I spent the summers of 2007 and 2008 on a glacier in southeast Alaska, with 12 people and 200 huskies. I was working as a dogsled guide, and each morning I’d pull myself from my sleeping bag, slip on my raincoat and boots, and step from my tent into the pale light of the Northern […]
Recreation
Posted inHeard Around the West
Cuddle-fish?
California is so broke, it’s closing 219 state parks. But wait, a nonprofit group best-known for its in-your-face advertising has offered to ride to the rescue, money in hand, to save one of them. PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, says it will pay to keep Pescadero State Beach open. There is a […]
Posted inGoat
HCN’s favorite Tweeple
You may be one of those people who thinks Twitter is some kind of narcissistic echo chamber. That it’s a place where folks broadcast their breakfast to the world in 140 characters or less. Well, yeah. Still, even the social media skeptics here at the High Country News have gotten swept into the Twittersphere and […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Striking finish
At 6 a.m. in the chilly dawn of the second Friday in July, about 140 people, wearing neon-colored petroleum-derived clothing and encumbered with packs and water bottles, start running. From the small southwestern Colorado town of Silverton, they head into the rugged San Juan Mountains, where they will attempt to complete a 100-mile loop across […]
Posted inGoat
Numbers for the Birds
My experience with bird-watching is generally limited to trying to answer the question of “What did the cat leave in the yard this time?” And sometimes I’ve pulled over to watch eagles eating roadkill. But I do not recall ever driving out of my way to see a pelican or a ptarmigan. […]
Posted inWotr
Riding the rails — upscale
“You been ridin’ the rails?” The man had an old green duffel bag slung over his shoulder. I could tell he’d checked us out as we stood on the lush lawn by the courthouse in Missoula, Mont. On my back I wore a faded red pack, and across my front I’d strapped my 6-month-old son. […]
Posted inGoat
Roughing it the easy way
Summer is officially upon us and for many that means camping, often in the company of family or friends. This summer is an especially good time to get outside to spend a few nights under the stars, sing off-key by the campfire and roast all manner of food on a stick, because the National Park […]
Posted inWotr
Finally, a burger with a taste of place
Some 12 million people visit the Grand Canyon every year, but any “foodies” among them tend to be disappointed when they arrive at the rim. Where in all this luscious landscape, they ask, is anyone serving food that tastes of this place? Why do so few restaurants in Arizona’s canyon country feature the range-fed beef […]
Posted inGoat
Off-road clampdown in the West
We all know that irresponsible off-road vehicle use causes major damage to public lands. The June 8 HCN contained a story about Western states passing laws to more strongly regulate offroaders (“States rev up ORV rules“). KUNC’s Kirk Siegler recently interviewed associate editor Jodi Peterson about that story, focusing on the new laws and the […]
Posted inWotr
The lands less traveled are a treat
After a late-February snowstorm left western Colorado frosted with white, I decided to check out the cross-country skiing at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. It turned out to be an experience I can only call “manicured.” I drove to the visitor center on a paved road, then skied along a well marked trail […]
Posted inGoat
Confessions of a trespasser
My favorite dog-walking trail near town has just undergone another transformation from the federal Bureau of Land Management. A new sign sprouted on a post at its start a few days ago: ROUTE CLOSED. And then, a few days later, the post and sign were gone. Before March of this year, it was […]
Posted inGoat
“The Sportsman’s Park Service”
Do paved trails, groomed picnic areas, and visitor centers stocked with tacky t-shirts and soft-serve ice cream make your outdoor experience seem uncomfortably like Disneyland? Next time, skip Rocky Mountain National Park and wander into the much less developed lands of the National Landscape Conservation System – like the Gunnison Gorge, in western Colorado. The […]
Posted inRay
West’s ATV carnage, part 2
At least 13 people have been killed in all-terrain-vehicle accidents in the West in the past month. The fatalities include a 10-year-old boy in California, a 16-year-old girl in Wyoming, and an off-duty sheriff’s deputy in Utah. Expanding the bloody accounting to include the serious nonfatal ATV accidents in the same period (since April 20), […]
Posted inGoat
Snowbowl Redux: The Question of Balance
Every journalist is biased. Scribes-for-hire have opinions, just like anybody else. However most readers expect some approximation of fairness and balance. The reporter’s job is to lock his personal views in a cage until press time. This professional obligation was very much on my mind last winter when I wrote “The Snow War,” a summary […]
Posted inGoat
Beyond adventure porn
Adventure sport films can be a lot like pornography. Claiming little-to-no real artistic merit, they are produced explicitly for the excitement of the viewer and the ego-gratification of the performers. They have predictable soundtracks. They provide the chance for adrenaline junkies to sit, slack-jawed, and live vicariously through someone else’s physical abandon. Other adventure sport films […]
Posted inApril 27, 2009: Got warriors?
A conflict of values
Yellowstone and the Snowmobile: Locking Horns over National Park UseMichael J. Yochim328 pages, hardcover: $34.95.University Press of Kansas, 2009. Even as another winter recedes, Mike Yochim’s new book on snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park will remain in season. It’s an instant classic — the first comprehensive examination of a notorious nationwide controversy, packed with facts […]
Posted inGoat
Despite vandalism, road stays closed
Back in mid-March, I wrote about a wonderful development on one of my favorite local dog-walking routes. The federal Bureau of Land Management had blocked motor vehicles from this half-mile stretch of old bad road along the Arkansas River just east of Salida. I predicted that the closure sign would get knocked down, the blocking […]
Posted inApril 13, 2009: The Desert That Breaks Annie Proulx’s Heart
Fishing for solace
Yellowstone Autumn: A Season of Discovery in a Wondrous LandW.D. Wetherell166 pages, hardcover: $24.95.University of Nebraska Press, 2009. An engaging blend of history lesson, fly-fishing essay and philosophical treatise, Yellowstone Autumn describes a veteran writer’s three weeks of solitude in Yellowstone National Park. Walter Wetherell makes the trip from New England to commemorate his 55th […]
Posted inGoat
Thank you, BLM
Our dog Bodie, a collie-shepherd rez-mutt mix, may make it to his fifth birthday in October. Or maybe not. He’s a car-chasing idiot and nothing we’ve tried, including a shock collar with five settings that range from tickle to Ted Bundy, has prevented him from racing off after anything on wheels. We all need some […]