’s what dreams and legends are made of, a ‘never say die’ attitude.

If you want to check out the Inca Trail this year, it seems like you will have to wait till March. There have been repots as to how more than 1,300 visitors had been trapped at Machu Picchu a few weeks back. The cause of this was huge flooding, which had also caused destruction of the railway which led to the ancient mountain fortress that everyone just loves to see up there in the Inca Trail. It was also reported that the Inca Trail was hit by more than 40 landslides and the tracks got covered such that even the train could not get the trapped tourists back to safety.

It is also possible to take the Inca Trail on foot, hiking through the majestic Andes, which would lead to the site at Machu Picchu. The hike is for all of four days and on some ways you enjoy the journey through the Inca Trail almost as much as the destination itself. While the trail is generally closed through February for repairs and maintenance, this year it may get extended through March due to the flooding that had taken place. So if you want to take the Inca Trail and check out Machu Picchu, do make you plans April onwards only, to avoid cancellations and disappointment.

Any journey to the North Pole is so exciting that it brings about prospects of thrill and adventure like very few other expeditions can ever evoke. There is also that element of exploration and the sense of history as man battles the challenges thrown in the face by nature. This is why there was a great deal of expectation and a sense of eagerness surrounding the expedition to the North Pole of Inaccessibility that Jim McNeil and his band of 28 handpicked and specially selected explorers were to embark on. These explorers would have joined Jim on specific legs and parts of this expedition.

It seems that Jim has temporarily cancelled this expedition due to very perilous and unstable conditions of the ice. This was a huge disappointment as the team had completed around 4 grueling weeks of preparation that included punishing and extensive training. Pulling the plug on the expedition comes as a huge blow to the morale and the frame of mind of these explorers. It seem what threw a spanner in the works was the fact that the ice was not quite conducive and according to weather men, there is no way the ice condition will let up in the days and weeks to come.

There are few things in life as adventurous and exciting as solo sailing on the high seas in your sailing boat. This is the quintessential road less traveled and the path less taken, which is what sets apart brave hearts from others. Take for example Abby Sunderland who is all of 16 and wants to sail solo on her sailing boat around the globe. She would be the youngest person who would be attempting to this feat, which represents a huge challenge given the fact that it is fraught with dangers along the way. While she had started out from Marina Del Rey on the California coast, she has to come back to port in the face of huge odds.

The problems were technical and not health related. Her solo sailing had to be suspended temporarily due to problems with solar panels and also the wind generators that were required to help her in the long and rather arduous journey ahead. There were also issues with the GPS antenna and a fault plug that was not providing the right wind speed readings. It took more than 50 hours to fix all these faults and while Abby was at port, it is expected that she will get right back on her sailing boat to get o track for her solo sailing expedition around the globe.

The thrill and the joy of adventure sports beckons. There is something so great about these adventure sports that you would not like to miss it for anything. The thing about these adventure sports is that you do not always need to be a participant to enjoy its allures. You can just be a spectator and indeed have the time of your life too. Take for instance the Adventure Sport Week that is conducted at Farragut State Park near Coeur d’Alene in Idaho. This was first held last year and is back this year due to popular demand. After all, people would not like to pass up the prospect of these inimitable games that include mountain biking, running as well as paddling and distance swimming too.

The Crux and the Crucible is one of the most exciting games as it consists of teams of 3 who have to run, the paddle and also mountain bike across some of the most challenging terrain in all of Western USA. This year the adventure sports schedule has planned an even more grueling version of the Crux and the Crucible which is a challenge spanning 3 phases spread over 3 days. You can guess how big a test of endurance and physical stamina it is going to be.

The Yukon Quest Dog Races are one of the most widely and eagerly awaited annual events in the Alaskan and Canadian sports calendars. The snow, the barking dogs, the beautiful sleds and the sun light reflecting off the pristine white soon, all add to the magic of these dog races that many of you have been waiting for so long. It’s not like this event is all fund and games only as it is a 1,000 mile race that takes all of 2 weeks. It starts at the Chena River in Fairbanks and then it goes all the way to Whitehorse that is in Canada’s Yukon region. This is indeed the ultimate test of endurance and fitness not only for man but also the dogs that pull the sleds along.  

The racers who are known as mushers number 24 this year. This includes Lance Mackey who is a sled dog races legend in his own right. Lance had missed last year’s race but that was of course a voluntary choice. He has won the Yukon Quest back in 2007 for the first time, while being the three time defending champ at the Iditarod races. Watching Lance come back to the Yukon Quest will add much more spice and zest to the races this year.