Ten Great Travel Adventues

by Erik Olsen on

The inimitable Richard Bangs, whose recent series of dispatches for MSNBC
I blogged about here, (and who more or less has the best
job in travel journalism), has committed to bits (as opposed to paper) the
ten greatest travel adventures you can take today. You should read
the article for a more detailed breakdown, but here are the ten:

 

— Llama Trekking the Hoover Wilderness Area

— Adventure Sailing Florida’s Gulf Coast

— Kayaking the San Juan Islands

— Canoeing the Boundary Waters

— Mountain Biking the Grand Staircase

— Climbing Denali

— Riding the Tetons

— Hiking Hidden Hawaii

— Dogsledding the Gates of the Arctic

— Rafting the Grand Canyon

How many have YOU done?

Backpacker Gear Awards at REI

by Erik Olsen on


In the spirit of beginning more features on gear, we’re linking to the REI store and the

Backpacker 2005 Gear Awards. As time goes by, we’ll do more gear reviews for sure, but you can’t go wrong checking
the site out for the items that backpacker selects as their best for the year. Good stuff here. Tents, backpacks, GPS
units. A good place to start as you’re gearing up for the season.

Charlotte, Get Ready for Artificial Whitewater

by Nino Marchetti on

There’s a whole lot of building going on down in Charlotte, North Carolina now that the new
U.S. National Whitewater Center has secured
final funding and
broken ground. Slated
for completion in Spring 2006, this very cool looking 307-acre facility will boast the world’s largest artificial
whitewater river, a high adventure center, 11 miles of hiking and biking trails and a 37-acre island you can camp on.
It has already been designated an U.S. Olympic Training Site and the new home of USA
Canoe and Kayak.

Pee-ddling

by Erik Olsen on

There are big questions, and then there are BIG questions. Among the latter is a simple one with an answer that
might surprise some people: how do you pee while paddling (hence the lame pun of a title for this post)?  Sure,
you can hit the beach, get out and find yourself a nice tree or bush, but what if you can’t?

Well, here’s a paddling pee primer.

Obviously, in these circumstances nature has long favored those with a Y chromosome. But even if you’re a guy and
you’re not John Holmes, you’re going to have to figure out a way to do the deed. This article will show you
how…including the awkward boat straddle which, needless to say should not be attempted in croc-infested waters. The
technique here in this photo favors the fallopian funnel (or something like that), which really would work quite nicely
for men or women.