Jaunted - Tag: adventure travel

Pearce: Pretend To Be A Cowboy In Arizona

egw — 2008-11-20T17:20:16-05:00

Most of the year, riding horses in Arizona sounds like a great way to get heat stroke. But just as the Northeast settles in for a long winter, temps in the Grand Canyon state are in the balmy 70s, making the choice to pull on jeans and boots seem less horrible. Spend Thanksgiving weekend letting someone else do the walking at the Grapevine Canyon Ranch in Pearce.

Ride through fields of cacti near this small town southeast of Tucson, then after you get back from the dusty trails--6 to 7 hours of riding a day are included--kick back in a hot tub in your villa before tucking into Thanksgiving dinner. No TV and no in-room phones means you can concentrate on... Well, whatever you do when you're not reading Jaunted. (We'll miss you, but you could use the break!)

Related Stories:
· Cruise, Ride, Fly, Eat and Relax This Thanksgiving: Last-Minute Deals and Discounts [Frommers.com]
· Horsing Around on Beautiful Back Roads [Jaunted]
· Thanksgiving coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: GCranch.com]

Prepping For The Great Chinese Road Trip

pbb — 2008-11-11T16:45:11-05:00

When we said "the great American road trip ain't what it used to be," our point was that advances in highway and automotive technology in the US have changed the character of our asphalt adventures. But China's efforts to build the world's foremost interstate system have us thinking that our next windows-down, radio-up ride may happen on the Jinghu Expressway not Route 66.

Says The Wall Street Journal:

The speed of China's motorization is stunning--some 30,000 miles of expressways were built in the past decade. Plans call for China's highway system to stretch 53,000 miles by 2020, surpassing the 47,000 miles of interstate roads in the US currently. China has roughly the same land area as the continental US.
Unlike the golden era of the American highway--which started in the 1960s and was mostly complete by the 1980s--this road boom is taking place in a poor, largely rural country where only about 10 percent of the population have their driver's licenses.

That means the highways are, for the most part, quiet, except when over-burdened trucks rumble by. But while the development opens up new travel possibilities, it also carries an environmental threat: Beijing's air already looks like this.

[Photo: ernop]

Mammoth Lakes: Test Confirms Bones Found In California Are Fossett's

pbb — 2008-11-04T07:48:15-05:00

The human remains found last week by Madera County sheriff's deputies were indeed Steve Fossett's, a DNA test confirms. With the conclusive results, the mystery of what happened to the adventurer is finally coming to a close, after more than a year of searching, speculation and crowd-sourced satellite photo analysis.

Fossett's widow, Peggy, released a statement after the announcement was made:

I am hopeful that the DNA identification puts a definitive end to all of the speculation surrounding Steve's death. This has been an incredibly difficult time for me, and I am thankful to everyone who helped bring closure to this tragedy.

While there's still no official report on why Fossett's plane crashed, some news accounts say unpredictable winds in the mountains caused the Bellanca Citabria Super Decathlon to slam into a granite wall. The NTSB will release its findings in the case next year.

Related Stories:
· DNA Links Bones to Fossett [AP, via Google]
· Bone Fragments Confirmed as Fossett's [IHT]
· California Sheriff Declares Search For Fossett Over [Jaunted]
· NTSB Investigating Newly Discovered Plane Wreckage [Jaunted]

[Photo of the crash site: Madera County Sheriff's Office]

Mammoth Lakes: California Sheriff Declares Search For Fossett Over

pbb — 2008-10-31T07:50:04-05:00

A search team led by Madera County sheriff's deputies has found Steve Fossett's Illinois driver's license, a pair of tennis shoes, a $100 bill, credit cards and some skeletal remains about a quarter-mile from the traces of the adventurer found earlier this fall. While his office is still waiting for the results of a DNA test on the bones, Sheriff John Anderson says the search for Fossett is over:

Our coroner's investigation is over and the Fossett family will finally have closure.
We talked to the family and advised them that we possibly, most likely, found the remains of J. Stephen Fossett.

There's still no verdict on why exactly the Bellanca Citabria Super Decathlon crashed, though the NTSB continues to investigate.

Related Stories:
· Experts Sure They Have Steve Fossett's Remains [SF Chronicle]
· Bones, ID Found Near Fossett Crash Site [CNN]
· NTSB Investigating Newly Discovered Wreckage [Jaunted]

Zeppelin Rules: California to Welcome New Era of Lighter-Than-Air Travel

Victor Ozols — 2008-10-26T15:14:47-05:00

Don't call it a blimp. A company named Airship Ventures hopes to usher in a new era of Zeppelin travel as it starts offering aerial tours of San Francisco Bay in its 246-foot-long Zeppelin NT, one of only three functioning rigid-framed Zeppelins in the world. Zeppelins haven't been seen in American skies for more than seventy years, in part because many people became scared of the lighter-than-air flying machines after the Hindenburg disaster of 1937. However, Airship Ventures execs want to ensure everybody that modern zeppelins use nonflammable helium gas rather than hydrogen, and that thousands of people have already enjoyed safe, slow, and low flights over Germany in these majestic aircraft since 2001. The tours begin on Friday, and visitors hoping for a bird's eye view of the Big Sur coastline and San Francisco will need to show up at Moffett Field with $495 for a seat on the one-hour flight. Demand must be looking pretty good, as the company is already planning its expansion, with two more zeppelins on order from a German manufacturer for similar tours in New York and Florida. We'd be game for a zeppelin ride over New York, though at nearly five hundred bucks a ticket, it'll have to be a very special occasion.

[Photo: airshipventures.com]

Related Stories
· Airship Ventures [Official Site]
· Californians Float a Plan: Return of the Zeppelin [AP via Yahoo! News]
· Adventure Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

National Parks Travel: Canadians May Add Some Adventure

kjb — 2008-10-07T13:35:41-05:00

National parks usually speak for themselves with their natural beauty and peaceful settings. But officials in Canada are thinking a little differently, as they plan to add some vacation gimmicks to their parks.

Extreme Travel Experiences: Fancy a Skydive Over Mount Everest?

Victor Ozols — 2008-10-05T15:05:52-05:00

If the idea of climbing Mount Everest isn't extreme enough for you, how about skydiving over Everest to the world's highest landing zone? That's exactly what a group of three adventurers did this weekend in a feat organized by a British tour company called High and Wild. The trio from Britain, New Zealand, and Canada ponied up 13,500 British pounds each for the experience, which involved a one-minute free fall above the world's highest mountain, oversized parachutes, oxygen tanks, exposure suits, and a gentle return to earth on a flat drop zone. While the experience isn't for the faint-of-heart - most participants have several hundred jumps under their belts - it seems a heck of a lot easier than trudging up the mountain on foot from base camp. Still, it represents the fulfillment of organizer Nigel Gifford's longtime dream to combine his two loves: Himalayan Mountaineering and skydiving. A total of 32 people will make the "Everest Skydive" over the next two weeks, before the company's permits expire and the mountain must once again be tackled the hard way.

[Photo: Sky News]

Related Stories:
· British Skydiver Makes First Jump Over Mount Everest [Daily Telegraph]
· Skydivers Complete Everest Leap [BBC News]
· Skydiving Coverage [Jaunted]