Duraflame® Campfire Roasting Logs™ Giveaway

We've been pretty busy the past couple of weeks. Add in the hot weather keeping us mostly indoors and that is why you haven't really heard much out of us. We just finished up with a yard sale this past weekend so unless you want a post about that (we put our old junk stuff in the yard and people bought our old junk stuff) or about our time out at our Aunt Patty's pool, then I guess a good giveaway will have to do. :P

Guest Gear Review For Brian's Backpacking Blog

We somehow managed to score another Guest Post on a very prominent outdoor blog. You guys know of Brian's Backpacking Blog right? We'll he asked if we'd like to do a guest gear review post for his blog and right away we said yes, cause that's what we outdoorsy folks do, we help each other out. Anyway, considering we've got back into the running scene, we've reviewed the Camelbak Marathoner's Vest for Brian and you can check it out on his blog: Brian's Backpacking Blog.

Happy Trails,
Tim and Robin

Coolest Camper Ever Contest Reminder

We've had a wonderful Blogiversary celebration over the last couple of weeks, complete with sweet giveaways and several winners of those packages. We will get those out in the next few days so be on the look out for your prizes. For our fans and readers who didn't win, we're sorry but thank you so much for your loyalty and for participating, if not for you guys we wouldn't have a reason to do this as much as we do and for that a big THANK YOU to you all. And since you all love a good giveaway, we would like to remind everyone of the current Coolest Camper Ever contest that is still open at Sylvan Sport.

Getting Ready For A Celebration

In less than two weeks time we will have our 5 year blogiversary. Of course it didn't start out as Appalachia & Beyond, it started out at Robin & Tim's Outdoor Adventures, or something like that. It was back in 2010 that we changed it to Appalachia & Beyond and gave it all a nice make over, but I digress...

We Have a Winner (5.11 Tactical ATAC A2 Flashlight)

Happy April everyone. We know that y'all have been waiting with nervous anticipation to find out who gets to add the spiffy ATAC A2 flashlight from 5.11 Tactical to their packs. Well ladies and gentlemen, wait no longer. We do have a winner and to beat it all Dinah helped me pick the winner when we logged into the Random Number Generator and input the numbers for the entries.

So without further ado, the lucky winner of the ATAC A2 flashlight from 5.11 Tactical is none other than Jeff of the blog AppalachianHikerHQ. Jeff, when you see this send us an email at appalachiaandbeyond (at) gmail (dot) com with your mailing address and we will send it along so 5.11 can get you your new flashlight. Let us know how it does out on the trail.

Okay everyone, that's about all the time we have for this evening. It's time to go wolf down supper before the Bug wakes up from her nap. Stay tuned as we have a pretty cool contest announcement post for tomorrow from a company located here in the Southern Appalachians and we are happy to help spread the word.

Happy Trails,
Tim and Robin

Early Celebration Giveaway(5.11 Tactical Flashlight)

Wow it's already spring and well it's one of our favorite times of year to be out on the trail and/or camping. We've been at this blogging business for a while now and well this year is a bit different. You know this May we will be celebrating five years of blogging, trail reports and destination guides here at Appalachia & Beyond. And while you can expect some cool things to celebrate the occasion, we thought with it being spring and a great time to get out on the trail or in the campgrounds, why not start celebrating a little early.

Photo Courtesy of:
5.11 Tactical

We are lucky enough to begin the celebrations for the upcoming anniversary by teaming up with 511Tactical  to give away a prize to one of our readers - and it could be you! The prize is an ATAC A2 Flashlight from 511's range of flashlights.

The ATAC A2 is simply designed to be strong, light and bright - the 2AA batteries supply 162 lumens, or just 15 lumens on 'ultra low power' mode.

She's Finally Here

Everyone, let us introduce our newest addition to the family. Miss Dinah Marie Bird made her entrance into this world and stole all our hearts in an instant, at 5:56am on the morning of December 20, 2011. She weighed in at a very healthy 8lbs. 14.2oz. (I don't know what those ultra-light folks would say? :P) and measured 21 1/4in.

We promise to get better quality pictures of her posted once we get into a groove but right now we are all taking our time absorbing every little moment with her at this time as it will only last so long. So if you don't hear from us for a while I'm sure you can all understand.

Happy Trails,
Tim and Robin

Just Waiting on a Sign: FGR 12/9/2011

Well another week has come and gone and still our newest addition has decided she's not quite done yet. So we continue to anxiously await, with a certain nervous excitedness, her arrival. It won't be much longer now. Hopefully by the end of the weekend we will have the news posted somewhere, everywhere. Wouldn't that be fantastic. We like to think so, and I know you all think so too as you all wait patiently with us. Until that time though, here's something else to get all excited about...Yep that's right, another edition of the FGR. If we can't have a baby yet, let's win some gear instead.

First up is a sweet giveaway. We all love to keep our tootsies nice and toasty warm, especially on these cold winter morning, when there's frost on everything. Well for the next week, you have a chance to get entered for a prize pack of 12 pairs of Goodhew socks. That's 12 pair of their best selling socks. If you remember correctly Robin won two pair along with her Vasque Taku GTX from the Outdoor Blogger Network and even did a review on them. These are great socks, and the good folks over at The Adventure Post, will hook up one lucky winner with 12 pairs. You can enter with a comment, or tweet daily and there's another bonus entry  you can get if you say something about it on Facebook. You have until December 16th to get those comments in, so don't delay. Head over to the giveaway post for all the rest of the warm and fuzzies.

Happy December to All and Thank You

Happy December to all and once again thank you to all our readers and supporters for making Appalachia & Beyond what it is today. It's hard to believe that we just have under a month before 2011 is over and we'll be ringing in the New Year 2012. However, before I get to far ahead of myself and let this post run away into a post that should not be as of yet, let me get down to the business that this post is all about. It is December after all and as a tradition we've held since I think the first of the year, it's time to give thanks, love, shoutouts, to the blogs, bloggers, and webmasters who continue to refer readers to us, therefore giving us reason to continue writing. With this special group of people we wouldn't enjoy updating the blog for everyone like we do. So without further ado, Special Thanks goes out to:

GPSTracklog
The Adventures of Tom and Atticus
High on LeConte
Live Free and Hike New Hampshire
Meanderthals
My Life Outdoors
Backpacking North
Outdoor Blogger Network
Section Hiker
Hiking in the Smokys
Two Heel Drive
Cloudhiking and Metro to Mountain
Owl Jones
Mamabug's Nature Photos
Mountain Ultralight
Trail Sherpa
Fat Man of the Mountains
Blue Roads to Hiking Trails
Brian's Backpacking Blog
Hiking in Finland
Travel Country
Hiking Fiasco
Hiking the Trail
Marking My Territory
Take a Hike GPS (The GPS is awesome by the way, Thanks a million.)
New England Outside
Pure Outside
Family Wilds

Again thank you all and thank you to all of our readers and the readers of the above blogs and sites who also read out blog.

Happy Trails,
Tim and Robin

Drum Roll Please...

So we've been teasing you for quite some time now about our upcoming little hiker's nursery. In yesterday's trail report, we even offered a photo that was a small spoiler of what the nursery looks like. As you know the nursery was at one time a full fledged bathroom complete with commode, bathtub, and his/her sinks. It also had a nasty carpet on the floor and beige walls. It is now a nursery fit for a little hiker girl and now we are patiently awaiting Little Ms. Dinah's arrival. If she's anything like Robin and I, she will be late, and stuck in the procrastinators workflow, where she's usually found somewhere between Find Food and Randomly Browse the Internet (with mom of course).

So the moment you've all been waiting for (other than the announcement of her birth) Robin and I proudly give you: Dinah's Nursery.

Happy Trails,
Tim and Robin

Why no posts??

I know what you're asking... "Hey Appalachia and Beyond! Where've you been?? Don't you do anything fun anymore?!?" Well, to be quite honest, we've been really busy with baby, and I suppose it's time for me to air out the nest a little bit. There's been quite a bit going on that we've kept to ourselves - or rather, I've made Tim keep to ourselves - mainly because I've been hoping it would clear up on it's own, blow over, go away, miraculously disappear, etc.

But now it's time to realize that it's not going to be so. Because of that, we want our readers to know that if they sense a lack of involvement on our part, it's only because we are being very diligent and involved in the health of our baby girl. There are certain things I can't do right now - and certain things Tim doesn't want to do without me because he feels the need to stick close to home in case we need him. All of this is so very new to me.

Happy Birthday To Robin!!!

 Thirty years ago today, I was 6-years old and if I remember correctly at school in the first grade. It was also the same day I became an uncle for the very first time. It's hard to believe that on that same day, the girl I was to spend the rest of my life with, was also born. At that time, the day was pretty special because my nephew was born. It was even more special, albeit unbeknownst to me at that time how much more special it was.














Robin grew up loving the outdoors (and apparently ice cream). Her parents were avid hikers and backpackers. If there was a weekend off and their gang could get together, they were on the trail headed to some destination for an overnight in the Cumberlands or the Smokies. When Robin was old enough, she would accompany them on those trips with her own little pack to carry her clothes, blanket, and stuffed animal. Many a night she spent under the stars. It makes me wonder and I believe that there were possibly times we were looking at the same stars. Then again maybe not because here in Tennessee she had more stars to look at than I did down outside of New Orleans.

Thirty years ago today my partner for life, my best friend, compatriot, wife, and confidant was born and overly joyous am I that she was. She keeps me anchored and grounded. She gives me reason to do what I do. She provides for us at home and I couldn't be more blessed to call her my wife and my best friend. We share the trail together, and I couldn't ever imagine having a more suitable trail mate. She completes me where I fall short and vice-versa. It is with great admiration and loving-ness that I wish Robin a most joyous and happy birthday.

I Love You Robin, Happy Birthday.
Your Timmy

ENO and Headsweats Winner

Ladies and gentlemen, kids of all ages, we have ourselves a winner for our giveaway. It is with great pleasure to announce that the winner of the ENO DoubleNest Hammock, ENO Slap Straps, and Headsweats Adventure Hat is none other than Lindsey @ OutsideMom.com.


Congratulations Lindsey! Does this mean that your husband doesn't have to make hammocks for Mini-Van camps anymore? Send us your mailing address via email to appalachiaandbeyond (at) gmail (dot) com as soon as you see this. We will get the prize pack out to you as soon as possible.

We would like to thank Eagles Nest Outfitters and Headsweats for helping us celebrate our 300 "Likes" which has since turned into over 400 "Likes" on Facebook. Additionally, we would like to also thank all of you, our fans, for making it all possible. Without y'all, we wouldn't have a reason to be doing this. Have a great weekend everyone.

Happy Trails,
Tim and Robin

We Are Members Of Team Trail Sherpa

You know that special announcement I mentioned in the FGR earlier this morning? We were invited by Tim Miner of TrailSherpa.com to become members/contributors to his dream team of outdoor bloggers - Team Trail Sherpa. What is Trail Sherpa you might ask? Think "Facebook" just for outdoor types like you, our fans, and other lovers of the outdoors. It's a place where hikers, campers, backpackers, climbers, etc. can all get together to share ideas, stories, experiences, trails and more. Basically it's just a bunch of like minded people sharing our outdoors with each other.

Now you might be asking what Team Trail Sherpa is all about. Well, Tim Miner had an idea, a dream if you will, to put together a solid team of outdoor bloggers that represent a wide array of outdoor experience from all over. With that, he put together Team Trail Sherpa so that we could provide content to Trail Sherpa members and readers. Not just any old content though, but quality content including trail reports, gear reviews, recipes for the trail, etc. I won't go into anymore detail, you'll just have to drop in, become a member (it's free), and hangout.

Other members of the team include Rebecca from Calipidder.com, Brian Green of Brian's Backpacking Blog, Tom Mangan from Two Heel Drive, Jeff Hester from SoCalHiker.net, John Roan from MountainUltraLight.com, Derek Loranger from 100peaks.com and of course our Lead Sherpa, Tim Miner of TrailSherpa.com. Be sure to check out these great blogs and look for future posts from the lot of us at Trail Sherpa. Also keep an eye out for new members of the team to be added in the near future and check out our Intro post on Trail Sherpa.

Happy Trails,
Tim and Robin

P.S. We hit the 400 "Likes" mark on Facebook. Thank you to our fans for helping us reach that mark. Additionally, thank you to Headsweats and ENO for helping us out with our Celebration Giveaway of 300 "Likes".

Happy Fall - FGR 9/23/2011

Hello and Happy Fall. We hope you've had a great week and are looking forward to getting outside to enjoy the first weekend of Autumn. We have a pretty busy weekend ahead and are looking forward to the cooler temps and I'm sure the rest of you are too. A lot of things have been happening this week and with the giveaways, well that's not much different at least not here. So let's jump right to it.

For the first giveaway, we have to go ahead and toot our own horn. Late last week we hit the 300 fan mark on Facebook. In so doing we were lucky enough to team up with Eagles Nest Outfitters(ENO) and Headsweats for a sweet little giveaway to celebrate the occasion. This prize pack includes an ENO DoubleNest Hammock, ENO Slap Straps to hang the hammock with, and a Headsweats Adventure Hat. To get in on this opportunity all you have to do is head over to our Facebook page before 8:00pm this evening, "Like" our page, and leave a comment on our wall telling us why you love ENO. Sometime after 8:00pm tonight we will draw a winner at random and announce it here on the blog and on our Facebook Page.

Hamfests and Ghost Trains

This weekend looks to be a busy one for us. First thing early Saturday morning we have a Hamfest to attend. For our hiking friends, a Hamfest is an event where amateur (ham) radio operators gather together to sell equipment, check out and buy equipment from radio vendors, attend classes, seminars, and demonstrations, and hope to win a cool door prize. Not much different than an Outdoor Retailer type event, just on a smaller scale. The biggest thing about these events however are the food and fellowship amongst other Hams. Anyway, this weekend is the Ten-Tec Hamfest in Sevierville, TN. We will be up there early in the morning trying to sell some Ham gear for a friend of ours who's husband went SK (silent key, aka passed away) earlier this year. There's plenty of good radio gear to purchase and you'd also be helping out a fellow ham/widow with some of her expenses. So be sure to come out if you are in the area and are a ham or even want to be a ham. They give amateur radio exams during the hamfest, too.

Courtesy of BSFNRRA

The next big thing on our plates for this weekend is the First Annual Ghost Train up at Big South Fork NRRA and Big South For Scenic Railway. The scenic railway is located in Stearns, Kentucky and takes groups down to the Blue Heron mining community in the Big South Fork for tours of the area.

ENO Hammock Giveaway (Celebrating 300 Likes on Facebook)

So sometime yesterday evening we hit the 300 mark on our Facebook page. It really amazes us that we have so many fans and that we continue to grow that fan base on a daily basis. It's because of you that we do this as we hope to inspire everyone to get outdoors and enjoy the many gifts that mother nature has given us to enjoy. We especially hope that you will come to East Tennessee and enjoy the abundant outdoor resources available to us here. That's the other reason for our blog, to highlight all that East Tennessee and this region of Southern Appalachia has to offer to the outdoors lover.

With that being said, we couldn't be happier to highlight one of Southern Appalachia's outdoor gear makers, Eagles Nest Outfitters (ENO). Located in Asheville, North Carolina, ENO makes hammocks and other great outdoor products that make hanging out a true pleasure in the outdoors. If you remember we reviewed a DoubleNest that Robin bought us for Christmas, and we've been using it ever since. Well to help us celebrate, ENO has decided to help us out with a giveaway.

Since you, our fans, have helped us to reach that magical 300 number, ENO and Appalachia & Beyond is giving you a chance to win a DoubleNest Hammock and the Slap Straps to hang it with. You can't get any better than that can you? All you have to do is like us and then leave a comment on our Facebook Page that you want to win an ENO DoubleNest Hammock and why you love ENO. In addition, we'll even throw in a Headsweats Adventure Hat. The Adventure hat is made of lightweight Cocona fabric that wicks moisture away while keeping you dry and comfortable. It also has a Cocona terry sweatband for additional moisture management and a velcro back closure The hat is a nice olive green for that foresty look.We will draw a winner on Friday Sept. 23rd at 8:00pm.

Happy Trails and Good Luck,
Tim and Robin

(**Disclaimer:** This giveaway is in no way sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with Facebook, Twitter, or Blogger. You are providing information to Appalachia & Beyond only and not to Facebook, Twitter, or Blogger. The information you provide will only be used for this giveaway.) 

Post Labor Day Friday Giveaway Roundup - 9/9/2011

Ever notice how the week after a holiday, you just don't feel like doing much of anything? Yeah that's how I've felt this week. I haven't really done much of anything other than show up at work and do what I had to do to get by. As for the blog business, it hasn't been any different on this end either. I've not kept up as much with the social media like normal, and we've only gotten one post out this week not counting this one. Considering I haven't kept up with everything going on out there as much this week, it has sorta caused this week's Giveaway Roundup to be lacking a bit in new stuff. Sorry 'bout that..

This week Branden and Sarah at Daily Hiker are giving away a Timex Expedition Trail Mate Watch. They just did a review on this watch earlier this week and since they both already have watches, they've decided to give this one away. Looks like it's the same drill as all their other giveaways as of late. Get out and do your thing, take a picture of you doing that thing and include Daily Hiker in the photo in some form or fashion. After that send them the pic via email. Winner will be picked on Sept.12. That's this Monday so check out their post for the email address and then get outside and get that picture made.

So that's really all the new stuff I've found, but there are a few that are still going on throughout the month of September. First is over at Outdoor Informer, they are giving away a sweet Suunto Watch and a pair of Salewa Approach shoes. You can enter once a day through the month of September to increase your odds of winning. Another monthly giveaway is happening over at PAHikes.com. This month they have an outdoor lightweight first-aid kit. Head over to the registration page to get in on this sweet little prize. And finally one I forgot to mention last week, the GPS giveaway that is still going on over at Take A Hike GPS. They have a wonderful GPS Rental Service. If you are in the market for a GPS and want to try some out before you buy, then this is a great way to test some out. Or if you just have a weekend outing coming up and you don't have the scratch to get a new GPS, you can always rent one from Take A Hike GPS. If you want to win one then check out their giveaway page for all the details. They will announce a winner at the end of September.

Okay Ladies and Gents, that's all I have this time around. Sorry for not having more for you, but you know sometimes we all need a little break. Anyway, what are you waiting around for? Go get entered in these giveaways, then go outside and play already.

Happy Trails,
Tim and Robin

New Featured Park - Big Ridge State Park

Just in time for the end of summer and start of autumn, we have a new featured park. For the next couple of months our "Featured Park" is Big Ridge State Park. Brought about by TVA in the 1930's, Big Ridge is located along the shores of Norris Lake and offers ample outdoor activities for all. Be sure to check out Big Ridge State Park on our Featured Parks page and make plans to visit this awesome little park.

Happy Trails,
Tim and Robin

New Trail Report Page

If you're anything like we are, then you love to read people's trail reports on their blog especially if you are considering doing one of the trails you are reading about. The unfortunate thing is with the blog format, the trails get buried under all the other posts of a blog. With that in mind, we've been working on a Trail Report page for a couple of months now to provide easy access to the trail reports for our readers. If there is a trail we have done a report for, you can find a quick trail summary and the trail name is linked to our report of the trail.

So if you have some time check out the Trail Report Page and let us know what you think. If you have friends or family looking for trail info in our area, be sure to refer them to our page. We sure would appreciate it. If there are any trails that you need info on that we don't have listed let us know. It's possible we've done it before and just never wrote a trail report on it or we may not have done it but still know about it. If that's the case we will add it to our ever growing list of trails we'd like to hike.

Happy Trails,
Tim and Robin