A New Year to Light a Fire in Your Belly

With the start of a new year, endless adventures await your discovery in 2019. To light a fire in your belly and inspire your New Year’s resolutions, we’ve created a list of things to add to your adventure bucket list.

Bucket List Thru Hikes

The Triple Crown of thru hikes; the Appalachian Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, and the Pacific Crest Trail; typically come first to mind when you think about thru hiking. While we love these trails and encourage pursuing them, don’t miss out on some of beautiful, lesser known thru hikes.

Littlbug recommended thru hikes:

1. The Maah Daah Hey Trail - 144 miles through the North Dakota Badlands

The best time of year to tackle this trail is in the spring, before the temperatures rise too high and the few water sources are depleted. The spring conditions bring enough moisture to typically ensure the use of your lightweight wood burning backpacking stove. Stash food, water, and supplies in the various cache boxes found along the trail

2. The Arizona Trail - 800 miles from the U.S.A./Mexico border → the Arizona/Utah border

Sectioned into 43 stages allows for hikers to choose portions of this trail or tackle the entire trail at once. Winter and spring provide the best seasons for tackling this hike, where summer’s heat is too extreme and fall provides minimal water sources. Alcohol burners with your wood burning stove give the best experience in this desert environment.

3.  The Superior Hiking Trail - 310 miles along Lake Superior from the Wisconsin/Minnesota border to end just south of the Canadian border.

This trail features gorgeous views of the north woods and Lake Superior. Plenty of water sources gives you reason to use your stick stove to back ultralight and leave the fuel canisters at home. Enjoy the Superior Hiking Trail in the spring, summer, and fall.

Bucket List Mountain Biking

If you’re looking for the next best mountain bike trails to explore, head to Bentonville, AK. The up and coming mountain bike mecca boasts over 28 miles of trails for mountain bikes to enjoy. Plus, with it still being under the radar, the trails aren’t as congested as more popular mountain biking regions.

Bucket List Fall Colors

While many flock to the Rocky Mountains for leaf popping, there is a pocket of the world’s largest aspen grove in southern Utah. Nestled in Fishlake National Forest, the 107 acres of aspens is known as the Pando. The 47,000+ trees become a golden beauty in the fall months.

Explore this beautiful area on foot, road, or bike. Utah Highway 25 cuts through the forest to enjoy from the car. You can freely explore the forest on foot. Although there are no set trails, it can be fun to wander aimlessly, just be sure to be aware of your surroundings and bring a navigating devise like a compass or GPS. On a bike, you can explore national forest roads that wind through the forest. Don’t wait too long to explore this international phenomenon because scientists believe it won’t be around much longer.

Now that you’ve been inspired, set your 2019 adventure resolutions, and begin exploring!