A Canoe-Level View of the Mississippi’s Lowest Water Ever

You may have heard the Mississippi River is drying up. Parts of the river this week hit the lowest levels in recorded history. A wedge of salt water has pushed more than 60 miles upstream from the Gulf of Mexico, threatening drinking water supplies in some communities. The receding water has exposed old shipwrecks, Civil … Read more

A Baffin Island…Vacation?

“A Baffin Vacation” just ended its run at the Banff Mountain Film Festival but surely you’ll be able to catch it somewhere online, soonish. In the film, Sarah McNair-Landry and Erik Boomer spend more than a month kayaking, climbing, camping, and freezing in Canada’s Baffin Island and you get a front row seat to all … Read more

Book Review: The Magic of the World’s Soggy Places

When my niece was 4 years old, I introduced her to a swamp — in a park east of Seattle on a trail for kids that was posted with a series of illustrated signs narrating a story called “Zoe and the Swamp Monster.” The word, “swamp,” in all its mystery, beauty, and monstrosity, was new … Read more

God, This Is Steep: Townsend Skis The Sphinx

Part 38 of big mountain skier Cody Townsend’s 50 episode series called, er, The Fifty, is a return to Alaska to try The Sphinx again. Townsend and crew tried a few years ago but bailed when they didn’t feel comfortable. This time, well, just watch.

So Your Bike is Broken Down on the Side of the Trail…

Like many, I first read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance while in my early 20s, when the open road was a constant call. But I was far more enthralled by the careful attention to mechanic workings the book presented. Still am. Yesterday I began the process of servicing a suspension fork, easy enough, … Read more