With Presidents weekend many cycling and outdoor stores are running deals. Many of these sales have great deals on winter gear as they make room for spring gear. Spring may be coming but at least here in Colorado we will hopefully will be getting some more snow.
Here are links to some of the deals. You can also search nearly 80 stores here on UltraRob.com to find the best deal on the gear you need.
All 397 national parks across the country are offering free admission this weekend, January 14 through 16, to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Fee waiver includes: entrance fees, commercial tour fees, and transportation entrance fees. Other fees such as reservation, camping, tours, concession and fees collected by third parties are not included unless stated otherwise.
Camping probably isn’t on most people list of things to do at National Parks in snowy parts of the country for these free days but there’s still plenty to do in winter. Many National Parks such as Rocky Mountain National Park, Yellowstone and Yosemite are good for snowshoeing and cross country skiing.
You might groan at the thought of another reality show, but this one has a contestant I want to cheer for.
Mark Burnett is the man behind a new summer reality show on ABC called “Expedition Impossible,” in which 13 teams of three will travel across mountains, deserts and rivers in Morocco. Think “Amazing Race” without all the airport drama.
Among the 13 teams is one with Colorado connections. Erik Weihenmayer, from Golden, was the first blind man to reach the summit of Mount Everest, and also has climbed the Seven Summits.
His teammates: Jeff Evans, from Boulder, a physician assistant, and soldier Ike Isaacson from Topeka, Kan.
Their team name: No Limits. The show premieres June 23.
It’s been called “the graying of the greens,” – members of outdoor and environmental groups are aging and younger people aren’t joining them.
A new youth-led movement aims to change that. Outdoor Nation is hosting five multi-day summits in five cities this summer to address regional outdoor issues and engage more young people in the outdoors.
Denver is one of the cities – ON delegates from around the country will be there July 22-24. Delegates are still needed – interested 18- to 28-year-olds can apply at www.outdoornation.org The 250 Denver delegates will develop action plans; the best idea will be given $10,000 to get it started. Lodging, food and activities will be covered for each delegate.
This is what highliners do when they get bored. They create giant swings in the Canyons of Moab.
I’ve bungee jumped twice and got pretty disoriented. It seems like it would be easy to slam into a canyon wall but maybe they rocks aren’t as close as they appear. In any case it would be an extreme adrenaline rush.
One of the highlights of my summers as a kid was going on road trips to national parks. Just last week we were at the Grand Canyon and showed it to our kids for the first time.
The last couple years the government has been having free days at national parks and monuments. Last week Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced the free days for this year. The first days are this weekend including Monday, Martin Luther King Day.
Park and monument entrance fees, commercial tour fees, and transportation entrance fees are waived. Other fees such as reservation, camping, tours, concession and fees collected by third parties are not free unless stated otherwise. Many national park concessioners will have special offers.
Mark your calendar for these fee-free days in 2011:
January 15-17 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday weekend
Here’s a video of Jeb Corliss flying over some incredible terrain in a wingsuit. I’ve seen other wingsuit videos but this has the best scenery. The closest I’ve come to sky diving is bungee jumping. I think a wingsuit would be even more of an adrenaline rush than regular base jumping or skydiving since you’re flying so close to terrain. I’m not a fan of the music but that’s why there are volume controls.
We all love a simplified website address but the federal government has never really bought into the idea of simple, until now. The U.S. Forest Service – Pike and San Isabel National Forest, Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands has launched a new site, and the address is simpler – www.fs.usda.gov/psicc
According to a press release, the Department of Agriculture is working to standardize its agencies’ websites.
The site includes information on recreation, notices, news announcements, permits and more.
Two recent reports of attacks on hiking trails are disturbing, but one is even more frightening than the other. On June 17, a man was attacked and killed by a grizzly bear near the east entrance to Yellowstone National Park. The area is known for its grizzly activity and park rangers say written warnings were posted and the man was warned verbally, but he didn’t carry any pepper spray or other bear defense gear.
On Sunday, a woman hiking on a trail in north Boulder was attacked, but this time, the attacker wasn’t a wild animal. It was a man – a short thin man who was carrying a knife. This one ended better – the woman punched her attacker and escaped, and he was later arrested near the trailhead.
The Boulder attack and a similar one last September on Signal Mountain Trail near Fort Collins are reminders that animals aren’t the only dangers on the trail. Literature about trail safety often talks about what to do if you meet a bear, or a mountain lion, but rarely mentions human encounters. I know many women who hike alone. Most of them don’t carry a weapon that could be used against animal or human.
I carry a folding knife in my backpack, but I don’t know if I could or would ever use it to defend myself. I’ve had a few unusual encounters in the outdoors – once at night, when a man dressed as a Ninja ran through our backcountry campsite and another time when deputies were called in after campers in a Forest Service campground started playing with their pistols at night, shooting into a raging bonfire they had built.
The latest attack, in Boulder, got me thinking about trail safety again. What do you think? Should we be more aware of potential human danger on our hiking trails and in our forests? Or are these isolated events that could have just as easily happened on a city street? Have you ever had such an encounter? Have you thought about what you would do if your attacker wasn’t a black bear or a mountain lion but was a person?
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