backpacks: Cooking and sleeping equipment are largely the province of outdoor-based adventure travel: urban or water travelers can usually avail themselves of local options or shipboard facilities when looking for food or shelter. A good backpack, however, is an essential item for any adventure traveler, regardless of the nature of the trip. Even if you're carrying plenty of luggage, a backpack will allow you access to a variety of useful things when you're on a walking tour or taking in the scenery from an island destination, and the portability of a backpack leaves your hands free for handling guidebooks, binoculars, or any other gear you'll need to get the most out of your adventure travel experience. What's more, you can store snacks in a backpack. What kind of backpack you need, however, depends on what kind of trip you're on. If you're on a day hike or a brief tour, a medium to large-sized backpack is probably sufficient to carry whatever you'll need. But if you're on a much longer trip, such as a week-long hike or a bike tour, you'll want to invest in a camping frame. A camping frame backpack, as the name indicates, is just a larger-than-average backpack reinforced with a light metal frame to provide additional support and to allow the backpack to hold more weight and bulk. A good camping frame backpack will allow you to comfortably carry some fifty to sixty pounds of equipment over a rough trail, a weight limit which should cover your sleeping gear, cooking gear, food, and extra clothes with little problem. A good camping frame will also come with some practical extras, such as pockets designed for carrying water bottles and canteens, insulated pockets to keep certain supplies dry, and straps at the top and bottom to let you hook a sleeping bag, foam pad, or tent onto your backpack conveniently, which frees up your arms and prevents your supplies from getting in your way while you're on an eight-hour hike. Camping frame backpacks will run you anywhere from about sixty to over one hundred dollars, but they're absolutely indispensable for any hiking or biking trip, and they'll pay for themselves over time in terms of the headaches you'll save in terms of packing.
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Of course, the destination is the most crucial of these: if you don't know where you're going, you can hardly do the rest of the planning for your adventure. Fortunately, you needn't choose an exact destination from the thousands of potential hiking tours right off the bat. Instead, start thinking in terms of what type of hiking you'd like to do. From a logistical point of view, the simplest form of hiking tours is probably rural backpacking–or any kind of hiking tour that lasts anywhere from four days to three weeks, and which involves traveling far outside the boundaries of cities, villages, or other outposts of civilization. With rural backpacking, you don't have to worry about local shop schedules, closing times for popular tour destinations, or sharing your tour route with a large rowd of sometimes unwanted fellow-travelers. Instead, it'll simply be you and your chosen destination–and whatever challenges might face you when you're on the trail, from mere endurance to circumnavigating that beautiful lakes, rivers, and mountains that you may find. On the flip side, you do have to worry about logistical matters on another front: what you'll do about getting adequate sleep, food, and drink while you're in the wilderness. We'll go into this in more detail in the next section, but it's important to remember this before considering a rural backpacking tour: you'll be some distance away from stores, restaurants, or hotels, and anything you'll need on your trip will have to be carried with you on your back. That includes food, a bedroll, any personal hygiene equipment you might need, and above all, water–which seems fairly innocuous when it comes out of a tap, but when it's carried on your back in gallon containers, you'll find it much more of a problem. And of course, a clean bill of health is necessary for all of this: if you think you can carry some forty-sixty pounds of gear for eight to ten hours a day when you've got a persistent medical condition, you're in for a rude surprise when you're actually on the trail. So be sure to get checked out by a doctor before you start in order to avoid any problems once you're outside the borders of civilization.
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Other clothes: As far as other clothing goes, make sure to dress appropriately for the weather. If you're hiking in a Northern region or a generally cold climate, pack plenty of sweaters, long pants, and jackets; if you're hiking in a hotter region, pack extra shorts, T-shirts, and hats to keep the sun off of your face and out of your eyes. A good common-sense rule is to pack at least one complete outfit per day of hiking–you may not use all of it, but in the event of rain it's nice to be able to change into dry clothes. Another important consideration with clothing is ease of use. Wear clothes that are loose enough to permit free movement, but not so loose as to catch and snag on every twig or rock outcropping you happen to pass. In every case, comfort is more important than style: you may be the best-dressed hiker on the trail, but if your clothes don't make it easy for you to walk without fatigue, you'll find yourself regretting it–and your fancy clothes are likely to be damaged by the trail anyway, so why bring them along? ponchos: One essential item to pack is a good poncho to protect yourself against the rain. Ponchos are lightweight, easy to fold and pack, and provide you with adequate protection against the weather in a tight spot. Ponchos can also be amazingly cheap, but be careful–some of the cheaper ponchos don't adequately keep out the rain, and some even start to fall apart or bleed colored dyes when exposed to water. Ask a knowledgeable hiker or sporting goods salesman about a poncho before buying, and don't be afraid to test it yourself in a brief shower or even under a sprinkler before taking it with you on your hike.
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dried food: Dried foods like trail mix, beef jerky, and dried breads have the advantage of being extremely non-perishable, but they have the distinct disadvantage of being neither very filling or nutritious enough to entirely sustain you for an eight-hour hike. This doesn't mean that you don't want to include dried food in your food budget; you do, but you don't want to make it the cornerstone of your diet for the duration of your trip. Reserve dried food for mid-day snacks or for brief rests. canned food: Canned food–vegetables, meats, or condensed soups, most usually–can be a double-edged sword. Canned food provides you with much more nutrition than dried food, allows you to maintain a balanced diet over a long-term hike, is extremely non-perishable, and at prices ranging from twenty-five cents for a can of chicken noodle soup to four dollars for a high-end can of beef chili, it's a very affordable option. The problem with canned food, however, is its lack of portability. Depending on the size of the cans you buy, expect to be carrying anywhere from eight ounces to thirty-two ounces per can in weight. This doesn't seem like much until you consider that canned food, once it's opened, can't be stored with any degree of safety. And since one can food will only provide a meal for up to four people, assuming an extremely frugal diet, you can expect to pay in weight and back strain for a food supply that consists mostly of canned food. Add into the mix the fact that canned food takes up a great deal of backpack space and you begin to see the major disadvantages to relying too heavily on canned food. This doesn't mean that canned food is altogether a bad option for hiking and camping trips. On a camping trip with ready access to a car, canned food can actually be one of the most economical options. But if you're going to be in the wilderness for longer than a few days, consider restricting your canned food purchases to only four or five cans, enough for one canned meal per day for four to five days of your trip. Canned food may seem appetizing after a day of relying solely on dried snacks, but the cost in terms of weight and space just isn't worth it. And although this will sound obvious, it bears mentioning: if you're bringing canned food, don't forget the can opener.
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Maine's 2,500 lakes and ponds and 3,500 mile long coastline offer varied and outstanding recreational opportunities to owners of trailered or car-top watercraft. Perhaps nowhere in the state is the reality of four season recreation more evident, though, than in the western region, where the "greatest footpath in the World," the Appalachian Trail, passes through some of the most challenging terrain in its long course from Georgia to Mt. Whether it's climbing the Rocky Mountains or jumping on a motorcycle and touring the breathtaking coastline of California, more Americans are adding a dose of much-needed pep to their travels. Officials at EagleRider say that much of the intrigue of taking an adventure vacation lies in the opportunity to engage in exciting and scenic travel, without having to do a lot of complicated planning and footwork. read more

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1 GATEWAY TO ADVENTURE: Have you ever taken an unforgettable vacation? Maybe you spent a week on the Cote d'Azur, soaking up sun, culture, and delicious food. Maybe you took a driving tour of the United States from ocean to ocean and all the roadside stops and scenery along the way. Maybe you booked passage on a cruise liner packed with five-course meals and island stopovers every other day for sightseeing and souvenir collection. Or maybe–just maybe–you've done all of these things, and you're sick to death of them. Maybe you're looking for something a little bit more exciting that a typical vacation package can deliver. If this describes you–or if you haven't taken an unforgettable vacation yet, and you want to–then it's high time to consider becoming involved with adventure travel.
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INDIANAPOLIS - The Indiana Office of Tourism Development has launched a new Web site to promote three in-state activities. They activities are outdoor adventure, motorcycle rides and college town visits. Tourism officials say outdoor recreation is a top reason why people visit Indiana. County Adams Alexander Bond Boone Brown Bureau Calhoun Carroll Cass Champaign Christian Clark Clay Clinton Coles Cook Crawford Cumberland Dekalb Dewitt Douglas Dupage Edgar Edwards Effingham Fayette Ford Franklin Fulton Gallatin Greene Grundy Hamilton Hancock Hardin Henderson Henry Iroquois Jackson Jasper Jefferson Jersey Jodaviess Johnson Kane Kankakee Kendall Knox Lake Lasalle Lawrence Lee Livingston Logan Macon Macoupin Madison Marion Marshall Mason Massac Mcdonough Mchenry Mclean Menard Mercer Monroe Montgomery Morgan Moultrie Ogle Peoria Perry Piatt Pike Pope Pulaski Putnam Randolph Richland Rock Island Saline Sangamon Schuyler Scott Shelby St. read more

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Water: Another vital piece of equipment even for short hikes is water, and plenty of it. According to research, the human body requires about three liters of water per day in order to function, and although you can skimp on this figure when you're at home, you'll want to keep yourself well-hydrated when you're spending the day in what amounts to constant light exercise. Carry a canteen or a water bottle (or three) at all times and make use of it at regular intervals, at least once every two hours. Dehydration has a nasty habit of sneaking up on novice hikers, and it's important to drink before you feel thirsty in order to prevent problems. You'll also want to keep your water bottles refilled, which can present problems if your destination isn't the sort to feature regular water fountains or convenience stores. The easiest solution is to ensure that your trail takes you close to natural sources of water like rivers, lakes, or springs as often as possible. Since most of the water you find in nature isn't pure enough to drink, you'll also want to carry a means of purifying water with you at all times. Iodine tablets are a classic solution, and a cheap one: for around six dollars a bottle, you can buy fifty iodine tablets, two to four of which will purify a liter of water for drinking. Allow the iodine to settle for about fifteen minutes before taking a drink. Of course, iodine tablets can become impractical if you're taking an extremely long hike, and they also create a sometimes unpleasant aftertaste in your drinking water. If these are major problems for you, then you might also purchase a portable water filter. These are significantly more expensive than iodine tablets at anywhere from thirty to one hundred dollars for a filter, but they have the advantage of being compact, reusable (with replacement filters, most of which will cost you less than ten dollars for about 3,000 liters worth of purification), and full effective at ridding your drinking water of microorganisms and other unpleasant substances. The cheapest option, of course, is to simply boil all of your water before storing it or drinking it. This option has obvious disadvantages, since you'll need to carry a cooking pot with you and start a fire whenever you want to refill your bottles for the next leg of the hike. But it's effective, and if you can't find iodine tablets or a water filter that you like–or if you simply don't want to spend the money or the backpack space on these things–it can be a viable solution, albeit a sometimes impractical one.
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