Author: travel2walk

I like to travel and hike. I started to write about it at travel2walk.com during graduate school.

virginia hikes: Petites Gap, Highcock Knob, & Sulphur Spring loop, March 21 2020

.Reading time 11 minutes.

With COVID-19 pandemic shutting down everything, there are a lot of questions regarding if hitting the trails is something ok to do. My impression on the aspect of social distancing is to avoid other. So it’s not just a simple questions of is heading outdoors ok. Rather the question is can I go hike somewhere not many other hikers are. Remember it’s not just contact with other, but also surfaces others have contacted. You know that rock everyone likes to sit on (McAfee), probably should avoid that. This is the reason popular parks such as Yosemite are closing as they should. Not to mention how the popular parks get tramped on the most without rangers upholding infrastructure (see the damage from government shutdown of 2019, Business Insider).

So the takeaway is go hiking, but probably should be limited to day hikes in your local area on the lesser trafficked trails. With all of that in mind, we headed to an out to explore an out of the way trail we hadn’t done before. We saw only 2 groups of hikers along the 8 mile stretch, so I’d consider that minimizing the risk.

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trip video: Kootenay National Park – The Rockwall, August 2019

.Reading time 2 minutes.

This is the companion preview videos to our trip report detailing our 3 day and 2 nights hike on The Rockwall in Kootenay National Park. The highlight of the hike were the granite walls of the Vermilion Range decorated with waterfalls and hanging glaciers.

You can find the detailed report of our hike linked in the index below.

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trip report: Canadian Rockies – decision, planning, & getting in, August 2019

.Reading time 40 minutes.

Ah Lake Instagram, rather Reddit Lake, I mean Moraine Lake. The last time I visited this beautiful spot was in 2011 on a road trip, when a group of us checked out the mountains and breweries around the Pacific Northwest that eventually ended up here.

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Our joke for our drive through the Canadian Rockies was that they must sprayed LSD in the air because the colors were so unreal.

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Jared overlooking the teal Lake Louise back in 2011

I’ve meant to head back to properly explore the backcountry since then, but it seems like the rest of the world had the same idea. With the crowds, must come the permits to protect the beautiful landscape from being loved to death and effects of overcrowding. Since this current trip was planned rather last minute, the initial prospect looked like I’d have to wait to see the best and most popular spots. But with some flexibility and constant checking of the permit websites, I got to have my cake and eat it too… a big LSD filled cake.

This is the first entry of our Canadian Rockies trip series covering our pre-trip planning (1) and our travels to the Canadian Rockies (2). You can navigate to the other parts in the index below as they are posted.

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trip video: Fakarava & the South Pass (Tetamanu), March 2019

.Reading time 2 minutes.

This is the final companion videos to our French Polynesia trip during March 2019 where we traveled to the atoll island of Fakarava. We went to Fakarava for the world class scuba diving at the passes that separate the ocean and lagoon of the atoll. In this video, we dove the South Pass (Tetamanu) twice, once from lagoon to ocean and once from ocean to lagoon. In between our dives, we visited pink sand beach.

You can find an linked index of our detailed trip report below.

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trip report: French Polynesia – final impressions & budget, March 2019

.Reading time 13 minutes.

Over the course of just over a week, we racked up a bill that rivals some of our longest trips and by far exceeded our cost per day than any we’ve done before. That’s not even counting the point redemptions used and the amount we save through the travel enthusiast game. In the end, we were indeed left with an unforgettable experience. Some of which I am good with not return to, such as the resorts on Bora Bora. While others I would love enjoy again, like the underwater wonderland at the passes on Fakarava.

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This is the conclusion of the French Polynesia trip series. You can navigate to the other parts in the index below as they are posted.

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trip video: Fakarava & the North Pass (Passe de Garuae), March 2019

.Reading time 2 minutes.

This is the second of the companion videos to our French Polynesia trip during March 2019 where we traveled to the atoll island of Fakarava. We went to Fakarava for the world class scuba diving at the passes that separate the ocean and lagoon of the atoll. In this video, we dove the North Pass (Passe de Garuae) five time over our first 2 days on the island. We found an aquatic wonderland with grey sharks, white tip reef sharks, swordfish, napoleon wrasse, and schools of smaller fish.

You can find an linked index of our detailed trip report below, as they are posted.

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trip report: Fakarava, March 2019

.Reading time 37 minutes.

Did someone say a wall of sharks? That was our draw to visit the island atoll in the middle of nowhere and what we found was my most memorable scuba diving experiences to date. Oh, the beaches weren’t too bad either.

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This is the third entry of the French Polynesia trip series covering our experiences on Fakarava (4) and getting out (5). You can navigate to the other parts in the index below as they are posted. Read More

trip video: Bora Bora, March 2019

.Reading time 1 minute.

This is the first of the companion videos to our French Polynesia trip during March 2019. Specifically this video covers our time on the resort island of Bora Bora. We enjoyed the St. Regis and InterContinental Thalasso resorts including the beaches, the activities, and the views they had to offer. Finally we swam with the fishes as we dove with Top Dive and saw three types of sharks.

You can find an linked index of our full trip report below, as they are posted.

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trip report: Bora Bora, March 2019

.Reading time 32 minutes.

Bora Bora is one of the premier resort islands in the world and probably the most traveled to island for tourists in French Polynesia. On the other hand, it also has the nickname “Boring Boring” in the backpacker world for the lack of unguided adventure available and the isolation of the resorts on the perimeter atoll islands. The truth, ofcourse, is somewhere in between.

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This is the second entry of the French Polynesia trip series covering our experiences on Bora Bora (3). You can navigate to the other parts in the index below.

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trip report: French Polynesia – decision, planning, & getting in, March 2019

.Reading time 28 minutes.

In the travel enthusiast game, change happens quickly. The best deals out there tends to go away or change quickly once more and more people learn of it. With the growing popularity of the game itself, the increase number of travel websites, and how technology information today can spread, it has lead to more people able to take advantage of great deals to travel the world but also subsequently lead to the death of many of these deals as well. This evolution of the game has caused many heated arguments on travel forums and comment sections. The future direction of the travel enthusiast game isn’t the purpose of this post, but rather how we put together a trip based on several expiring deals to visit a few islands in the middle of the Pacific. Specifically to experience an over the water bungalow and to swim with the sharks.

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This is the first entry of the French Polynesia trip series covering our pre-trip planning (1) and our travel into our first destination in French Polynesia (2). You can navigate to the other parts in the index below as they are posted. Read More