We had really lovely weather these past days, really spring-like and almost warm at 12°C (54°F), so I went for long walks three days in a row. This photo is from yesterday and shows the river Rhine roughly at the point that is closest to our house.
Wanderreporter: Unterwegs im Felsenwald (Pfalz).
“Der Name macht schon neugierig: Felsenwaldtour. Wie sieht wohl ein Wald aus Felsen aus? Die Südpfalz ist ja bekannt für ihre vielen Sandsteinfelsen. Und tatsächlich gibt es im Gebiet östlich von Pirmasens viele schöne Felsen, der bekannteste ist wohl das Felsentor. Die Felsenwaldtour ist ein Ende 2016 markierter Wanderweg und führt auf 13,4 km auf schönen Pfaden und einigen Schotterwegen an vielen dieser Steinformationen vorbei. Erfreulicherweise ist der Asphaltanteil sehr gering, er beschränkt sich auf ein kurzes Stück am Forsthaus Beckenhof. Das Wegzeichen der Runde ist ein stilisiertes rotes Felsentor auf weißem Grund.”
Atlas Obscura: Exit Interview: I Was a Black, Female Thru-Hiker on the Appalachian Trail. “On joining an exclusive group that’s 75 percent male and overwhelmingly white.” By Sarah Laskow.
“About two weeks ago, I was looking to see if there were any other black women who thru-hiked in 2016 and blogged about it, and I found one. It was called browngirlonthePCT.com. She talked about running into a hiker with a Make American Great Again hat. His trail name was MAGA. I don’t know what I would have done.
[…]
One of the reasons I did this in 2016 was that I wasn’t so sure I would do it in 2017. If I were planning my thru-hike for this year, I’m not sure I’d go. That’s sad. It’s really, really, really sad. The rule is you don’t talk about politics on the trail, but it’s going to become increasingly hard not to. Especially if you want to talk about diversity or the environment.”
Buzzfeed: How Black Books Lit My Way Along The Appalachian Trail. “I can confirm that one does not walk 2,000 miles across the face of this country as a black woman without building up an incredible sense of self.” By Rahawa Haile.
Links via MetaFilter: And I thought, maybe I could hike this trail one day.
Bears Ears: The Movement to Protect a Cultural Landscape. (Vimeo, 11min)
The film is outdated only in the sense that the area has now been declared a National Monument by President Obama; it sheds light on what there is to see and why the Native Americans value the land so much. Makes me want to see it even more!
Thanks for the link, Garret!
On December 28, 2016 President Obama declared the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. There’s no website for it yet on NPS.gov, but some info is available at Wikipedia.
Boston Globe Big Picture: Bear Ears Buttes in Utah.
“Known as Bear Ears for the pair of purple buttes at the region’s center, the newly proclaimed 1.9 million-acre National Mounument will preserve a photographer’s checklist of high-desert drama: spires, bridges, canyons. Yet the region’s true distinction is not its topography, but its cultural significance; perhaps no place in America is as rich with ancient Native American sites as Bear Ears. In October 2015, a coalition of five Indian nations, including the Hopi, Ute, and Navajo, formally proposed the monument, attempting to preserve the parcel’s 100,000 archeological sites from ongoing looting and grave robbing. Last June, in a letter to President Obama, more than 700 archeologists endorsed the proposal, saying that looting of the area’s many ancient kivas and dwellings was continuing “at an alarming pace“ and calling Bear Ears “America’s most significant unprotected cultural landscape.“ “
(No typos added by me; the Boston Globe calls it Bear Ears instead of Bears Ears.)
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