|

Follow John Connelly on PaddleQuest 1500

On April 16, John Connelly, the former leader of L.L. Bean’s Outdoor Discovery Schools, set out on a 1500-mile, 75-day solo paddling journey. Connelly, now president of Adventurous Joe Coffee hopes that his PaddleQuest 1500 inspires a desire for the outdoors. “I’m making this trip for anyone who’s ever stared into the night sky and yearned for a deeper connection to the world beyond ourselves,” says Connelly. Follow along as John provides video and text updates from his journey through 2 countries, 4 states, 22 streams, and 58 lakes. His paddle will take him through the majestic Fulton Chain Lakes of the Adirondacks, the entirety of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, the Bay of Fundy, the Saint John River, and the Maine Island Trail. If this doesn’t get you excited to get outdoors this spring, nothing will. 

 

Similar Posts

|

The Debut of the Perry Lane Hotel, Savannah, Georgia

On the main thoroughfare of Savannah’s downtown corridor, the Perry Lane promises to bridge the antebellum past with modern comforts when it opens on May 18. The owners spent five years studying Savannah, so they’ve figured out how to transform all that history into a 21st-century hotel. A Starwood Luxury Collection Hotel, the property offers 167 guest rooms, rooftop bar, pool, and Emporium Kitchen and Wine Bar featuring locally sourced meats, fish, and cheeses. 

 
|

Hong Kong Week-Climbing Up Victoria Peak

The concierge we dealt with at the Intercontinental was exceptional, not only providing us with authentic Chinese restaurants to visit, but finding a sports bar to watch the New England Patriots playoff game. We wandered over to an Irish pub called Delaney’s at 8 am, only to find the place packed with American expats. Three hours later, we wandered out of there elated after a stirring victory onto the busy streets of Kowloon, a bit of a culture shock. We took the historic Star Ferry over to the Hong Kong section of the city after making an essential stop at the ferry terminal to talk to someone at the Hong Kong Tourism Board Visitors Center. They provided a walking map to hike up to the top of Victoria Peak. Seemed easy enough, but we had no idea how steep the trail is. On a series of switchbacks on a narrow concrete path that starts to the left of the Victoria Peak tram, we snaked up the hillside past the tall apartment buildings and residential neighborhoods. Close to the top, we spotted a pair of wild boar nibbling at the scrub, which seemed apropos since the Chinese New Year is celebrating the Year of the Pig. We would later learn that the wild boars are overrunning the island and becoming a bit of a problem. One hour later, we made it to the top of the funicular to a viewpoint that offered a spectacular vista of the city skyline, surrounding waters, and neighboring islands below. We then celebrated our achievement over pizza and German beer at a place called Wildfire, before happily taking the funicular back down. 

 
|

Shameless Self-Promotion

If you follow us on Facebook or Twitter, I apologize in advance for tooting our horn yet again. Last week, the Boston Herald published a 2-page spread on the work we do at ActiveTravels. Yesterday, the interview I had with Onward Nation on the joys and struggles of owning a travel business went live on a podcast. Of course, I talked about shameless self-promotion. Please have a look and listen and tell us what you think. 
 
Enjoy the weekend! I’ll be back on Monday with Travel Outside the Box Week, 5 blogs on destinations you should put on your wish list. 
 
|

Keep Up the Speed

This seems rather intuitive but researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have found a correlation between walking at a brisk pace and living longer. Studying data from nine studies involving some 35,000 people, they found that only 35 percent of the slowest walking 75 year-old women made it to their 85th birthday. Males did even worse, with only 19 percent of slowest walking men reaching 85.  Bottom line: try your best to maintain a good brisk pace throughout life.
 

|

Countries on My Wish List for 2014, Iceland

If you’ve seen Ben Stiller in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, you realize that the diverse landscape of Iceland plays an important role in the movie. Other television series like Game of Thrones also adore the mix of fjords, mountains, and hot springs as their backdrop. A popular destination for Europeans these past two decades, Iceland is finally catching on with Americans. The most acclaimed drive in Iceland is the Golden Circle, with stops at Tþingvellir, the historic rift valley where the Icelandic parliament first convened in 930 AD; Geysir, the geothermal hot spot that lent its name to all geysers; and the majestic Gullfoss waterfall. After the drive, it’s time for a dip in the Blue Lagoon, Iceland’s most famous geothermal pool, before hitting the eclectic restaurants (dishes include smoked puffin breast) and electronic music clubs in Reykjavik. It’s no surprise that Iceland is on the minds of many of our clients for upcoming travels this summer. 

 
|

Visiting Yosemite National Park in Winter

Head to the Grand Canyon or Yosemite National Park in summer and “forever wild” might feel more like “forever congested.” Come winter, these same parks are virtually uninhabited, almost returning to their original state. Cold weather can add a sense of wild enchantment—a layer of frost on the Canyon’s North Rim, icicles hang from Yosemite’s granite grandeur, the mixture of fresh snow and the briny Atlantic at Acadia. So grab your hiking boots, snowshoes, or cross-country skies and check out the country’s most scenic spots the way Muir and Abbey did, alone in their own private playground.  

 
First stop, Yosemite National Park. Yosemite is a winter wonderland where you can play amidst sheer granite cliffs and domes, iced-over waterfalls, and towering trees. To truly savor the feeling of being alone in a national park, make snow angels at the roots of 200-foot sequoia trees in Yosemite’s Mariposa Grove. A 2-mile snowshoe trek in and you’re staring at these titanic trees, their shaggy orange bark a striking contrast to the frigid whiteness that envelops the rest of the forest. Cross-country skiers cherish the ten miles of groomed track that leads to 7,000-foot high Glacier Point. Here, a backcountry hut offers accommodations and a thrilling view of the Yosemite Valley. The sheer walls of the silvery Half Dome plunges some 4,500 feet down to a handful of figures swirling on the luminescent orb otherwise known as the Curry Village ice rink. The park is also home to one of the oldest downhill ski areas in California, Badger Pass, built in the late 20s in a bid to get the 1930 Winter Olympics. The bid failed but the resort, with a vertical drop of only 800 feet, is now one of the best places in the West to learn how to ski. At night, take refuge around the massive fireplace in the Ahwahnee Hotel’s Great Lounge. This spacious lodge was built of heavy timber and stone in 1927.  
 
(Photograph by the talented Benny Haddad)

Leave a Reply