THOUSAND TRAILS ANNOUNCES GEAR UP AND CAMP SWEEPSTAKES

While we aren't RV'ers by any stretch of the imagination, Thousand Trails, home to some of the most beautiful and natural campgrounds and RV resorts across the U.S., is giving outdoor enthusiasts a chance to get out and camp with the Gear Up and Camp sweepstakes.  One lucky camper will win a free week of camping and a camping gear package, with a combined value of $1100.  Sweepstakes entrants will also be entered for a chance to win one of four second place prize packages, and one of 30 third place prize packages daily.

The sweepstakes grand prize includes a week-long camping trip for the winner at any participating Thousand Trails or Encore RV resort campground.  In addition, the winner will receive a package of camping gear, including the following: Rand McNally’s RV-specific GPS device - the  RVND™ 7720 LM; $100 gas card; Strongback Chair; Coghlan's Camper's S'mores Grill and Corn Popper; Coleman Lantern; $50 MyRVMarket.com gift certificate; Thousand Trails sweatshirt, umbrella, window cling, backpack, blanket and travel mug; and a Duck Harbor Cool Weather Sleeping bag.

Gear Giveaway - Space Bag® Dual-Use Bags

Remember the little P.S. at the end of yesterday's post (The Space Bag® Dual-Use Bags review)? Well here it is, in the...hrm, I don't suppose it would be appropriate to say "in the flesh" considering this is just a blog post. So here it is, the giveaway, as promised. One lucky winner will receive 1 large and 1 medium Space Bag® Dual-Use Bag. Here are the details.

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

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.

Five Year Blogiversary Giveaway Day 5 (Miscellaneous)

Welcome to the final day of our 5 Year Blogiversary Celebration. Today is "Miscellaneous" day and we've got a great package for everyone out there. There's a few different items that can suit just about anyone. We want to thank today's sponsors, Bass Pro Shops and Cobrabraid for supplying the main prizes in today's giveaway. You never know there might be a couple other prizes to go along with it. So who's going to win this package?

Five Year Blogiversary Giveaway Day 4 (Runner)

Welcome to Day 4 of our 5 Year Blogiversary Celebration. Today is "Runner" day and we've got a great package for the runners out there. Whether it's out on the road or trail, or after the run, these items are sure to come in handy. We want to thank today's sponsors, Headsweats and Hyland's Homeopathy, for supplying the prizes in today's giveaway. So who's going to run away with this package?

Five Year Blogiversary Giveaway Day 3 (Survival)

Welcome to Day 3 of our 5 Year Blogiversary Celebration. Today is survival day and we've got a couple tools that will definitely come in handy when out in the backcountry, camping, or if you find your self in a sticky situation. We want to thank today's sponsors, Cobrabraid and COAST Products, for supplying the prizes in today's giveaway. Let's get to the package details shall we?

Five Year Blogiversary Giveaway Day 2 (Food)

Welcome everyone to Day 2 of our Blogiversary Giveaways. Today we are thinking about food and how good it is after a tough day hiking, backpacking, or even camping. We have a few great food items which are perfect for the pack or while camping. A special thanks goes out to Hungry Hikers and Vasque Footwear for sponsoring today's prizes. What's up for grabs you ask? Well let's get to it.

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...

Sylvan Sport Contest Announcement

Image Courtesy:
SylvanSport

The very kind folks at SylvanSport (makers of the SylvanSport Go) asked us if we would help spread the word about their big contest this year. Of course how could we turn that down. The SylvanSport Go is a pretty sweet looking trailer/camper combo, and to beat all, SylvanSport is a great outdoor company located just a hop, skip, and a jump across the Blue Ridge from us in Brevard, NC.

If you remember they had the "Find The Go" contest last year and the year previous. Every few days they'd release a new set of coordinates to narrow down to the area the Go was located, along with a clue. At the end of 8 sets of clues they finally had one last set of coordinates and the clue, the first person to find it, won it. Last year it was somewhere in San Francisco. Unfortunately for us, there was no way to get out that far. This year though, the contest is different and is pretty much up for grabs for anyone. So here are all they details they asked us to share.

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.

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.

TGI FGR - 12/2/2011

Welcome to a new edition of Friday's Giveaway Roundup. We apologize for not having one the past couple of weeks. With twice a week doctors visits, the Thanksgiving Holidays, and all things baby, it's a wonder we even have time for sleep these days. Well this week isn't much different. We are at the 38 week mark as of this past Tuesday and we are just waiting for the chain reaction to start. Until then let's get you up to speed on some great gear giveaways going on in the outdoor blog-o-realm shall we?

Image Courtesy: Hiking in Finland

You are going to love this one. Earlier this week Hendrik, of the well known Hiking in Finland blog and creator of the upcoming video series Ultralight A-Z, has announced the Hiking in Finland Advent Calendar giveaway. Every day starting on December 1st, Hendrick will be giving away a piece of utlralight hiking/backpacking gear, climbing gear, or bicycling gear to 1 lucky reader per day. There will be different things you will have to do to get your name in the hat, and you can only win one prize through the 25 days of Christmas. So you will have to be very strategic as to what pieces of gear you are willing to win. Head over to  Hiking in Finland for the rest of the details on this uber-awesome giveaway.

FGR - 10/28/2011 - Who's Ready to Win Some Stuff?

Seriously, who's ready to win some stuff? There's a few great giveaways going on in the outdoor blog-o-realm so let's get right down to business shall we? First up over at Live Free and Hike New Hampshire, our buddy Karl has two copies of Following Atticus to give away to two lucky readers. It looks like these are hard back copies and they would make for a great gift for someone, or better yet a wonderful edition to your own personal library. You have until Nov. 11 before Karl picks the two lucky winners so get over to his blog for all the entry details.

Next up, Trail Sherpa has launched it's first gear review, offered by none other than our lead sherpa Tim Miner. He's reviewed the Geigerig Hydration System and in so doing has decided to celebrate the first gear review post on Trail Sherpa by giving away a Geigerig 1600 day pack with inline filter. How awesome is that? Pretty dang sweet if you ask me. Like the first giveaway mentioned, there are multiple entries available for this one, but you only have until Nov 3rd to get them in so head over to the review post and get entered now.

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.

FGR - 10/14/2011 - Fall Portraits and Festivals

Ahhh, the weekend is almost here. Another few hours and we can all breathe easier and relaxing knowing that the outdoors awaits our presence. This weekend should have plenty to offer for most, it is fall after all and there's plenty going on if you know where to look. Trails abound with color, and I'm sure there are plenty of Corn Fields that have mazes carved into them that you can try out. Just don't end up lost like the one couple we've heard about this past week (Thanks Dave for the heads up on that one. I agree with one blog I've read on that one, the dad has lost his man card permanently). We will likely be heading up to our favorite little town of Rogersville, TN for their Heritage Days festival at some point. We also have some fall portraits to make of Ashby and possibly our other rugrat, Jodi, not to mention some maternity portraits of Robin and the babe. So we hope you all get out and enjoy the weather and the colors. Until then, here are the latest, spectacular giveaways in the outdoor blogosphere this week.

FGR - Good Bye September 9/30/2011

This weekend is shaping up to be a gorgeous weekend in our area. Sunny and cool, perfect autumn weather the likes of which will have us out and about this weekend for a festival and very likely an easy hike somewhere. September is finally at it's end and we usher in October tomorrow morning, so what better send off can we give than the Friday Giveaway Roundup.

First up today is the new monthly giveaway at OutdoorInformer.com. This prize pack includes a nice hoodie and rain parka from Hi-Tec as well as a nice package of treats for your four-legged friend from Zuke's is included. Head over to the giveaway post for all the details and to enter. While you're there, enter one last time for the  Salewa and Suunto giveaway.

Friday's Giveaway Roundup (FGR) 9/16/11

Courtesy of BSFNRRA

Happy Friday everyone! The weekend is here or will be very soon. Does anyone have anything exciting planned for the weekend? We'd love to hear what plans y'all have. We are planning on attending "The Haunting in the Hills" story telling festival in The Big South Fork this weekend, and maybe even get in a hike. Regardless of what you're doing get outside and enjoy what mother nature has to offer. And with that, who's ready for some giveaways?

This week we have a couple good ones to mention and a recap of current giveaways going on out there. Shoes, watches, hammocks, first aid kits, GPSs, and shirts. What more could one ask for? If anyone has any outdoor gear related giveaways going on they'd like for us to promote on our FGR, shoot us an email at appalachiaandbeyond (at) gmail (dot) com. We'll be sure to get them posted. Now onto the giveaways.

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

Friday Giveaway Roundup, Happy Labor Day

Welcome to another edition of the ever popular "Giveaway Roundup". This week we have some new stuff to throw your way. With it being September, there are some new ones up at the sites that offer monthly giveaways like OutdoorInformer.com. So be sure you visit all these locations and get in on the fun and hopefully win something. In the meantime, we will be busy around the house this long holiday weekend so we hope everyone has a safe, fun, and Happy Labor Day.

Now to the giveaways...

For the month of September, Jason and his squad at Outdoor Informer have a really sweet giveaway going on as always. You can enter once a day to win a Suunto M5 Watch and a pair Salewa Firetrail GTX shoes. All you need to do is head over to the giveaway page and click the "Enter to Win" button and fill out the form. Voila you're in. Make sure to enter every day to increase your chances. Now if they will pick the winners from the big G4 giveaway from last month. I'm certain my name will be drawn. :P

Next up is over at the Coleman Facebook page. They are giving away some Coleman Instatents  and a nice grand prize package of camping gear just in time for the Fall Camping season. Just head over to their Facebook page and hit the contest tab to enter. Fill out the necessary info and that's all there is to it.

Another sweet little contest is going on over at Outgo's Facebook page. Thanks to CampingGearTV.com for this one. Outgo is giving away some Towels and waterless wash along with a free entry to any mud race in the country. Of course they are not providing travel accommodations, so be sure to choose a mud race you can get to. Head over to Outgo's Facebook page to enter.

Another great giveaway is going on over at the Daily Hiker. Branden and Sarah have a lot of gear in their closet they are trying to give to people who love being in the outdoors. They've given away some really sweet gear over the past couple of weeks and this week is no different. Head over to their Daily Hiker blog for all the details on how to score the Sierra Designs Pyro 15 Sleeping Bag.

Finally, PAHikes.com for the month of September is giving away an Ultralight First Aid Kit by Adventure Medical Kits. All you have to do is fill out the entry form to enter and then wait until the first of October to find out if you won. What are you waiting on? Go enter already. :P

That's all we have for this weeks giveaway roundup. Good Luck and we hope everyone has a great long weekend.

Happy Trails,
Tim and Robin