I had a funny idea a few months ago: Colorado and Utah are at the low (we hope) ebb of a 10-year drought cycle, meaning our trails are desiccated and our rivers low.
… it occurred to me that this would be an *ideal* time to use fatbikes to access Cataract Canyon, taking advantage of the low flows therein to float it with packrafts.
After kayaking marvelous Isla Espiritu Santo off La Paz, Baja in 2006 … I created a website promoting the kayak/hiking adventure.
For fun.
This kid had an even better time than I did. 🙂
Check out Diego as he snorkels with amazing sea life at Espiritu Santo, an island in the Sea of Cortez. While diving or snorkeling there you can see whale sharks, mobula rays, groupers, snappers, turtles, sea lions and numerous species of fishes and crustaceans.
Many people are now calling for increased protections at Espiritu Santo from harmful fishing practices such as gill nets. In this short film, Diego shares his love for the sea life at Espiritu Santo and his desire to help protect it for future generations.
Click through to islaespiritusanto.org if you’d be willing to support a campaign to ban gill nets around those rich reefs:
CONANP Letter in English
Dear. Mr Bermudez.
On behalf of present and future generations of Pacenos and visitors to Baja Sur, I am requesting the government ban use of gill nets on inshore reefs around Isla Espiritu Santo in the new management plan.
The plan documents a decline of fisheries, due in large part to the ongoing use of gill nets, yet allows those same gill nets to remain on inshore reefs around the island. In fact, this plan offers no substantive decrease in fishing effort, gear types used, nor areas fished and is not consistent with the plan’s vision to protect and restore the marine ecosystem.
As a result, this plan guarantees further fisheries degradation and will do further damage to the recreation and tourism economy of La Paz.
Thank you for protecting the ecological integrity of the marine environment around Isla Espiritu Santo with the sustainable use of the fisheries resource.
If winter’s chill finds you longing for summer’s sunny days, consider a trip south of the border to Baja. Greatly reduced temperatures make winter a far more pleasant time to hike at most Baja locations than summer. Autumn and spring are good times to hike there, too. It’s also a great place for enjoying a combination of outdoor activities.
I’ve discovered that my own favorite Baja combination adventure is kayaking and camping along the Sea of Cortez, stopping to hike and to snorkel at various locations along the way. …
At the Expedition Idaho Adventure Race, Director Dave Adlard was surprised (and impressed) to hear that Team GearJunkie/YogaSlackers carried a pack-raft:
… For Idaho, we got more serious about our “flotation devices,” and we brought pack-rafts from Alpacka. The company makes a line of small, packable rafts that weigh as little as 3.5 pounds. But for Idaho, Alpacka built our team prototype rafts that were even smaller and lighter. The one-off “Ghost” model pack-rafts weighed an incredible 2.1 pounds each, and they rolled up small. …
The top teams transported themselves over 500mi of rugged north Idaho and Montana. Here’s a vastly simplified map of the route.
Mostly on foot, mountain bike and paddle, Dave added dozens of other challenges. Personally I liked “build a raft” and “light a fire” (without matches).
It’s hard on the body. My friends took significant damage moving constantly for 6 days.
Andy TuckerJeni McNeal
… but talk about a life altering experience. Expedition Adventure Racing makes Ironman look trivial.
Though I’m personally not a fan of Twitter, it was our best mode of communication during this race. Multiple people logged in to our account to update from the mountains by mobile phone.
The SPOT devices were almost more trouble than they were worth, working semi-reasonably perhaps 30% of the time. Multiple points of failure: human error, SPOT failure, battery failure, weather interference. The satellite network is unreliable too, it seems.
The one time we really needed SPOT to work, it didn’t. The team needed to climb to elevation to use a mobile phone to call 911 for air evacuation after a bike fall.
My $9.50 Trakfone was far more reliable in the wild than SPOT.
Here’s my favourite photo from the week, nighttime navigation – Team Bones.
Mike Kloser, a Vail, Colo., athlete and a former world-champion mountain biker, is something of a god in the sport of adventure racing. As the captain of Team Nike, Kloser dominated AR for years, including multiple world-champ titles and victories at banner events like the Eco Challenge and Primal Quest under his belt.
Last year, Kloser launched a gear company, Out There USA, and he designed a backpack. After years of racing — as well as living a consummate outdoors existence working and training in Colorado — Kloser put his knowledge toward making his company’s AS-1 Pack something of an ultimate multi-sport tool. …
I’m looking forward to the second annual ASW. Will you be there?
2010 Dates June 4-13
Each June in Northern Idaho, Adventure Sports Week offers 10 days of racing, training, clinics, gear demos and more. ASW features triathlons, mountain biking, trail running, adventure racing, open water kayaking and swimming.
Our venue is located on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille at Farragut State Park.
Each June in Northern Idaho, Adventure Sports Week offers 10 days of racing, training, clinics, gear demos and more. ASW features triathlons, mountain biking, trail running, adventure racing, open water kayaking and swimming.
2009 was our inaugural year and we’re gearing up for 2010. One of the best new adventure sport races in the U.S.A.
What do rollercoasters, a great rappel, fantastic scenery, a first class event and “10-24-1” have in common?
Hosted at beautiful Farragut State Park in Bayview, Idaho (just north of Coeur d Alene), ASW 2010 is promising to be one of the top festivals in the USA this year.
Shout out to my Adventure Racing team, prepping for the Griz next weekend.
Good Luck Team Adventure Sports Week.
The GrizzlyMan Adventure Race is a USARA sanctioned sprint level adventure race that takes place every April in Western Montana.
In order to do well (or even finish), racers will need to be proficient in a variety of outdoor disciplines (i.e. mountain biking, trail running, paddling, map reading and navigation).
Racers will be given a map/passport for the course and will be required to travel to certain checkpoints plotted on the map. By using what will be supplied at each checkpoint, racers will mark a designated spot on their map/passport to prove that they visited each location. This map/passport will then be turned in to race officials upon completion of the course. Finish time as well as proper checkpoint completion will determine ranking and success. …
