The Dirtbag Diaries

As a high school teacher in Santa Maria, CA, Taylor Mihelic understands the power of a field trip. Whether it’s plant identification hikes through the forests, or habitat restoration projects on the coast, Taylor gets...

Time spent outside as kids can extend into our adult lives in incredible ways. Jay Inslee’s passion for being outside shaped his path from his three terms as governor of Washington all the way to the national level. His...

Loss can create an emotional cocktail when something or someone is unceremoniously ripped from our life. Amie Renaud and Joanna Henry invite us along through their circuitous roads through grief. After the sudden end of...

Shane Schieffer just swam the entire length of Lake Powell self-supported in 11 days. He also just turned 50 years old and had no previous experience in long distance swimming. Shane talks about following through on...

What do we want and what do we need? Sara Holzknecht started skiing every month of the year as a way to shake off the unexpected upheavals of life and the pandemic. Then her kids wanted in. Gabby Markel was living a...

Mount Bachelor, one of America’s largest and beloved ski resorts, was put up for sale in August of 2024 after two decades of contentious corporate ownership. Sensing a sliver of opportunity, a high school teacher, a...

Mount Bachelor, one of America’s largest and beloved ski resorts, was put up for sale in August of 2024 after two decades of contentious corporate ownership. Sensing a sliver of opportunity, a high school teacher, a...

We seek solitude. We find that place a little further out to camp, a couple of extra miles down trail. Sometimes curiosity pulls us farther off the beaten path. Maybe the late afternoon feels just a little more perfect...

Some people look at ranges and imagine lines. Kílian Jornet looks at continents. Last week, Kílian completed a truly incredible adventure that was hiding in plain sight. Over the course of 31 days, the renowned mountain...

The bonds we forge during mountain adventures and shared experiences, especially with family, can profoundly shape us. Explorer and author Mark Jenkins reflects on learning to rock climb in Vedauwoo from his swim Coach...

The Mississippi River. The Big Muddy. The Great River. When musician JW Francis left the river’s source in northern Minnesota and started heading for the sea, he’d had about two hours in canoeing to his name and little...

Five days, 231.82 miles, 85,967 vertical feet, nearly 94 hours of moving time - this is the White Mountain Direttissima as experienced by ultra-athlete Andrew Drummond. A rugged DIY run that connects all 48 of the White...

When big transitional moments occur in our lives, the way we navigate them and what helps shift our perspective can often come from unexpected places. After graduation and a summer of feeling melancholy, Carol Doyle...

Growing up as identical twins in England, Poppy and Thea Wardley were practically attached at the hip. Their lives finally diverged when Poppy enrolled in medical school and Thea attended university a few hours away...

For Sam Webster, public lands have been interwoven with life from the earliest age. He followed a path into public service with the Park and Forest Service, choosing stability and the ability to contribute to the great...

Every July, nearly 20,000 cyclists from around the world swarm the roads of Iowa for one week to ride across the state. It’s hot. It’s humid. And it’s not as flat as one may think. Iowa resident Caleb Smith shares his...

Runner, writer, illustrator and all around human Brendan Leonard made a career of doing what he loves. Yes it’s passion and wild creativity, but it’s also the unheralded traits of persistence, thoughtful compromise and...

Growth happens outside your comfort zone. Sometimes this comes by choice, like committing to guiding rafts on a new river and trading out your nimble kayak for the biggest barge in the fleet as Jessie Longe did...

To escape record breaking crowds in Zion National Park, Marco Siler-Gonzales decides to take his girlfriend, Lena Ohlson, on an unmarked and seldom hiked trail. Heading back towards the car, Marco leads Lena around a...

In March of 2025, Emily Ford lined up at the starting line of one of the world’s most difficult races – The Iditarod. To race this iconic event hadn’t been a lifelong dream but rather the next step on Emily’s pursuit of...

Finding out what we’re capable of takes trial and error and a whole lot of trust. For Meg Morris and Emmye Vernet, they each had a guide who helped them see another side of the outdoors. For Meg, her dad fostered her...

In the fall of 2015, photographer Pete McBride and writer Kevin Fedarko embarked on a journey to rally support to protect one of our most awe-inspiring national treasures: the Grand Canyon. Their method? A 700+ mile...

In 1994, Forrest Gump took the box-office by storm and became a staple of cable TV reruns in the following decades. Its feel good message about a simple man who lived life heart first struck a chord, but hidden inside a...

Mild-mannered, elementary school teacher Jason Hardrath may be a superhero. After competing in college as a cross country athlete, he turned to triathlons and then Iron Mans to push the limits of his endurance...

Over the last few years, students at Utah State University built a weekly ritual at their school gym to grow the climbing community on campus. When Utah’s legislature passed a contentious bill last year, that routine...