A New Month Means June Thank You's

May has flown by in a flash, and Tim is another year older. We continue to break records here at Appalachia & Beyond and we have our readers and fellow bloggers to thank for it. We've hit our 200th post just the other day (we didn't make a big fuss about it) and we had our first giveaway which was a great success.

In May we reviewed the Vasque Mindbenders that I was awarded as a consolation prize in a contest, we went on two nice hikes, and we've been sharing small glimpses of Robin's pregnancy along the way. Now that May has ended and we thoroughly enjoyed the Memorial Day Weekend, the heat has kicked into overdrive and summer is upon us.

So what is in store for us this month, well I can assure you we will get at least one hike in, and we will likely offer up another giveaway at some point in the month. Robin will be reviewing some Goodhew Hiking Socks and a pair of Vasque Taku GTX hiking boots, we should also be reviewing the book "Following Atticus" by Tom Ryan, and of course we have lots of preparations to get underway before Baby Bird gets here. I'm sure we will be featuring a lot of projects here (i.e. tearing out a bathroom and converting it into a nursery, building a woodshed (yeah I never did finish that last year), filling said woodshed with wood I'll be chopping through the summer, and much more.

So that's just a small glimpse at what June has to offer for us and we hope that Appalachia & Beyond continues to grow in the outdoor community because without it there is no purpose for it I suppose and because of our outdoor loving friends we say thank you. Continue to share your love and as always we share ours.

In particular, we'd like to single out the bloggers who continue to help us grow and in return grow with us as we refer visitors, fans, new readers, etc. to each other.

Thank You....

Hendrik of Hiking in Finland - Congrats on passing your finals to become a wilderness guide and thanks for the mentions in your weekly reviews. Keep 'em coming.

Joe and Rebecca at The Outdoor Blogger Network - Thank you for the gear review opportunities and for providing a place for all outdoor bloggers to commune with one another. If you have an Outdoor Centric Blog and you haven't heard of the OBN, check them out, get your blog listed in the directory, and join in on the fun.

Allyson and Meredith at LeConte Lodge do a wonderful job of keeping us all abreast of the daily happenings at the Lodge over at HighOnLeconte. They interact with those of us that love the lodge and the Smokies. If you've never been to the lodge, we highly recommend it, at least a good long day hike to the lodge is rather rewarding.

Our good friend Karl at Live Free and Hike New Hampshire - He and his wife Jill should have a new hiker in this world anytime now. We can't wait to see Layla "Peanut" Searle. Oh, and we can't wait to see who wins one of the five autographed copies of the Haunted Hikes of New Hampshire.

Jeff over at The Meanderthals Hiking blog - He's covering great hikes in Western North Carolina and more, and has some of the best trail descriptions out there.

Mamabug of Mamabug's Nature Photography - She's always got some great pictures to look at. Keep up the great job and thanks for all your support and kind words.

Jeff at Hiking in the Smokies - Jeff always has the latest and greatest news concerning The Great Smoky Mountains. If you love the Smokies, be sure to check out Jeff's Hiking in the Smokies blog for the latest and greatest goings on in the park.

Owl Jones of none other than OwlJones.com - He's always into something silly and/or mischievous but we wouldn't have it any other way. For some great fly fishing stories and other hijinks, check out what he's got going on.

Candy @ Hiker-Trash - Candy is practically a neighbor of ours and loves to share the same natural world that we have in common. Luckily for her, she's heading back to this great and wonderful land of East Tennessee that we call home. Welcome back girl, we hope and pray with you that Josh gets to come back where he belongs soon.

Bill @ Diary of a Day Hiker is a relatively new comer to the outdoor blogosphere and has some great articles/posts on his blog from tips to hiking alone to picking the shoes, and of course some great conditioning exercises for hikers.

Our mate from Down Under - Greg of Hiking Fiasco - He's always on some sort of walk-about, and usually there is some sort of epic failure and sometimes he has the strangest magazines in his pack. Definitely worth the read, you'll surely get some kicks out his posts.

David over at Fat Man of the Mountains - Sharing his experiences in the woods and mountains of New England with his son and always good for a big belly laugh. You know the type of laugh I'm talking about.

Monty & Amy of Cloud Hiking and Metro to Mountain  cover the Middle Tennessee area and then some. Always hitting the trails and providing some great gear articles as well.

Steven, the author of My Life Outdoors has been an early friend to Appalachia & Beyond, providing some insights to the blogging and gear review world. Our thanks to Steven for the help early on. If you are look for trail info in the Texas area and beyond, Steven is your man. He also has some great gear reviews and some pretty cool giveaways from time to time.

Joe (a.k.a. Jobiwan), author of The Adventures of Jobiwan covers the Long Trail in the Vermont area and is very avid backpacker and hiker. He spends quite a bit of time outdoors and loves to share his experiences with others. Jobiwan also was our winner of our first giveaway.

The Appalachian Irishman is another neighbor of ours here in East Tennessee. He must hold the record for most hikes up House Mountain last time I checked, he had hiked up it at least 75 times or is it 80?

Brian Green of Brian's Backpacking Blog is another advocate of the UL movement and very active in gear reviews, MYOG projects and the like. Definitely check out his blog for the latest and greatest in UL and MYOG. Oh and Brian gives away some cool gear from time to time.

Extreme Adventure News always has the latest stories from the outdoor world with a focus on extreme outdoor activities including skiing, climbing and much more.

Philip of the blog Section Hiker is another UL advocate and AT Section hiker always has great gear reviews and trip reports. He also gets great guest post from other outdoor bloggers when he is out section hiking the AT and the like. You'll want to be sure to follow Philip's blog because he also has some good giveaways.

Tom @ Two Heel Drive brings to life the hiking and other outdoor happenings in and around the Piedmont area of North Carolina. He also has volumes of posts regarding blogging. Tom is indeed a wealth of knowledge so be sure to check out Two Heel Drive.

Mark, author of Backpacking North, is another blogger in the Nordic Lightpacking group (Hendrik is also a member and founder). Mark brings us trip reports from the Minnesota area as well as Lapland and Scandinavia. In addition he also features gear review and MYOG projects.

CoFisher of Windknots and Tangled Lines is a fly-fisherman in Colorado, sharing his fishing adventures and more with all of us.

Tammy at Finger Lakes Trail Mix, brings us amazing photographs and trip reports from the Finger Lakes of New York. If you haven't checked out her blog yet, what are you waiting for?

Jason of Gear Talk with Jason Klass brings us what else? Talk on gear. The ultimate gear head, Jason is constantly trying out new gear and giving us great videos and reviews on all the latest and greatest (and sometimes not so greatest) gear available to us outdoor lovers.

Jim at Husky Hiker covers the Massachusetts area and beyond. He's also the author of "Best Day Hikes: Berkshires". Bill just recently married the love of his life in Las Vegas. Congrats Jim, may the two of you live happily ever after.

And Finally, thanks to Your Outdoor Family, our neighbor to the south in the Chattanooga area brings us the occasional post/articles that are both thought provoking and inspiring especially if you have children and want to raise them to have the same appreciation and love affair with the outdoors like the rest of us.

So those are our fellow bloggers we'd like to thank for spreading the word and/or linking back to Appalachia & Beyond. We'd also like to send a special thank you out to Tom & Atticus who touch our hearts daily with the relationship they have formed with each other and with the rest of us too. If you haven't yet, check out The Adventures of Tom and Atticus and be ready for the release of Tom's book "Following Atticus", in September of this year, if you haven't already been a lucky recipient of an advanced readers copy, let me just tell you you're in for a treat.

Happy Trails,
Tim and Robin 

P.S. As always if you are interested in exchanging links with Appalachia & Beyond, send us an email at appalachiaandbeyond (at) gmail (dot) com. If your blog is of the same general outdoor genre and seems to be a good fit we would love to exchange links with you.