Leadville 100 mountain bike race takes place today

by Kraig Becker on

The Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race takes place today in Leadville, Colorado, with more than 1500 racers from 48 states and 21 different countries taking part in the annual event, which looks to have its deepest field ever, despite the loss of the biggest name in cycling – Lance Armstrong.

The race is actually 104 miles in length, and features an out-and-back format. The route starts and ends at 10,500 feet, but the riders will climb more than 11,600 feet, and reach a peak elevation of about 12,600 feet, while out on the course. The Leadville trail is not the most technical of rides, but the altitude will test the endurance and conditioning of the riders from the moment they start until the finish hours later.

A little over two years ago, the race was barely known outside of the hardcore mountain biking crowd. It had garnered quite a loyal following, but it was completely off the radar for most sports fans, let alone the mainstream population. But then, Lance Armstrong, who had been retired from competitive cycling for a couple of years, announced that he would be competing at Leadville, and the media descended on the event in a frenzy. Lance would go on to finish second behind six time Leadville champ Dave Wiens, who became an instant celebrity, earning the title of “the man who beat Lance.”

Soon after that race, Armstrong announced he was coming out of retirement, and in 2009 he returned to Leadville fresh off a third place finish in the Tour de France, and in much better riding condition. The cycling legend then proceeded to put the hammer down on the mostly amateur Leadville crowd. He ended up winning the race in record time, finishing in just six hours, 28 minutes, and 50 second, and roughly a half hour in front of the second place Wiens. Armstrong was so dominant, he ended up riding the final 65 miles completely alone.

Lance was scheduled to return to defend his title, but earlier this week he pulled out of the race, citing a lingering injury that he suffered in the Tour de France and wanting to spend time with his children before they returned to school. But that race still has an incredibly deep field, including Wiens, who is hungry to reclaim the win. He’ll be challenged by Matt Shriver, who finished third last year and Levi Leipheimer, a teammate of Armstrong’s on Team Radioshack. Additionally, professional mountain bike riders Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, Todd Wells and Jeremiah Bishop are all in attendance for the first time and are hoping to win the race as well.

The race gets underway at 6:30 AM local time with riders trickling across the finish line all afternoon and into the evening.

For an idea of what the race is like, check out the trailer for the film Race Across the Sky a documentary about the Leadville 100.

[Photo credit: AP Photo/Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp, Larry Pierce)

Adventure and luxury in Chile’s Atacama Desert

by Kraig Becker on

Yesterday we told you about options for taking a luxury expedition to the heart of Antarctica, one of the wildest, most remote places on the planet. It turns out there are plenty of other wild places that you can visit on your adventure vacations without giving up the finer things in life too.

Case in point, the Atacama Desert in Chile, a relatively narrow strip of land that stretches for 600 miles along the Pacific Coast of South America. The Atacama is nestled between Chile’s Coastal Mountain Range and the Andes, with this unique topography creating a rain shadow that has prevented any significant precipitation from falling in the region for the span of recorded history.

The Atacama has long had an undeniable allure for the adventure traveler, after all, it is considered the driest place on Earth. A number of trekkers come to the region each year to explore its fabled salt flats, visit small, sparsely populated villages, and take in the starkly beautiful landscapes, featuring high mountains and volcanoes in all directions. The place is also surprisingly full of life, with pink flamingos, llamas, Vicuñas, and other animals all sharing the extreme landscapes.

But over the past few years adventure travelers making the pilgrimage to the desert have often been surprised to find an award winning luxury resort located right in San Pedro de Atacama, the largest town in the area. The Tierra Atacama opened in 2008 and was immediately named to Conde Nast Traveler’s “Hot List”, as well as Travel + Leisure’s top 30 new hotels. It was also recently awarded a Juli B Style award as 2010’s Best International Resort as well, and has quickly earned itself a reputation as a spectacular place to rest and relax between excursions into the desert.
The Tierra Atacama even offers some great options for visitors who want to see the wild and untamed Atacma. They offer day trips into the desert that allow travelers to explore in a 4×4, on horseback or bike, or even on foot. They can organize treks up nearby volcanoes or cultural and wildlife expeditions that expose guests to the wonderful wildlife that call the desert home. Archeological escapes show off the local ruins and petroglyophs left behind by ancient settlers. These day trips will take adventurous travelers through wind swept canyons, up tall mountains, and across the most arid open plains on Earth.

And when you are done explore, you can return to the resort where you’ll be treated to a full spa treatment, including massages, comfortable poolside beds, or a quiet escape to the resort’s library. The comfortable rooms offer spectacular views of the nearby Licancabur Volcano, while gourmet chefs prepare tasty dishes in the resort’s top rated restaurant.

Of course, this kind of luxury adventure doesn’t come cheap. All-inclusive rates start at $970 per person for a two nights stay, based on double occupancy. But the Tierra Atacama is currently running a seven night special that includes five nights at the resort itself, as well as one free night at the Ritz Carlton in Santiago and another free night La Casona at Matetic Vineyards, which is an architectural marvel located in its own 27,000-acre private valley. The promotion runs through the end of October and includes free transfers. You can find out more information by going to TierraAtacama.com or e-mailing reservas@tierraatacama.com. You can also call 1-800-829-5325 to make your booking as well.

This looks like an amazing mix of adventure travel to a spectacular, remote location, nicely mixed with a luxury resort experience that is amongst the best in the world. What a combination!

[Photo credit: Tierra Atacama Resort]

Take a luxury expedition vacation to Antarctica

by Kraig Becker on

For many adventure travelers (myself included!), Antarctica is the ultimate destination. it is one of the most remote, and untouched, places on the planet, and about as far as you can get from a well trammeled tourist path. Most journeys to the frozen continent come via a cruise ship that skirts the Antarctic coastline, allowing visitors to go ashore in just a few, very select, places. But for those of us who dream of walking in the footsteps of Robert Falcon Scott or his rival Roald Amundsen, there are few opportunities available to visit the actual frozen interior of the continent. A place that is as wild, and remote, as any on Earth.

That will change later this year when Kensington Tours, one of the best adventure travel companies on the planet, launches several amazing new luxury options that will take travelers to the very heart of Antarctica. These tours are only made possible thanks to Kensington’s own private camp, which sits perched atop a 200 foot icefall. This one-of-a-kind place will allow travelers to experience the Antarctic like never before, serving as a base of operations that features six sleeping tents, as well two large dome tents that play home to the kitchen, dining facilities, a library, and more. The heated sleeping tents are shared by just two occupants, ensuring that this is an intimate and unique experience for everyone who makes the journey.

The camp, which is only accessible via a private jet from Cape Town, South Africa, offers up some amazing adventure opportunities for travelers. While staying there, visitors will have the chance to kite ski, go rock and ice climbing, as well as abseil into a crevasse. They’ll also be able to hop into a 4×4 and drive to the coastal ice barrier or visit a nearby research station. Other highlights include a flight to the South Pole and a visit to a colony of Emperor Penguins that number 12,000 strong.

Kengsington has several pre-arranged tours available ranging from a one day trip that departs on November 29, and runs $9635, to a full 11-day expedition with departures on the 19th and 29th of November, that will set you back $48,075. The expert adventure travel consultants at Kensington can also arrange custom made Antarctic itineraries for you as well, merging in the best elements of this remote frontier and giving you an unbelievable trip of a lifetime.

For more details on these itineraries, and more, click here.

[Photo credit: Kensington Tours]

The Perseids meteor shower, an August tradition

by Kraig Becker on

The Perseids meteor shower is an astronomical tradition that returns every year, running from late July to mid-August. The night time fireworks occur for several weeks as the Earth moves through the tail of the Swift-Tuttle comet, which sprinkles particles across the atmosphere. Those particles, in turn, burn up in a bright, colorful, display that is amongst the best light shows that nature has to offer.

The 2010 edition of the Perseids has already begun, and will actually peak this week. The absolute best days to watch the meteor shower are tonight, tomorrow night, and Friday. (August 11-13) During these peak days, you can expect, on average, about 30-40 meteors per hour. But after mid-night things really pick up with as many as 90-100 shooting stars per hour. That’s 1.5 meteors per minute for those keeping score at home.

This year, stargazers have the sky working in their favor as well. On August 9, the moon entered the “new” phase, meaning that it will be absent from the sky at the peak days of the shower, ensuring that there won’t be any natural light pollution to obstruct the views. Having a dark sky is crucial to really getting the full effect of the Perseids, and that includes the lights of the city as well. If you want to enjoy the display to its fullest, it is definitely best that you head somewhere without too much ambient light, such as a large park. Better yet, leave the city behind altogether and head out into the countryside.

The next few days give us all the chance to observe one of the best astronomical displays of the year, and although it is most prominent in the Northern Hemisphere, it can be seen nearly every where on Earth. For an enjoyable and relaxing evening, grab a bottle of wine and a blanket, head out onto the lawn, and stay up late for the show. You won’t be disappointed.

[Photo credit: Mila Zinkova via WikiMedia]

Beat the heat at the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center

by Kraig Becker on

Sitting at the southernmost tip of Florida, the Keys are a chain of islands that mark the border between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. The waters that surround the more than 1700 islands are famous for their warm temperatures, stunningly blue colors, and diversity of wildlife. It is because of all those things, and more, that the waters are protected, making up the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Last week we told you how you could explore that sanctuary aboard a personal watercraft, but for those looking for a less adventurous, not to mention less expensive, option, you can simply drop by the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center, located in Key West.

The Discovery Center is operated by NOAA and offers up three things that are often in short supply in Key West, namely free parking, free admission, and plenty of air conditioning. The Center has plenty of other things to offer beyond that however, giving visitors a chance to see what life is like in the Keys both above and below the water. The numerous displays on hand show the diversity of both the flora and fauna throughout the region and describe in detail how those natural elements co-exist to create such an amazing environment.

One of the most prominent of these displays is the Mote Marine Laboratory’s 2400 gallon “Living Reef” aquarium, which gives us a glimpse of the brightly colored and energetic marine life that thrives in the waters just off the coast of the Keys islands. These fish go about their lives just as they would in the open ocean, while we get to watch on from the other side of glass.
Not far from the Living Reef display is a much smaller, but more sobering one that comes in the form of a tiny aquarium that contains the beautiful, yet destructive lionfish. Native to the Pacific, the lionfish has become an increasingly troublesome invasive species in the Keys and throughout the Caribbean, as it eats everything it encounters and has no natural predators to quell its advance. Marine biologists at the Sanctuary have been studying the fish for some time and are formulating plans on how to manage these invaders, but they fear that it could become a major threat to the Keys ecosystem in the years ahead.

Another popular display at the Eco-Discovery Center is its mock-up of the Aquarius underwater ocean laboratory. The real Aquarius Lab is one of the few underwater research stations in the world and is located in the Keys as well, but the Center’s simulated one is as close as most people will ever get. Looking through the lab’s portholes makes it seem that you really are far beneath the surface of the ocean, complete with divers drifting by the windows as they go about their work.

If you drop by the Discovery Center, be sure to check out their 17 minute long film entitled Reflections. The movie, which was shot completely in High Definition, chronicles life in the Keys through the eyes of a young girl who grows up with a unique appreciation for the place she lives in. The underwater scenes are breathtaking and will delight and captivate visitors of all ages.

Located at the end of Southard Street in the Truman Waterfront, in Key West, the Eco-Discovery Center is easy to find and a great way to beat the tropical heat. It also happens to be very close to Fort Zachery Taylor, a popular Florida State Park. While you’re in the area, it may be worth swinging by that historic site as well.