Photo by miwalker on Flickr
One of the few benefits of traveling across the country is that I can catch up on some reading during the flight, and I was particularly taken by an Andrew McCarthy piece in the National Geographic Adventure magazine, this month. “Going Back In” is about a teenage girl who drowns in the South Buffalo Fork of the Snake River during an adventure camp, and McCarthy coming to terms with the guilt surrounding the tragedy.
Ticks are always a concern in the outdoors because they can carry bacteria that cause Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and a host of lesser-known viruses, like ehrlichiosis and anaplasmosis. Although tick-borne diseases tend to concentrate in the western, southern and eastern states, the problem is rearing its ugly head this year in the upper Midwest and southern Canada. A Minnesota child recently died from Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
Labor Day is only four weeks away, but even if you have not yet made reservations for one of the most popular camping weekends of the year, there are still plenty of great campsites available all over the country. Here are ten great places I found this weekend that still have numerous open campsites available for Labor Day Weekend.
In December I wrote about how across the country, state parks were coming under pressure from dwindling budgets due to the recession (Across the Country, State Parks under Pressure). Six months later, we are in no better shape than we were at the start of the year, with a number of states still contemplating the closure of their state parks in order to help close budget deficits.
I was talking with Will Volpert of Kern River Outfitters, this weekend, and he said that they just finished-up their staff training sessions on the river, May 14th. June is the best month to raft the upper Kern (above Lake Isabella) because it is fed entirely by snow-melt from the Sierras and the water-volume through the Forks of the Kern will drop-off significantly through the summer. Checkout Will’s blog for a cool video on some of their Forks of the Kern action.