ϳԹ Magazine, Jul 2014
The America Issue
Stories
POSTs
Yeah, some of this is pretty obvious. But it's also just what you need to hear.
They want to rethink the way we work out, build our gyms, fuel, and collect data. And they're coming for you next.
A made-in-America longboard to keep you rolling proud
From superfat to ultrathin, these are the best new sun-season road runners.
The drive from Eureka, California, to Coos Bay, Oregon has dunes, salmon, and Jurassic Park-worthy greenery—but no crowds. It'll be our little secret.
Lighter, plusher, more refined—these six off-road ragers dazzled at our 2014 bike test.
This Olympic Peninsula loop in Washington is a water-lover's dream—take your pick of waterfalls, rivers, beaches, and lakes. And don't forget the seafood.
Take it to Alaska's Kenai Peninsula and find some of the best fishing, paddling, and moonshine-sampling of your life.
This road trip from New Orleans to Florida featuring lazy days feasting on the freshest seafood, sandy camping, and pristine paddling.
Hit up Best Towns 2014 winner Duluth, Minnesota, then hike and bike your way to Michigan's renowned shores.
It's a lonely road from Las Cruces, New Mexico, through West Texas, but very much worth it. Just a few reasons why: surreal white sand dunes, a massive network of caves, and mountain biking trails all to yourself.
Drive the Big Island loop in Hawaii—and make time for long hiking or paddling trips, plus awe-inspiring face time with volcanoes, manta rays, and starry skies.
A Southern Colorado loop where you can rough it in a yurt and throw one back in Durango.
Start in the Grand Canyon and wander up to Moab, Utah, with some moonlit camping and excellent mountain biking along the way.
The route from Jackson, Wyoming, to Glacier National Park, Montana packs in five national parks and plenty of watering holes.
On a sprawling farm in Vermont, Spartan Race founder Joe De Sena runs a business and a fitness crusade. He'll train anyone who shows up, with one major caveat: You must submit to his every cruel and unusual whim.
How a dedicated group of denim and apparel companies are ushering in a new age of American craftsmanship
It's been more than 50 years since the Colorado River regularly reached the sea. But this spring, the U.S. and Mexico let the water storm through its natural delta for a grand experiment in ecological restoration. As the dam gates opened, a small band of river rats caught a once-in-a-lifetime ride.
National parks are America's greatest recreational asset. Now an overdue movement will make them even better.
Why Clint Dempsey is the perfect player to shoulder Team USA's daunting World Cup campaign
A quasi-legal, father-son mission to train-hop through the changing American West
A story about an American icon, environmental displacement, and slob behavior by the human race
Drive, We Said
ϳԹ‘s guide to the open highway steers you toward the ten best road trips in America, with stops for spare ribs on Lake Superior, fresh peaches in Utah, and Spanish mackerel on the Gulf Coast. We supply the tips on gas-station food, staying fit, CB etiquette, and proper caffeination (a must). You pack the car. PLUS: Skier and fire-fighter Kalen Thorien has the nomadic lifestyle dialed.
Captain Underdog
Team USA doesn’t have the easiest World Cup path ahead. But striker Clint Dempsey is the perfect player to shoulder America’s dark-horse fantasies. By Matt Skenazy
Grind House
Spartan Race founder Joe De Sena is happy to personally train and board anyone who shows up at his Vermont farm. So long as they submit completely to his insane custom regimen. By Peter Vigneron. PLUS: Five other iconoclasts who are turning fitness on its head.
This is How We Roll
As a young man, Ted Conover wrote a book about hopping freight trains from Colorado to California. So when his 18-year-old son thumbed through it and suggested they team up for a repeat adventure, how could he say no?
Play Stations
If tour buses, why not mountain bikes? If snowmobiles, why not kayaks? America’s national parks are our greatest recreational asset, and a new movement aims to open up the gates. By Grayson Schaffer
The Bighorn Sheep Who Was YouTube Famous
He was the last of his tribe, a lone survivor who became a nuisance, an outlaw, and, finally, a celebrity. This is the story of Bam Bam—and his shoddy treatment by the human race. By Michael Kruse
Tailor Made
What’s more American than a pair of blue jeans? Plenty, it turns out, since most of them are manufactured overseas. Now, in the old textile hub of North Carolina, a new generation of craftsmen are bringing denim back home. By Jonah Ogles.
The River Was Everywhere and Nowhere
This spring, in a grand experiment, a rare flood of water moved through the Colorado River delta, inching its way toward the sea. Surfing the flow by paddleboard and canoe was a crew of scientists and river rats who’d made the Colorado their lives. By Rowan Jacobsen
ESSENTIALS
Mountain bikes, road runners, and our made-in-the-USA favorites, from longboards to skis to Old Glory itself.
Plus
Exposure
Parting Shot