Class III rapids and perfect-fit ski boots. Gourmet s鈥檓ores and cheesy resort-area bar bands. Anoraks, endorphins, sporks, grilling in the snow, and go-light booze. Our outdoor pleasures are a mix of the good and the guilty鈥攕o we made a list. Plus:
1. Burly rubber boots
All the Alaskans we know wear 听($129).
2. Cheap coffee mugs
Like the one with the perma-stain and the lid you never lost because you tethered it to the handle with that bit of now filthy P-cord.
3. Dutch ovens
Not everything tastes better in the backcountry, but听cinnamon rolls,听lasagna, and apple cobbler sure as hell do. 鈥 Hard-Anodized Dutch oven cooks almost as evenly as cast iron but weighs a third as much听($110).
4.
Ice shanties. Treehouses. Stone alpine huts.听Totally safe for work.
5.
The throngs of听fanatical fans atop our favorite Colorado mountain passes. Levi Leipheimer鈥檚 win. The star-studded field. Just listening to Paul Sherwen and Phil Liggett talk about how much they love Vail and Aspen. We could go on.听
6. Falling dams
Back in September, the National Park听Service began removing the听Elwha and Glines Canyon dams, monsters that had been plugging up some of the best whitewater and salmon habitat in Washington鈥檚 Olympic听National Park for a century. Then, a month later, they blew a hole in Condit Dam on the White Salmon River to the southeast. These three removals鈥攖he biggest in American history鈥攇ive us hope that the four dams on the Lower Snake River, currently blocking the Northwest鈥檚 once epic salmon runs, will fall before long.
7. Waffles
An energy food that tastes good with coffee. Finally听($1.40).
8. Via Ready Brew
Speaking of, 鈥檚 instant coffee really is as good as听everyone keeps telling you it is. $4 for a package of three.
9. No cell service
There are only a few spots left on the map. We cherish them.
10. A simple bike
Without shocks or disc brakes or any derailleurs. The kind you can fix yourself without really knowing what you鈥檙e doing. Example: 听($639).
11. Cam straps听
12.听Endorphins
The only addiction that鈥檚 good for you.
13. Not feeling invincible
Like when you鈥檙e hiking or swimming in places where there are big, scary animals.
14. Photochromic,听polarized sunglasses
You don鈥檛 need to understand the fancy technical terms鈥攐r worry about a thing,听really. All you need to know is that they lighten or darken depending on the amount of available light. Try 鈥 Chiefs on for size听($219).
15. Bad Dogs
Every time I see a dog lunging at the end of its leash, teeth gnashing, owner braced like a tug-o鈥-war champ, I think of my rotty-shepherd-Doberman-chow-wild-boar mix, Minnie. Lil鈥 Mins was rescued from the highway, a quaking, stick-limbed runt with a glossy black coat and horned ears, and I promptly enrolled her in obedience school. She was just as promptly kicked out after jumping on the instructor, a mirthless woman who defended herself with a plant spritzer (a little too zealously, in my opinion).
Minners went on to a bright career in terror, snapping at kids, former friends, countless Texans. Once, while I was skiing, she ram-charged a speeding snow颅mobile and got smacked ten feet into the air. Another time, on a walk with my 颅elderly father, she yanked him off his feet and dragged him along a gutter before he could let go of the leash.
The Puppy Diaries? Rin Tin Tin? Please. Min鈥檚 biography would be called Snarly and Me. Still, I鈥檇 take my rez dog over your hypoallergenic designer hybrid or preening American Kennel Club show pony any day. I know that inside her beats a little golden heart that, no matter how misguided, really wants to be good. Whenever Minoozers and I go hiking or biking; whenever she鈥檚 perched next to me in my pickup truck as we sail silently through a midnight blizzard; whenever she curls up at my feet, patiently awaiting her next barking paroxysm or cat mauling, I think, warmly: I would take a bullet for that mutt.
And one day I probably will. 鈥Nick Heil
16.
You pull out your fancy energy bar. Your buddy pulls out a king-size Snickers. And you think, damn, I shoulda brought one of those.
17. Sporks
18. Industrial-strength sleeping pads
Bed down like rafters do: 鈥檚 Paco pads are puncture-resistant, redonkulously thick/heavy/big, and completely awesome ($200).
19. Terrible cover bands
Especially the ones found at the bar at the base of your favorite ski resort starting at about 3 P.M.鈥攕porting Hawaiian shirts, gyrating their hips during extended guitar solos, and tearing into Billy Joel and Don Henley with reckless abandon. We salute you, Saturday afternoon heroes.听
20. The other black ice
The hard, smooth, strong kind that miraculously forms on small lakes and sheltered coves and makes for ideal ice skating, hockey, or just slip-sliding around.
21. Portable booze
The stuff that鈥檚 as drinkable as it is packable, like 鈥檚 1.5-liter Climber Pouch ($17).
22. Riding in the back of a pickup truck
23. Versatile, indestructible canoes
You can load up with kids and dogs and lunch and cruise around the lake. You can strap in several weeks of supplies and run whitewater rivers. You can wrap it around rocks in the middle of rapids, drag it across shallows. But try as you might, you can鈥檛 really destroy one听($1,590).
24. Topo maps
25. Extra-plump rockered skis
We鈥檙e especially fond of 鈥檚 Rocker 2鈥檚听($935).
26. Studded tires
Unless chains are called for. Then chains.
27.
Because your P.O.V. huck looks sooo much gnarlier when played back on the slo-mo setting听($300).
28. Leaving the camera at home
Because that same huck looks even better in your memory.听
听
29. Jumbo-tired mountain bikes
Hossing through the snow on one of these fat boys is absurdly fun.
30. Roadsides
Because following them has led me to the most incredible finds. The width of a roadside, the age of the trees around it, the plants growing along it, the rock layers within it, are a Rosetta Stone, unlocking the story of a place. Neatly mown grass roadsides, something Aldo Leopold lamented even in the 1940s, are an abomination. People that anal won鈥檛 let anything wild remain.
But a nice shaggy ditch? It means interesting folks are around. I鈥檒l cruise it, looking for flashes of blue or yellow from blooming native plants. True, most roadside vegetation is of the noxious-weed variety, but tracking the rare wild survivors, following tufts of Indian grass like bread crumbs along back roads, has led me to some of my favorite places鈥攁 forgotten drainage canal full of threatened species, a private trout stream hidden in the alders, a goat prairie never touched by a plow. Last summer, a burst of purple on a neglected shoulder led me to a strip of rare plants, including a mass of endangered gentians just a few feet from the road. When I rolled by a few months later, they were gone, the mower鈥檚 tracks still cutting through the gravel. 鈥Jason Daley
31. British Columbia
32. Barefoot听running shoes
More than anything, they helped us realize we鈥檝e been running in too much shoe.
33. S鈥檓ores
34. Dependable flasks
Like 听($20).
35. Familiar crossroads
Whether we鈥檙e heading to Salt Lake City (440 miles west), Jackson, Wyoming (430 miles northwest), or Montana (400 miles north), we always find ourselves refueling at Love鈥檚 Travel Stop, on the south side
of听Cheyenne, guzzling bad coffee in good spirits.
36. Scraggly, asymmetrical Christmas trees
The kind you cut down yourself. On national-forest land. (With a permit.)
37. The thalweg
In science-geek terms, the thalweg is the line connecting the lowest points along a riverbed or valley, thus marking the natural direction of a watercourse. In river-rat terms, the thalweg is almost always the line of fastest flow in any river.
38.
Works just as well in the tundra as it does on听diaper rash ($8).
39. “Progression”
But only when the term is used correctly, like when Jeb Corliss wingsuited through a cave in China last September on live TV.
The one with the green label. Years of trial and error have led us here. Without it, this list wouldn't have been possible ($28).
41. Double Chairlifts
In terms of intimacy, a high-speed quad chair is more Vegas buffet than candlelit table for two. Trams? Aerial cattle cars with hoppy beer farts. Although they鈥檙e much maligned and slated for extinction by profit- and vert-maximizing ski execs across the country, the double chair is skiing鈥檚 perfect lift.
Part of this has to do with the social dynamic the double chair demands. On a quad it鈥檚 easy to pull up your hood, hunch into your little corner, pretend not to hear. On a double, going silent isn鈥檛 just awkward, it鈥檚 an effrontery to the social contract, a slap in the face to a fellow skier.
Besides, you鈥檙e missing out. I鈥檝e argued foreign policy with snowboarders, talked about circling ravens with an ornithologist who rode shotgun, and discovered countless powder stashes thanks to locals all too willing to give them up to somebody simply willing to chitchat.
The double chair also gets the pace of skiing right. You feel like you鈥檙e part of the landscape instead of whipping through it. Skiing isn鈥檛 supposed to be about racking vertical. It鈥檚 about chatting quietly with your best friend or a total stranger as you scout your next line and appreciate the mountains in winter.
Even one kid-free lift up with my wife is like a flirty date night. It was on double chairs that my squally childhood relationship with my older brother became a lasting bond. As a prepubescent boy, I once sat hip-to-hip and thigh-to-thigh with my seventh-grade crush, just hours after glimpsing her floral waffle-weave long underwear on the ski bus. It was the one and only time I managed the courage to talk to her. It was frigid, as I recall, and I鈥檇 been shivering all evening, but for that one perfect ride on the double chair, I was burning. 鈥Marc Peruzzi
42. Second Chances: Lolo Jones
Back in 2008, during the buildup to the Beijing Olympics, newspapers couldn鈥檛 resist the Hollywood headlines. The From Homeless to Hero (USA Today) tale of Iowa-raised track phenom Lolo Jones, for whom there was No Hurdle Too Great (Los Angeles Times), seemed right out of a screenplay: single mother, father in prison, six different primary schools, three brothers and a sister, beans for dinner, living in a church basement. Running was her one constant. She started racing in eighth grade, set Iowa鈥檚 100-meter-hurdle record as a听senior at Des Moines鈥檚 Roosevelt High School and was given a full ride at Louisiana State University, where she was an 11-time all-American. She arrived in Beijing favored to win the 100-meter hurdles. Read More
Because of its awesome return policy. Because it still sells hand-sewn moccasins and old-school snowshoes ($329). Because it has never cared about being cool.
44. Getting “inter-lodged”
A rare, maybe five-times-a-year occurrence at the adjoining resorts of and , in Utah, when there's so much new snow that they don't allow you to leave the lodge. Because when the avalanche danger is mitigated and the restriction is lifted and you鈥檙e once again free to leave, you'll be in powder heaven, with the day-trippers stuck on the other side of a closed road for a couple of hours at least.听
45. Ski boots that don鈥檛 hurt
Or cause your toes to go numb after three runs. Achieving this level of comfort may require a boot wizard. Find one at .
46. The U.P.
47. Fancy听cycling bibs
Like all the absurdly听expensive models made by (from $180). They鈥檒l change your whole undercarriage situation. Unless it鈥檚听really grim鈥攖hen add the chamois cream ($20).
48. Neo-pagan rituals
We鈥檙e partial to those that prominently involve corpses (Nederland, Colorado鈥檚 , during which a revered body kept in a local shed is feted), a combination of ski jumps and fire (Crested Butte鈥檚 ), or five-story papier-m芒ch茅 dolls听symbolizing gloom (Santa Fe鈥檚 ).
49. Class III听rapids听
50. Grilling in听the snow
Is it something about making fire when it鈥檚 cold? Or just the undeterrable love of cooking outside? Does it matter?听
Super-durable and versatile (you can wear it as a backpack) (from $90).
42. Timing the Flow
I live where the West begins, on the cactus-and-yucca-studded rim of a rock canyon through which flows a pristine stream fed by thousands of springs. I am not, as you might think, describing a remote ranch. I live less than a mile outside the city limits of Austin, Texas.
The body of water is a little geophysical marvel known as Barton Creek. It is one of the very few crystal-clear streams running through the heart of a large American city and鈥攚hen it rains hard enough鈥攈ome to the best whitewater in Texas. The right conditions never last more than a few days. But as with a powder day or a massive ocean swell, the tiny, ephemeral window of opportunity is the whole fun of it.
Here is the way it goes: A violent thunderstorm unleashes a roiling wall of water through the canyons. I call a set of friends who have been running this stretch of Barton Creek with me for more than a decade, and we start plotting. The water soon recedes, and then thousands of springs, newly recharged, take over. Soon the creek settles and clears, swollen and rolling now at 300 to 500 cubic feet per second. Then I call in sick.
We put in just upstream from my house, at the start of a rollicking seven-mile run through several dozen sets of whitewater rapids, mostly in the Class II鈥揑II range. There is everything a kayaker could want: swirling holes, standing waves, ledges, undercut boulders, surfing waves, lovely crystalline water, and almost no sign of urban civilization as you run through sculpted canyons along banks dense with cottonwood, pecan, willow, live oak, and sycamore.
After a three-hour paddle, we end in the heart of the city, and a good thing, too鈥攎ost of the whitewater will be gone in a few days, and it is time to get back to work. 鈥S.C. Gwynne
53. Aleksander Doba
He is a 65-year-old Polish adventurer who last year paddled across the Atlantic in a 23-foot-long sea kayak. The 3,345-mile journey took him 98 days and 20 hours. Up next: the Pacific.
54. “Your Girlfriend Cares That I Tele” bumper stickers听
55. Local ski hills
Like Jackson,听Wyoming鈥檚 , where a season pass costs $150, one-tenth as much as the听going rate at the town鈥檚听better-known听resort.听
56. Excerpts from gear听reviews
Ones we didn鈥檛 have room to print, like this from legendary tester Dave Cox: “There鈥檚 an old saying in Wisconsin, mostly said by old Wisconsinites: 鈥楾he only thing you can do with a pair of gloves on is pee in your pants.鈥 I thought about this while wearing 鈥 Transporter ($79) last winter. At some point while zipping up my bibs, it dawned on me: No way, I鈥檓 not taking my gloves off for this!”
57. Going for It
It was the summer of 2002, and my buddy Jake and I had just moved to Bend, Oregon. I was 20 and Jake was 19. I think that鈥檚 why we thought building a raft out of fallen trees and clothesline and floating an unfamiliar section of river seemed like a perfectly reasonable idea.
Each Thursday, Bend hosted a concert along the Deschutes River in a park downtown. The plan was to put in a few miles upstream and arrive in grand style, impressing all the young women in attendance. Half a mile from our start, however, the river began channelizing, the water speeding up through Class II鈥揑II rapids. Then a sign warned of waterfalls.
After some debate, we decided to abandon ship. Crestfallen, we watched from shore as our raft cartwheeled and splintered through Class IV鈥揤 rapids. We hiked back to the start and made our way to the show the same way everybody else did: by car.
It didn鈥檛 matter. After nearly dying on a raft you built yourself, talking to girls is pretty easy. 鈥Jared Criscuolo
58. Guilty pleasures
Including, but not limited to: clipping ski tickets; grease bombs; yoga pants; rolling your own cigarettes on an expedition (the only time it鈥檚 OK to smoke); poaching hot tubs; big frickin鈥 bonfires.听
59. Running
No pumping or priming or bleeding or tinkering. Just put on your shoes and go.听
60. The sun鈥檚 first rays
That amazing feeling you get when they finally hit you on a very cold morning at a campsite.
听
61. Swimming goggles
In every bag you ever pack. You never know when you might want to stick your head in a lake/tidepool/puddle and have a look around.听
62. Anoraks
They鈥檙e back. Again.听
63. The original wool cap
It鈥檚 a bit Elmer听Fuddish, especially with the earflaps down, and you might see the occasional hipster rocking one. But so what? ($35).
Not Appearing On Our List
1. Absurdly multi multitools.
2. Tanner Hall鈥檚 Twitter feed. Sample: “THIS TUNE IS MAAAAAAAAD!!! CALI YA CRAZY WITH THIS ONE!!! DEM A BOSS MAN A DON DADA!!! INSPIIIIIIIIRED!”
3. La Ni帽a. (We live in New Mexico.)
4.听Energy-drink advertising pamphlets masquerading as magazines.
5.听The Keystone XL pipeline.
6.听Cobalt, azure, cerulean, aquamarine, and other words, often used in travel writing, that mean “blue.”
7.听Saddle sores.
8.听The Amazing Race.听
9.听International telephone numbers. (Why no dashes?!)
10. Kids on leashes.
11. Overdesigned water bottles, especially those made out of trendy materials or with complicated lids.
12. Portaging.
13. “Seggy,” “footy,” and any other abbreviations for film footage. And while we鈥檙e at it, it鈥檚 Indonesia, not “Indo.”