Altrec.com is currently featuring their Winter Clearance Sale, with savings up to 50% on hundreds of items. Brands include Mountain Hardwear, Columbia, Patagonia, JanSport, and many more.

Some of the best deals include:

• Sierra Designs Lightning Tent
• K2 5 Com Skis w/ M2 11.0 TC Binding
• Roxy Junior’s Comet Jacket
• Pearl Azumi Women’s Vertex Jersey
• Gregory Rambler Backpack
• Giro Sport Design Helmet

Winter Clearance ends on 02/27/08.

Click the image below to view all sale items.

We’ve added 2 new specialty areas to the gear shop at HC to kick off the new year. The first is a shop for climbing, including brands like Black Diamond and Mountainsmith, which will feature gear like carabiners, harnesses, helmets, technical packs, and many more items.

The second additional to our family is the bike shop. This shop includes over 2000 parts and accessories for mountain biking and road bikes as well. Brands here include Shimano, Giro, Rockshox, and a lot more. You’ll be able to find things like forks, brakes, helmets, frames, car racks, grips, and the list goes on and on.

Check ‘em out:

• Bike Shop
• Climb Shop

There’s still time to order gifts online for Christmas. Here’s a list of some best sellers that should be popular with anyone on your list. Click any item below for available sizes, colors, and shipping schedules.

Backcountry.com has issued a 10% off coupon code you can use toward most purchases. There a few exceptions but its a good opportunity to save a few bucks. The redemption code is listed below and you can click the link for complete details.

Get 10% Off At Backcountry.com. Use Redemption Code 20N-1-W3EV7. Some exclusions apply. Coupon Code: 20N-1-W3EV7

Backcountry.com had kicked off their summer clearance sale from now until July 26th. The sale features discounts of up to 30% off from The North Face, Marmot, Mountain Hardwear and Patagonia.

Its a great time to pick up some back to school items at great discounts.

Click the banner below for complete details.

HikersCorner.com has recently added several enhancements to the product catalog to improve the overall structure of the gear shop. With better categorization, you can more easily find what you’re looking for, saving you valuable time that could be better spent in the outdoors having fun.

In addition to improved navigation of the shop, we’ve also added an Outlet, which lists many top of the line items at reduced prices. Be sure to check out the shop when you get a chance.

The 11 part mini-series “Planet Earth” continues tonight (4/1/07) on Discovery at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. I was able to catch one episode featuring the Deep Ocean.

Tonight’s episodes will feature Deserts at 8 p.m. and Ice Worlds at 9 p.m.

This is definitely a series worth watching. Reality TV at it’s best.

I took a little time today to make a few casts with the flyrod, to see if I could catch a Crappie or two. Not much luck with that. Its probably a week or two early for them to really bite well. I did manage to catch the photo below, right behind HikerCorner.com headquarters, just before sunset.

Spring was certainly in the air today with a high temperature of around 75 degrees. The plants and trees should be coming back to life fairly soon, ushering in a new season of hiking expeditions. That’s the plan anyway.

I don’t always get to go hiking and/or backpacking. Sometimes I actually have to earn a living. Here’s a photo of some prescribed burning I was working on today to improve quail habitat for a private landowner in SC.

My camera wasn’t readily available when there were opportunties to take a few pictures that would have been far more impressive.

Spring and summer are right around the corner, and there’s no better time to start the planning process. There are quite a few national parks in both the U.S. and Canada. TrekShare features a National Parks Directory which provides info on parks around the world. You can read trip reports and view pictures for places like Acadia N.P., Glacier N.P. and many more.