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December 11, 2007
Where will you hike in 2008?
With 2007 nearly finished, I have started to look ahead to plan some hiking and backpacking for next year.
First on deck is the Florida Trail in January. A few friends and I plant to hike approximately 90 miles of the trail over a 6 day period. This includes all of the Florida Trail in the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) and the Bradwell Bay Wilderness (part of Apalachicola National Forest). As a birder, I'm really looking forward to the hike in St. Marks NWR. An employee at the NWR informed me the other day that ducks should be plentiful in the refuge in January.
Bradwell Bay is normally a 19 mile slog through a marsh, with water up to ur waist or higher. Because of a drought, the area is dry, so that should speed our progress, but make the hike less interesting.
In late July my daughter Martha and I plan to hike the John Muir Trail in California. I hiked the JMT in August 2006, and it was nothing short of amazing. Martha graduates from high school this year, and wants to do a big trail with me. At approximately 221 miles, which scenic beauty everywhere, this should be a blast.
I just picked up the new trail guide from Wilderness Press entitled "The John Muir Trail: The Essential Guide to Hiking America's Most Famous Trail." The guide is a big improvement over the book I used to plan my hike in 2006. I also just received the Tom Harrison map set for the trail.
Next step? Training! Martha and I hiked 4 miles from our cabin at Reflection Riding to Sunset Rock located in the Chickamauga Chattanooga National Military Park. The route is approximately 4 miles, and we hope to hike it 100 times between now and our JMT hike. I'm really thrilled to share this goal with my daughter, and look forward to the next few months. I'll share some photos from our training hikes in the coming months. In the meanwhile, you can look at the trail map for Lookout Mountain (PDF 153 KB) to get an idea where we'll be training.
So where are you planning to hike in 2008? The Bartram Trail? In the Great Smoky Mountains? The Pinhoti Trail or out on Cumberland Island off the coast of Georgia? Please take a moment to tell us where you plan to hike by posting a message in the comment box below.
Happy Trails!
Great Places to Hike | By Jeffrey Hunter | 09:22 AM
Comments
First stop for me, I think, is January to Copper Canyon, Mexico:
http://besthike.com/blog/2007/12/11/best-hikes-copper-canyon-mexico/
Will likely get back to the JMT for a section hike. I've been doing that each of the past 3 years.
I am looking for ideas too, though. GREAT POST.
Posted by: Rick McCharles at December 11, 2007 10:46 PM
