HIKE THE HIGHLANDS

FOR OUR MORE ADVENTURIST WALKING/HIKING MEMBERS HERE IS THE LATEST NEWS - FROM HIKE THE HIGHLANDS - BUT PLEASE NOTE THIS IS NOT PART OF THE CBIH WALKING SCHEDULE

4th Annual Cape Breton Highlands 3 Peaks Challenge The 4th Annual Cape Breton Highlands 3 Peaks Challenge will take place Saturday, July 20th beginning at 7:00 am. Teams of four will hike 3 mountains in one day - Franey (7.4 km), Fishing Cove (5.7 km - short route) and Acadien (8.4 km) - a distance of 21.5 km.  All hikes are in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. All teams will be required to have a park entry pass for each member. Hike the Highlands have worked with the Cape Breton Highlands National Park and secured a group park daily pass rate for July 20th. Your park entry passes will be included in your team registration fee for 2013. The registration fee for teams this year is $150.00, a small increase of $10.00 from last year to help offset the costs of park passes.  The team registration fee includes park entry passes, t-shirts, new Cape Breton Highlands National Park topo map as well the closing ceremonies in Cheticamp. The venue and details of the 3 Peaks Challenge closing ceremonies will be announced in a future newsletter (March or April). It is expected that online registration & payment will be available mid to late March.   White Point & North Mountain in the Winter,   Photo credit Lisa Dixon

Bay Road Valley Snowshoe Hike The last snowshoe hike of this winter for Hike the Highlands will be Bay Road Valley on March 23rd beginning at 10:30 am.  Above picture of Bay Road Valley and White Point, Photo credit - David Rasmussen Previously Hike the Highlands hosted the Freshwater Lake - Ful Moon hike on Jan. 29th and the Clyburn Valley Snowshoe hike on Feb.23rd.  The snowshoe hikes are organized in partnership with Hike Nova Scotia and Take the Roof off Winter. Registration for the Bay Road Valley is at 10:00 am.in the parking lot next to Bell Aliant building. Watch for Hike the Highlands sign. It is expected that this hike will take close to 3 hours to complete with breaks and lunch on the trail. This will be a guided snowshoe hike. There is no cost to participate. Please bring snowshoes and dress appropriately.  Did you know that snowshoeing with poles is a great aerobic workout burning on average 600 calories. Below photo - Looking toward Cabot Landing Beach, Photo credit - David Rasmussen Short Notes 1) Three new blog posts with photo slideshows have been added to Hike the Highlands blog in February 2013. They include : a) Freshwater Lake - Full Moon Hike, Jan. 29 b) Red Island Trail - Snowshoe Hike, Feb .16 c) Clyburn Valley Snowshoe Hike - Feb. 23rd   2)  Cape Breton Highlands National Park will be providing free topographical maps of the park to hikers who purchase a Hike the Highlands Pass to the festival in 2013 as their contribution to the festival's 10th Anniversity. 3)  Fellow hiker Carolyn Pelerine from Alberta is busy working on a slideshow with music for our website. 4) Hike the Highlands board approved developing a mobile website in 2013 for mobile devices -smartphones & tablets. 20% of our visitors to our website in 2012 were are on mobile devices. It is expected to increase significantly in the future. Work will begin in April. 5) Planning is well underway for the 10th Anniversity of the Hike the Highlands Festival in 2013.  The festival will be organizing events throughout the year. This winter, Hike the Highlands will be hosting and organizing three snowshoe hikes in partnership with Hike Nova Scotia and Take the Roof off Winter. On June 1st, we will be participating in the International Trails day and on July 20th hosting the 4th Annual Cape Breton Highlands 3 Peaks Challenge. The season will end with our 10th Annual Hike the Highlands Festival from Sept. 13-22, 2013. 6) March newsletter will have more announcements on our 10th Anniversary celebrations in 2013.

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