Utah Adventure Journal

  I’m not an athlete. But when I strap a number plate to the front of my mountain bike, I sure feel like one. The difference is athletes enter races to win. I enter races for the promise of free beer at the finish line. But despite my indifference (and physical limitations) to making the […]

  When we think of adventure, we normally do not think of war, of leaving home, of kissing a pretty girl perhaps for the last time. When we think of adventure we do not think of defending our country and taking a long lingering look at the Southwest and the canyons that we love. My […]

REI Boycott of Vista Outdoors Products- A Recipe For Change?   In the wake of the Parkland, Florida school shooting there was the expected prayers and platitudes by conservative politicians and strong calls for more stringent gun control laws by liberal lawmakers, but this episode seemed different:  kids got fired up, and their speeches and […]

  Story and Photos by Jay Dash   There I was, fingertips gripped on the quartzite rock, heart pumping as if it wanted to burst out of my chest, climbing what felt like a straight vertical wall of rock with no end in sight. I wondered, how did I get to this no fall zone […]

  Photos by Benj Wadsworth Boating—a word that most runners loathe—it can mean everything from floating on a placid lake to an ocean-sailing crossing to a Caribbean cruise ship.  But to a runner it pretty much means one thing:  a complete lack of exercise.  As a result, runners tend to avoid watercraft at all costs […]

“I’ll fly over the landing strip to scope it out.”   “That?  It’s a dirt road!” I pointed to the weed-filled, unmaintained dirt road. “Looks good.  Let’s land.” Who was I to argue?  I had zero control over the situation at hand.  I had to trust my friend and pilot Nadim to safely land his […]

(Excerpted from The Desert, due out later this year, or next year)   I scribbled that on the back of my car, shortly after 9-11, and George W and our government started sounding the war drums in Iraq. There was little chance I’d go to war, a much bigger chance that I’d go to the […]

Photos by Chris Brown   My enthusiasm stretches beyond the car and races ahead. The cooler is filled with hummus, beer, salad, the fruits of the earth; human fuel. Behind the cockpit is carefully packed with sleeping bags, chairs, the old Coleman stove, firewood and of course lots of water. Spanish Fork is where the […]