San Juan River Montage
On the way… Salt lake to Green River Right now I’m sitting at Ray’s, but I am headed for water. And as far as I’m concerned, I’m headed for the best kind of water—so silty you can’t see your hands or feet once they’re submerged—water churning thick with flash flood runoff, running cold with snow […]
Mountain Biking Price
Route 6, from Spanish Fork, UT, to Interstate 70, seems to the familiar driver an ordinary, even dull stretch of road. Of course, the mountain biker familiar with the area knows it well as the main artery that pumps the region’s biking blood straight to the heart itself: Moab. The stuff of countless daydreams, photos, […]
Confessions of a Trail Runner
The numbness that began in my fingers now filled my arms with a tingling sensation. Not numbness of cold but of oxygen deprivation in the body. My heart and lungs could no longer keep up with what I was asking them to do. I’d been running at altitude for some two and a half hours, […]
Havasupai
“17 black, put it on 17 black,” shouts Ben over the drone of the slot machines. Our crew of five has just made the slog from SLC to Las Vegas after a long day of work, and we need to blow off some steam. The gaming floor of the Imperial Palace seems like the best […]
The Life of a River Ranger
The call came in at 6am. I was standing in line at the Patagonia outlet store for one of their big sales. “Hey, can you try to find me some size 33 olive shorts at the sale?” James hesitated. “And I know it is a long shot, but some olive swim trunks would be awesome.” […]
Mountain Men Don’t Wear Hot Pink
The mountain biker was standing there, at the base of a local ski resort, having just completed a grueling, day-long summer race. He was the image of mountain manliness – muscular build, broad shoulders, and a grizzly beard beneath mud-spattered sunglasses. This archetype of the modern, high-altitude athlete was astride his mount; a filthy, expensive […]
