The ugly flu that’s making such a nuisance of itself has visited our little household. I’m not sick but my better half is, and I couldn’t work up much enthusiasm for strolling amid nature’s wonders when one of its bugs is taking all the fun out of...

“It ain’t Mount Tam,” the guy tells me in his distinct Carolina brogue. Seems he’d lived in Sacramento awhile and had dirtied his boots on a few Bay Area trails. I had just clambered through the gnarliest mile in recent memory (dating to last week...

Linville Gorge Wilderness is high on all the must-hike lists for the southern Appalachians. The terrain is so ragged and remote that there was never much prospect of cutting down the trees and putting up swanky resorts. It’s all protected wilderness...

I just finished an article at my day job highlighting all the new ones out this year. You might be amazed that this is all I have to show for the several weeks since I started my new job. Well, writing about groovy new gear is a mere fraction of my...

Last week’s Gore-Tex blogger summit offers a compelling illustration of how advertising will happen in the years to come. Here’s what happened: GTX hosted 15 outdoor bloggers for a two-day pow wow designed to do two things: Burnish the company’s brand...