A couple of hiking blogs I follow report some newsworthy events:

PMags has a new and interesting sponsor..

Section Hiker reports a significant change for the Appalachian Trail.

Those are great, thanks OM.

I'm a bit surprised those entries are still up, now that it isn't 4/1.

I don't know, those are pretty plausible posts! As far as Goodwill as a sponsor goes, I took it quite seriously, because I have a lot of gear that I got at Goodwill: zip-off REI pants, patagonia capilene shirt, a down vest, a fleece shirt, my double burner carcamping stove. My previous backpacking pack came from there, a nice brand new REI model for $7.
And a zipline? Well, I can think of a couple stream crossings where I wouldn't have minded having one

I noted that a number of commenters on the zipline article thought it was a good thing! IMHO, one of the marks of a good April Fool is that it is not too far away from the plausible!

Starting a trip in snow in Glacier N.P. one year I seriously suggested in my blog that anyone else who hiked there before the bridge decking was in place might consider some sort of very light harness (really, just tie a swiss seat with light cord) and use just a carabiner as a sort of zipline --- to pull themselves hand-over-hand across via the bridge cable. Because the alternative was so very very much worse.