Wife Carrying Championships

Entering and winning a Wife Carrying Championships might bring the couple five times her weight in cash and her weight in beer. Could you carry your wife through a 278-yard obstacle course? The "Estonian carry," where the wife holds her husband around the waist and tightens her legs around his neck, so his hands are free, is the carry of choice at these races. At the annual North American Wife Carrying Championship, the winners receive five times the wife's weight in cash and the traditional prize of the wife's weight in beer.

Wife Carrying Contests may have started as a joke in Finland, where supposedly a man would court a prospective wife by racing into a village, grabbing her and carrying her off. Whether it's true or not, today the Wife Carrying World Championships are held in Finland, the North American Wife Carrying Championships are held at Sunday River, Maine, and there are regional contests in other states.

Couples do not have to be married, but must include a man and a woman, and both must be at least 21-years-old. Since 2005, women have been allowed to carry men.

Annual North American Wife Carrying Championships

The 10th annual North American Wife Carrying Championship is part of the entertainment at Sunday River resort's annual Fall Festival. This year, the contest is Oct. 9, 2010.

If you would rather run a race, Sunday River has three planned. The 4-mile course is do-able for most athletes and tops one peak, the 8-mile course covers 5 peaks and the 12-mile course covers all 8 peaks of Sunday. Around these events, there's an arts and crafts fair, music by Entrain, food and wine tastings, kids games and a lot more. For more information, visit Sunday River's Wife Carrying Championship.

This competition actually started in Finland, reportedly as a joke. It was a take-off on an old tradition when a man ran to a village and grabbed then carried off the women he wanted to marry. If you want to see the competition, watch this video on YouTube.

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New Hands-free Zip Line Tour Includes 9 Lines and 9 Sky Bridges

With the opening of two new zip lines this weekend, you'll be able to soar over a river and through the trees on the largest set of zip lines in the Midwest.? This? new experience in the Midwest is a hands-free guided Tour on nine zip lines and nine sky bridges.? Ozone Zipline Adventures is located between Cincinnati and Columbus.

Photo courtesy of Ozone Zipline Adventures

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Midwest's Largest Zipline

You can soar through the trees on a series of zip lines and walk across sky bridges on the Midwest's largest zip line canopy tour. With the March 31, 2012 opening of two new zip lines, you'll be able to zip from YMCA Camp Kern (Ozone), soar 200 feet above the federally designated "scenic" Little Miami River and end up by the Fort Ancient state memorial. Zipping over the water the view encompasses a 360-degree view of the river, and if you twirl around even the valley and the Jeremiah Morrow Bridge, Ohio's tallest bridge.

Ozone's Newest Zip Lines

The two new zip lines take you over the river and back again. One starts at the top of Ozone Tower, a multilevel platform that is 45 feet above the ground, and more than 200 feet above the west bank of the Little Miami River. After a 50-second ride across the 1,300-foot-long zip line, you'll land on a platform on the Fort Ancient side of the river. From this platform, you can connect to the second 1,100-foot-long zip line and zip back across the river to Camp Kern.

Details to Ride Ozone's Zip Lines

The "Traditional Tour" includes seven zip lines and seven sky bridges, lasts approximately three hours and costs $75 per person. The new "River Tour" includes nine zip lines, and nine sky bridges, lasts approximately four hours and costs $95 per person. The new "Ultimate Tour" includes 11 zip lines, nine sky bridges, and bag lunch; this tour lasts approximately five hours and costs $120 per person.

The season-long schedule of Full Moon Night Zipping includes five zip lines, six sky bridges and lasts approximately one-and-a-half hours. It costs $60 per person. The 2012 dates for Full Moon Night Zipping are April 6 and 7, May 4 and 5, June 1 and 2, July 6 and 7, August 3 and 4, August 31 and September 1, September 28 and 29, October 26 and 27, November 30 and December 1.

Camp Kern is located between Cincinnati and Columbus on I-71. The zipline canopy tour is open seven days a week March 31st through December (weather permitting). For more information and reservations visit Ozone Zips, or call (513) 932-3756.

Find Zip Line Adventures Around the World

Zip lines adventures keep growing in popularity. Once you had to travel to Costa Rica, Thailand, South Arica or other exotic countries to go on a zipline, but today there are zip lines around the globe. Click on Top Zipline Adventures to see if there is one near you, or one in the locale you're planning to explore on your next trip.

It's easy to soar like a bird from tree to tree. Zip line or canopy tours give you a bird's-eye view of the forest, move you across canyons and show you scenery that can't be viewed from the ground. Here's where to find out exactly how a zip line adventure works.

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Where to Find Extreme Sports

Searching for places to experience extreme adventures, such as BASE jumping, inbounds skiing and snowboarding on serious steeps, parcour or cliff diving?? Here's where to find extreme sports.

Photo (c) Dick Friedland

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Yellowstone in the Winter

Yellowstone in the winter is an adventure traveler's paradise. You can snowmobile or cross country ski past steamy clouds drifting from blue-tinted hot springs, or go snowshoeing on paths in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. You photograph bison from the safety of your snow coach and watch wolf pups play as the adult wolves lope past bison rooting in the snow for winter grass. During a night snow coach tour of Yellowstone you'll see a canopy of stars overhead. The nation's first national park, Yellowstone is a two million-plus acre playground.

1. Winter in Yellowstone is More than Old Faithful

(c) Lois Friedland

Winter in Yellowstone National Park is incredibly beautiful. Steam rises from the hot springs, geysers and fumaroles; bison wander across vast snow-covered fields and drink in streams sparking with ice crystals, and Old Faithful performs for guests at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge. You can see it all from a snow coach, driving a snowmobile, cross country skiing or winter hiking. You can also enjoy snowmobiling on the vast trail system just outside the park. Click on these pictures to see what Yellowstone and West Yellowstone look like in the winter.

Yellowstone National Park Lodges (two are open in the park in the winter) has packages for adventurous travels. You'll find links to the 2010/2011 adventures below.

2. Gliding Silently on Trails Through Woods on Cross Country Skis

(c) Lois Friedland

Yellowstone has many miles of cross-country trails threading the park. The trails are listed in a series of pamphlets available at the park's visitors centers and hotels open during the winter. Shuttles offers drop-offs and pick-ups at trail heads. Equipment can be rented in the park.

West Yellowstone, Montana, just outside the west entrance to the park also has miles of groomed cross country and ski skate trails in the Rendezvous Ski Trails system.

3. Snowmobiling to Old Faithful and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

(c)Lois Friedland

Snowmobiling is allowed on specific roads in the park but only on guided tours. Snowmobiling excursions to Old Faithful are offered by several snowmobiling companies in West Yellowstone, Montana, just outside the park. Inside the park, Xanterra, the company that manages the park's hotels, offers a snowmobiling package that allows riders to spend a night at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge then ride 90 miles to Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel the next day. Snowmobilers leaving from West Yellowstone also have the freedom to explore hundreds of miles of groomed snowmobiling trails and slopes in the U.S. national forests.

4. Watching Wolves, Bison, Foxes and -- Maybe -- A Bear or Mountain Lion

(c) Lois Friedland

The Yellowstone Association, which partners with the National Park Service, offers a variety of animal-watching day trips and multi-day programs. The Lodging and Learning programs include overnight stays so you can see Yellowstone at dawn then view wolves, bull elks with massive racks of horns, and other animals with spotting scopes. Naturalists lead the tours to help you understand how these animals survive and interact in the park. The "Trail of the Wolf" package combines wildlife watching and snowmobiling. For more information about various packages for 2010/2011, visit Lodging and Learning Packages

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5. Spending the Night in Yellowstone During the Winter

(c) L Friedland

Just walk outside your hotel at night to see a canopy of stars overhead. During the winter only two hotels are open in the park: Old Faithful Snow Lodge and the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel. In the morning, look down from your guestroom window at the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel and the odds are excellent that you'll see an elk foraging for grass. Staying at the Snow Park Lodge, it's a quick walk to see Old Faithful erupt.

Yellowstone National Park Lodges offers a variety of cross country skiing, adventure, snowmobiling and other packages for the 2010/2010 winter season. For more information call (1) 307-344-7311 or toll-free 866-GEYSERLAND (866-439-7375), or visiting the web site Yellowstone Park Lodges.

6. A Night Tour of Yellowstone by Snow Coach

Yellowstone National Park Lodges

Mist rises around you while carefully following the dark outline of your guide along boardwalks, to the tune of hissing geysers erupting in the dark. It's not the prelude to a horror movie, it's the start of an incredible snow coach journey to see how alive Yellowstone is at night. At one point during your evening's trip, the snow coach stops and everyone gets out to stand quietly and look at a star-filled sky that one can only imagine while living in a light-infused city. You'll enjoy the Steam, Stars & Winter Soundscapes tour the most on nights when the sky is clear.

7. West Yellowstone is a Gateway to the Park and a Winter Playground Itself

(c) Lois Friedland

On a Saturday morning in West Yellowstone, Montana, there are more snowmobiles driving along the streets than cars. This town is primarily lodging, bars, restaurants and shops for visitors who want souvenirs or cold-weather clothing, but it's a perfect gateway to exploring the park and the Gallatin National Forest. The town edges against the park, so you can take day-trips into Yellowstone via snowmobile or snowcoach. Be sure to visit the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center, a non-profit wildlife park, to watch bears tussle and wolves prowl. There's also an exstensive cross country trail system.

8. A Chance to Wear Warm Winter Clothing

Yellowstone in the winter can be very cold. Pack lots of cold-weather gear, preferably high-tech undergarments that will wick away moisture, especially when you're cross country skiing or snowshoeing. Bring fleece tops or warm sweaters that you can layer under a wind-resistant/water resistant jacket. Best to have wind-resistant and water-resistant pants, too. Take a warm hat, a fleece neck gaiter and warm mittens or gloves. Bring along a bag of the chemical hand-warmer packets that you shake to activate then stick inside your gloves or boots to keep your hands and feet warm. Don't forget your camera!

9. Makes You Want to Visit Yellowstone in the Summer, Too

(c) D Friedland

Not many people visit Yellowstone in the winter so there's space to enjoy the beauty. The quiet is disrupted in the summer, when tourists from around the globe come to the summer-green landscape, vibrant with colorful wildlflowers and green grasses.? See what Yellowstone looks like in the summertime.

10. Information Contact for Yellowstone National Park

(c) D Friedland

For more information about visiting Yellowstone, go the the National Park Service Yellowstone Web site. Lonely Planet Guidebook to Yellowstone and Grant Teton National ParksIf you'd like a Lonely Planet Guidebook to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks click on Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks Guide.

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Web Site Has Nearly 300 Trips for Bicyclists Who Travel

The new version of BikeToursDirect's Web site has more than 300 tours worldwide offered by some 60 companies.? Good filtering tools let you drill down to specific trips that fit your vacation wishes.

Then, you're linked directly to the tour operator.? Trips range from budget and family-friendly tours, to boats and bikes tours.

Photo (c) BikeToursDirect/Jim Johnson

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Digging Up Ancient Trash On an Archeological Dig

You get filthy and crawl through caves, but it's so much fun. Joining an archeological dig for a day tells you if you want to volunteer for an archeological dig in Israel or other countries for a week or much longer.

Photo: (c) Lois Friedland

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Tips to Choose and Find Private Guides Worldwide

Hiring a private guide adds an extra dimension to a trip.? The guide's local knowledge takes you to places where most tourists don't go, and gives you a richer view of historical and current events in the country you are visiting.

But you need to be careful when choosing private guides, to ensure they have the training, experience and qualifications to be worth the money.? Here are tips for choosing and finding private guides in foreign countries.

Photo (c) Lois Friedland

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