Kufstein is a town of about 20,000 in the Austrian Alps built around a fortress on a hill. Like so many Tyrolean towns it's also split by a river with alpine hiking abound. With so many towns surrounded by marked trails and campsites, hiking feels like part of the culture in that part of the world...just be sure you can read the signs.A few hours by train from Vienna or Munich, any of these day hikes might help you find what you've been looking for [Hiking in Tyrol - PDF].MP3: Anton Dermota & The Austrian State Radio Orchestra - Gluck Das Mir Verblieb
Appalachian Trail
If you live in New York City, one of the best things you can do on a weekend is hike some of the Appalachian Trail. Get on the Harlem line of the Metro North and take the train to the Appalachian Trail stop. When you get off, start walking west through a long swampy boardwalk of nine foot high cattails, wildflowers, and dragonflies. You'll wind through some woods and then find yourself in an open field that cuts across the side of a local farm. It's a breathtaking 1862 looking stretch that you should take real slow as there's a road you're about to cross in just under a mile. After you cross that road, continue on for about a quarter mile and drop your stuff off at Telephone Pioneer Shelter, one of the many AP lean-tos. Drink some water and go another three miles in the woods past long stone walls on the white blaze to Nuclear Lake. Take a right at the lake's loop and lay down in the huge green open field and jump in and swim for the rest of the afternoon. The lake gets its name from a nuclear testing site that used to be there in the late 70s. The plant had a little explosion that leaked into the lake but it was cleaned up and is now safe to enjoy. And enjoy it you will. When you're done swimming, hike three miles back and stop at Cat's Rock to watch the sun go down over the farm that you hiked across just a few hours previous.If you're traveling around June and July, most likely you'll have some Appalachian Trail thru-hikers to share your campfire with and provide the evening's storytelling. Pack some extra food for them. They love quesadillas and Twizzlers.I wish I could use a few more adjectives and paint a better picture of how monumentally beautiful this stretch of Appalachian trail is, but right now I think I'll leave it to the very poorly developed pictures that are linked above.MP3: Fleetwood Mac - Save Me A PlaceMP3: Grateful Dead - Ramble On Rose
Map O'th Day
If there’s one thing we've learned from our friend Boss Hoss, it’s to never underestimate the importance of a good map (or someone who knows how to read one). And no one knows more about good maps than the National Geographic Society. So it sounds about right that the Map of the Day feature on their magazine’s website is just about one of the best ways to spend a few minutes kickin around online.
National Geographic - Map of the Day
MP3: Delaney & Bonnie - Look What We Have Found
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I Used To Live In New York City. Everything There Was Dark And Dirty.
Euchre.
It's almost June. Now that the sun is a shining and the snow is a melting and the birds are a chirping and the screen doors are a slamming and the coffee is a boiling and the wash needs a hanging and the dogs are a barking and the floor needs a scrubbing, lots more outdoor activities will be a taking place. Obviously. And what is the best way to spend a night outside before you get in your tent to pretend you're not scared of the dark? Euchre. No question. If you don't know how, call in sick from work tomorrow, and spend the day learning. You ain't never going to go back. Euchre is no secret. Anyone will tell you. And no cheating. Cause it's pretty darn easy to do. Just don't get caught.Cause Here In Topeka...
Woke Up This Morning And Said My Morning Prayer
No better way to get the fuck out of Dodge than in a 60 Series Toyota Land Cruiser. Much more to come on these. We have a collector and expert in the Cold Splinters family.Some Entrance helps too.MP3: Entrance - Grim Reaper Blues
Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness
The OPFIHDW is on Fire Island, a skinny little number that lies south of the mighty Long Island. The whole island is about 31 miles long and 1/4 mile wide at the widest point. Long and skinny. Real skinny. The Otis Pike area is 7 miles of National Park Service wilderness located on the eastern side of the island. It's the only NPS wilderness in the whole state of New York.And Holy heck. This place is the place. Miles of undeveloped beach, waves bigger than me and you, forty foot high dunes, and a camp-anywhere-but-on-the-beach policy. Behind the beach are the aforementioned dunes (where you have to camp) that sure as heck don't look like you're a hop, skip, and a jump away from New York City.It's covered in wildflowers, deer trails, SAND, bones, and endless amounts of perfect places to pitch your tent. Although you can't see it from home base, you can hear the ocean roaring and a two second walk up a sand ridge will give you a perfect view of all the action. Leave your flint at home cause you can't be making fires here. Only stoves for cooking huevos rancheros.Best part: You don't need a car. Hop on the LIRR to Patchogue and take a ride on the Watch Hill ferry. (The ferry terminal is 2 minutes from the train, right behind the bowling alley). Get off at Watch Hill, get a permit, and be on your way. Walk 3.5 miles down the beach, walk behind the dunes, pitch your tent, and go back to the beach until the sun goes down. Do whatever it is you like to do at night, then wake up, hike to the other end of the dunes, another 3.5 miles. No backtracking on this trip. Have the ranger at the Wilderness Visitor Center at Smith Point call you a cab, take it to the Mastic Shirley LIRR stop ($10 ride), and come on back home. Watch out for old men sunbathing in the nude.From Mary Hopkin's Earth Song, Ocean Song:MP3: Mary Hopkin - The Wind
Slide Mountain Wilderness, NY
The Slide Mountain Wilderness is nestled in the Southwest part of the Catskills, right around Woodstock and Phoenicia, NY. It boasts the tallest mountain in the Skills, Slide Mountain, which is around 4200 feet high. That's only 25,000 feet smaller than Everest. We're getting there. Drive on out to the Slide Mountain trailhead in Big Indian, NY and walk a few miles up a somewhat steep trail to the top of Ms. Slide herself. Not much to be seen from the actual summit but along the way there's some great views of Catskill Park. No houses, no streets, just rolling hills for miles. It's the kind of scenery that makes you want to ditch electricity all together.Keep going past the summit for about a mile and a half into the notch between Slide Mountain and Cornell Mountain. There are some surprisingly difficult scrambles here that may require you to take your pack off. Make sure you fill up on water at the creek before the descent. There's not much else flowing anytime soon. A few great designated backcountry campsites are hanging out in the notch. I recommend going to the second one on your way to Cornell if you can. It's large and open and lies on the edge of a nice open rock face. If it's taken or you want to put your pack down at the first one, that ain't no thang. It's still a great place to be. The trip is about 5.5 miles in to the campsites.Make a big ol' fire (as long as you're below 3500 feet, which you should be) and sing Shania Twain songs at the top of your lungs. Enjoy the backcountry of one of the Northeast's best parks. It's a merry ol' time.
Wild Palms and Gold Mines: Everglades National Park, FL
Give yourself a new Seminole name, get a plane ticket to Miami, rent a car, then drive down to Everglades National Park in Flamingo. Techno music coming from the mono stereo works best for the midnight drive. When you get there, get an hour or two of sleep and then rent a canoe at the marina. There's a skinny gentleman with a mustache that will get you on your way. Go outside, ask for Louis (like the king, not the Anderson) and get in the water. Get paddling and don't get stuck at low tide. It'll give you a real-life panic attack.You're in the Gulf of Mexico now, so watch for prehistoric looking birds floating by your head, sharks swimming beside your boat, and miles of pristine beach covered by mangroves. Keep going for 10 miles in the hot sun to the continental USA's southern most point, East Cape Sable. This isn't the gloomy Everglades swamps that keep you up at night. This is going to be your favorite place on earth. Full of no-see-ums, shells the size of your face, and lonesome fires on the beach. Unfortunately you might have missed the window. Right about now the bugs are rallying the troops to get ready for a couple of months of deathly humidity. You don't want to be there, trust us. Wait until December and we'll go with you. We promise.