The New Mid-Life Crisis Is: Being Awesome
byIn March of this year, at a Kmart in Petaluma, California, I bought my friend Amy her very first road atlas. She’s 45, and…
Adventure
You Don’t Have To Go Inside Just Because It’s Dark
byI rolled down the packed trail, standing in the pedals, watching the 30 or so feet ahead of me illuminated by my headlamp. Hilary…
Pride Cometh Before The Fall
byAs a joke, I got my photo taken next to the Icebox Canyon trailhead sign: “Each year people are killed due to falls when…
You Wonder Why We Don’t Have Nice Things
byI sat down exhausted last Tuesday night next to my friends Chris and Forest in front of a granite shelter we’d just built on…
Dads And Dreams
byMy dad told me the other day he’d won a three-day Harley rental at a raffle. I said Dad, I think you have to…
Learning How To Say Yes
byMy friend Forest put this photo on Facebook last December, with this caption: It was a hot day in July. Navigating the lunchtime jumble…
You Can Walk Anywhere You Want
byI flew to Iowa to visit my grandmother in the hospital a couple weeks ago. She’s been in and out of hospitals for the…
Why You End Up Somewhere Sometimes
byYou call someplace home, and if you think about it, there are probably one or two big reasons for that. Maybe you grew up…
A Lesson From Fred
bySix summers ago, a guy named Fred sat down across from me at a picnic table near Wonder Lake in Denali National Park, the…
How To Get Your New Boyfriend/ Girlfriend To Hate Your Sport
byYou love snowboarding. Or climbing. Or mountain biking. You’ve been doing it for so long, you can’t remember what your life was like without…
A Bunch Of Dreams, One Film: The Making Of ’35’
byThis past Tuesday, a film called “35” went up on Vimeo — it’s 5 minutes and 17 seconds, including a ton of beautiful footage…
The Pure Joy Of Fixie Dave
byA couple weeks ago at a party, I saw Dave Nice for the first time in a long time. We started talking about the…
Are You A Beautiful And Unique Snowflake?
byI told my friend Dan I was getting tired of having long hair, that I often fantasized about trimming all of it off and…
Your Best Vacation Is Someone’s Worst Nightmare
byMy friend Aaron is a pretty normal guy, by most standards: High school math teacher, homeowner, happily married, good hygiene, pays his bills, et…
Make Plans, Not Resolutions
byIn a scene in the spaghetti western The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, the One-Armed Bounty Hunter finds Tuco Ramirez in a vulnerable…
Hopefully this beer is thanks enough: A gratitude scale for outdoorsfolk
byLast Wednesday, I was standing in my neighborhood liquor store trying to decide whether I should buy a bottle of scotch or a six-pack…