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Archive for 'February 2012'

Animal Tracks in the Snow: Can You Tell a Coyote's Print From a Raccoon's?

They looked like musical notes crisscrossing the newly built trail we were snowshoeing.  Round paw prints in the snow revealed a loping, diagonal gait, as if a pianist had lightly drummed his fingers along the face of the earth. "Has to be coyote."  This from Tom, a sixtysomething scientist whose internal furnace runs so hot that he spends the entire outing with a bare head and unzipped jacket.  The more sensibly bundled-and-gaitered Karen concurs.   The 3 of us had met last October while ...

Posted by KellyH on February 13, 2012 12:27 PM & Tagged animal prints, animal tracks and winter animal tracking | permalink | Comments



African Americans and Nature: Aspiring to Build and Expand the Connection

Editor's note: Rue Mapp, featured last month in The REI Blog, is the founder of OutdoorAfro.com, a website she describes as a place "where black people and nature meet." In recognition of Black History Month, REI invited Rue to appear as a guest blogger and share her thoughts on what it will take to encourage greater engagement in outdoor recreation within the African American community. As I speak to more people these days about African Americans and the outdoors, a question that most often ...

Posted by Rue Mapp on February 10, 2012 4:34 PM & Tagged African Americans, Black History Month and Outdoor Afro | permalink | Comments



Hooray for Urban Adventure: My Hike to Hollywood

This is the story of a nontraditional day hike, a roughly 22-mile trek that during a 7-hour span carried me over 2 mountain ranges and past a half-dozen tattoo shops. Maybe more. I climbed ridgelines with impressive views (downtown L.A., I never knew ye could look so lovely), crossed over a river hemmed in by concrete sidewalls, walked over or under a trio of freeways, and moseyed down sidewalks that passed the curious and the kooky, from vintage locomotives and mushroom-shaped trees to wig ...

Posted by T.D. Wood on February 9, 2012 2:45 PM & Tagged Hollywood, urban adventure, urbanism and walking | permalink | Comments



Making a Difference Now and in the Future: Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado

Outdoor stewardship doesn't just happen. It takes grassroots organizations such as Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC) to make it so. To help support these efforts, REI today announced the distribution of $600,000 (part of our $4.2 million in grants provided last year) to VOC and 13 other nonprofit partners through our Stewardship Leader Grants program. All of these are deserving groups, but VOC offers a great example of how to create a lasting legacy of stewardship. The statewide group ...

Posted by Steve T on February 7, 2012 6:14 PM & Tagged Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, rei and stewardship | permalink | Comments



Summer Outdoor Retailer: Pads, Packs, Pants, a Platinum Tent, Magnetic 'Biners

In sleeping pads, air is the new self-inflating foam. Therm-A-Rest, creator of the self-inflating open-cell foam pad which enjoyed enormous popularity among backpackers for decades, will mark its 40th anniversary in 2012. Yet even that iconic brand is putting plenty of effort into its air pad offerings. Imagine: Its original air pad, the game-changing NeoAir, was introduced in early 2009. That original design will be mothballed in 2012 and replaced by 3 new models. Other air-pad makers have ...

Posted by T.D. Wood on February 6, 2012 5:13 PM & Tagged Big Agnes, Exped, Kuhl Outdoor Retailer, Merrell, Osprey, Probar, Therm-A-Rest and Vibram | permalink | Comments