Outdoor Reads: Neptune turns 40, chance to help a climber

What did we read, or watch, this week that other industry insiders might enjoy? Read on to find out!

• Last night the store that’s kept Boulder outdoor enthusiasts equipped with all the latest and greatest for 40 years celebrated that milestone. This story from Colorado Daily commemorates the anniversary through the eyes of a longtime customer, who first came to the store as a 18-year-old kid in 1991 and found the experience “awe-inspiring.”

• Sometimes training for a new running adventure be it a stage race or a person’s first 50K trail run, motivation is often hard to come by. That is motivation was hard to come by, and then we saw this story in Runner’s World that re-opened our eyes to how running helps us with everyday problems.

• Speaking of running, there are those days when you just don’t want to rough it outside. Maybe there’s still some ice lurking in the shadows and you can’t find your YakTrax, or maybe you just don’t want to run in the cold. Those are days when you are glad to have a gym membership or that treadmill in the basement. Here are a few tips on how to love the “dreadmill.”

• All thanks to a bad salad, elite runner Rachel Cieslewicz got E. coli the day before she was set to start the 2011 TransRockies Run. She had to drop out of the race after pushing through some serious pain, but in her story in Trail Runner Magazine, Cieslewicz, who lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, is going to be back at the 2013 event with her friend-turned-more as her partner.

• For the first time in 100 years, an endangered North American River Otter has been spotted in our home base of Boulder. According to this Denver Post story, a motion-activated wildlife surveillance camera captured an image of the creature eating a white sucker fish on March 7.

• Recently we saw this story in Paddling Life announcing it had reached an agreement with Playak to share content to bring both sections of content to more readers in the paddling world. Under the agreement Playak will stream stories from Paddling Life’s website to both its homepage and newsletter.

• We’re not always reading. Sometimes, a little TV is good to watch, and we’ll be interested to see how a new online 24-hour sports channel for women pans out. Janet TV launched earlier this week, providing coverage of female athletes and their sports. The channel — available at www.JanetTV.com — broadcasts events, original shows, movies, scores and news.

• The big wigs here at Active Interest Media are getting their climbing gear ready for their upcoming Summit for Someone challenges, and raising money for the Denver, Colo.-based nonprofit Big City Mountaineers. Whether you want to support Jon Dorn, AIM’s editorial director (whose goal is $25,000, of which he’s raised $11,117), or support Shannon Davis, Climbing Magazine editor (whose fundraising goal is $4,000, $375 of which he’s raised already), it’s all going to a great cause so see if you have some spare change for these climbers!

• We don’t know about you, but some of us used to make our own tents out of blankets in the backyard to emulate the good times of camping back before we had any input in family decisions. But now we’re grown, and this Lawson Blue Ridge Camping Hammock, reviewed here, makes us feel that same excitement. We want to order one and hang out in our back yard, sitting in our tent hammock and reading a book. You know, the good life.

• You might think we’re obsessed with Vanessa Rodriguez, but there’s something fascinating about a young person who runs hundreds of miles just for fun and has retired to travel the country seeking the best summits before she even turns 30. Check out this post on how she managed to retire before the age of 30 and become “gainfully unemployed and proud of it,” and how she’s living the adventurer’s dream.

Read anything interesting you’d like to share with us? Shoot us an email with the link and we’ll check it out!

–Compiled by Ana Trujillo and David Clucas