Southern Indiana Trails

As a lifelong cyclist, I’ve always sort of hated running, on some deep biological level. Oh, sure, I may have entered a handful of 5Ks and 10Ks in my time, and even finished a half marathon (once). But I remain convinced that the reason bicycles were invented is because running sucks. There is one thing I really envy about runners, though, specifically male runners: they get to run shirtless. When it’s warm out, they just whip their tops right off and prance along in nothing more than their tiny little flappy shorts. I resent them deeply for it. Because for some reason, “serious” cyclists are not permitted to do this. It doesn’t matter that we ride around in skintight, crotch-hugging outfits—what former pro rider and Education First team boss Jonathan Vaughters calls “the functional equivalent of underwear.” On a very hot day, we might unzip that too-small Lycra jersey for a smidge of ventilation. But no matter what, said jersey must remain on, at all times. Among the Lycra set, s...

On September 28, a ruling by the British Columbia Supreme Court effectively removed police forces from the front lines of the Fairy Creek blockades , a 14-month-long act of civil disobedience dedicated to protecting old growth from logging in and around the Fairy Creek watershed on southwestern Vancouver Island. The court denied the application of the Teal Jones Ltd. timber company to extend an injunction order against protestors interfering with logging. The original injunction authorized the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to arrest and remove all demonstrators, peaceful or otherwise. Since enforcement began in May 2021, police have arrested more than 1,100 people, making this the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history. Shortly after Justice Douglas Thompson handed down the court’s decision , the grassroots organization that  started the protests,  the Rainforest Flying Squad, posted triumphantly on Instagram: “Today is a day for celebration. Danc...

When I learned how to climb in 1998, there was such a scarcity of information on the activity that one could reasonably read everything written on the subject. And I did. I devoured everything from the dozens of classic how-to tomes by John Long to some utterly inscrutable posts by a guy known as Passthepitonspete on nascent climbing internet forums, which I printed out and brought with me on my first trip to Yosemite. Today’s climbers have the opposite problem: there’s so much information out there that knowing where to begin is as daunting a task as climbing El Capitan for the first time. Now, MasterClass , the online-education subscription service, has jumped into the fray with a rock-climbing series taught by Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell. You may have heard of them. Honnold is the lunatic who free-soloed El Capitan , and Caldwell is the nine-fingered hardhead who spent ten years of his life banging away at El Cap’s Dawn Wall. They’re also two of the most prolific rock climbe...

Off the southeastern coast of Florida, the only coral reef in the continental U.S. stretches for 360 miles. It not only provides a habitat for multitudes of marine life, it also protects human communities along the coast from serious destruction: according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a coral reef can absorb 97 percent of the wave energy from storms and hurricanes. But that’s only if the reefs are healthy—in South Florida they are not , and they are far from alone. A September study found that half the reefs in the world have been destroyed or imperiled by human impact and climate change. As the reefs have struggled in south Florida, a team of ecologists, engineers, and landscape architects from the University of Miami are working on three experimental hybrid reefs that are part coral and part concrete. These man-made reefs are seeded with coral and mangrove spores to rebuild the kinds of struggling ecosystems that once provided a natural barrier. ...

This article was first published by Gaia GPS. To get more of their exclusive content and entire map catalog, sign up to become a Gaia GPS Premium Member . You’re on an adventure having the time of your life, until all of a sudden you’re lost. You can’t find the trail, and you don’t have cell service. Whether you’re hiking, offroading, running, or biking, we’ve all experienced that moment of panic. That’s a large reason why Gaia GPS was born. The mapping app has a feature to save you from hours of frantically trying to retrace your steps in vein. In fact, you can find out where you are in seconds, even when you can’t get a cell signal. All you have to do is pull out your phone, open Gaia GPS, and locate yourself on the map. Here’s how to do it. Plan Ahead—Download Maps for Offline Use In order to locate yourself on the map, there is one catch. You must have your maps downloaded for offline use. Thankfully, downloading a map is easy to do. You just need a  Gaia GPS Premium Mem...

Ryan Hudson sits in a dug-out snow bench in Alaska’s Chugach Mountains. “People will always remind me of the color of my skin, no matter what,” he says as snow spits around him. “To everyone, I’m a Black snowboarder.” The scene, with Hudson between iconic big-mountain freerider Jeremy Jones and Hispanic snowboarder Rafael Pease, is key to Teton Gravity Research ’s new film Mountain Revelations . There’s no place too remote for the specter of racism and inequality. That includes skiing and snowboarding and the stoke films that have been mainstays of mountain culture for decades, but still tend to feature athletes who are white and male . Mountain Revelations and another new film coming out this fall, The Approach , aim to confront that legacy and bring new energy to the genre. Unlike TGR’s famed large-cast action films, Mountain Revelations is more of a documentary format, following the trio of snowboarders on a ten-day trip in the Chugach. The goal: to look at racial privilege in ...

One of the draws of   Joshua Tree National Park is its accessibility. The iconic Southern California destination is just two hours from Los Angeles or three from San Diego and Phoenix, making it doable for a long weekend. Boasting 800,000 acres, there’s plenty of room to spread out, even during the park’s busier season, from October to May, when mild temperatures bring in more crowds. Come for the rock climbing, stargazing, or trail running. You’ll find ample camping both inside and out of the park, but if you’re looking to post up somewhere with a few more amenities, these stunning Airbnbs come with Mojave Desert views, Instagrammable hot tubs, and outdoor fire pits.   The Forest Bungalow     (Photo: Courtesy Airbnb) This two-bedroom 1950s-era bungalow (from $211), located down a close-to-town dirt road, has a remodeled kitchen and a fenced-in backyard. (Sorry, no pets allowed.) The structure itself is small—just 870 square feet—but you’ve ...

Outdoor gear is meant to be put through the wringer. When it seems like it’s on its last legs, there’s always a way to squeeze a little more life out of your favorite puffy jacket, tent, or backpack. My dad taught me that you can repair anything with one of three things: duct tape , zip ties, and WD-40. While quick fixes with those products can prove invaluable in a pinch, the repair options on this list, however, offer longer-lasting solutions to fixing your equipment that require no sewing or special skills. Lengthening the life of your gear helps save money and keep still useable products out of the landfill. Here are the tools I use when my stuff needs a little TLC. Noso Gear Repair Patches ($8 and Up) (Photo: Courtesy Noso) Best For: Small rips, tears, and holes on apparel A favorite of Outside  Gear Guy Joe Jackson , Noso’s stick-on patches allow you to repair a rip or tear easily: just peel, stick, and set with heat—it’s that simple. Afterward you can wash your gear ...

There’s a Zen saying, you’ve probably seen it online superimposed onto a photo of a sunset: Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water; after enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. The same thing applies to riding bikes. Before enlightenment, get on and pedal; after enlightenment, get on and pedal. But we do pass through several transitional phases along the way before arriving pretty much where we started. Innocence Think about when you first fell in love with riding bikes—not necessarily when you learned how to ride a bike (though it could have happened as early as that), but when you really began to appreciate that one way or another that this was going to be your primary recreational pursuit going forward. For me, even though I grew up riding bikes and racing BMX , I really began to understand this in college, when I started heading out for longer road-ish rides just because. Career, relationships, money—I had no idea what the hell I was going to do about any of that o...

Look, when most of us think of nature, we imagine hiking on a wooded trail rather than, say, eating grapes on the porch. It doesn’t matter that nature is everywhere, from the stars to our very bodies, if we can’t feel it. But connecting with nature, in the popular imagination, often means (relative) isolation: trekking through some gorgeous landscape where we have the small but interesting chance of being eaten by something with sharp teeth. A man summits a mountain. A woman backpacks alone . Somebody invents a whole new way to be first to the North Pole. These are, of course, great adventures. But they’re also limited in their own ways. When we conflate nature with a certain kind of photogenic wilderness, we circumscribe the natural world—which is, after all, the whole damn universe—into something most people can rarely access. Which is all to say that if you happen to live in a city instead of, say, on a private island, nature is still yours—to connect with, to explore—and there...

There’s nothing wrong with falling into an outdoor-adventure routine, whether that’s running the same loop before work or hiking the same distance on weekends. But if you’re looking to spice up your next trip into the outdoors and make it feel a little bit bougier than normal, consider these eight creative ideas for elevating your next experience. Still Camp, But Keep it Comfy Who says camping has to be uncomfortable? There’s no shame in wanting to get a good night of sleep when you’re sleeping outside, either surrounding yourself with plush blankets and pillows or stringing up some vibey lights. By booking a weekend with a van rental or glamping site like VanCraft, Glamping Hub, or Hipcamp, you can have all those details taken care of for you so you can enjoy an Instagram-worthy getaway. Sleep in a real bed and lounge all day in and out of a treehouse, tricked-out van, tiny cabin, or luxury canvas tent. Win the Ultimate California Road Trip Show Mt. Brave your #DrinkBravely mom...

At the 1928 Olympic games in Amsterdam, false reports that five competitors had collapsed during the women’s 800-meter event (a single runner fell at the finish) prompted a decision that gravely affected the future of women’s running participation. “It was so off-putting to people to see women exerting themselves and being powerful and strong that the officials promptly canceled all the women’s running events for decades,” says Samia Akbar, a former professional runner and now Global Running Energy Lead for  New   Balance . The ban lasted more than 30 years. Its effects, says Akbar, are still felt today—and they aren’t limited to the world of elite competitive running. That’s where Stolen Starts, a global women’s ambassador program from New Balance, comes in. “These start lines were stolen from women. So with this program we’ve selected partners who can tell different stories and are making progress in our sport,” says Akbar. While the brand has a roster of elite athletes, ...