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Post image for Some Important Facts About Climbing Mt. Everest

Some Important Facts About Climbing Mt. Everest

by brendan leonard semi rad on May 9, 2013 · 5 comments

5 responses

Have you heard of Mount Everest? Mount Everest is the tallest mountain on Earth, so it is also the best mountain on Earth. For several months each year, it is actually the best thing on Earth. It is so high, its total height is often spoken about in meters, which are a larger unit of measurement [...]

Post image for In Praise of Shooting Stars – On the Ground and In the Sky

In Praise of Shooting Stars – On the Ground and In the Sky

by pepper trail high country news on May 2, 2013 · 0 comments

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My favorite Oregon wildflowers are called shooting stars, delicate darts whose blossoms with their sharp-pointed anthers and swept-back petals seem to hurtle toward the soft spring earth from their height of six inches or so. These are among the first flowers to appear in our oak woodlands, long before the oaks themselves show any inclination [...]

Post image for Lessons From Fred’s Trip to Alaska

Lessons From Fred’s Trip to Alaska

by brendan leonard semi rad on April 26, 2013 · 11 comments

11 responses

Six summers ago, a guy named Fred sat down across from me at a picnic table near Wonder Lake in Denali National Park, the end point on the bumpy 5 ½ -hour bus ride on the park’s only road. We ate lunch and talked about our respective trips to Alaska, where we were from, the [...]

Post image for The Masochist’s Guide to Bushwhacking

The Masochist’s Guide to Bushwhacking

by brendan leonard semi rad on April 19, 2013 · 13 comments

13 responses

“Bushwhacking is like my third favorite thing to do in the outdoors, behind crotch-deep postholing and getting hit in the head by falling rocks,” I said, shoulder-deep in desert foliage, hands raised like a man fending off a swarm of bees, walking forward in sloppy, almost-balanced steps. I am not a fan of bushwhacking, but somehow [...]

Post image for How to Get Your Boyfriend/Girlfriend to Hate Your Sport

How to Get Your Boyfriend/Girlfriend to Hate Your Sport

by brendan leonard semi rad on April 15, 2013 · 18 comments

18 responses

You love snowboarding. Or climbing. Or mountain biking. You’ve been doing it for so long, you can’t remember what your life was like without it. But your new boyfriend/girlfriend doesn’t — yet. So you need to teach them. Here are some tips to guarantee they’ll never understand you or want to go with you, and most likely [...]

Post image for When Your Dog is Part Wolf

When Your Dog is Part Wolf

by mary emerick high country news on April 11, 2013 · 5 comments

5 responses

I sit on the porch, waiting. It could go either way, because Aluco is part dog, part wolf, and one side will win out depending on the day. Today is a good day. Aluco steps toward me and lightly touches me with his black nose. Slowly, I extend my hand and pet him. I know [...]

Post image for Finding Motivation When You’re…Just…Burned…Out

Finding Motivation When You’re…Just…Burned…Out

by cody hanson on April 2, 2013 · 14 comments

14 responses

The day started off great. They always do. I, my girlfriend, and our running friends were all huddled together, basking in the pre-dawn waiting of yet another ultra. We were in Tahoe, one of my favorite places in the world. The line for the porta-potties extended well beyond sight, filled with bouncing bodies in synthetic [...]

Post image for Hiking With the Power Lung Kid

Hiking With the Power Lung Kid

by cameron scott on March 21, 2013 · 2 comments

2 responses

At 8:30 a.m., the Power Lung Kid knocks at my trailer door. I’m eating Lucky Charms, staring out the window at the low-slung volcanic rock and aspens that rise into the ponderosa, spruce, and fir of south-central Oregon. “You know why I’m called the Power Lung Kid?” he asks, leaning back in his chair. “No,” [...]

Post image for Declination: A Dodgy Bike Trek In Drug Country

Declination: A Dodgy Bike Trek In Drug Country

by cody hanson on March 19, 2013 · 4 comments

4 responses

“Do they look normal?” “What?” “DO THEY LOOK NORMAL?” I repeated, my voice quavering, a hint of genuine backcountry freakout bubbling to the surface. “I don’t know. They’re pretty far away. They’re wearing a daypack. They’re probably just on a hike…besides, do WE look normal?” I had no response. Frankly I didn’t care how we [...]

Post image for Are You An Outdoor Cliché?

Are You An Outdoor Cliché?

by brendan leonard semi rad on March 15, 2013 · 28 comments

28 responses

I told my friend Dan I was getting tired of having long hair, that I often fantasized about trimming all of it off and leaving just a quarter-inch, fantasized about 90-second showers, no messing with ponytails under helmets, knots, conditioner, paying for haircuts. Dan, a curly-haired man himself who has more than once used the [...]

Post image for When Women Wear Bruises to Work

When Women Wear Bruises to Work

by hilary oliver on March 8, 2013 · 21 comments

21 responses

Bumps and scrapes aren’t standard business attire, but some of us girls didn’t get the memo.

Post image for The Importance of Ted Ligety, Hero Worship, and Being a Good Sport

The Importance of Ted Ligety, Hero Worship, and Being a Good Sport

by edie thys morgan on March 7, 2013 · 2 comments

2 responses

To win is wonderful, but to win respect is divine. Hero worship is way overrated. But I make an exception with Ted Ligety. When you have the world’s best skier (today, and on many other days) who also runs a successful business, makes fun a priority, takes a stand on issues for the benefit of [...]

Post image for The Awkward Process of Finding Your Flow

The Awkward Process of Finding Your Flow

by brendan leonard semi rad on March 4, 2013 · 1 comment

one response

The Sunday night before my first day of fourth grade, I rolled my black-and-gold Huffy Thunder 50 BMX bike up to the retaining wall on the east side of my parents’ driveway at the end of Crestline Drive. It was about 20 inches high, three railroad ties stacked on top of each other. I had watched [...]

Post image for The Joy of Filling a Woodshed

The Joy of Filling a Woodshed

by charles finn high country news on February 8, 2013 · 6 comments

6 responses

The six-and-a-half pound maul that I’m swinging around my head travels through autumn sunshine: dull gray, blunt, serious as an elk in rut. It windmills beneath the yellow larch needles and evergreens, their pungent fall odors incensing an already heady mix of dried grass, wood smoke, and sun-warmed bark. A wedge of kinetic energy and [...]