Blue Ridge Outdoors November 2018

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border thru-hike TWO WOMEN WALK THE 2,000MILE MEXICAN-AMERICAN LINE

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Pack your gear and head to West Virginia

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The Potomac Highlands of West Virginia has some impressive hiking trails from a .3 mile stroll above a protected bog to 20 mile treks over Allegheny ridges such as Spruce Knob or North Fork Mountain. Working up to those ridges? Try 4 miles up Big Schloss in GW National Forest.

Join in the 8-County Highlands Hiking Challenge and experience “Almost Heaven” WV. Hike one trail in each of the eight hiking regions and earn a ROAR patch. Go to: www.appalachianforest.us/ - click on ROAR.

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PLAY ALONG WITH US! Be the first to identify our mystery summit on page 6 and win swag.

GOT A STORY IDEA OR COMMENT? Send them to submit@blueridgeoutdoors.com

THE BACKPACK TAX DEBATE I support a backpack tax only if it is used for what it is intended—trails, recreation, conservation. It needs a provision that it will be repealed if used for anything else. Otherwise it will just become another slush fund for politicians. —J.P. Burns I think it’s time for the outdoor community to ante up. I just hope the tax doesn’t make it even harder for lowincome folks to access the outdoors.

—Kyle P.

As an avid fisherman and hunter as well as backpacker, canoeist, and cyclist, I have long supported the hunting and fishing license fees because that tax is dedicated to use for game, land, and water management.

Try as they might, the government cannot divert the funds to non-related projects. That should be the idea of the backpack tax—it can only be used for outdoor recreation narrowly defined.

I believe many outdoorsmen would get behind it, and I think a majority of Congress would as well. —Mark Wenger ARE YOU DRINKING COAL ASH? I'm way far right, and I find the monopolies like Duke Energy and others dispiriting. As hunters, outdoorsmen/women, and the first conservationists, I'm not rolling over for the power companies to thumb their noses. They are the issue. They think they can operate above the law. And we pay to clean it up. —K. Bane Cottrell This is even more disheartening after the hurricane caused breaches in coal ash ponds. Coal ash was already a disaster in North Carolina. Now it’s even worse. —Anne D. 92% WANT MORE PROTECTIONS IN PISGAH Pisgah is a beautiful, vibrant treasure which needs protection. —Mike Long Cut private lands but not our public forests. Commercial logging in national forests is subsidized by taxpayers, which is not the best use of our taxes, and subsidized logging on public lands also hurts private landowners who want to sell timber. Our public lands are the wildest places left on the map. We gotta stick together and work together to protect them. —Jill P. TA L K B AC K TO U S H E R E :

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Get the new Virginia State Parks license plate.

NOVEMBER 2018 D E PA R T M E N T S 16

FLASHPOINT

Why is the outdoors still so white? Mirna Valerio has a few suggestions.

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QUICK HITS

Two women complete first Mexican-American border thru-hike • The pizza parlor at the heart of the Red River Gorge • One biker has finished every Shenandoah Mountain 100 ride since 1995 • Adventure Pet Contest winners • Top film festivals this winter 42

TRAIL MIX

The Black Lilies are back, and so are DriveBy Truckers

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F E AT U R E S 17

MAKING SPACE

Danielle Williams, founder of Team Blackstar Skydivers and Melanin Basecamp, is redefining outdoor adventure.

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30 UNDER 30

Meet the next generation of outdoor leaders— athletes, entrepreneurs, and activists who are revolutionizing the region.

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Prepay for the license plate

by Nov. 1 and receive:

OUTDOOR TECH

10,000 loyalty points – a $50 value – for the state parks loyalty program.

The outdoors is usually an escape from the trappings of modern life, but sometimes, a little tech can enhance your experience. Here are our 20 favorite new innovations in gear, equipment, and apparel.

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COUNTRY ROADS, SHARE MY HOME

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MY YEAR ON THE STREETS

Virginia State Parks license plate owners will also receive: Free parking on special days.

Special discounts and offers throughout the year.

Airbnb is booming in rural West Virginia. But that comes with a cost.

Mark Block moved to Asheville for the mountain biking. He ended up homeless. Here are the hard truths he learned along the way.

THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT

“He’s riding into the woods for the first time and yelling, ‘It smells like trees!’

That sticks with me,” says Stephen Janes, who founded a youth biking program to introduce more kids to the outdoors.

‘WHY AM I UP HERE?’ A tree-sitting protester in the path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline talks candidly about fear, failure, and fighting back.

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800-933-PARK (7275) | www.virginiastateparks.gov C OVER PHOTO BY O MER A LPHA NDA RY /

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QUICK HITS

BY JEDD FERRIS + WILL HARLAN

NEW KENTUCKY BIKE LAW

The state of Kentucky is playing catch-up on cycling safety; this summer a new law went into effect requiring motorists to give bike riders at least three feet of side space when attempting to pass. According to reporting by the Lexington Herald-Leader on House Bill 33: “Distance is measured from the outermost portion of the vehicle to the outermost portion of the bicycle. For example, a pickup truck with wide-view mirrors would require a space of three feet from the mirrors to the end of the bicycle handlebar.”

The new law allows drivers to cross a double yellow line in order to give cyclists the necessary space, if possible with safe visibility. Thirty-four states already have a similar passing law in place. One of the bill sponsors, Rep. Jerry Miller, R-Louisville, said “What I hope it does is educate drivers and cyclists, which I am both, more about bike safety. We have about six fatalities a year involving cyclists and drivers.”

GEAR COMPANIES SAY NO TO WALMART

In late August, Walmart launched an online “Premium Outdoors Store,” curated by Michiganbased retailer Moosejaw, which Walmart purchased in 2017. This marked the first time the big-box behemoth would be carrying well-reputed performance gear and apparel from companies like Black Diamond, ExOfficio, and Gramicci. Some of the gear companies quickly decided they didn’t want their products sold through the site. Black Diamond, known for high-quality climbing gear, sent Walmart a cease and desist letter the day after the website launched, and soon after, backpack manufacturer Deuter and Katadyn, known for producing a variety of backcountry water filtration systems, also decided to pull their products.

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NAME THAT SUMMIT

The most popular hike in Shenandoah leads up this mountain (top left), named for the specific type of granite exposed near its summit.

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Poodle Saves Family from Bear

When Tiffany Merrill opened a door at her Black Mountain, N.C., home on the last day of August to let out the family dog, a black bear charged inside.

Shocked and scared, she started to scream, telling her kids to lock their bedroom doors. Merrill said the bear— estimated to be between 150 and 200 pounds—was behaving aggressively and getting in her face, when Pickle, her five-pound toy poodle came to the rescue. Pickle started barking at the bear and then chased it back outside the house. After a scuffle between the two animals, Merrill’s 19-year-old son was able to get Pickle away from the bear, but after receiving grave injuries and being rushed to an emergency animal hospital, the dog sadly died.

“My hero died saving me from a bear,” Merrill wrote on Facebook. She added, “We lost a big part of our family.”

Overall, throughout Appalachia, incidents of people bumping into bears have been abundant in both developed areas and the backcountry this year.

Just before the start of fall, 20,000 acres of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest in southwest Virginia were closed to camping due to a large number of human-bear interactions. The closure also affected 17 miles of the Appalachian Trail.

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Number of shoes stolen at Clean Soles, a shoe store in Roanoke, Va., that were only designed for a person’s right foot. When thieves burglarized the store during two separate incidents on July 20 and August 25 they mostly raided the display sneakers, accumulating a stolen bounty that was seemingly useless. In an AP report, store operator Rob Wickham said one complete pair of shoes was also stolen, along with some t-shirts and hooded sweatshirts. A 17-year-old has been charged in the first burglary.

“It just seems like a natural thing to do.

I'm surprised to find there are people who wouldn't like to do it.”

—Gary Cantrell, to a local Ohio news station, when asked why he was walking across the country. Cantrell, also known in the trail running community as Lazarus Lake, is the eccentric, reclusive founder of the Barkley Marathon—a punishing ultramarathon in Tennessee’s Frozen Head State Park that’s only been finished 18 times by 15 different runners since it was started in 1986. This summer, Cantrell completed a supported walk across the country, taking an approximately 3,000-mile route from Rhode Island to Oregon, starting in May and finishing in mid-September.

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TWO STATE MILE RECORDS SET AT SAME RACE IN TENNESSEE

August was a stiflingly hot month in the South, but that didn’t stop both the male and female winners at the Ed Murphey Memphis Mile—part of the national Bring Back the Mile Grand Prix Tour 2018—from setting state records for the distance. Blazing towards the finish line in a tight fourway finish, Eric Avila won the race with a time of 3:55.43, besting the previous top time of 3:55.65 for a mile in Tennessee that was set in 2014.

On the women’s side Shannon Osika took first with a time of 4:25.47, in the process significantly beating the former state record of 4:30.12.

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QUICK HITS

MIGUEL'S

THE PIZZA PARLOR AT THE HEART OF THE RED RIVER GORGE B Y J O N AT H A N M Y E R

CLOUDS HANG HEAVY ON A FALL WEEKEND IN

Slade, Kentucky, keeping climbing routes at the nearby Red River Gorge dry and mercifully cool.

The weekend weather provides a short-term population bump for the town of 300, as rock climbers from around the country prepare to take on The Red’s sandstone walls.

Most of the crowd will eventually end up at Miguel’s Pizza, a local establishment that’s been an integral part of the area’s climbing scene since the mid-80’s, when Miguel and Susan Ventura moved from Connecticut to Slade to buy into a co-op with a group of friends. Over the past 30 years, Miguel’s has transformed from a struggling ice cream parlor to a thriving establishment that serves as the unofficial basecamp for one of the most popular climbing destinations in the country.

Climbers describe Miguel’s with the rhapsodic, religious fervor of someone returning from a pilgrimage.

It’s a meeting place for the faithful, a sweaty, chalk-covered convention where terms like trad and GriGri are common shorthand rather than exotic insider terminology related to a suicidal pursuit, and a testament to the Venturas' willingness to shape their space to the needs and preferences of a community. Cilmbers were often dismissed by other locals as hard partying dirtbags (in the most pejorative sense of the word), but Miguel broke the mold with hospitality.

He forged friendships with local legends like Porter Jarrard and Chris Snyder, both of whom set many of The Red’s classic lines in the 80s and 90s, and his ice-cream parlor quickly became the go-to spot for visiting climbers in need of a space to camp, scout, and sort gear.

Miguel’s patrons turned out to be lousy customers, but lively, welcome company. Business stayed lean for years, but Miguel’s became a natural hub for climbing activity at The Red, a spot to rest, debrief, share information, and recover. Miguel abandoned ice cream to sell pizza at Susan’s 8

suggestion, and slowly converted loiterers into customers. The Venturas' tolerance of their patrons’ “put it on my tab” economic philosophy and eccentric behavior allowed the nascent community to flourish, and primed Miguel’s for success as word of The Red’s imaginative, challenging, well-protected routes spread.

The crowds showed up in the mid-2000s, spurred by the sport’s increasing popularity. Publicity from outdoor films and festivals sponsored by gear companies also drove new traffic. The Petzl Roctrip in 2007 gathered the best climbers in the sport to celebrate the opening of a new recreational access point in The Red, and generating some spectacular footage in the process.

The facilities steadily expanded over the decade to accommodate newcomers, adding bathrooms, a dishwashing station, and a two-story pavilion complete with picnic tables and gear racks. The pizza, made with homemade dough and topped with garden fresh ingredients, remains too good for even the most frugal or calorie conscious to turn down. All this makes Miguel’s an essential part of the Red River Gorge experience.

It’s a rare institution in the digital age, a place to untether from work email, grocery shopping, rec league soccer games, cable news, and other mundane, tedious aspects of modern life without abandoning the company of other people.

Miguel’s remains indelibly

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counterculture and an outpost for a particularly anti-establishment strain of outdoor enthusiasts. Meanwhile, the sport has more mainstream appeal then ever before thanks to improved gear technology, codified safety measures, and the headline generating exploits of a current crop of dynamos like Alex Honnold, Tommy Caldwell, and the still incredible Chris Sharma. The outdoor industry is also leveraging its impressive financial heft to grow the sport (and gear sales), with The North Face, Clif Bar, and Patagonia sponsoring films like180 South and Valley Uprising that have helped cement the legacies of big wall pioneers like Yvon Chouinard, Royal Robbins, Lynne Hill, and Dean Potter.

Unsurprisingly, the benefits of growth come with challenges. New enthusiasts who connect with the sport through commercial channels can struggle to navigate climbing’s complex notions of purity and authenticity, along with the practical and cultural differences between gym and outdoor settings. A group that always attracted iconoclasts and weirdos feels increasingly normcore, a shift that reflects the commodification and assimilation of van life, slacklines, Chaco’s, and other outdoor adjacent lifestyles, activities, and products.

Miguel’s is a rare place to observe hardcore types and casual novices mingle in real time, and, perhaps, an object lesson on graciously facilitating that integration. I visited Miguel’s for the first time in May. As a novice B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

climber without the natural talent or competitive drive to meaningfully improve, I attended as a sidekick and observer with two friends who’ve been climbing at The Red for nearly a decade. I was nervous and a bit reluctant to go, expecting to spend the weekend as an obvious fish out of water surrounded by acolytes.

Instead, I found a welcoming space with an organic, self-enforced communal ethic, both on the walls and at the restaurant. I’ve never spoken to so many strangers in such a short span of time, each of them interested in where I came from and how my trip was going. The expensive gear-denoted elitism that’s crept into some outdoor spaces was largely absent, as was any conflict or sense of entitlement when small, experienced groups shared space with large, sponsored trips.

While Miguel’s seems capable of continuing to accommodate the entire climbing spectrum, there’s a question of whether or not this is a sustainable status quo. The same could be said for national parks, climbing gyms, bike parks, and every other supposedly rural space that’s suddenly filled with activity as more people retreat into the woods. In this mass pursuit to reconnect with nature, are we replicating the cultural patterns that send us outside in search of relief? Time will tell, but places like Miguel’s will need to continue leading the way.

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QUICK HITS

20 YEARS

OF THE SHENANDOAH MOUNTAIN 100

BY JESS DADDIO

GONNNNG. GONNNNG. MALLET IN HAND,

Shenandoah Mountain 100 race director Chris Scott pounds on a gong swinging from his handlebars at 5 a.m.

Within minutes, the quiet campground is abuzz with the click-click-click of riders piddling with shifters and preparing to race. Among them is Larry Camp, attempting to complete his 20th Shenandoah Mountain 100 ride.

Back in 1999, the first year of the “SM100,” Hurricane Dennis dumped 10 inches of rain on Stokesville the weekend of the race. For the first and only time in the SM100’s history, Scott was forced to postpone for a month.

The following year wasn't any better. Heavy rains caused the area rivers to swell so much that the course was rerouted to avoid high water. Even then, normally benign creek crossings surged above the racers’ waists.

For over a decade, the rain seemed to be the worst of the race’s problems.

But in 2015, a Long Island-area mountain biker died after crashing into a tree while descending Braley Pond. The tragedy floored the entire mountain bike community, and since then, Scott has stepped up race day safety procedures and nearly doubled the number of mobile medics on hand.

Like the course itself, which has nearly 12,000 feet of climbing, the event has had plenty of “ups” too.

Within the last decade, a half-million dollars has been invested in improving National Forest trails.

Elite riders like Jeff Schalk, Chris Eatough, Ben King, and Jeremiah Bishop have tackled SM100. Bishop has won it nine times. Sue Haywood, another former Harrisonburg local, topped the podium seven times.

But more telling of the SM100 spirit is another streak made not by any sponsored athlete but a Pennsylvania GIS cartographer who showed up in 1999 on a steel rigid frame Fat 10

Chance and has come back every year since—55-year-old Larry Camp.

MEET LARRY

Like many riders in the Mid-Atlantic, Larry Camp got his start racing at the 24 Hours of Canaan in Davis, W.Va., during the mid-1980s. Strong and lighthearted, Camp had a natural knack for crushing big days in the mountains.

“Larry was a core part of that backcountry tribe,” says Scott. “20 years ago he was one of the regulars.

He was the kinda guy you could always count on in the backcountry, a good, solid, steady-riding dude who’s always got his permagrin on.”

Prior to the inaugural SM100, then 35-year-old Camp had DNFed at a number of 100Ks, but he was determined to finish Scott’s race. Born and raised in northern Virginia, Camp rode often in the George Washington National Forest where the race is held.

“There are so many reasons to quit,” says Camp. “Something that hurts at 8:30 in the morning, well, get over it, because there are going to be three other things that hurt before noon. You gotta just accept that.”

Camp powered through, finishing in the middle of the pack for the first few years. In 2003, weary of stressing over mechanicals, Camp raced on a singlespeed and finished just shy of 10 hours, his fastest time ever.

He continued singlespeeding for a decade, continuing to ride a steel hardtail even as bike technology advanced and full-suspension bikes became standard.

When he crossed the finish line in 2017 he was ready to call his streak quits. He’d never been out to set one

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anyway, showing up more out of habit than anything else. In 19 years of racing the SM100, Camp had experienced nearly every mishap short of a broken bone—busted derailleurs, shot shifters, a heinous bout of the stomach flu.

“When I crossed the finish line last year, Chris said, ‘You’re on the buy 19-get-one-free deal. Next year is on me,’” says Camp. “I said, 'No way. I’m done.' But I came around. I don’t have the fitness I used to have, but I can get through on stubbornness alone.”

PASSING OF THE TORCH

Dawn is just beginning to break when the starting field of some 500 riders peels out of Stokesville Campground.

The skies are clear but recent rains have swamped most of the course.

Temperatures quickly soar into the 80s, cooking riders on their first 2,000foot climb of the day.

By mid-morning, it’s clear that the 20th running of the SM100 is destined to be exciting. Jeremiah Bishop is the first to bust down Wolf Ridge, but the up-and-coming 20-year-old Eddie Anderson is hot on his wheel.

For Camp, the pace is much slower.

Now 56, he’s like the Benjamin Button of biking—these days, he says crosscountry rides don’t appeal to him nearly as much as BMX and downhill bike parks. He’s even considered buying a full-suspension bike, though he’s still rocking a steel hardtail for his last SM100.

He hasn’t trained much in the months leading up to today and he starts to feel it on the notorious “Death Climb.” Clouds darken the sky as he reaches the highest point on the course. Lightning flashes around him.

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Alone and exhausted, Camp digs deep as the rain starts to pour.

Then, it gets dark. For the first time in 20 years, Camp has to use the lights he stashes in his drop bag at aid station 5. Over 14 hours after starting, he cruises into Stokesville Campground, exhausted but still wearing his permagrin.

“I’ve always said, when I start needing lights, that’s when I should stop doing it,” says Camp. “I don’t want to disrespect my friends who do finish with lights, but I’ve sat in that pavilion many times watching people come in soaked in the dark and thinking I don’t want to do that. This time I needed a light. That’s telling me it’s a good time to quit. The podium is not getting any closer.”

To celebrate his 20th SM100, Scott has a fitting gift for Camp, a handmade map of the SM100 course.

“Larry would not have been the first guy that I thought would have done it,” says Scott of the 20-year streak, “but it’s people like Larry and the overall enthusiasm of the local community that make this one of the best events out there.”

In a way, the 20th anniversary of the SM100 feels like a proper passing of the torch. Eddie Anderson crossed the finish line over 15 minutes ahead of Jeremiah Bishop, becoming the youngest person to win the SM100.

Camp is content to return in 2019 as a volunteer. He says his services would be most useful at aid station 4 where the Death Climb begins.

“I still want to come back, next time to help motivate others to keep going. It’s hard as hell, but that last mile makes you forget an awful lot.”

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QUICK HITS

BORDER WALK TWO WOMEN COMPLETE THE FIRST THRU-HIKE OF THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER

BY KYLE RITLAND

Claire Wernstedt-Lynch was at work when her phone buzzed with a text message from her friend Tenny Ostrem.

She assumed Tenny was discussing plans for their upcoming hike of the Continental Divide.

But it wasn’t about the Continental Divide. "What about walking the border with Mexico?" Ostrem suggested.

“My immediate reaction was, ‘Hell, no,’” Wernstedt-Lynch says. “But I started doing some research. Eventually I said, ‘Let’s talk about it. I’m not committing yet, but let’s talk about it’.”

Less than a year later, WernstedtLynch and Ostrem, from Maryland and Kentucky respectively, found themselves in San Diego’s International Friendship Park, with nearly 2,000 miles of hiking ahead of them. For six months, they would walk through some of the most misunderstood and rarely visited landscapes of the country, supported only by their legs, their wits, and the closest members of their friends and families. Their arrival in Boca Chica State Park, where the Rio Grande meets the Gulf of Mexico, marked the culmination of years of effort, and the completion of a project that few would even consider: the first thru-hike of the US-Mexico border.

Wernstedt-Lynch and Ostrem met in 2013 on the Appalachian Trail, when an early start and a harsh winter created the perfect conditions for an enduring friendship. They continued to hike together and plan a few projects, but nothing like this.

“So much of planning a big hike is about withdrawing from society and doing something internally,” WernstedtLynch says. “And at that particular time, this withdrawal from society… it just

didn’t feel like the right time to do that.

So we were looking for a way to still pursue hiking, but use it to connect with society, rather than withdraw from it.”

“It was really easy to be scared of what we didn’t know,” Ostrem explains.

“And that was in combination with people in our lives telling us—begging us—not to do it because it would be too dangerous. Pretty much everyone thought of the border as a war-zone.

It was definitely a formula for not only ‘Can we do this?’ but ‘Wow, should we do this?’”

“And on top of that was the idea of our privilege,” Wernstedt-Lynch adds.

“As American citizens, as white people, as women. It made it easier to move through that area without incident, but it also made us strangers to the area.

And we really didn’t want to be visitors that just extracted something and left.

We didn’t want to misunderstand an area because we weren’t from there.

And because of all those things, we probably quit ten times over the course of this two-year project.”

“I spent a lot of time in my life waiting because I was scared that what I’m thinking of doing may not be the best possible way to help," says Wernstedt-Lynch. "It was time to just take a leap.”

They didn't have a set agenda; instead, they let the experiences shape their hike. They hitched a ride with a bus of farm workers in California. They carried water into the backcountry for a migrant water drop with the group Border Angels. More than once, Border Patrol stopped them. They found water wherever they could: gas station sinks, rusty cattle troughs, and even scumcoated potholes along dusty trails.

They also helped folks with passports and visa applications and got to know the people in the counties throiugh which they passed.

They took precautions to avoid runins with vigilantes or smugglers.They often hid their tent behind thickets of brush away from migrant trails. They avoided using flashlights at night. And each evening, they placed between their sleeping bags an air horn, pepper

spray, a church key, two GPS devices with SOS buttons, and a flare gun to notify Border Patrol in the event of an emergency. They never needed to use any of them.

Once, though, as they were setting up camp, Ostreem realized that she had left her phone a few miles back.

When she ran back to retrieve it around dusk, she heard rocks tumble in the rubble above her. She froze. It was the first time she had been separated from Wernstedt-Lynch, and she could feel someone watching her.

She continued running, found her phone, and on the way back, spotted the man hidden among the rocks: a migrant who appeared even more scared than she was. "He didn't have an SOS button to press for help," Ostrem remembers thinking. "It made me realize how safe and comfortable our hike was compared to his."

Stepping inside the shoes and lives of others became a much stronger mission than hiking, says Ostrem.

They weren't aiming for mileage but a deeper connection to the people and communities they met along the way.

175 days after leaving San Diego, they reached the Gulf of Mexico and waded out into the water to celebrate.

But the hike had never really been about the final destination.

“It was about finding a way to make an issue personal to your own life,” says Wernstedt-Lynch. “We hope our pictures and stories can be tools in forging those connections.”

They learned that the borderlands are far more complex than the media portrays them. They hope that their experiences will help reveal those complexities. They don't think they understand immigration better than anyone else, but they do think that a culture of fear in the United States has led us to lump everyone crossing the border into one stereotype, rather than seeing them as individual refugees fleeing violence.

They hope that the lack of violent incidents or encounters along their sixmonth trip can help deflate some of the fear surrounding the border.

“Everywhere you haven’t been is a fiction,” Ostrem says. “We’re just trying to make this more real for ourselves and anyone else who is interested.”

Visit Tenny and Claire’s website to read their daily blog, watch videos, and experience the hike for yourself.

N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 8 / B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M

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B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S / N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 8 / R I C H M O N D / VA B E AC H E D I T I O N

B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

G O O U TA N D P L AY

B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

QUICK HITS

THE TOP ADVENTURE CRITTERS MEET THE OUTDOORSY PETS OUR ONLINE READERS LOVED BEST

DALLAS

MISSY

MEADOW

BISCUIT

B Y D O U G S C H N I T Z S PA H N

Our pets are our most faithful companions, especially in the outdoors, where they love to play and explore just as much as we do (if not more). But whose pet garners the most trailside oohs and ahhs?

To determine that, we asked you to post photos of your pets in our Adventure Critters contest on the Blue Ridge Outdoors and Elevation Outdoors websites. We then asked our readers to vote for the winners.

Of note: This year we opened the contest up to include more than dogs.

And although a hedgehog made an impressive run and some cats meandered into the fray, dogs came out on the top of the pile. Maybe next year an iguana will break into the big time, but for now, here are those outdoor canines you loved best.

WINNER CRAMER

CRAMER SAYS: “No way! This doesn't

mean I have to make a speech, do I?” HUMAN JUSTIN POTTER SAYS: Cramer is my foster failure. He has always been scared of people and dogs, but I’ve slowly been getting him used to the outdoors and finally took him camping.

He loved it! Sharing my adventure with a dog who has had so many issues has given him purpose. Plus, he fits perfectly in my Nemo two-person tent.

FAVORITE ADVENTURES: Exploring the ridgeline above the Linville Gorge. He can’t get enough of looking over the edge and down to the river below.

WHY CRAMER’S A GREAT COMPANION: Ever since I first adopted Cramer, we've shared a very special bond. I love taking him to my favorite places in the Blue Ridge Mountains and that I got to see the smile on his face the first time

SPONSORED

BY BLUE MTN BREWERY we went together.

UP NEXT? A trip up to the Roan Highlands along the Appalachian Trail.

FINALISTS DALLAS

DALLAS SAYS: “Thank you to everyone

who took the time to vote for me. I appreciate each and every one of you!”

HUMAN COURTNEY ORR SAYS: Having a pet to go on adventures with is wonderful.

Dallas enjoys hiking and adventuring just as much as his momma does. I have a job that can be stressful, so, on my days off, I’ll load Dallas up in my Jeep and we’ll go wherever the road takes us. When I’m outside with him, whether it be climbing a mountain or just going for a swim, he takes all my stress away. Just seeing those big hazel-green eyes look back up at me and watching his nub of a tail wagging melts my heart.

FAVORITE ADVENTURES: He loves splashing around in waterfalls.

WHY DALLAS IS A GREAT COMPANION: When we’re out on a trail and he sees someone or another dog, he always says, “Hello!” So if you ever see us on a trail in the North Carolina mountains, don’t be afraid to say hello back. I know Dallas would love that!

UP NEXT? I’ve been planning a huge road trip out West.

MISSY

MISSY SAYS: “So maybe you’re not so

CRAMER

crazy for taking my picture all the time!”

HUMAN KELSEY LONG SAYS: Missy makes me feel safe, so that I can see the beauty nature has to offer. In the past, I was not an outdoors woman because I could only see the dangers in the wild, but she has shown me it’s not all bad.

FAVORITE ADVENTURES: The adventure in which this photo was taken at at Heavener Runestone Park in Oklahoma. We spent the week in a cabin on the lake in January. While I was freezing, she was in her element.

We spent hours on the trails, only limited by the amount of supplies I stuffed in my backpack.

WHY MISSY IS A GREAT COMPANION: She's cute, obedient, loyal, smart, a good listener, and loves the outdoors.

UP NEXT? Getting “lost” in the mountains in Tennessee.

MEADOW

MEADOW SAYS: “Of course I'm in the top

five! I'm a special girl. Can’t you see?”

HUMAN HEATHER POWERS SAYS: Meadow is an eight-month-old Aussie shepherd found on the side of the road with a broken back, so she needs to walk in a wheelchair. There’s a companionship with a pet that's something you just can't get with another human. They have their own special way of “talking" to you, without saying a single word.

FAVORITE ADVENTURES: While Meadow is down for any adventure, she is thrilled when that adventure involves water— lake, river, pond, stream, heck even a puddle.

WHY MEADOW IS A GREAT COMPANION:

Nothing holds Meadow back. She has a zest and love for life. She even has a built-in handle in her wheelchair so I can assist her when she climbs up a mountain. She shows me and everyone else she comes in contact with that you can't let anything hold you back.

UP NEXT? Her main goal is to complete a section hike of the 77-mile Foothills Trail in the Carolinas. We might even include an overnight or two.

BISCUIT

BISCUIT SAYS: “Let’s play Frisbee and go on a run!”

HUMAN KELLY KOLSON SAYS: Biscuit is half

Australian shepherd and half Shetland sheepdog. Her eyes are multicolor— each one a swirl of brown and blue.

She makes life better inside, outside, and everywhere overall. Pets live in the moment and they are happy to be exploring or just chilling together.

FAVORITE ADVENTURES: Biscuit loves swimming along next to kayaks (sometimes deciding to climb onto the stern and capsize them), leading her family on hikes or cautiously exploring a local rock outcropping.

WHY BISCUIT IS A GREAT COMPANION: She likes to keep a watchful eye on everyone and launches into action to herd companions who get too far ahead.

UP NEXT? We plan to go everywhere and anywhere we can together.

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F I S H PA R T N E R® ANGLING TOURS WWW.FISHPARTNER.COM

QUICK HITS

COMING SOON DON’T MISS THESE FILM FESTS B Y D AV I D P A R K E R J R .

FALL AND WINTER MONTHS IN THE BLUE RIDGE

are warmed by the bright lights and camaraderie of dozens of adventure film festivals across the region.

“Drones, GoPros, and other technologies have made mind-blowing footage more available than ever,” says Jim Baker, manager for the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour. “There is magic on the screen, but there is also magic in the aisles. There’s something special about doing it all together with your community,” he says.

Andy Johns echoes that sentiment.

“You could watch a lot of these films on your phone if you wanted to, but getting together with eight hundred people to laugh, cry, cheer and share the experience makes it a special weekend.” Johns is the founder of the Lookout Wild Film Festival in Chattanooga Tennessee, one of the most popular home-grown film festivals in the region. “We wanted to make sure there was a platform for films and stories from Appalachia and this part of the world,” he says. In his first year, 2013, they played to three hundred attendees. By 2017, more than 3,000 joined them. “At first, people thought it was going to be all mountain bikes and techno music,” he says. “But people have been pleased by the depth of story and character.”

Adventure films aren't just for adrenaline junkies. Mountainfilm uses the power of film to inspire audiences to create a better world. They highlight Cuban activists and back-to-the-landers

in Appalachia.

Butch Allen has been on both sides of the lens. He is an Appalachian homesteader who raises chickens, kids, and the occasional ruckus. He knows a thing or two about adventure film festivals too after spending fourteen years in Alaska, where he built the Alaska Ocean Film Festival from the ground up.

Allen recently partnered with Mountainfilm and local outdoor education organization Muddy Sneakers to host the first Asheville event in 2017. It was a huge success.

“It’s an awesome party that happens to be showing films that happen to raise tons of money for an awesome nonprofit,” he says. “It’s a win-win-win.”

Another local film festival organizer is Appalachian Trail thru-hiker Christine Williams, who co-hosts one of the local Banff film fests through her employer, Half Moon Outfitters in Athens, Georgia. "We’re not a big city, like Atlanta,” she says. “People find out about it and say ‘We host Banff here?

That’s amazing.’” She loves how the event highlights the local scene and draws people together.

A cold dark season can be challenging, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be inspiring too. As Andy Johns from Lookout Fest observed, “Whatever people do—cycling, climbing, paddling, or whatever—we all love gathering around the campfire to swap stories. At its core, that’s what these film festivals are.”

CALENDAR OF REGIONAL OUTDOOR/ADVENTURE FILM FESTS Nov 2 REEL ROCK Film Tour Lees-McRae CollegeEvans Auditorium Banner Elk, NC

Nov 16 Mountainfilm on Tour Highland Brewing Company Asheville, NC

Nov 5 REEL ROCK Film Tour Studio Movie Grill Charlotte, NC

Nov 16 REEL ROCK Film Tour Onsight Rock Gym Knoxville, TN

Nov 5 Wild & Scenic Film Festival Belcourt Theatre Nashville, TN

Nov 16 Wild & Scenic Film Festival Avalon Theatre Easton, MD

Nov 7-8 REEL ROCK Film Tour Belcourt Theatre Nashville, TN

Dec 15 REEL ROCK Film Tour Cliff Hangers Climbing & Fitness Mooresville, NC

Nov 8 REEL ROCK Film Tour Rock/Creek Paddlesports and Outlet Chatanooga, TN Nov 9 Wild & Scenic Film Festival Auburn University at Montgomery Montgomery, AL Nov 10 REEL ROCK Film Tour Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts Philadelphia, PA Nov 12-14 REEL ROCK Film Tour AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center Silver Spring, MD Nov 15 REEL ROCK Film Tour Heritage Sandy Springs Atlanta, GA Nov 15 Wild & Scenic Film Festival Seacrets Morley Hall Ocean City, MD

Jan 5 Mountainfilm on Tour Carrollton Cultural Arts Center Carrollton, GA Jan 11

Wild & Scenic Film Festival Straight to Ale Brewing Huntsville, AL Jan 18-21 Lookout Wild Film Festival Tivoli Theatre Chatanooga TN Jan 23-Feb 2 Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour National Geographic LIVE! Washington, DC Jan 24-26 Mountainfilm on Tour Trustees Theater Savannah, GA Feb 1 REEL ROCK Film Tour Haymarket Theater at Squires Student Center Blacksburg, VA

Feb 8 Mountainfilm on Tour Coligny Theatre Hilton Head, SC Feb 20 Mountainfilm on Tour McAllister Hall at Berry College Rome, GA Mar 1-2 Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour Philadelphia Rock Gyms Immaculata (Philadelphia), PA Mar 7-9 Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour James River High School Midlothian, VA Mar 10-11 Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour The Shenandoah National Park Trust Charlottesville, VA Mar 13

Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour New River Land Trust Blacksburg, VA Mar 14-15 Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour Climb Nashville Nashville, TN Mar 15-17 Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour Brevard College Brevard, NC Mar 16 Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour REI Atlanta, GA

Mar 17-18 Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour Blumenthal Performing Arts McGlohon Theater at Spirt Square Charlotte, NC Mar 19-20 Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour Half-Moon Outfitters Columbia, SC Mar 20 Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour Half-Moon Outfitters Athens, GA Mar 21 Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour Half-Moon Outfitters Augusta, GA Mar 22-23 Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour Appalachian State University Boone, NC Mar 22-24 Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour Half-Moon Outfitters Greenville, SC Mar 24 Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour REI High Point, NC Mar 25 Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour REI Durham, NC Mar 25-26 Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour Bijou Theatre Knoxville, TN

N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 8 / B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M

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FLASHPOINT

Why is the Outdoors Still So White?

We need to do more than talk about diversity.

B Y M I R N A VA L E R I O

THE WORD DIVERSITY GETS USED A LOT THESE DAYS, ESPECIALLY IN THE OUTDOOR COMMUNITY.

abled folks enough to dismantle the deeply entrenched, systemic notions You may have seen the latest media of who belongs/who doesn’t belong campaigns focused on diversity, equity, out in nature? and inclusion. Actually, I’m sure you’ve No. seen them—diversity is sexy, trendy, Diversity, equity, and inclusion in and the IN thing in the outdoors. the outdoor community requires much If you don’t have a person of color more. To be clear, representation is represented at the forefront of your ad a priority, obviously, because when campaigns, social media feeds, and you see folks who share some magazine covers, then you’re doing it characteristics with you (whether wrong, it seems. cultural or not), you are better able to So what’s the big deal? Why is see yourself doing the same. When everyone jumping on this diversity you view someone similar to you bandwagon, at this particular time in in a magazine or on the interwebz history? Is it a trendy fad? Will it dry engaging in outdoor activities that up like a raisin in the sun, or will you previously thought were it remain a priority for the reserved for a different type outdoor community? of person, you begin to My hope is that it believe that you can also “IS DIVERSITY A will challenge those do these things.

TRENDY FAD, OR who maintain their Sometimes this WILL IT REMAIN A PRIORITY FOR innocence around concept is difficult to THE OUTDOOR issues of discrimination, understand for those COMMUNITY?” microagressive who’ve always been behavior, and implicit able to see ourselves bias to acknowledge their plastered throughout indifference to others’ lived all forms of media. But I experiences and perspectives. encourage all to keep an open mind, Many an outdoor company has and to see this work not as divisive, taken on this work full throttle, but as work that strives to forge deep, engaging “ambassadors” and meaningful relationships between “influencers” in diversity-flavored marginalized communities and the events that may or may not include outdoor industry. panel discussions, keynote speakers, But deeper and more pointed work and “activations”—showing up in is necessary in order to make lasting places where diversity happens. change in the outdoor industry. In But is this enough? Is this my experience, both as a diversity representation of non-white, non-male, educator and trail runner, I’ve come non-cisgender, non-thin, differentlyto some conclusions about what is 16

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needed in an outdoor company, or any organization, really: Required research, education, and training at all levels in a company on key social justice issues and how they inform and reflect the lived experiences of non-dominant cultures. The entire company should be on board, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but it’s the only way to progress along with well, the rest of the world.

A deep look into company culture as it pertains to diversity. Are folks happy? Do they feel silenced? Are they truly encouraged to be part of every aspect of the organization?

Acknowledgment that different people actually have different lived experiences and worldviews, and that these affect the way we interact with each other, what activities we choose to engage in, and what we prioritize in our lives.

A real, informed commitment and strategic plan to ensure that all communities are included and represented consistently within the company, in marketing and advertising, and the presence of those communities in key creative and decision-making roles.

A willingness to own and fix mistakes (such as culturally insensitive marketing and business practices) and a concurrent commitment to calling out others in the industry who continue to engage in habits that continue to push folks to the margin.

It’s possible to be a more welcoming industry, not in a kum-ba-ya way, but in B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

a real, educated, more sophisticated approach.

When I moved to the North Georgia Mountains, I knew that despite my skin color, I would find a home in the trail running community of the Southern Appalachians. I knew this because I felt a certain entitlement to exist in the outdoors as my authentic self, as my black self, as my woman self, as my fat self, as my cisgender self, as my educator self.

I knew that the trail did not care who I was. Neither did the rocks beneath my feet, the low-hanging branches that would occasionally snatch my trucker cap, the roots hidden beneath damp fall leaves that made me look like a baby deer learning to walk, and the slippery stones at the bottoms of clear and cold rivers.

I am human, and part of the natural world. We all are. And we all deserve the opportunity to exist in the outdoors and to experience nature as we wish.

No matter what I looked like, where I was from, or what level of experience I’ve had walking and running through the dark and curvy corners of the natural world, I knew that I belonged.

It’s on each one of us to ensure that all people feel that same sense of belonging when they venture into the outdoors.

Mirna Valerio is a 2018 National Geographic Adventurer, ultrarunner, educator, and author of A Beautiful Work in Progress.

G O O U TA N D P L AY

B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

MAKING SPACE Diversify Outdoors is changing the face of adventure.

At the beginning of this year, #DiversifyOutdoors had only been tagged a few hundfred times on Instagram. Danielle Williams, founder of Team Blackstar Skydivers and Melanin Base Camp, posted a lot of those photographs.

Then Williams launched Diversify Outdoors, an online coalition of organizations and people who are promoting diversity and inclusion in the outdoors. Eight months later, #DiversifyOutdoors has been tagged more than 20,000 times on Instagram.

“It was a confirmation for me that I’m not the only one, and none of us are the only ones,” Williams said. “There’s a community out there. It’s just a matter of getting people connected. And that’s kind of our role as digital influencers.”

Williams grew up running and hiking outside with her family in North Carolina. But it was not until she joined the Army in 2006 that she learned to parachute. In 2011, she started skydiving in between tours and has recorded more than 600 jumps in seven years.

She started Team Blackstar in 2014 to promote African Americans in the skydiving world. Williams knew there were other skydivers of color out there, but she did not see them represented by the larger skydiving community.

As Team Blackstar grew to 270 skydivers around the world, Williams started thinking more broadly about the

outdoor community as a whole. In 2016, she started Melanin Base Camp on Instagram as a place for people of color to share their adventure stories and photographs.

“I wanted it to be a hub for different kinds of people who do different types of things,” Williams said. Here, Danielle talks about how Melanin Base Camp took off and became a launching pad for Diversify Outdoors.

Where did the idea for Melanin Base Camp come from?

“At the time, I was looking for a community of other people of color who were excited about adventure sports. It was hard to find everyone; there wasn’t any one central hashtag. So I spent hours and hours online. I did it the hard way, scrolling through generic hashtags until I found other people of color.

How did the coalition Diversify Outdoors form?

I started meeting other people who were doing the same thing. I think 2016 was just the year people were like, 'Hey if I can’t find this community, I’m going to create it.' At the same time, Jenny Bruso started Unlikely Hikers and Ambreen [Tariq] started Brown People Camping. Brothers of Climbing had been going at it for a few years already when I started Melanin Base Camp. I think finding other people online was really encouraging. We were all doing our separate thing on separate tracks, but we started connecting via phone calls and eventually started appearing on panels together. So we all kind of

BY ELLEN KANZINGER PHOTOS BY DON CARRINGTON

agreed to work together.

What is your goal for these platforms?

We’re not going to fix anything; we’re not trying to. We’re not going to get rid of the trolls or people who feel uncomfortable with diversity. Hopefully, that’ll change over time. That’s not an overnight project and it’s definitely not ours. We just want people to be able to see themselves reflected, whether they are black or Asian or have a disability or identify as queer, we want people to have a space where they can see themselves reflected in the outdoors.

What have you learned from this community you helped cultivate?

When I started out, I didn’t do indigenous geotagging, I didn’t do captions for the visually impaired and now I do. It took me two years of seeing other people do that who have similar outdoor diversity and inclusion accounts, seeing how they do it and hearing why it’s important, and then eventually incorporating that into my own work.

What is your advice to someone who is just starting to explore the outdoors?

When we think of the outdoors, it’s kind of a very narrow sense of what constitutes being outdoors. It doesn’t always have to be half day hikes to the mountains or a really expensive trip to Zion or Bryce Canyon. It doesn’t have to be that sort of commitment. It can be something as simple as going for a walk in the evening or going to a local

park, all of that counts as being in the outdoors. I think once we redefine what we consider to be the outdoors, people will surprise themselves. At the same time, being in the outdoors can be really expensive.

We shouldn’t pretend that nature is free because nature requires a lot of gear to do it safely. If you don’t purchase all of the gear, people will be the first to tell you that you shouldn’t have been out there without a hydration pack. Well, a hydration pack costs money. So I think it’s a balance, doing small things that you feel are within your means that you feel comfortable with, like going with your friends, going with a group, going through MeetUp. com. But also realizing that things cost time, they cost money. Time is money.

Time is also childcare and paid time off from work.

Who inspires you in the outdoor world?

There are a lot through social media. I am definitely inspired by Vasu Sojitra.

He is a North Face athlete and he does really good advocacy work in Montana.

Don Nguyen, a Vietnamese guide and mountaineer who operates out of Mount Rainier. Dani Burt, an adaptive surfing Olympian two years in a row from California… They inspire me as athletes and advocates.

Diversity Outdoors includes 29 organizations, and growing, like Flash Foxy, OUT There Adventures, Native Women’s Wilderness, and Outdoor Asian.

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30

Alleigh Raymond, 15 FLY FISHER, N.C.

under 30

BY ELLEN KANZINGER

In the five years since a family friend took her fly fishing for the first time, Alleigh Raymond has been working to increase young women’s participation in the sport through her work on the Trout Unlimited’s Youth Leadership Council and volunteering in the community.

“Since I’ve been fly fishing, I have encountered a lot of negativity from the younger demographic of teenage boys and even grown men,” she said. “I really just want the upcoming generation of women in fly fishing to not have to have to experience that.”

Raymond is partnering with the Asheville Orvis store on their 50/50 On the Water Campaign to get more girls and women fishing. She plans to host a day on the water for young girls and teens in November.

A L L E I G H R AY M O N D / P H O T O B Y C O N N O R PA R T O N P H O T O G R A P H Y

Ashley Manning, 26 RAFT GUIDE, S.C.

Blue Ridge Outdoors spoke with 30 people from across the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, 30 years and younger, who are driving the next generation of outdoor leaders. They are athletes, entrepreneurs, activists, and weekend warriors.

In the growing community of people working to increase diversity in the outdoors, Ashley Manning is adding her name to the list. She started working as a whitewater raft guide in college after falling in love with paddling and kept returning each summer.

Inspired by Jenny Bruso’s Unlikely Hiker online community, Manning created Unlikely Paddlers as a way to highlight diversity on the water.

“I am trying to create a safer space for people who might not be as likely to paddle,” she said. “I’ve been a plussized woman all my life… so definitely showing people what I’m made of.”

Although Manning’s campaign is just getting off the ground, she hopes it will inspire other people to get on the water. She also writes about her experiences for The Trek.

Favorite whitewater spot: “Colorado River, but the Chattooga has my heart.”

Ben King, 29 CYCLIST, VA.

Cycling started out as a family thing for Ben King; his dad, uncle, and brother all raced. Now, the five-time national champion splits his time between Virginia and Italy as he competes internationally as a member of the South African team, Dimension Data.

“I still do the bulk of my training in Virginia,” King said. “In my opinion, DAMON HILL BALANCING ON SARAH'S SUNRISE OVER THE LINVILLE GORGE / PHOTO

BY STEVE YOCOM.

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B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

ASHLEY MANNING / PHOTO BY LINDSEY BROWN

it’s the best place in the world to train around the Blue Ridge.”

At the end of August, King added his first Grand Tour win to his resume when he won stage 4 of the Vuelta a España. He followed that up with a win in stage 9 a few days later, placing 35th overall. Favorite race: Tour of California.

Ben Smith, 29

FOUNDER OF GOOSEFEET, GA.

When Ben Smith was a junior in college, he and a few friends decided to take a backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail in the middle of January. They were greeted with temperatures of five degrees.

After that miserable trip, Smith started looking around for ultra light insulation gear so he wouldn’t be in the same situation again. Unable to find anything in his price range, he decided to make his own. Eventually, Smith had enough requests from other people to set up a website and GooseFeet was born.

Smith has carved out a niche market with his customizable jackets, working with each customer on their measurements and specifications. All GooseFeet products, including socks, pants, and pillows, are made in the United States.

G O O U TA N D P L AY

B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

B R I T TA N Y L E AV I T T

BEN SMITH

BEN KING / PHOTO BY STIEHL PHOTOGRAPHY

Brittany Leavitt, 29

OUTDOOR INSTRUCTOR, MD.

Whether she’s teaching preschoolers at the Smithsonian Museum or instructing rock climbers on proper technique, Brittany Leavitt is a mentor and advocate for the next generation of outdoor trailblazers.

She leads climbing, backpacking, and hiking classes around the MidAtlantic as an REI instructor. Leavitt works with Brown Girls Climb to increase representation in the climbing community. In October, the organization partnered with Brothers of Climbing to put on the second annual Color the Crag Climbing Festival in Steele, Ala. As the West Coast regional leader for Outdoor Afro, she coordinates events to reconnect the black community to the outdoors. In June, Leavitt and ten other Outdoor Afro leaders, ages 25 to 60, became the first all black American group to summit Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

Damon Hill, 25

SLACKLINER, S.C.

As slacklining grew in popularity, Damon Hill established himself as a master of balance and an advocate for the sport. Hill spent two and a half years traveling the country

as a professional slackliner before transitioning into more of a mentor and teacher role.

“I slowly learned how to rig highlines, how to be a facilitator of the sport rather than just a participator,” Hill said. “The immediate response from most people is they think it’s so dangerous. Truth be told, it’s much safer than most extreme sports.”

In 2017, he co-founded the Southeast Slackline Coalition with a friend to increase access for riggings on public lands and to educate the public on the safety of the sport. When he’s not balancing on a line two inches wide, Hill is also an amateur filmmaker and co-founder of Kayeke, an outdoor apparel company.

Damon Yeh, 30 CLIMBER, MD.

Damon Yeh lives out his interest in conservation through his job and his hobbies. During the day, Yeh works as a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in their international division, coordinating exchanges of ideas and delegations with partnering countries in the Asia program.

But in his free time, you can find him outdoors climbing and backpacking around the country. His background in natural land management helps in his role on the board for Mid Atlantic N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 8 / B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M

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KYLE (LEFT) AND TREVOR (RIGHT) RITLAND

EMMA WRIGHT

JOSHUA JULIAN

GERRY JAMES

K AY L A C A R T E R

JUZZL GARCIA / PHOTO BY M AT T H E W B U R K E

DAMON YEH

Climbers, managing their stewardship program.

Yeh coordinates volunteers for trail cleanups and works with other agencies to open up public lands for climbers. In 2016, Mid Atlantic Climbers worked with Access Fund and the National Park Service to increase access to Catoctin Mountain.

Emma Wright, 23

FOUNDER OF ALTA TRAILS, N.C.

Emma Wright says she was acutely aware of her gender during the four and a half months she took off from college to thru hike the Appalachian Trail.

“Overall, about a quarter of the thru hikers on the Appalachian Trail are women,” she said. “But the number of solo women is a fraction of that.”

Wright, a cultural anthropology major at Duke, wrote her senior thesis about how hikers form bonds and form boundaries on the trail.

She interviewed thru-hikers while on the trail and conducted follow up interviews about the reentry process.

In conducting this research, Wright was bothered by the lack of racial and gender diversity on the trail.

With her own experience in mind, Wright started Alta Trails to offer 20

IAN NIBLOCK

affordable backpacking trips in North Carolina and Virginia for anyone who identifies as a woman. Through donations, she provides all of the gear and supplies needed for the weekend trips as she works to break down some of the barriers for those who have never been backpacking. As the program grows, Wright hopes to offer trips for a variety of age groups and skill levels.

Trail name: Wonka

Gerry James, 28

FOUNDER OF THE EXPLORE KENTUCKY INITIATIVE, KY.

The Explore Kentucky Initiative in 2013 started as an Instagram account to promote outdoor recreation and conservation in Kentucky. Gerry James, a senior in college at the time, was one of the only people in the state using social media to promote Kentucky beyond bourbon, bluegrass, and basketball.

In 2016, the initiative evolved from a social media campaign to an organization as James began taking on projects, such as helping counties brand their resources. James started the Kentucky Waterman Series in 2017, a collection of paddle races across Kentucky that allow competitors to

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KAI LIGHTNER / PHOTO BY THE CIRCUIT CLIMBING MEDIA

earn points the more events they compete in.

The mayor of Glasgow approached James in February for help developing the Beaver Creek Blueway Trail, Explore Kentucky’s first outdoor infrastructure project. James took the lead on mapping and branding the trail, designing access points, and organizing river clean ups.

He received the American Canoe Association’s 2018 Volunteer of the Year Award for his leadership and dedication to paddlesports.

Ian Niblock, 27

HEAD CIDER MAKER AT BOLD ROCK (NELLYSFORD), VA.

Bold Rock Hard Cider had only been around for a year when Ian Niblock started out as an assistant cider maker right out of college.

Fast-forward five years, Niblock is now the Head Cider Maker in Nellysford, Va. and Bold Rock is the number two best-selling cider in the United States. Niblock said they bottle around 15,000 liters of cider a day, six days a week.

“One of the first times it really hit home for me was when I saw an empty bottle of Bold Rock, like litter, on the side of the road,” Niblock said.

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“Obviously I cleaned it up, but it stuck to me as, oh, people actually like this.”

Most underrated cider: pear cider

Joshua Julian, 29

FOUNDER OF MAMMOTH CLOTHING CO., ALA.

Mammoth Clothing Company is a physical manifestation of Joshua Julian’s motto: get outside and do good.

For the first part of the mission, Julian wanted a way to brand the outdoors in the Southeast beyond the “status quo.”

“It’s very heavily saturated with hunting, fishing, stuff like that,” he said. “But there’s some amazing things in the Southeast that are out there as far as hiking, kayaking, some amazing waterfalls. You don’t have to go to Colorado, you don’t have to go to California.”

Proceeds from the sale of t-shirts and hats go towards the second mission, doing good in the community.

Julian and Mammoth Clothing partner with organizations like Tuscaloosa’s One Place to help adults and juveniles who have recently gotten out of prison, teaching life skills and offering emotional support.

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Juzl Garcia, 26 HIKER, N.C.

Juzl Garcia is the epitome of the weekend warrior. It has only been within the last year that she started to explore all that the mountains of Western North Carolina have to offer. Now Garcia spends virtually every weekend hiking a new trail, documenting her experiences with photographs. Through her Instagram, she started meeting other people in the area who were doing similar things on the weekends and going on hikes with them.

As Garcia found internal peace on the mountains, she started looking for jobs that would allow her to be closer to those opportunities.

As fate would have it, she just landed a job in Asheville.

“If I could do what I’m passionate about doing in terms of a career and also be at the same place where I feel extremely alive, then why can’t I have both?” she said.

Favorite hike: Hawksbill Mountain

Kai Lightner, 18 CLIMBER, N.C.

Rock climbing is heading to the 2020 Olympics for the first time and Kai Lightner is hoping to be among the first competitors to represent the United States. There will be three rock climbing events: bouldering, sport, and speed, to test the athlete’s agility, power, and endurance.

As the story goes, Lightner’s journey to one of the top climbers in the United States started at age six when his mother found him climbing up a flagpole. The next day, she dropped him off at a local gym after school and he was hooked.

In the twelve years he has been climbing, Lightner has earned 12 National Championship titles, ten in youth categories and 2 in the adult circuit, and is a 5-time youth world championship medalist, including one gold.

In August, he started at Babson College in Boston to be closer to his coach as he trains for the Olympic qualifiers.

“When I first began this sport, the Olympics were not an option,” Lightner said. “I joined this sport because I loved the movement and the Olympics kind of hopped up on my lap.”

Favorite place to climb: Red River Gorge

Kayla Carter, 29

OUTDOOR DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, TENN.

Kayla Carter gets things done, especially when they involve working outdoors. She grew up in East Tennessee, went to college in the area, and now works to bring more people to the place she loves.

In her role as Outdoor Development Manager for the Northeast Tennessee Regional Economic Partnership, Carter helps promote outdoor recreation opportunities in the region. She was instrumental in organizing the first Meet at the Mountains festival in Johnson City and launching the Appalachian Trail Tennessee Podcast.

The Society of Outdoor Recreation Professionals and the National Trail Systems recognized Carter for her work with scholarships to attend conferences.

Carter successfully completed the Appalachian Trail in 2014 and still maintains a three-mile section of the trail near the state border with the Tennessee Eastman Hiking Club in her spare time.

Kyle and Trevor Ritland, 25 FOUNDERS OF ADVENTURE TERM, S.C.

Twin brothers Kyle and Trevor Ritland were always outside growing up, chasing snakes and butterflies with their biologist parents. Now, the brothers are taking their passion for the environment and storytelling to create Adventure Term.

This experience-based educational organization offers students and young professionals the opportunity to explore unique environmental issues while learning the communication skills needed to talk about them to a larger audience.

“Our students are the ones writing these articles, they're holding the camera making a documentary,” Kyle Ritland said. “So the goal is not only to produce a documentary, telling this story, but sharing the knowledge that we've learned on the trip with other people.”

In the summer of 2019, the Ritlands will run their first student program as a non-profit, “On the Border.” Participants will examine the ecological consequences of the proposed southwestern border wall on the species that make their homes in those ecosystems.

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MARCUS FITTS

NADIO MERCADO

N ATA L I E D E R AT T

NICK GILSON

LUZ LITUMA

Liz Canty, 27

ULTRA MARATHONER, ALA.

Liz Canty has only been running ultra marathons for two years, but she has already positioned herself as one of the top trail runners in the country.

In March, Canty became one of the youngest women to complete a loop at Barkley Marathons. The race is limited to forty runners every year and only fifteen people have completed all five loops since the race was first run in 1986.

When Liz Canty isn’t running ultra marathons, she’s volunteering for any runner who needs assistance at local races, playing doctor, babysitter, chef, and running coach. Most recognize her on the trail, and Instagram, by her awesome leg tattoos.

Favorite race: Canty took first place in the 2017 Pinhoti 100, her first 100mile race.

Luz Lituma, 29

CO-FOUNDER OF LATINXHIKERS, GA. LatinXhikers started out as two friends getting outside together, going on hikes and sharing their adventures online. Luz Lituma and Adriana Garcia wanted to highlight diversity and inspire more people of color to get outdoors.

As the popularity of the account grew, LatinXhikers evolved from a social media account to a larger 22

PA L M E R ( L E F T ) A N D M A S O N (RIGHT) KASPROWICZ

LIZ CANTY

movement to make the outdoors more accessible.

“We thought it would be a community of close friends and stuff,” Lituma said. “Never in our heads did we think that we’d gain so many followers and have REI reach out to us.”

Lituma and Garcia received sponsorship from REI to host hikes that are free and easy to reach from whatever city they are in as they encourage more active participation outside.

Marcus Fitts, 29

FOUNDER OF DISTRICT TRIATHLON, MD.

When Marcus Fitts was trying to get back in shape after knee surgery, he looked to his friends for support. Within six months, three friends turned into District Triathlon, a triathlon team of 113 athletes.

“The goal of the organization is to introduce people of color to multi sports,” Fitts said. “We really thought there needed to be a better balance between mental and physical health in the community.”

In addition to providing training and coaches, District Triathlon asks members to complete at least ten hours of community service. As Fitts is transitioning out of his full-time job into full-time coaching, he is looking to secure a title sponsor for the organization and is training for his first

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Ironman.

Mason, 16, and Palmer, 15, Kasprowicz FOUNDERS OF FLIES BY TWO BROTHERS, VA.

Flies equal money for college times two (F = MC*2). That’s the equation Mason and Palmer Kasprowicz came up with to explain their business, Flies

by Two Brothers. They started tying fishing flies and selling them in 2014, saving their profits for college tuition.

In the last four years, the brothers have sold almost 4,000 of their homemade flies through trade shows and their online store.

Mason Kasprowicz said the business is about more than the money. The boys also learned “How to write good emails, how to talk to people, make eye contact, website building, knowing how to make taxes, all important life skills that come with operating a business.”

In their spare time, the brothers are president and vice president of their high school’s fishing club and are youth representatives for the Northern Virginia Chapter of Trout Unlimited.

Nadia Mercado, 26

HIKER AND SKYDIVER, N.C.

Nadia Mercado wanted to try skydiving at a young age.

“I saw the Power Rangers do it when I was five years old and I was B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

like, “oh my god, I need to do that some day,” she said.

Mercado jumped out of a plane for her 23rd birthday and has completed 157 jumps since then. When she’s not working as a cardiac nurse, she coordinates community service events for Team Blackstar Skydivers and writes about racial justice and gender equality in the outdoors for Melanin Base Camp.

Mercado was accepted into the 2018 Emerging Leaders program for the SHIFT (Shaping How we Invest For Tomorrow) Festival in Jackson, Wyoming. This year’s festival will cover the healthcare benefits of spending time outside.

Natalie DeRatt, 30

OUTDOOR MEDIA, KY.

Like many bobsledders, Natalie DeRatt started as a runner. She moved from England to the United States on a track scholarship from UNC Asheville before making the transition to a new sport. She represented Team USA and then Great Britain in several international competitions, working 40 hours a week for Eagles Nest Outfitters and training another 40 hours on top of that.

When a leg injury cut her competitive career short, DeRatt took her love for the outdoors with her as she started her own marketing and communications firm, Carmen and G O O U TA N D P L AY

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Grace. She specializes in helping smaller brands in the outdoor industry, like Crazy Creek, Bellyak, and Recover.

Nick Gilson, 29

FOUNDER OF GILSON SNOW, PA.

Nick Gilson was teaching middle school science in Tennessee when he launched Gilson Snow from his classroom. Two years later, he moved to Pennsylvania to build snowboards and skis full time. In the beginning, Gilson assembled every board himself from locally grown trees.

But since 2013, the company has doubled in size every year, expanding into markets across the United States, Europe, Australia, and Northeast Asia.

The snowboards and skis are still made locally from local lumber, but there is no way for Gilson to touch every board that the company sells.

Gilson has received numerous awards in innovative product development and holds several snowboard and ski patents for his designs.

“We’ve really focused in on building boards that are simply more fun to ride,” Gilson said. “So they have more play, but then they have the ability to be incredible aggressive carvers.”

Nick Massey, 18

TRAIL MAINTENANCE, N.C.

Since 2016, Nick Massey has logged over 3,000 volunteer hours in the National Forest, repairing trails, cleaning up trash, removing non-native invasive plants, and whatever else is needed. He works with Wild South to coordinate community volunteers, leading trail maintenance crews in Linville Gorge, Lost Cove, and Harper Creek.

“I think that if you love a place, you need to get out there and help take care of it,” he said.

Because he spends so much time out on the trails, Massey also started volunteering with the Linville Wilderness Rescue Squad to assist in wilderness rescue operations. He just enrolled in a basic EMT course and likes to take photographs of wildlife in his spare time.

Paris Brown, 28 CLIMBER, D.C.

Paris Brown was always active growing up, mostly playing traditional sports like basketball and football. She took a parkour class at a local gym in college and from there, her friends introduced her to climbing. She started competing in Spartan races and mini

bouldering competitions around the D.C. area.

On a whim, she decided to apply for a spot on season 9 of American Ninja Warrior and had a chance to compete on the show last year. Although she didn’t do as well as she thought she could, Brown plans to apply for a second chance.

“It’s kind of just putting myself out there a little bit, trying to show that there are other people who climb and they’re not necessarily what you always see,” Brown said.

Follow her on Instagram: @paris_ mvmt

NICK MASSY / PHOTO BY C AT H Y A N D E R S O N

PA R I S B R O W N

Randi Goodman, 26

MOUNTAIN BIKER, VA.

For Randi Goodman, the outside is the place to be and she wants to get more people involved. While at King University, she helped her team win two National Championships, one in mountain biking and the other in cyclocross. Around the same time, Goodman started working at Mountain Sports Ltd, an outdoor store specializing in equipment and information.

Now a full-time employee, Goodman wants to start beginnerfriendly rides for people who might not have as much experience on bikes but want to get outdoors. She’s also helping write grants to fund the Mendota Trail, a rails to trail under construction in Washington County, Va. “I just want to encourage more women to get out there and get muddy and sweaty and dirty. I mean, I'll still paint my nails and grab on to my handlebars,” Goodman said.

Rashid Clifton, 24

WHITEWATER KAYAKER, N.C.

As a teenager, Rashid Clifton would spend hours driving from Charlotte, N.C. to the coast in order to spend whatever time he could surfing. Then a teacher told him about the U.S. National Whitewater Center, right in his backyard.

Clifton started working as a raft guide at the center when he turned 18.

One day after work, a friend invited him to try out a kayak.

“She tried to teach me how to roll and it didn’t go great,” Clifton said.

“But after that, I was pretty determined to get it. Once I got it down, you just couldn’t stop me from kayaking.”

Most weekends you can catch Clifton at the center or kayaking around the Southeast. He has completed the notorious Green River

SARAH BROWN

RASHID CLIFTON / PHOTO

BY JUSTIN KESTLER

RANDI GOODMAN

R O WA N S T U A R T / P H O T O

BY CHAD BLOTNER

Race and plans to tackle the Lord of the Fork Race and the Ocoee River Race.

mountain bike.

Favorite trick: the McNasty

Rowan Stuart, 22

RESORT MANAGEMENT, PA.

FREESTYLE KAYAKER, N.C.

Rowan Stuart has been a player on the freestyle kayaking scene since she was fifteen. Whitewater freestyle involves throwing as many tricks as possible in a specific amount of time.

Since 2012, she has made Team USA every year. In that time, Stuart has been to three world championships and two world cups, winning the Junior Women’s Freestyle World Championship in 2013. She also took second at the Green River Race in 2016.

Now, Stuart is taking a step back from competing to work as an instructor at H2O Dreams Paddling School in Saluda, N.C. She wants to get certified to judge freestyle competitions and is learning how to

Sarah Brown, 26

Sarah Brown likes to start each morning outside, usually as first one on the ropes course or the ski lift depending on what season it is. During the summer months, Brown oversees the zipline course and mountain bike program as assistant manager of adventures at Seven Springs Mountain Resort, the same place she learned to snowboard at eight years old. In the winter, she runs the show down the road at Laurel Mountain as operations manager, handling anything that may come up over the course of the season.

“I knew I wanted to be outdoors somehow in my life,” Brown said. “And then once I fell into this role, I want to be in it for the rest of my life.”

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Best Tech for the Outdoors

Thermacell Radius Zone

We know. you hit the outdoors to escape from the trappings of modern life. But sometimes, a little tech can enhance your outdoor experience. Here are our favorite high tech pieces of gear.

DJI Mavic Air drone

OneWheel +XR

B Y G R A H A M AV E R I L L

Spot X

THE TOP 10 OneWheel +XR

At this point, you’ve definitely seen the OneWheel in action—your hipster neighbor probably commutes to his co-working space on one. But the new model, XR, is a significant upgrade to the original technology. You get the same body-shifting start/go platform but the XR doubles the original model’s range, giving you 12-18 miles of freedom with a top speed of 19mph.

It’s all thanks to the new Hypercore Motor, which uses NMC cells to increase the battery’s power without significantly increasing the weight. The new tech could turn OneWheel into a legitimate transportation option for a significant portion of the population.

You can even connect your board to a smartphone app that tracks your ride and lets you share it with friends, so they can be jealous that you have a OneWheel and they don’t. $1799; onewheel.com 24

Altra Timp IQ

A.T. thru-hikers have come to love Altra trail running shoes in recent years because of the large toe box, which provides plenty of room for the hiker’s swelling feet. Now, datacrunchers have a reason to convert to Altra. The Timp IQ takes Altra’s super cush and stable trail platform (which also features a zero drop from heel to forefoot) and imbeds it with foot bed sensors that provide info on your foot strike, cadence, impact rate and contact time. The data is uploaded to your phone and you can use the info to make your stride more efficient, increase speed and reduce injuries.

It’s like having a running coach in the sole of your shoe. $199; altrarunning. com

Rylo

This mountable action camera shoots 4K video in 360 degrees, and it does

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it without that awkward bent screen that most other 360-degree cameras deliver. So, you get a legitimate full view of whatever scene you’re shooting. Even better, it’s easy to use, from the one-button shooting to the back-end editing, which allows you to point the camera while you’re editing the video, so you never miss the shot.

The stabilization is unparalleled, and there’s a cool “follow” mode that allows you to track a single person or object throughout the video. You have to sandwich the camera in a case to make Rylo waterproof, and it pairs with your phone via a cord instead of Bluetooth, which feels antiquated until you see how quickly the hard connection works. $499; rylo.com

BioLite SolarHome 620

Got vanlife aspirations? Or maybe treehouse life? BioLite has introduced a self-contained solar light and B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

charging kit that offers plug-n-play convenience to any off-grid scenario.

The SolarHome 620 comes with a 6-watt solar panel, three daisy chain lights and a control box that controls the lights, charges your devices and plays radio and MP3 music. The solar panel will charge the whole system in about 7 hours of sunlight, and the lights offer 400 lumens that you can spread out into three different areas.

There’s even a motion sensor option.

And the whole thing packs into a shoebox. Dipping your toe into solar energy has never been easier. $149; bioliteenergy.com

DJI Mavic Air drone

You can buy a good drone or you can buy a cheap drone, but you can’t buy a good cheap drone. At least, that used to be the unwritten rule until DJI introduced the Mavic Air, which offers professional-level capabilities G O O U TA N D P L AY

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in less time than it takes to set up your tent. Thermacell’s new Radius Zone is designed to give you a bug-free campsite (or patio, or backyard…). Hit the button and the Radius Zone emits Metofluthrin, a pesticide that’s been shown to repel up to 97% of mosquitos in field tests, giving you a 110-square feet repellent zone. No butane, no spray, no DEET, no nets…and no mosquitos. The rechargeable Radius Zone uses repellent refill pouches which last for 40 hours each, and the machine itself runs for six hours, giving you plenty of time for dinner and s’mores. $50; Thermacell.com

Suunto Traverse

Rylo

Specialized Turbo Levo

Specialized Turbo Levo Altra Timp IQ EcoFlow River

BioLite SolarHome 620 at a consumer-friendly price. This tiny helicopter has 21 minutes of flight time and a 4-km transmission distance, so it can stay in the air for as long as you need in order to get that hero shot. And it has an advanced piloting system that lets the drone detect obstructions in real time and avoid them, so no more crashing into cliffs.

It shoots 12 megapixel photos and has a panorama mode that captures 360-degree images. We like the userfriendly features like “active track,” which trains the camera on a specific subject. It’s also tiny, folding up into a pocket-sized helicopter. $800; dji.com

EcoFlow River

Forget noisy gas generators, EcoFlow River is a next generation, clean energy power solution with a massive power output. The portable lithium ION battery holds 416 watt hours of power and has 11 different charging

ports, from USB to AC-110volt to a 12volt car port. All in, you get a total output of 500 watts, so you can charge your drone, your laptop, your speaker… all at the same time. Recharge the River through a wall outlet or car in about eight hours, or connect it to EcoFlow’s solar panel and get a full charge in about 12 hours. It’s light and compact (11 pounds with a carrying handle) and features a digital display that shows you in real time the remaining battery capacity. The best part is that River will hold its charge for up to a year, so you can store it in the garage and forget about it until that storm knocks out your power line, or you have a car camping trip and you want to bring the blender, a mini-fridge and movie projector. $600; ecoflow.com

Spot X

Cell phones are awesome…when they work. But if you want to get deep into

the backcountry, you’re probably not going to have three bars and wifi. Spot X is a two-way satellite messenger that gives you the ability to communicate with your friends and family when your cell phone is just dead weight.

Each Spot X comes with a US phone number and a full keyboard, so you can send and receive messages from just about anywhere. There’s even a tracking mode that allows your loved ones to follow your progress on Google maps. It has a 10-day battery life in continuous tracking mode, and there’s an emergency button that connects you directly to Search and Rescue. And you can get a monthly flex plan so you only have to pay for the service when you’re actually using it. And yes, it’ll even post to social. $249; findmespot.com

Thermacell Radius Zone

Mosquitos can ruin a car camping trip

America is officially the only country left in the world that hasn’t fallen in love with e-bikes yet, but the brand new Turbo Levo might be the bike to win American hearts. The Turbo Levo uses the lightest, most powerful motor of any e-MTB on the market, with a range that’s been increased by 40% over last year’s model. Of course, there’s an app so you can control everything with your phone, but what you need to understand is that this is a legit bike that can handle legit terrain. The Turbo Levo is designed around the Stumpjumper frame, so the handling is precise. The battery is light and integrated (you can barely tell it’s an e-bike at first glance), and the different power modes let you fine tune how much pedal assist you want on the climb. This bike could eliminate the need for that shuttle truck or ski lift, allowing you to spin up the gravel roads and bomb the downhill on the same bike. And you’ll be smiling the entire time. Starting at $4,950; specialized.com

Suunto Traverse

Think the Apple Watch killed GPS watches? Think again. The Traverse has a bunch of features that will make it your go-to watch for trail pursuits, like topo maps and real time GPS navigation so you don’t have to keep pulling out your phone or paper map every time you come to a junction.

We also like the “heatmap” function, which lets you explore popular runs, rides and ski routes in your area.

You can save points along the way and re-trace your steps with a handy breadcrumb trail function. It even predicts the weather thanks to the built-in barometer, and tells you how much daylight you have. And it’s goodlooking, so you don’t feel like a geek wearing it to the coffee shop. $419; suunto.com

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Poptical Popstorm

Outdoor Tech Chips 2.0

GoPure PuriBloc

OMATA One

Bivystick

Zippo Heatbank 3

Princeton Tec SNAP

BioLite Fire Pit

Coolest Cooler

The Other 10 Outdoor Tech Chips 2.0

Put the Chips 2.0 into the ear muffs of your favorite helmet and you’ve got tunes pumped from your phone straight into your lid. The sound is great, but we really love the WalkieTalkie function that allows you to connect to friends with Chips 2.0 on the mountain without having to fish your phone out of your pocket. $129; outdoortechnology.com

Poptical Popstorm

Space in your pack is precious, but the sun is bright. Solution? Popticals, the world’s first wrap-around sunglasses that compact into themselves.

Popticals use a micro-rail system that allows the frames to fold into themselves and fit inside a tiny case that keeps them safe. $209; popticals.com 26

GoPure PuriBloc

The PuriBloc is a ceramic pod that collects impurities in tap water while releasing trace minerals. Drop a pod in your water bottle and let the allorganic ceramic go to work creating clean, great-tasting water. $25; gopurepod.com

BioLite Fire Pit

BioLite gives the campfire a tech boost with this steel fire box with a rechargeable battery pack that fuels a series of 51 air-jets that feed oxygen into the flames. The result is a campfire that smokes less and burns better.

Control the air jets with an app, and recharge your phone off the battery pack. $200; bioliteenergy.com

Coolest Cooler

This cooler is better than your cooler.

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Not only does it keep ice cold for days, it has a built-in blender and Bluetooth speaker, so you can make daiquiris while having a dance party. $399; coolest.com

into your favorite fitness apps, like Strava. All the convenience of digital, with the look and feel of analog. $550; Omata.com

Bivystick

One light for every task—that’s the idea behind the SNAP, a modular headlamp that converts to a handlebar light, clips to a carabiner so you can hang it from a tent, and attaches to any magnetic surface. And it’s 200 lumens and made in the US. $40; princetontec. com

The Bivystick turns your smart phone into a satellite messenger, letting you text your loved ones or contact rescue services, and share your location on a topo map. It gives you detailed weather forecasts based on your location and works as a backup battery for your phone. And there’s no annual contract. $349; bivy.com

OMATA One

The OMATA One looks like an analog speedometer, but it’s actually a smart GPS bike computer that translates all of your ride data to your phone, and B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

Princeton Tec SNAP

Zippo Heatbank 3

Cold hands suck. The Heatbank 3 is a rechargeable hand warmer with dualsided adjustable heat. It also serves as a power bank for your phone. $25; zippo.com G O O U TA N D P L AY

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GEAR UP SPE CI AL ADVE RT I SI N G SE CT I ON

T H I S Y E A R’ S HOTTEST P RODUCTS A R E H E RE —J UST I N TI M E FOR THE H O L I DAYS . GET I N GEA R!

TOP PICKS FOR GREAT GEAR

GIVEAWAY AMERICAN BACKCOUNTRY Bison Tee

SCOUTBOX 3 Month Subscription

PHOOZY XP3 Series

MOUNTAIN HOUSE Classic Bucket

GO SUN Portable Solar Cooker & Sport Pro Pack

WATERSHED McKenzie Handlebar Bag

BODY GLOVE Performer 11

PUFFPACK Star Spangled Inflatable Sofa

HYDRAPAK The Stow 1L

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parties with guests on her back patio, and now exchanges postcards with an old-fashioned pen pal from St. Louis who once stayed with her. She started hosting, however, out of necessity.

After a long-term rental situation in her house went sour, she found herself facing foreclosure. Isaacs had used Airbnb once before on a trip, and decided to give it a try. Within days of listing her home in May 2017, she had her first booking.

In the 30 years that Reese and Warner “I was able to save my house with have lived in their art-bespangled, Airbnb, long story short,” says Isaacs, book-cluttered home hugging the who teaches life and job skills to riverbank a few miles upstream of people with special needs. She sees Hendricks, West Virginia, this kind of the platform as a great opportunity for stunning sunset has become routine. “the little guy to make a little money What struck them most about that off of their space,” and is living proof of evening was how their guests, a the benefit it can offer those willing to vacationing couple from Washington, open their homes to strangers.

D.C., who’d found Reese on Airbnb, That’s an angle Airbnb is happy were so awed. to emphasize. Public affairs manager “We love sharing our space,” says Ben Breit writes in an email that the Reese. “That’s been one of the most platform’s ability to help hosts earn joyous parts of [hosting guests].” money and promote tourism widely Nearing retirement from her job “is providing the type of travel that is as a nursing professor, Reese listed best for destinations, residents, and her home on Airbnb in January 2017, travelers alike.” mainly hoping to generate a bit of In theory, Airbnb represents extra income. In the nearly economic opportunity for local two years since, the couple government through the says, the experience of 6 percent hotel/motel hosting travelers from tax it levies on lodging.

“I WAS ABLE TO near and far (Baltimore, Concern in Tucker SAVE MY HOUSE Peru, Columbus, County has arisen, WITH AIRBNB, LONG Malaysia, etc.) has however, over the fact STORY SHORT.” turned out to be the that Airbnb doesn’t highlight. collect this tax on behalf “We’ve joked we would of hosts there. Instead, let the place up for free it simply requires them to just to have these fascinating certify they understand their people,” says Warner, a photographer. responsibility to collect and remit any Those who’ve stayed with Reese applicable taxes. and Warner are part of a rapidly Within the past year, the county, growing crowd using Airbnb to book along with Davis and Thomas (which lodging in Tucker County, home to collect the lodging tax within municipal the Canaan Valley, Blackwater Falls limits), have launched outreach State Park, and the mountain getaways campaigns, including letters and doorof Davis and Thomas. According to knocking, to improve compliance. In the company, 8,700 guest nights Davis, the effort seems to have begun were booked in Tucker County in the paying off. Town Clerk Joni Felton says 12-month period ending July 31, 2018 monthly lodging tax revenues have – up significantly from the previous increased by around $500 since the year, and exponentially from the mere town began contacting Airbnb hosts.

200 guest nights booked there in In nearby Thomas, however, 2013. That’s made Tucker County one City Clerk Kathy Helmick is less of Airbnb’s fastest-growing markets in encouraged. She worries that some the state. hosts don’t realize that lodging tax Alison Isaacs, an Airbnb host in revenues sustain the area’s tourist Thomas, has also found unexpected economy by funding the local visitors reward in her interactions with guests. bureau and various public services. “[It’s] an opportunity for locals to “They just feel like [we’re] trying to share their world,” she says. “I know penalize them,” Helmick says. that I live in a wonderful place and I Tucker County Clerk Sherry love sharing it with others.”

Simmons also believes that the rapid Isaacs enjoys impromptu dinner growth of Airbnb hasn’t been fully

One evening this summer, as Denice Reese and her husband, John Warner, sat chatting with some guests around a fire outside their home, the sinking sun set the rippling waters of the Dry Fork aflame.

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reflected in lodging tax revenues.

While it’s been growing modestly in recent years, Simmons believes there’s still more Airbnb tax revenue that’s not being collected.

“I don’t think people are not paying out of spite,” says Jess Waldo, executive director of the Tucker County Convention and Visitors Bureau, who is hopeful that continued outreach will improve the situation.

She and others also point out that it could be easily fixed if Airbnb itself would simply collect and pay local taxes. While that happens in other parts of the country where the company has tax agreements in place, that’s not yet the case in West Virginia.

(Breit, the company spokesman, notes that Airbnb is in discussions about a collection agreement for state sales tax, which West Virginia lodging establishments are also required to collect.)

A bigger concern of Waldo’s is Airbnb’s potential to exacerbate a longstanding problem in the community: a shortage of rental housing for residents. Alice Fleishman, who has run a screen printing business in Davis since the early ’80s, agrees.

“If there’s any resentment about [Airbnb], it has more to do with availability of long-term affordable rentals,” she says.

Because finding a house or apartment to rent is difficult, Fleishman is on the constant lookout for rental 32

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opportunities for her employees. At the same time, she’s enthusiastic about Airbnb, which she uses to rent out a large loft apartment next to her shop (its size and layout make it a “white elephant” on the long-term rental market, she says). One of the things Fleischman likes about Airbnb is the personal nature of the transactions, meaning guests seem to take better care of the space than when she used to rent through a local management company.

At this point, there’s no hard data on the impact of Airbnb to Tucker County’s long-term rental housing stock. Nevertheless, Waldo says it’s something she and other community leaders are paying attention to.

Here, though, is a slightly more discrete data point: Tucker County is a tourist magnet, attracting somewhere around 1 million visitors a year (or, nearly 150 gawkers for every local). So far, that’s created plenty of demand to keep bookings strong for the established lodging industry, even as Airbnb has come roaring onto the scene. For many of those now using it to rent out their homes, it’s an unqualified good; for local government, it’s a new source of revenue yet to be fully captured; for a resident in search of a rental, it’s perhaps another squeeze on an already-tight market.

And for all of them, however they feel about it, it’s now a simple fact of life.

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my year on the streets THE HARD TRUTHS OF HOMELESSNESS

BY MARK BLOCK

I

came to Asheville for the mountain biking. I had a communications degree and worked in advertising as a commercial photographer. It paid well, but the work was seasonal and intermittent. So when I was asked by a sales manager to join an aerial photography start-up for high-end clients’ real estate, I jumped at the offer.

I sold just about everything I owned to finance the training, equipment, and logistics. I would be staying in the sales manager’s condo beside a beautiful mountain lake outside of Asheville.

As I sat in my SUV above the lake, I was in a wonderful mood. My cat and all of my belongings were in the truck with me. A check and a new apartment were waiting for me, and along with the excitement of a new job I liked, I felt extremely lucky.

But then my phone rang. “The deal is off,” my sales manager said. He had secretly gone to work for another company. “You need to find something 34

else.”

I was out of a job and out of options—and also without a check. I had 38 cents in my pocket and about a quarter tank of gas.

I scrambled on the internet and found someone on Craigslist advertising a free couch surf. I drove on fumes to the next town to meet him. He told me to meet at a fast food restaurant near their place in a few hours and he would take me to his place. As I pulled into the parking lot, I ran out of gas and coasted into a parking space. I waited for hours and never heard from him.

My year on the streets had begun.

I was 61 years old. My parents were

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both dead, and I had no family or close friends to turn to. I’d always told myself that if I ever ended up in this situation, I’d just kill myself. I even found the box cutter that I kept in the car and considered it. But I had my cat with me, and I loved him more than anything. I needed to make sure that he was okay first. So I put the blade away.

The Shelter

You probably won’t be welcomed when you try to get into a shelter.

They’re often run by resident homeless volunteers who aren’t usually very friendly. No one hates the homeless like other homeless people. It’s a B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

major reason why the homeless often choose to camp outside or live in their car. I lived in my truck with my cat for a few weeks, but I soon realized that I couldn’t take good care of my cat, so I found a no-kill animal shelter who was willing to take him. It was a hard goodbye. He was all I had left.

Once I was in the shelter, I very quickly volunteered to work the front desk. Volunteers were allowed to stay in the shelter during the day, and we had other privileges like eating first before the crowds come. The nonvolunteers who stayed at the shelter had to leave right after breakfast and stay out until evening. You have to basically wander the streets all day G O O U TA N D P L AY

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with all your belongings. I only had to do it for the first couple of weeks before I became a volunteer, and it’s The reasons people were in the not fun. Everywhere you go, people shelter or on the street varied. A large watch you with wary eyes, expecting percentage of the population were you to steal or vandalize something prisoners recently released from long or they assume you’re making a drug sentences. They were so damaged deal. There’s usually nowhere to and institutionalized that I didn’t have go to the bathroom or sit down. It’s much hope that they would ever do exhausting. You’re not really a person very well. Another group were LGBTQ anymore. You’re homeless. People put kids and even some adults who had you safely into a narrative involving been thrown out of their homes and faults you must have that they don’t— had nowhere to go. to protect them from thinking that it For middle aged and older men, could happen to them. alcoholism was the main Once you are homeless, cause. Multiple DUIs that’s all that defines you. and losing their drivers’ “YOU’RE NOT Your real past is gone, licenses generally sent REALLY A PERSON and everyone assumes them over the edge ANYMORE. that you must be a junkie, financially, and their YOU’RE seriously mentally ill, or a personal relationships HOMELESS. IT’S criminal. It follows you for were damaged to the ALL THAT DEFINES years after. I recommend point where they had YOU. YOUR REAL moving and not telling nowhere to go. Of course, PAST IS GONE, anyone. Start over. hard drugs had a part to AND EVERYONE Shelters aren’t much play, but the majority of ASSUMES THAT better than the streets. I the heavy druggies stayed YOU MUST was sick all of the time, on the street in cars or BE A JUNKIE, often stuck in a small dirty camping out.

SERIOUSLY space with several other It seemed that almost MENTALLY ILL, sick, coughing residents. everyone was getting OR A CRIMINAL. IT FOLLOWS Many homeless are a disability check, but YOU FOR YEARS virulent anti-vaxxers and instead of using it for AFTER.” refuse the vaccination shelter or food, they just that would help reduce spent it all on a big weekthe infection rate. I didn’t long meth party at the sleep much, either. In a beginning of the month as shelter it’s noisy with coughing and soon as they were paid. Most would snoring and fighting. split cheap motel rooms for a few days, You aren’t safe, in a shelter or on and the shelters were largely empty the street. It can get violent, and you’re for the first week of the month. One of absolutely going to be robbed at some the workers at the nearby hospitality point. Most likely more than once. house wrote a poem about the “FiveWhenever an attractive woman Day Check Motel” phenomenon. Then, came through, it was almost always the when the check was spent, they would same story. She would hook up with a panhandle or fly signs. Food, shelter, homeless man for “protection,” and he and clothing are usually freely available would then proceed to beat and rob at the shelters, so they spent that her. Black eyes, missing front teeth, money on cigarettes, alcohol, lottery and casts on arms were the usual look tickets, and drugs. I never saw anyone within a short time. panhandle or fly a sign that wasn’t I tried to show kindness to the going to buy alcohol or drugs with it. I people who came through, but don’t ever give money to panhandlers eventually I developed the same because of that. I know it’s just going compassion fatigue that sets in with to hurt them. I wasn’t aware of anyone everyone. Whether they are homeless who was trying to get their life back because of mental illness, addiction, together ever panhandling or flying rejection by their family, or bad luck, signs. I suppose it’s possible, but I they often tend to be assholes in their just never saw it. Don’t give money behavior towards others. It’s a prime to panhandlers would be my advice. reason no one wants them in their Donate to shelters or other aid homes. Lying, stealing, vandalism and organizations instead. violence are common. I was threatened One guy at the shelter—a fellow several times while working the front who had been in prison for 25 years desk, and I often had to stop violent and was really a nice guy—was waiting altercations or otherwise put myself in on his disability back pay to get a danger. place and a new start in life. We had

The Homeless

great hopes for him. But then he just disappeared one Thursday. While I was on duty at the front desk the following week, he called from jail in South Carolina, begging to be allowed back. He had received his check, and then he’d immediately been robbed by his daughter and her friends who had lured him to a crack party in South Carolina. They disappeared with his money, and he was arrested in the aftermath. There were lots of stories like that.

Another guy at the shelter had lost his guitar shop business and his home after he was busted for a couple of small pot plants on his back porch and sentenced to 1 1/2 years in jail. But unlike most people at the shelter, he was getting up at 4:30 every morning to ride his bicycle several miles in the dark to get to his new job at Subway.

He eventually found a roommate situation with an old friend and was the first to escape back to a semblance of normal life.

Problems and Solutions The modern homelessness epidemic is caused by lack of adequate mental health care. It started back in the 1980s when Ronald Reagan closed the mental hospitals to the nonviolent mentally ill and put tens of thousands of at-risk people on the street. They literally put them on a bus, drove them

to a big city, and kicked them out on a backstreet to fend for themselves.

Basically all the guys from One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest were on the street. The problem has grown substantially since that time to include all sorts of folks who have fallen through the ever-widening cracks in our society.

I doubt even a guaranteed income would actually keep everyone off the street since a surprising percentage of the hard core people already receive disability payments but don’t use it for housing or food. Quite a few folks are essentially professional homeless who’ve been on the street for decades and will probably die there. They winter in Florida and come to the mountains for summer. Many get apartments only to get kicked out because they simply can’t live with other people without fighting or robbing their neighbors.

The hospitality houses you can visit during the day are a valuable resource.

There are counselors to help navigate the various programs for housing or healthcare, and you can often use them as an address for food stamps or job applications and to receive mail.

There were also showers and toiletries available, and safe storage bins to store your belongings, which is a huge issue on the street. They have coffee and pastries, and it gives people a place to go after leaving the shelter after breakfast or waking in your car

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or tent.

The most financially advantageous approach to homelessness that communities have tried has been to just give them a home. It’s extremely expensive keeping people on the street. I’ve watched people blow thousands of dollars in ambulance and emergency room fees faking an illness just to get out of an extremely easy three-hour, once-a-week work requirement to stay in the shelter.

We also had to make several calls for ambulances to take care of overdoses of so-called synthetic marijuana like Bizarro. They’d smoke the whole package in the bathroom and end up out front clinging to a light pole, screaming that demons were trying to drag them to hell. The demons were actually the EMTs trying to get them to the emergency room.

Telling addicts to clean up before they get housing doesn’t really work.

It’s incredibly difficult to quit drugs or alcohol while homeless. Also, a good percentage of the homeless population aren’t ever going to be able to hold a job and are just so broken as people that the best thing we can do is just take care of them. Compassion for the unlikable is hard but necessary.

It’s easy to feel empathy for a child

immigrant separated from their family. shelters. There was constant trouble It’s a different thing when it’s the scary with them, and robberies, vandalism, guy yelling and dancing on the corner. violence, and general mayhem were In the winter, the shelters would the norm. They often ripped everything have a system called off the walls and tried “code purple” whenever to destroy anything the temperature dropped they could. The shelters “THE ‘CODE below freezing. During where I stayed no longer PURPLE’ code purple, everyone take part in code purple HOMELESS was allowed in, giving because of the cost and ARE THE MOST a place out of the cold pointlessness of trying to NARCISSISTIC, to people who couldn’t help them. It’s the most ENTITLED, AND normally stay for a variety narcissistic, entitled, and ANGRY PEOPLE of reasons. They were the angry group I’ve ever I’VE EVER felons and the hardcore encountered. I don’t think ENCOUNTERED. drinkers and drug users, a guaranteed income and I DON’T THINK the folks who couldn’t or free housing for all will A GUARANTEED wouldn’t stay sober and help this demographic at INCOME AND FREE pass a breathalyzer test. all, really.

HOUSING FOR ALL They seemed to move I suppose it depends WILL HELP THEM from the street to the on the individuals involved AT ALL, REALLY. ” jail and back again like at the time you’re there, a three-month tide. It’s a but there was also quite very different group from a bit of corruption in the the regular residents who were vetted management of shelters, from stealing and basically just glad to have a place donations to outright embezzlement to stay while trying to get housing or of millions of dollars. I think it’s gotten disability or social security going. better in the ensuing years. But the For the code purple folks, the street director of the last place I stayed was is more of a permanent thing. This the most fervent Evangelical I knew, mixing of a largely criminal element constantly and loudly proclaiming his with the general population is a love for Jesus. He disappeared with constant source of problems for the over $2 million of the shelters funds.

It’s my understanding that they still don’t know where he is.

However, it’s impossible to overstate the importance of the various area churches' involvement in taking care of the homeless. I’ve never been a churchgoer, and I sometimes resented being forced to attend church services at shelters, but really it was a small price to pay for their incredible generosity and compassion. Whether working in association with other churches or just running the shelter as a mission to help spread their message, the shelters I dealt with were all operated by religious organizations.

Secular charities also contributed a great deal to the homeless.

Home

A little less than a year after it began, I was able to get my early social security started and move into an apartment.

The shelter where I was staying at the end helped me with housewares, food, and some furniture, as well as covering my deposit on the place. They even helped me move. When you’ve lost everything, kindnesses like that are priceless.

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How to Be a Badass: THE WOMEN WARRIORS OF ASHEVILLE

BY BETTINA FREESE

One afternoon at DuPont State Recreational Area, Shanna Powell was on a ride with some other women—when a group of guys from Florida showed up, ready to descend the same trail.

“ANY OF YOU LADIES LIKE TO GO FAST?” one

guy asked with a laugh before heading down the trail.

“Yeah, I like to go fast,” Powell said, and quickly dropped in front of him.

He didn’t like that and began to chase, only to wreck hard behind her.

“There is always that guy at the top of the mountain who assumes they are faster,” says Powell. “I will ride his ass all the way down the mountain until he lets me pass.”

Powell, a local biking legend who owns Endless Bike Company, teaches mountain bike skills to classes of men, doesn’t let a concussion stop her from hitting big jump lines, and encourages women to go big when their boyfriends aren’t looking. And she will correct you if you use the term "pussy" in a derogatory way.

“I never understood why people refer to balls as tough or strong," adds Allison Hardy, a renowned long distance runner and enduro rider. “I mean, they are fragile. They hide when things get cold and scary.”

Becky Bashton, another badass 38

biker, says it’s not so much about getting good at one thing as it is just creating a lifestyle of fun and creating a culture. Bikes just happen to be at the center of hers. Bashton rode just about every kind of bike and became a nationally renowned biker, but then she suffered a serious shoulder injury involving a collar bone sticking through her trapezius.

During her painful months of recovery, her husband Si Ezolt helped her with physical therapy, showering, and even combed and braided her hair for work.

Once she was riding again, Bashton and her husband celebrated her 40th birthday by shredding a downhill race and a 26-mile cross-country race in California. After the cross country race, she rode another six miles back to the festival, her bikini and flip flops in her Camelbak, and eyeballed the crooked ramp and pile of BMX bikes for the next competition. She couldn’t resist entering. Her husband was worried, especially since the last time she hurt herself was because she was tired and wanted to do “just one more line.”

“There were two entries left and they were all kids and young guys,” Bashton recalls. “There was no practice. They just told me to hold on with all my f**king might”.

Among all of the guys doing spins, she hit a back flip into the lake. The crowd went wild. It was the best trick of the day, and onlookers were high-fiving each other. But then the announcer

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“AMONG ALL OF THE GUYS DOING SPINS, SHE HIT A BACK FLIP INTO THE LAKE. THE CROWD WENT WILD.”

made a menopause joke. Why? Fortunately, most men in Asheville aren’t like the announcer. Not only is there an amazing tribe of badass women in Asheville, but there is also a large group of men who treat women as equals on the trail. They are not surprised when a woman outrides them. They are just as likely to call one of their women riding buddies as they are their dudes.

If you’re a male who rides, and you wish your girlfriend was a rider, then you’re going to have to create a safe space for her to succeed. Taking her into the woods so that you can drop her on a big climb or fast descent is not going to impress her, and it’s not going to make her stoked about the next time. Another common mistake is to take a beginner on a really technical trail and then act nonchalant about it.

“That’s why she'll never ride bikes again," explains Powell.

Despite growing up in an environment that stereotyped women as the weaker sex, Clint Spiegel, owner of Industry Nine, says he learned women were stronger at his first adventure race with Erinna Hegarty Wever. “We raced for 30 hours straight, and not only was she faster on every climb and faster on every descent, but what really struck me was her positive attitude. She never stopped smiling.

Men on other teams—you could see the cracking in their eyes. Their panic.

B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

Their disbelief. I started believing that women were a little tougher.”

Spiegel, who regularly shreds downhill gnar with a “party atmosphere climb” in a group of close friends, says that the quality of women in Asheville dispels stereotypes into a better culture because the women raise each other to higher heights as they watch each other succeed. His wife, Michelle Rogers Spiegel, had lived in Alaska and was very comfortable in the outdoors world. She had a lot to teach him and he was a willing learner. As a result, they are able to grow together in their adventuresome lifestyle, teaching each other.

“If people are more capable than me, I’m going to follow their lead,” Spiegel says. “There’s no reason to have a bias.”

For that reason, Spiegel laughs at the thought of saying things like, “You're fast FOR A GIRL!” Spiegel's theory on why the women of Asheville are such warriors is that they are leading that path for other women. “Just think how many women have the natural born talent to be great business leaders, but their culture encouraged them to do something else instead,” he says. “I think that is happening in our outdoor community. I wouldn’t be surprised to see way more women kicking male ass each year as we move forward."

G O O U TA N D P L AY

B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

more than a bike

BY ELLEN KANZINGER

ASK STEPHEN JANES WHAT HIS FAVORITE PART

about working with kids is and he will tell you the story of a kid who rode a bike in the woods for the first time.

“It was on a greenway about a mile from his house that he had never been on,” Janes said. “He’s riding into the woods for the first time and yelling, ‘It smells like trees!’ That sticks with me. My family and I joke about that all the time. Every time we go out in the woods, we’re like, “Aaahhh, it smells like trees!’ We have so much access that we tend to take for granted and it reminds me not to take that for granted. Even if I’m having the worst ride of my life, it’s more rides than some kids will ever have.”

Janes runs The Bicycle Thrift Shop located along the Swannanoa River in Asheville, N.C. At the shop, he takes in gently used bikes and refurbishes them to sell back to the community. The store funds the ride program Janes started in 2010, Adventure Kids WNC. “There are a lot of kids who are not able to get on bikes or get to a good place to ride,” he said. “Let’s get them outside of their walls that they are currently in and show them another piece of the world that they wouldn’t otherwise see.”

Adventure Kids is a free after school program that runs at an elementary school, a high school, and three middle schools in Western North Carolina. The kids learn about bike safety and road etiquette around the school campuses, using bikes and helmets provided by donations and profits from the thrift

shop. During the summer, Janes takes the kids out into Pisgah National Forest to experience the trails.

“We’ve been able to teach 18 kids how to ride a bike. The smile on their face, the joy you can see in them when they are finally able to pedal around and not fall over, to finally get that moment sticks with me forever and encourages me to keep going,” Janes said.

More than 3,200 kids have benefited from this program in the eight years it has been running. Alison Rhodes is a counselor at A.C. Reynolds Middle School where Janes has been running the program for four years.

“Many of our students don’t live in neighborhoods or places where it’d be safe to ride a bike,” she said. “It’s something they can enjoy at school but also something they can take out when they’re at a point in their lives where they can do things more independently.”

Before starting Adventure Kids, Janes worked as a camp counselor and a mental health professional. He focused on helping kids modify their behavior and develop coping skills.

“Knowing the issues that exist

amongst our community youth and understanding that bicycles are not just a tool for recreation, but can build self-confidence, can help these kids have goals, can give them a broader worldview, I knew that the two go hand in hand and complement each other,” he said.

Janes started off selling used bikes people donated at festivals before realizing he could sustain a business selling refurbished bikes to fund the program.

“I knew it would be one of those things where you don’t always see immediate results,” he said. “It’s one of those things where ten years down the road, a kid will be in a tough situation and look back and remember the bike trip that he or she was on, struggling to get up the hill and kept at it and made it to the top. They’ll look back and it will add confidence to their daily lives.”

A number of other programs are using bikes to increase confidence among youth participants. Sarmuna Wei, 17, said she has already benefitted from her experience with Spoke’n Revolutions, a cycling and history program based in Carrboro, N.C. During the summer of 2017, she was part of a group that biked a section of the Trail of Tears. They traveled across multiple states, learning about the forced removal of Native Americans from their land in the 1800s.

“The first year had a really big impact on me,” Wei said. “I thought I knew myself well but after doing this tour, I learned that I am a much stronger person.”

Wei returned the following year for the Bikes, Water & Soul tour, a blend of environmental justice and local history.

Staying in North Carolina, the group biked along the Neuse River to the Outer Banks and back to Carrboro.

“There were times when we had to make sacrifices and just bike on the highway,” Wei said. “And that really scared me because I have a big fear of trucks, like an 18-wheeler. It’s a big fear of mine and I had to bike next to them. So I was shook and scared… I have faced so many fears. This tour has helped me face most of them. I am a much more confident person now.”

When Kevin Hicks started Spoke’n Revolutions, he wasn’t sure if teenagers would be willing to bike long distances.

“It started as an idea to give youth of color opportunities to experience travel and distance cycling,” he said. “It was not only the distance in the cycling, it was learning the history along the way.”

For the first trip in 2011, Hicks led the group from Mobile, Ala. to Niagara Falls

along the Underground Railroad. They rode between 45 to 70 miles a day, learning about the history of slavery along the way.

Hicks has since traveled thousands of miles with teenagers on bikes. Each trip focuses on a different subject, including Blues & Jazz History, a trip from New Orleans, La. to St. Louis, Mo, and King 2 King, a ride focused on the history of the Civil Rights Movement from Atlanta, Ga. to Washington, D.C. In seven years, 60 kids have benefitted from this program, most returning for another ride as participants or group leaders once they have aged out.

“The reason why I’m in this is to watch the kids grow and transform, helping make that light switch go off,” Hicks said.

MORE YOUTH ADVENTURES Looking for a similar program near you? Check out these organizations around the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast that are providing access to the outdoors for kids.

OASIS BIKE WORKSHOP NASHVILLE, TENN.

At the free Oasis Bike Workshops, participants have the opportunity to build a bike from scratch and ride away with a bike, helmet, tools, and an alternative form of transportation.

PITTSBURGH YOUTH LEADERSHIP PITTSBURGH, PENN.

Since 2006, riders participating in Pittsburgh Youth Leadership have biked more than 290,000 miles across 49 states.

OUTDOOR EDUCATION CENTER HARPER’S FERRY, W. VA.

The Outdoor Education Center offers a variety of programming, from environmental education to multi-day backpacking trips, in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

CITY KIDS WILDERNESS PROJECT WASHINGTON, D.C.

City Kids provides year round support to students through middle and high school while encouraging learning through nontraditional methods including overnight trips during the school year and a summer camp in Jackson Hole, Wyo. BLUE SKY FUND RICHMOND, VA.

The Blue Sky Fund, in conjunction with eight Richmond public schools, offers after school and summer programs, giving kids the chance to try rock climbing, orienteering, kayaking, and hands on science classes.

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‘WHY AM I UP HERE?’ A Tree-Sitter’s Perspective From 50 Feet Above the Mountain Valley Pipeline

BY LAUREN BOWMAN CLONTZ

I'VE LIVED IN THE BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS FOR

most of my life, often taking for granted the hiking trails, swimming holes, trout streams, and breathtaking beauty.

Growing up, I never paused to consider the fragility of our forest ecosystem.

I also didn't know much about the long and prevalent history of extraction and exploitation in Appalachia.

As a child, the value of these mountains was not in what could be exploited or made profitable. It was in the sights and sounds and discoveries I made in the forest. It was the first time I saw a brook trout while fishing.

It was waking up to birds singing outside my window every morning. It was the speckled salamanders I found wriggling in streams and under logs.

It was hearing the spring peepers at night and feeling the cold rush of water over my hands as I looked for smooth rocks at the bottom of streams.

I didn't think about the price of these things. Nor did I know that there were people willing to destroy everything that was above ground in order to get to what was under it.

I am 24 years old now, and for over a month, I have been living in a tree platform in the path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Looking back, it is clear to me that this was the only thing left to do. Regulations have been ignored or altered to suit the interests of the pipeline. Our state agencies are not working for the people; they are working for the pipeline. Our governor, a self-proclaimed environmentalist, has turned his back on his own constituents.

I sat in these trees through Hurricane Florence. I was fully aware 40

PHOTOS BY WILL SOLIS

of the irony of enduring a hurricane, which was likely worsened by climate change, while fighting the extractive energy industry that is contributing to climate change. My tree platform and I weathered the storm. But millions of people’s lives have been upended.

These extreme weather events are becoming more frequent as we charge ahead into a fossil-fueled future.

The fossil fuel industry is being allowed to steal shared resources from the rest of society. This industry has historically taken advantage of lowincome and minority communities, and as a result, has perpetuated poverty and oppression in Appalachia.

So I am standing up for those communities by standing in the way of the pipeline, here in the trees near Elliston, Va, on one of the last sites that the pipeline companies have not cleared. I hope that people will see that we have the power to create change with our voices and our courage.

Throughout history, there are countless examples of small-butdedicated groups of people who managed to create change against seemingly insurmountable odds.

At times it may feel easier to look the other way, especially when we realize the magnitude of the

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environmental and social issues we face today. Being able to sit back and ignore these problems is a privilege that is afforded to you (at least temporarily). Standing up to change them is a responsibility.

Many have asked if all of this is worth it—sitting alone on a tiny platform for weeks, trying to find creative ways to stretch my legs swarmed by bugs, drenched by rain, and sleeping on a hard wooden plank.

As I sit here, with security camped out in the road below me, the roaring of chainsaws around me, what we're fighting for sometimes seems impossible and out of reach.

What if we fail?

But what if we don't?

I'm up here because the alternative is to be complacent, and the cost of complacency is too much. Change is never going to happen if we keep playing by their rules and trying to ask politely. It's time to stop playing nicely.

When we act out, when we don't fall in line, that spark of resistance can ignite a movement—and those with money and power try everything to extinguish it.

I witness their efforts directly each day. When the pipeline companies and their allies send seven police vehicles B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

(including K-9 units) around the clock for only two peaceful protestors, it tells me that they're scared. If just two people can elicit such a response, imagine what 100 people could do.

If you allow yourself to acknowledge what is actually happening with this pipeline, then pretty soon that tug you feel to resist will become a pull. It will become impossible to ignore.

It's hard to acknowledge what is happening here: a pipeline we don’t need, a pipeline that Virginians don’t want, is being built anyway across public and private lands. But we can't ignore what is happening and just go on with our lives. This world takes so much from us. We can't also let it take away our compassion, grit, and determination to fight for our future.

In these early morning hours, as I listen to the sound of the forest coming alive, I vow to keep fighting for a sustainable future for my Appalachian homeland.

We may lose, yes. But we lose so much more if we fail to show up in the first place.

You can learn more about Lauren Bowman Clontz’s tree-sit at Appalachians Against Pipelines's Facebook page.

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41

TRAIL MIX DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS MEMBERS RELEASE ALBUM FROM FORMER BAND AND PLOT SOLO DATES

ESTABLISHING NEW ROOTS: THE BLACK LILLIES RETURN WITH STRANGER TO ME THE BLACK LILLIES KEEP THEIR FANS GUESSING. Since emerging from Knoxville, Tenn., in 2009 the evolving roots-rock outfit led by singer-songwriter/multiinstrumentalist Cruz Contreras has featured more than a dozen members.

Equally hard to pin down has been the band’s sound—a fluidly shifting blend of earnest Americana that visits various eras of country, folk, and soul.

This versatility is a reason the group has been able to fit on a variety of stages, from Bonnaroo to the Grand Ole Opry, and accumulate a loyal following across the country with a hard-touring work ethic.

In the past two years, though, the band’s personnel has appeared to finally stabilize. Following the departure of singer Trisha Gene Brady at the end of 2016, Contreras is now fronting a smaller four-piece band, and while a loss has been the powerful male-female vocal dynamic 42

BY JEDD FERRIS

that’s been a driving force of the group’s sound since inception, a gain has been a newfound sense of cohesiveness in the strippeddown unit with a focus on creative democracy. The band’s first album since 2015, Stranger to Me, was released in late September, and in a statement about the record Contreras said of his bandmates, “These guys have become not just sidemen or guns for hire; they’re invested. Their opinions count, and their creativity is as much a part of this record as mine.”

The Lillies’ line-up is now rounded out by guitarist Dustin Schaefer, drummer Bowman Townsend, and bassist Sam Quinn—a top-notch songwriter in his own right and former member of lauded roots group, the everybodyfields. The reconstituted band somewhat publicly woodshedded songs for the new album with a series of online videos

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called “The Sprinter Sessions,” which featured the group playing sketches of developing tunes in their touring van.

The exercise offered the opportunity to view songs like “Snakes and Telephones” in acoustic infancy.

On the album, the Quinn-led tune eventually became a denser country ballad with a shimmering atmospheric chorus.

Another standout is the album opener, “Ten Years,” a taut, twangy rock tune with lyrics about realizing it’s time to move on from a troubled relationship. Hopefully this version of the Black Lillies stays put for a while.

The Black Lillies perform at the Harvester Performance Center in Rocky Mountain, Va., on November 16, the Southern Café and Music Hall in Charlottesville, Va., on November 17, and the Grey Eagle in Asheville, N.C., on November 30.

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The Drive-By Truckers recently started recording the follow-up to their acclaimed, politically charged 2016 album American Band. In September, band members revealed they were in Memphis tracking new tunes at the legendary Sam Phillips Recording.

According to social media posts by Truckers’ singer-songwriter/guitarist Patterson Hood, the sessions were fruitful and randomly included a surprise visit from none other than Mick Jagger, who was apparently in town working on a film project.

The record will likely be released some time in 2019, but ahead of that Hood and his main songwriting foil in the Truckers, Mike Cooley, recently unveiled a long-lost record by their former band Adam’s House Cat. Town Burned Down was recorded in Muscle Shoals, Ala., in late 1990 and early 1991 and never released before Adam’s House Cat broke up soon after. The album mixes were once thought to be lost after a tornado destroyed the building where they were being stored, but they were recently recovered in the Athens, Ga., studio owned by the Truckers’ steadfast producer David Barbe. Released on September 21, the album features some recognizable staples from the Truckers catalog, including “Lookout Mountain,” but it also includes some unearthed gems like the punk-fueled “Runaway Train,” which sounds like a Southern-accented homage to the Replacements.

The Truckers are winding down their touring for the year with twonight stands in Birmingham, Ala., and Nashville early this month. But Hood and Cooley will each embark on a run of solo dates later in the fall. Hood’s schedule takes him through the South in early December with stops at the Pour House in Charleston, S.C., on December 4, the Visulite Theatre in Charlotte, N.C., on December 5, and Pearl St. Warehouse in Washington, D.C., on December 6 and 7. Cooley will visit the Grey Eagle in Asheville, N.C., on November 29 and the Southern Café and Music Hall is Charlottesville, Va., on December 1.

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