Outdoor Mother = Bad Mother. It’s a common rationale. It’s difficult to leave the kids, so getting intense athletic time while being a mother seems impossible unless there’s a nanny. There are timing issues with breastfeeding, nap times, and children’s extracurricular activities. A lot of “outdoor mothers” are happy to stay at home with the kids while their husbands do serious weekend trips. It’s...

What could be better than spending four months in a camper van with a two year old? The word crazy never came to mind when my husband Kyle and I decided to adventure through New Zealand for four months with our daughter Ava. We took advantage of our time off and the youth of our only child to head off in search of surf and stone. We couldn’t have chosen a better destination for our two passions and have...

The days are getting longer and the temperatures a bit warmer. With summer around the corner, daybreak is alive with bird songs. As the summer progresses the forest and bird feeders come alive with songbirds. Your kids will notice, and this natural phenomena provides a perfect opportunity to make the natural world into a classroom without walls. What about spring makes the birds start singing? All animals have...

Helmets save lives – I’ve collected all the data I’ll ever need. Four years ago I was climbing the CMC route on Mt. Moran with my friend, Jerry, and his two sons. In hindsight, we should have been more cautious. When we traversed onto the route, there were two groups above us. Almost like an omen, a loose rock whizzed past us and we made sure to stay out from under the group just above us....

One ray of sunshine in the low-pressure trough of spring is the return of the slackline. Similar to a tightrope, a slackline is simply a length of nylon webbing, usually 1″ wide, strung tightly between two trees or other solid objects. It differs from a tight rope in that it is not rigid. It bounces and quivers like an extremely narrow trampoline. Originally created by Yosemite climbers, the first time...

It’s 5 o’clock in the morning – time for dawn patrol. The surf is going to be good. Offshore winds are cleaning up a fresh combination swell sweeping in from the North and South. There’s going to be a-frame peaks up and down my local beach break giving chest-high right and left hand awesomeness to all takers. Which board should I take? What’s the water temperature? All I can...

By Danny Maynor When I was three, my family moved to Montana to start a business and ended up with next to nothing. There were times where all we could afford for groceries was milk, eggs, flour and sugar. My mom made donuts and my brother and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I still love donuts. We lived in a sixteen-foot-long travel trailer parked inside a shop building, rode hand-me-down bikes,...

Want your kids to graduate Summa Cum Shred? Sometimes it means letting go. By Andy Guinigundo They say that people who are experts at any particular activity are not necessarily the best teachers. I try very hard not to listen to “they” because often “they” are wrong. While I don’t consider myself an expert skier, I am an experienced ski patroller at a little ski area in southeastern Indiana. I know...

by Steve Bohrer Let’s just get this out of the way — getting outdoors with a family is HARD. You, the adult, will shoulder a Sherpa-sized load of extra gear, food and massive tents. The pace is glacial. Packing and unpacking take as long as the trip itself. A simple rain shower can turn into an epic, and odds are you’ll need to clean one or more disgusting bodily substances off your gear...