ajtestbed As it is desert wandering season, our thoughts have turned to this essay from friend of AJ Craig Childs. You can practically smell the water rushing through hot, parched soil while reading. -Ed. I once wrote a small book called The Desert Cries. It was about flash floods in a dry landscape. It was also … Read more
As hiking season ramps up across the country, we were reminded of this charming essay from old friend Brendan Leonard. Just one of thousands of gems in the Adventure Journal archive. -Ed. My friend Greg had hit the wall about four miles from the top of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, and every … Read more
For nearly a year in my early twenties, I stayed within a five-mile radius of my house. As with the current stay-at-home order, it was not necessarily by choice. I was teaching English on a speck of sand five miles long by a half-mile wide in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and apart from … Read more
In celebration of Muir’s 182nd birthday, here is one of our favorite and most simple posts from our archive. A curation of some of his most eloquent quotes. – Ed. Been outside lately? How about a few reminders from the Poet Laureate of the High Sierra? John Muir was ecstatically writing about the mountains 100 … Read more
We’re doing a lot of gear minding, repairing, and cleaning these days. Which reminded of this wonderful collection of absurd, courageous, and frankly hilarious warranty claims the folks from REI shared with us. Enjoy. – Ed. A few years back, REI amended its famously generous return policy and now only accepts returns on purchases up … Read more
Ed Abbey died decades ago, and a couple friends carried his body out to the desert and buried it illegally, just like he wanted. It was a fitting statement for a man who spent his life loving the desert and wilderness, and raising hell about protecting it. We love Abbey for his passion for canyon … Read more
There are more than 4,000 stories in the AJ archive. Occasionally we like to paw through the stacks, pull one out, dust it off, and put it back on top for new readers to enjoy. So, enjoy! For decades, the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics has advocated principles for backcountry users to help … Read more
Do you ever ask people for directions anymore? Or do you prefer to ask them, “What’s the address?” and just plug it into your smartphone instead? Because that’s what I do. Maybe you’re like me and you like to see where you are on a map, even if it’s on a phone. Or maybe you trust … Read more
There are a great many ways to get to Australia from Germany, nearly all of them easier than the route and method chosen by Oskar Speck in 1932. Fortuitously, or perhaps purposely, nobody really seems to know, Speck avoided the crushing financial depression of Weimar Germany by embarking on one of history’s grandest adventures. In … Read more
There are more than 3,000 stories in the Adventure Journal archive. Occasionally, we flip through the stacks, find a favorite, and set it right back on the homepage for new readers to enjoy and previous readers to enjoy again. Enjoy. -Ed. Last night I felt like a terrible mom. At 10 p.m. Mason was still … Read more