We Has A Winners! (Yes that's plural)

This morning we awoke to sunny blue skies. Upon stepping outside, we decided it was going to be another hot steamy day, the likes we've seen for the last couple of weeks now. With that we decided to go back inside for our usual cups of Joe, bowls of cereal, and air conditioning. In a bit we will get ready to start back on ripping out the bathroom in our hall as we are going to convert it to a nursery for our bundle of joy that is due to arrive this winter. I can only hope that in a few weeks time we will be close to finishing that up, the temperatures will start to cool a bit, and we can get out for a couple more hikes.

In the meantime, while sitting here enjoying the coffee and having polished off what was left of the Crunch Berry cereal, I realized it was time to fire up the random number generator (RNG) as we have two prizes to give away. After doing it's thing twice the RNG has declared that we has winners. For the first prize: The GoGirl, our lucky winner, as designated by the RNG, is Family Wilds. Congratulations Pablo and Nea, may the GoGirl serve Nea well.

The second prize up for grabs was a pair of Winchester Limited Edition Ersatz Scrimshaw Knives. We had a few more entries for these than the GoGirl so the RNG had a few more numbers to crank through before declaring the winner. So without further ado, the lucky winner will now have to answer the question as to whether she, "should keep them to herself or share them with her hubby?" Congrats goes out to Brandy, the lucky winner of the knife set.


Okay, so our lucky winners just need to send us an email to appalachiaandbeyond (at) gmail (dot) com with your mailing address so we can get your prizes out to you. Thank you all for entering. We will have another giveaway sometime soon so stay tuned for details. Until next time....

Happy Trails,
Tim and Robin

The Last Giveaway Roundup For July

Ladies, Gentlemen, and kids of all ages, welcome to the "Last Giveaway Roundup for July". We hope you've been having a wonderful summer and somehow have managed to beat the heat we've all been feeling. You know with the end of July coming upon us, school is just around the corner, well for us it's less than 2 weeks away, so there isn't much time left to get those last minute vacations, camping trips, and other fun excursions in. So to make those a little better, at least we hope so anyway, we've found a few awesome giveaways around the outdoor blogosphere you don't want to miss out on.

First up, over at Backpacker Magazine, they have two sweet giveaway promotions going on. The first is their weekly giveaway. This week they have a Deuter Act50+5 backpack. All you have to do to get in on this opportunity is fill out the giveaway form. Backpacker's other promotion is their 2012 Reader's Choice Photo Contest. Do you have an awesome outdoor awe inspiring photo? Then submit it to backpacker for your chance to win a sweet prize pack from Coleman Repellants (including sleeping bags, a tent, and much more). You have until September 7th to get those photos submitted.

Camelbak Sale on Zulily!

Seen this deal today and thought we'd share it with all you outdoorsy ladies:


Zulily has an assortment of Camelbak packs for women on sale until August 1st! Prices start at $23.99!

Sign Up Here!

Announcement - August Outdoor Blog Carnival

It's time for another Outdoor Blog Carnival. If you remember last month several outdoor bloggers, like ourselves, submitted their idea of the perfect hike for the June Outdoor Blog Carnival which was hosted by Outdoor Vancouver. Those who submitted did a fabulous job, and I so want to hike Grandfather Mountain over in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Anyway, to take it a step further, Ross from Pure Outside (Father of the Outdoor Blog Carnival) asked if we would like to host this month's carnival. If you're reading this, then you know our answer.

Continuing in the fashion of best type of hike, we all want to know, what is your dream hike? If money wasn't an issue, if time away from loved ones, work, school, etc. wasn't an issue, if there was nothing preventing you from going, what hike is your dream hike? That is this month's theme. Let us know what your dream hike is. What are the sights, smells, sounds and tastes of your dream hike?

Any outdoor blogger is more than welcome to submit their post in answer to the question.Write up the post on your blog and fill out the entry form. You have until August 5th to submit your article. Once all articles are submitted, we will present them all in one glorious post with links back to your entries on your own blog on August 10th. So what are you waiting on? Get those brains working and those fingers typing, this is your chance to dream and dream big. Heck, you never know, you just might find the inspiration to actually move forward with that dream hike. If you have any questions shoot us an email at appalachiaandbeyond (at) gmail (dot) com. We look forward to your entries. Until then....

Happy Trails,
Tim and Robin

Gear Review - Garmin Dakota 10 GPS

Last week and over the weekend during our camping trip, I had the opportunity to review Garmin's Dakota 10 GPS unit. A few weeks back I had entered a GPS giveaway at Take A Hike GPS, and in so doing let them know of my tweet for an extra entry. In return, I got a response back from Kevin, stating that he liked our blog and told us that he lets bloggers "Borrow" units for review. I couldn't possibly pass up this opportunity. So I went through the necessary steps that Kevin outlined for me to get a unit to review.

As a side note for those that haven't heard of Take A Hike GPS, they sell and even rent GPS units to hikers, travelers, etc. If you don't quite know which unit you want, then it is possible to rent a unit for relatively cheap just to give it a test drive if you will. They have units from the likes of Garmin, Delhorme, Magellan, and more. So if you are in the market for a GPS unit, definitely check out Take A Hike GPS.