Field Notes

Mulberry Gap, Georgia, looks like it’s absolutely holding in the mountain biking department. Even better when you can throw a bedroll on your bars and make it an overnighter. From Salsa Cycles.

Pat Curren is dead at 90 years old. I’m not sure there was a more mystique-drenched surfer in the world. Or a more impenetrable one. Most of us, even those with a serious nose for surf history know just the Cliff’s Notes version. A Mission Beach, San Diego, kid, he was there on the day … Read more

Chris Benchetler decides to bite off as much Mammoth Mountain as he can get in one line. And it’s a lot.

Wash your hydration bladder. If not right now, tonight. If not tonight, tomorrow. If not tomorrow, well, how’s your immune system? A few summers ago, I pitched my hydration waistpack into the back of my truck and it just kinda festered. It wasn’t full of water, but I hadn’t dried it out before I forgot … Read more

Spending days or weeks outside in a place that gets a lot of rain, you quickly learn that there’s nothing more important than staying dry. It can also feel like there’s nothing more impossible. When you spend all day paddling or hiking in the rain, then set up camp in the rain and start a … Read more

Money’s all relative anyway, right? Most decent full suspension mountain bikes will run you at minimum $3,000 at this point. Plenty of carbon gravel bikes with electronic shifting at my LBS for $10k. I recently took a bunch of spins on an $11k Moots titanium bike. Seems like a bargain now! Because District Vision, a … Read more

Is this book strictly adventure-related? Not necessarily, but considering when we’re out having an adventure, we’re out there trying to bolster our happiness, this book feels like something anyone living an examined life in pursuit of what makes them happy should read. I really enjoyed it. -Ed. For generations, academics in psychiatry have focused primarily … Read more

For four decades, Billy Barr has lived in Gothic, Colorado, the only resident of a long abandoned (and creepily named) settlement. He spends lots of his time recording nature – rain, wind, snowpack. Those snowpack measurements have turned out to be a treasure trove of climate data. Sometimes, it’s not fancy computer programs and models … Read more

Arc’teryx is one of our fave brands and, conveniently, they’re located in one of our fave places. They’re proud of their BC roots and are putting out a documentary bragging, er, gushing all about it.

“OH SHIT,” I wrote in my journal. “All the light was just sucked out of the sky. The woods are VERY DARK.” It was my first solo backcountry trip, and I was crouched beneath a hastily erected tarp on a tiny island in a big lake in northwestern Maine. I was terrified. From 7:00 p.m. to … Read more