It’s science: Soil is comprised of about forty-five percent minerals, five percent organic matter, twenty-five percent water, and twenty-five percent air. The minerals are sorted into sand, silt, and clay depending on the size of the particles, with clay being the smallest at .002 millimeters, and yes, if you haven’t guessed (or been stuck in it), it’s the clay that makes it sticky.
So, pop quiz. There’s a swampy puddle right in the middle of the trail. Do you go through it or around it? Plan to get muddy, pilgrim. Skirting the soup widens trails, increases erosion, and can damage vegetation. Now you have a good excuse to get mucky.
Author Leath Tonino is a frequent contributor to Adventure Journal. He keeps a low digital profile, so your best bet is to find him in the pages of his latest book, The West Will Swallow You.
Yes, vanlife is the great American dream these days, and we’re all for it, but as obsessive fans and longtime owners of camper vans, we can testify that renting is a smart option before you buy. You’ll find a list of the best camper rentals in North America at adv-jour.nl/vanrental
“Espresso is a food,” says author Jen See, which is one of the many reasons we’ve been asking her to be a part of AJ since our inaugural issue. twobluebikes.com, @iamjensee
Photographer Seth de Roulet and his family have for the moment traded extended vanlife for roots in Santa Barbara, California. sethderoulet.com, @seth_de_roulet
Grain Surfboards will teach you how to make your own board at one of the many four-day workshops it holds in York, Maine, or one of the handful in New York, or the two annually in California. Cost is about $2,500. Alternatively, they’ll sell you full-size paper plans, or digital plans, or a kit with everything you need, minus the tools. In case it’s not clear, they’ll do whatever they can to help you make your own wooden surf craft. grainsurfboards.com
Photographer Nick LaVecchia is the youngest of seven and one of those older siblings is Grain co-founder Mike. So, yeah, Nick has had an insider’s perspective of Grain from the get-go, and his images reflect that. nicklavecchia.com, @nick_lavecchia
Sam Van Wetter is a mountain bike guide based in Moab, Utah. @sdvw
Iceland’s referendum to set aside forty percent of its land as a national park brings to mind biologist E.O. Wilson’s proposal—perhaps imperative is a better term—that the nations of earth devote half of the planet to conservation. Wilson is a realist (he describes the idea as a “moonshot”), but he argues that species biodiversity and survival depend on it. As of 2020, just 14.9 percent of the land and 7.3 percent of the oceans were protected. half-earthproject.org
Author Matt McDonald studied economics at Stanford University and began his career at technology startups before realizing his true happiness was outdoors. A writer and photographer, McDonald named his website after the maximum speed his 1986 Vanagon camper will go. 63mph.com, @63mph
Senior contributing photographer Chris Burkard has traveled to Iceland forty-one times for work, often taking time away from paid assignments to photograph the island’s glacial rivers from the air. You can read more in his book, At Glacier’s End, available on his website. chrisburkard.com, @chrisburkard
Author Abigail Greenbaum is an assistant professor of English at Georgia Highlands College. abigailgreenbaum.com
Buried in the captain’s log of William Bligh, he of the mutinous Bounty, was this gem: “The little rum I had was of great service to us; when our nights were particularly distressing, I generally served a teaspoonful.” A teaspoonful? Is it any wonder the crew rebelled?
Author Huw Lewis-Jones isn’t just a contemporary polar explorer, he’s a keen student of the history of adventure and exploration, as well as the art and journaling that brought those tales home. The Sea Journal, from which our story is drawn, is three hundred pages of notes, drawings, charts, and paintings spanning more than four hundred years of seafaring. polarworld.co.uk, @polarworld
Iain Miller is a one-man sea-stack evangelizing machine. His website is full of useful beta and you can hire him to take you up a sea stack through his aptly named guiding company, Unique Ascent. Like to lead your own routes? He offers a free downloadable climbing guide to the sea stacks of Donegal, Ireland. uniqueascent.ie
At last check, still-newlyweds Megan Duffie and Michael van Vliet were on the road in their tricked-out Sprinter. freshoffthegrid.com, @freshoffthegrid
Hyung S. Kim set up his seamless backdrop on the beaches of Jeju Island, Korea, and invited the haenyeo divers to pose for him at the end of their work days. “This was a very difficult process,” Kim says. “They were not used to being photographed, especially against an artificially created background, so they would often avoid me entirely.” In the divers, he was reminded of his mother and grandmother, and also the line between strength and fragility. @hyungskim
Next time you’re on Jeju Island, check out the haenyeo museum and school or, if it’s more convenient, take a peek at their online primer, visitjeju.net. Also, we have a wonderful bit of archival treasure on our website, a 1975 documentary on a twelve-year-old haenyeo, adv-jour.nl/haenyeo
42 issues. 11 years. Independently owned. Printed on 70lb uncoated paper with a soft-touch cover, solar-powered, and shipped in a brown paper envelope. Free domestic shipping.