Southern Indiana Trails

You’ve heard of Kilimanjaro, but what about Mount Kenya, which stands at a proud 17,057 feet? Owing perhaps to its subordinate status, Africa’s second highest peak has not been as romanticized in Western culture as its Tanzanian counterpart—at least if Toto lyrics and Hemingway fantasies of moribund masculinity are anything to go by. The discrepancy also applies to the realm of high altitude long distance running. If you look up “Kilimanjaro” on the website fastestknowntime.com , you will find a number of athletes, including a certain dauntless Spaniard , who have targeted the mountain for an FKT attempt . When it comes to Mount Kenya, the list is more modest. In fact, until this week, it only included only one name: Fabio Meraldi —a retired ski-mountaineer and “ skyrunner ” from Italy. Meraldi’s Mount Kenya FKT dates back to a 1995 International Skyrunning Federation race , and doesn’t appear to have any GPS data to back it up. In effect, an “official” Mount Kenya record has yet to...

I’m a big fan of being as comfortable as possible when you’re car camping. Come winter, that means upgrading a few of your essentials to stay warm. With just a few smart purchases, you can get out there all year long. And in these colder months, it means being able to experience some of the country’s most popular places without the crowds (like these national parks and trails ). Here are some of my favorite winter car camping upgrades.  Montbell Down Hugger 800 ($569) ( Photo: Courtesy Montbell) A proper winter sleeping bag is the most important piece of gear you’ll need for cold-weather camping. Look for a bag that’s rated at least 15 to 20 degrees colder than the lowest temperature you expect to encounter. I use this incredibly comfortable  zero-degree bag from Montbell. It does the trick for all my winter camping out west when I’m not sleeping in a camper with a heater. The brand’s super spiral stretch system may sound gimmicky, but it really works to keep the down...

Last fall, I spent way too much time counting ounces on the internet. I was staring down my future backcountry touring setup, flipping between two options: a middle-of-the-road, versatile upgrade to my old beat-up skis, and a skinny carbon-impregnated pair that was probably more suited to someone with a speedsuit and a heftier budget. The first option was practical for my slow, snack-heavy touring  habits. I knew it would work, but I wanted the light skis so I could be a fast backcountry skier. I am not alone in this kind of twisted decision-making. It turns out that coveting—and, often, buying—the gear you think you need rather than the gear you actually need is pretty common, even more so when it comes to expensive hard goods with long life spans, like skis and bikes . Sometimes this means buying gear that is too advanced out of aspiration. Other times, the opposite occurs: we buy gear that’s lower performance than what we need...

The year 2020 has not been good to many things, but it has been very, very good to the tuna melt. As the world got weird and we sheltered at home, many of us hankered for the familiar, the stable, the uncool. And there was the tuna melt waiting for us, as uncool as ever.  References to the sandwich spiked on Reddit. New recipes (more or less indistin­guishable from the old recipes) flowed onto the internet.  I, too, felt the allure. So, during the height of the pandemic, breaking away from the monotony of the keyboard, I made myself a lunch of soaring satisfaction: crispy bread and creamy tuna under a warm security blanket of cheese. What made it especially gratifying, however, was that it was the first tuna melt of my life that involved no fish at all. It was made with a new plant-based faux tuna called Good Catch , and while I can’t exactly say it changed my life, it definitely changed my lunch. I swore off canned tuna last year, after reading The Outlaw Ocean , Ian Urb...

Things were cooking for Lindsey Vonn. It was early 2020, the world had yet to shut down, and the Olympic downhiller had been retired for less than a year. An HBO documentary about her had aired a few months   earlier ago, and her memoir, Rise , was set to drop in March. (The looming pandemic would push its release to October 2021.) She had launched her own ski clothing line with longtime sponsor Head and then co-created a production company with a childhood friend. Soon Vonn would be making her own film about Olympic skier Picabo Street , and Frank Marshall, producer of The Sixth Sense and Seabiscuit , wanted to team up. Now Vonn was in the foothills north of San José, Costa Rica, sitting on a rock in utter bliss with Lucy, her baby-sized Cavalier King Charles spaniel and number one travel buddy. There, at the Territorio de Zaguates Dog Sanctuary , the ground around her shimmered with hundreds and hundreds of street dogs. “It was a wave of dogs...

From director Will Harrison , Band of Runners  shows us how trail running helps a group of veterans find happiness and community through movement and amid nature. by Outside Editors via Outside Magazine: All

62 Parks Traveler started with a simple goal: to visit every U.S. national park. Avid backpacker and public-lands nerd  Emily Pennington  saved up, built out a tiny van to travel and live in, and hit the road. The parks as we know them are rapidly changing, and she wanted to see them before it’s too late. Pennington is committed to following CDC guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure the safety of herself and others. She’s visiting new parks while closely adhering to best safety practices. There are days when you think you’re going to hike the Teton Crest Trail in northern Wyoming in late June, and then there are days when your dreams come crashing down on you. As a spoiled SoCal hiker, I’m used to the snow line being well above 10,000 feet by midsummer. But after I sauntered up to the wilderness-permit counter with my partner, Brian, my jaw dropped when a friendly ranger informed us that the snow was sitting somewhere around 7,500 feet. “What’s the n...