Cape Cod National Seashore’s longest trail, the 7-mile round-trip Great Island Trail, is worthy of being designated a hike, not a walk. This 3-hour plus trail through marsh, woods, and soft sand is a strenuous thigh-burner. The trail follows the circumference of Great Island, a former whaling port and now one of the most secluded areas on Cape Cod. For the serious walker who yearns to get away from the summer crowds, this path should not be missed. Simply bring several bottles of water, a hat, sunscreen, and a picnic lunch and you’re on your way.
Stroll down the short hill from the parking lot and take a right, continuing around the marsh the entire distance. At the fork, take a left toward Smith Tavern. Just prior to reaching the easternmost tip of the island where people often fish for stripers and blues, you’ll see another sign directing you over the dunes through the woods. The trail winds through the pine forest to the site of an original whaling tavern. Continue out of the woods to a marsh where sand dunes tower on your right and Wellfleet Harbor can be seen to your left. This soft sandy path leads to Great Beach Hill. Five minutes later, you’ll reach another marsh and a sand spit known as Jeremy Flats. At low tide, you can walk out to the tip, but I’d save your energy. You have a 2.2 mile walk down the beach of Cape Cod Bay to reach The Gut. I have rarely seen another person on this desolate strip of sand, just large scallop shells and tiny fiddle crabs, funny-looking critters that have one oversized claw bigger than their entire body. If you start to feel like Lawrence of Arabia lost in the desert, look out at 10 o’clock and you’ll see Provincetown’s Pilgrim Monument, the lone sign of civilization.
Due to its remote locale and the fact that Whistler overshadows all the other exceptional mountains in BC, you might not have heard of Red. But take my word for it, you will. A new quad chairlift will start running this winter off Grey Mountain, adding 22 new runs and a whopping 1,000 acres of skiing placing Red at pretty much the same scale as Breckenridge and Jackson Hole. But size doesn’t necessarily matter when it comes to skiing this beaut. Close to 7,000 feet high and rarely another skier in view, you’re certain you were planted on Red by helicopter or cat. You can ski the entire mountain, front and back, with exceptional intermediate and advanced terrain off the Motherlode Chair. Red’s claim to fame, however, is all the backcountry trails that weave through the trees on neighboring Mount Roberts and Grey. And those 360-degree views from the top. Sweet! 
Some of my favorite articles have been written on ferries. I remember writing “Eating My Way through Vancouver” on a ferry to BC’s Salt Spring Island. So I took advantage of the 90-minute ferry from Blacks Harbour to Grand Manan to sit upstairs on the outdoor deck, peer at the large wake, and look back at the mainland with computer in hand. Surrounded by the calm waters of the Bay of Fundy, all my daily stresses just seemed to melt away with the hot midday sun. Every now and then we would pass another anonymous island, a rocky outcropping rimmed with a crown of firs. Far too quickly, we reached Grand Manan and I was driving up to my home for the next two nights, the 
Doug Mayer, founder of 
When the temperature hit 60 degrees on Sunday, I decided to go for one last bike ride in 2014. I always bring my license on any of my adventures, just in case I slip down the crevice of a mountain on a hike or a text-sending teenager on a bike ride flattens me. I hate taking a thick wallet, so when I found out about the 
Holland America just announced a