Outdoors

I participate in a daily dog photography group, and today's prompt was "Forever Young". It seemed to resonate with some of the feelings that I had during our desert trip. No one is "forever young" unless they die young, and that feeling was fostered by how much I missed K during our trip. All of us veteran dog lovers know that the days of young puppyhood are fleeting even in a dog who lives a

My name is Nesta! I am pure breed yellow Lab and I just turned one year old. My owners travelled from the Idaho in their VW van through a snow storm to pick me up in Montana last April. With them was big Buck. My dad is Buster and he is Buck’s half brother. Buck was the biggest and nicest Black Lab you could ever meet. He showed me ropes of the van before he passed away. I would have to say that paddle boarding is my favorite sport. The first time I saw Danny came to shore on his board I greeted him and walked right on to the board. That was when I was 10 weeks old. From that day on I was addicted. Last season I ended up with over 30 days on the board! My favorite place on earth is Dog Beach at Red Fish Lake in the Sawtooth Mountains. The cold clear water feels so good on a hot day after being on the paddle board. This is one of my favorite places to swim and play with the other pooches. My other favorite swim spot in on the Big Wood River. This was the first place I ever swam and it was with Buck. This spot rocks! I am lucky enough to swim here everyday in summer. It is only a few blocks from home and near the base of River Run at Sun Valley Ski Resort. The tourists love to watch me swim in the current and then flush out into the eddy. You could say that I am spoiled because of all the fun I get to have. This summer I am stoked for my owners’ Mountain Niceness Tour! That means I get to travel around the west in the pimped out VW van again! Last summer I went to Tahoe, the Pacific coast twice, surfing,rock climbing,Seattle. Yep over a month of camping out and living the good life. Everybody says “I am huge”and “he is a monster.” I guess I am kinda big…I weigh 100 now. Danny and Jaime have been working really hard with me on my training. Someday, I hope to be a therapy dog! I am honoured to be a MK Pet Ambassador! I love my comfy MK dog bed in the van after another epic adventure.

Before our desert trip, we were in the midst of one last storm that put me over the edge. I was just looking at my photos from that day when it was "snaining", a combination of rain and snow. Based on this photo, I think that Shyla had gone over the edge too! I know that it will storm again. Indeed, it will even snow again (it snows here every month except July and August) but our desert break

I have just released an updated version of my popular Mountains of Colorado Screensaver, a downloadable screensaver application featuring 130 of my favorite photos from the Colorado Rockies. The new version provides added support for newer operating systems like OSX Mountain Lion and Windows 8. While I was at it I also added about 20 of my newer Colorado photos! You can purchase and download the screensaver here. If you are already a customer and would like to get the newest version, please email me with the email address you originally used to purchase the screensaver, and I’ll send you fresh download links.

This Memorial day, as we remember all who sacrificed for us, let us cyclists also remember the 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps at Fort Missoula, Montana, back in 1896. Those are the Buffalo Soldiers you see up there, at Yellowstone. This infantry was established to see if bikes could work for military purposes in mountainous terrain. Seeing as bikes were getting popular and the Europeans had already been using them for both recreation and military use, we decided to give it a look. General Nelson A. Miles started all this. He’d seen a six-day race in Madison Square Garden and got the bug. He thought that, unlike a horse, a bike didn’t need to be watered, rested, and fed. There’s also the stealth qualities of a bike, compared to a snorting, neighing horse – an asset in battle. So the Bike Corps was formed. Spalding bikes loaned the soldiers some single-speed bikes and they set out on their first jaunt – a four-day, 126-mile trip. Each bike plus gear weighed over a hundred pounds. Not bad considering their rations: “…1 jar Armour’s extract of beef, 7 cans beans, 2 lbs. salt, 5 lbs. prunes, 6 lbs. sugar, 5 lbs. rice, 2 lbs. baking powder, 1 can condensed milk, 20 lbs. bacon, 3 cans deviled ham, 2 ounces pepper, 2 lbs. coffee, 35 lbs. flour, 3 cans corn, 1 can syrup, 3 lbs. lard.” The roads were muddy and steep, creek crossings meant tires had to be re-cemented to the wooden rims, but despite this, longer and tougher journeys were planned to test the men’s mettle. Journeys of 790 miles in 16 days and, the biggie, a 1,900-mile, 34-day journey from Missoula to St. Louis. In the end, they realized that an Army Bicycle Corps could travel twice as fast as a typical cavalry or infantry and at one-third the cost and effort. A large part of those tremendous stats and conclusions can be attributed to the spirit and toughness of those buffalo soldiers. Thanks, guys. And thanks to everyone who’s made the ultimate sacrifice. 18 Miles Per Hour is Brian Miller and Rhys Newman. Illustration by Rhys. See more at 18milesperhour.com.

It’s hardly the end of the contentious issue that has divided the Boy Scouts of America, but it’s a start at least. Yesterday the organization of more than 2.6 million kids, guided by some one million adult volunteers, held a vote via secret ballot of more than 1,400 volunteer leaders from scouting’s 270 councils. Allowing openly gay scouts won with more than 60 percent approving the measure that said no youth may be denied membership “on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.” The shift is symbolically profound, especially considering that a major organizing pillar of the scouts has been both the Mormon and Catholic churches (Mormons make up a disproportionately large sector of the organization vs. their overall portion of the population). But religious leaders in both churches said they would not abandon scouting so long as any new policy applied to youths and not leaders. Evangelical groups were far less progressive. “Allowing openly gay scouts will mean the blunt injection of hypersexuality and gay activism into a youth organization,” said John Stemberger, head of the Florida Family Policy Council, a conservative group. Stemberger, an Eagle Scout who has crusaded against gay marriage and abortion, has sought to mobilize like-minded former scouts with a group called OnMyHonor.Net. Robert Schwarzwalder, a senior vice president of the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group, said, “I think there will be a loss of hundreds of thousands of boys and parents.” But scouting has already seen a 40 percent loss in members since the early 1970s, and several sponsors, including UPS, Merck, the Intel Foundation, and many local United Ways and city agencies had already ended financing for the Scouts because the group’s policies violated their own nondiscrimination guidelines. And even as the the BSA allows openly gay kids, it will not allow scout leaders who are out of the closet, creating a paradoxical situation where an eagle scout, upon turning 18, cannot volunteer to guide a troop, and that’s the very pipeline of renewal that has sustained the scouts for generations. Via New York Times.

This past Saturday saw the team head to Wilmington Delaware for one of the country’s most popular and rapidly growing criteriums, and the continuation of the National Criterium Calendar. With a string of podiums at Speed Week, and Shane Kline’s win at the Dana Point GP, the team has a lot of confidence now and came into the race prepared to execute. Jackie Simes, Shane Kline, and Adam Myerson at the head of the race. As has been the pattern in recent weeks, the race was aggressive, and so were we. We managed to put riders into every significant breakaway attempt, but it wasn’t in the cards, and the race was destined to come down to a field sprint. Given how Shane has been sprinting lately, we were confident that he could win with his best effort and some luck on the last lap. The boys put him right where he needed to be on the leadout train of our rivals at UHC, and he made the brave and smart decision to anticipate the sprint by carrying more speed through the last corner, passing the UHC guys early, and trying to hold his gap to the line. He lead the sprint until the last few seconds, but unfortunately got passed by 2 guys, with Team Smartstop-Mountain Khakis alumni Luke Keough taking the win. Shane Kline set up perfectly with one lap to go. Shane on the podium, yet again. Wins All Over:  The rest of the team was busy this weekend, putting in some great performances at local races all over the eastern seaboard, with the team netting wins in Georgia, North Carolina and New York. Frank Travieso and Thomas Brown raced the Gainesville Grand Prix  in Georgia, which was a three event omnium with a time trial, circuit race, and road race. The boys did a great job with Frank ending up first, and Thomas 2nd overall. On Saturday morning, Frank won the 7 mile time trial and Thomas was third.  Later that afternoon was a circuit race, and a dangerous break got away midway through.  Thomas pulled it back over the climb the last two laps.  Thanks to a friendly push, he did his best to lead out Frank in a downhill sprint where Frank got fourth. Sunday was a 70 mile road race with 7000 feet of climbing.  Steady rain and the constant hills took their toll on the field.  Eventually Thomas and Frank ended up in the final selection of 6 riders.  Frank lead out the sprint where Thomas sprinted to the win with Frank also getting second. Good work guys! Thomas and Frank on the podium in Gainesville. Back near home base in North Carolina, Chris Uberti, Pat Raines, Jon Hamblen, Travis Livermon and Dan Patten contested the Falls Lake Road Race weekend near Raleigh, with a flying Chris Uberti taking out the win in both Saturday’s rainy 62 mile road race, and Sunday’s criterium. Finally, up north in New York, Nathaniel Ward hit up the Tour De Syracuse omnium, a 3 stage event with a time trial, criterium, and hilly 80 mile road race. He won the criterium from a field sprint, and managed 4th place overall in the omnium. Nathaniel Ward on the podium in Syracuse Congrats to all of our riders on so many strong rides this weekend! Next weekend brings us to the classic Tour of Sommerville criterium in New Jersey, We won the race last year, and we’re looking forward to racing to defend our title. Thanks for reading, and a huge thank you, once again, to all of our sponsors, fans and supporters than make all of this possible.

I was going to post about our desert trip today but something else has taken precedence. The bears around here started appearing on my trail cameras in early April. At first, I saw only the big males, Tiny and Milton. More recently, other bears have made appearances. This uniquely marked young bear appeared at a bear-marking tree on May 7. The black "socks" and the black ridge on his spine are

Here's a new ski video from local Jackson Hole skier Matt Philippi. Salvage – Philippi Spring 2013 from Matt Philippi on Vimeo.

The first round of the 2013 Enduro World Series took place in Italy this past weekend and it was pretty epic. Enduro is an evolving format with bits of XC, downhill, and even street riding mashed together. In the first race of the year — formats will all differ — it required more than 4,500 feet of climbing and 40 miles of riding, with four timed sections. Who made the podium says a lot about how attractive the style could become, with downhiller Fabian Barrel winning, enduro specialist Jerome Clementz in second, and former BMXer Jared Graves taking third. The field was extremely broad: Old school downhillers like Steve Peat clashed against pure cross-country riders like Adam Craig, and world champ downhiller Greg Minnaar even risked his collarbones. Maybe this enduro thing is actually tapping into what regular mountain bikers know and most of the establishment seems to have forgotten: that riding lots of different terrain, earning your vertical, and encountering different styles over a few days is really, really fun. Add a stopwatch and suddenly you have racing. Very cool and not too contrived racing…something a lot closer to the soul of the sport. Photo: Matteo Cappe