Category: Bikes and biking
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The democratic wild
If you live near one, come August it’s impossible to not think that the American National Park system is fatally flawed. Glacier National Park, our backyard, gets around 2.5 million visitors a year. I’ve not seen a month-to-month parsing, but my guess would by that well over 80% of those folks come in the 2.5…
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The full sun rig
It’s not too often I have cause to dress only for sun and heat, but there always at least a few weeks mid-summer, and this year they are here right now. Thankfully, I’ve finally discovered the missing link in my system for multiday backcountry trips when it’s darn hot. M photo. As per above; I…
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Feathered Friends Vireo Nano review
Last fall I decided I needed a new “three season” (i.e. lows above 20F) sleeping bag. The synthetic quilt/bag I’d been using for the past four years was not nearly as warm as it used to be. I decided that I did not want a quilt, as I don’t value roominess or venting ability, and…
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Liebster’d
Courtesy of Woodtrekker. The Leibster Award has fuzzy origins, and amounts to a series of questions to answer, and a series of questions you in turn ask of the bloggers to whom you pass on the award. Amusingly, the german word has a platonic, male connotation. The answers: 1: Who are some of the people…
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Summer is sneaky
It’s summer here, which is to say the rivers have crested and are slowly on their way down, temps above 70 can be taken for granted, and snow is making a rapid retreat in even the highest places. There are a couple reasons why this transformation always seems to take me by surprise. First, the…
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The validity of health
Sometimes it all makes sense. Sudden news this morning: Niels Albert is retiring, at the age of 28. Why would you care? Albert has been, for the past 3 or 4 years, the second best cyclocross racer on earth. Cross is rather like speed skating, in that it’s popularity (and by extension $$) in one…
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The Future of Yellowstone
This originally ran as an Op-Ed in the Missoulian. I see the current debate about paddling in YNP as having to do with a lot more than just boating. It’s about Yellowstone’s repeated indifference to non-traditional forms of human-powered recreation, and more broadly about the future of national parks generally. A lifetime ago Yellowstone National Park…
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Buying the rapture
Last night I finished up an article about the current state of bikepacking, which gave me cause to do a little research into the current state of mainstream mountain bikes, a subject I typically all but ignore. Naively, I had not realized that the considerable technological innovations of the last 4 years had gone along…
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The second chalet
The avalanches this winter were impressive. Having visited the other chalet back in January, it was high time to complete the pair before the snow melts. Granite and Sperry are justifiably popular destinations in summer, matching great architecture with fabulous, shocking location in a way we humans cannot resist. It’s cool to see them in…
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10 years a geek
10 years ago we were living in Moab. There was not a mountain bike in the house. Oddly enough, it was only after moving away that cycling became an interest, the gateway drug to the obsessive world of endurance athletics. (Sports is just not the right word.) In the fall of 2004 we moved back…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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