Outside July 2017

“I’ve always believed that yoga comes to people exactly when it’s supposed to.” GERRY LOPEZ’S COME-TO-YOGA MOMENThappened thanks to a note tacked to a bulletin board and the beautiful women who’d gathered around to read it. It was 1968, and Lopez, a 20-year-old student at the University of Hawaii, feigned interest in the note and asked the women what was up. “It’s for a yoga class!” one of the girls beamed. “We’re going!” said another. “Aren’t you?” asked a third. “Oh, yeah, I’m going,” Lopez recalls saying. So he signed up, bought a copy of “The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga” and went. “I was there more to see the girls,” he says, “but when I saw how the instructor moved, like she was water running down a stream—so strong…

Donica Shouse One morning last January, Shouse and her husband, Abraham, swam into the water off the west coast of the Big Island of Hawaii with a hydrofoil board and a camera. The couple, who own an adventureproduction company on the island, employed an old trick to attract marine life: placing Hawaiian ti leaves, which are used to make hula skirts, on the board’s strut. Minutes later, a pod of spinner dolphins appeared to investigate. Shouse captured Abraham on the board as they approached and began to play with the leaves. “The dolphins were very curious,” Abraham says. “I’d never seen them surround us like that before.” Jasper Gibson Gibson and a few friends stopped at Kolob Canyon in Zion National Park last year during a fall road trip through…

The Best Get Better There’s no such thing as a perfect place to live. I know this because I’ve been lucky enough to call home several of the places this magazine has showcased over the years in our Best Towns package (“Brought to You by the Committee for Better Living,” page 48). I grew up in Portland, Oregon (traffic issues), and after college I resided in Austin, Texas (almost zero public land), and Boulder, Colorado (they don’t call it the Boulder Bubble for nothing). Eventually, I moved to Santa Fe, home to Outside’s headquarters and the place I finally set down roots to raise a family. Here, I can walk my kids to school and still get in an hourlong trail run before work. (I could go on, but I…

In April, Jon Billman’s “Leave No Trace,” a look into the thousands who have gone missing on our public lands, spurred many conversations about who should bear the cost of those search and rescue operations. Losing a loved one and then wondering if they’ll ever be found is truly one of life’s great tragedies, but it seems your article “Leave No Trace” omitted some important information about mitigating risk and helping fund search and rescue efforts. Your readers should purchase the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Search and Rescue card for $3, which helps reimburse local governments and volunteer SAR resources. Commonsense planning and the use of GPS also lessen the risk that many adventurers accept as integral to their adrenalinefueled activities. GREG CHAMPLIN Littleton, Colorado Be sure, should you go missing…

FROM THE NEWS FIELD IN 2010, AMERICAN Paul Stephens was working for USAID in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia—a country roughly the size of South Carolina—where he had originally traveled to volunteer for the Peace Corps. In between helping with the agency’s poverty and education initiatives, he explored the nearby Caucasus range on foot. “There are lots of peaks above 4,000 meters and dense forests,” says Stephens, now 35. “Western Georgia is like the Pacific Northwest, but with ancient villages, defense towers, and churches on the mountainside.” During one excursion, he came across a few intrepid Eastern European trekkers attempting to cross the country’s 800-mile swath of untracked mountains and forest. “It just got me thinking,” he says. “So I started looking at the map.” Years earlier he’d hiked much…

THE SINAI TRAIL Completed in 2015; 140 miles Route: From the Gulf of Aqaba to the top of Mount Catherine, Egypt’s 8,625-foot high point. Difficulty: 4/10. A through-hike can be completed in less than two weeks. Payoff: Biblical. You climb Mount Sinai, where many believe Moses received the Ten Commandments. Logistics: Water is scarce, and you won’t come upon any towns, so hire a trained Bedouin guide, who will bring pack camels and everything else you need. THE BAJA DIVIDE Completed in 2015; 1,700 miles Route: From San Diego to San José del Cabo, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Difficulty: 7/10. The trail’s vehicle-width tracks are roomy, sure, but the terrain can be sandy, rocky, and slow going. The longest stretch without food and water is 126 miles. The whole thing…