SNEWS best outdoor reads from around the web

What did the SNEWS team read this week that other outdoor industry insiders might find interesting? Well, read on to find out.

• Now that Labor Day has passed and people are back at work, kids back at school, some campsites in Norther California look kind of like a ghost town, said this San Francisco Gate story. But that’s good news for your die-hard outdoorsmen and women who will be able to have some trails and campsites all to themselves, especially during the week. Check out the article for more tips and information.

• Trial runners, hikers, mountain bikers and in the case of some of the trails we run on, horseback riders, all need to live in harmony on the trails. This Guardian story relays how we can all do that, especially focusing on mountain bikers. The article previews a book downloadable guide called “Do the Ride Thing” and gives a few tips from it. Check out the story to find the guide. 

• There seems to be some cool partnerships going on between retailers and other organizations that we read about this week. Wild Iris Mountain Sports in Wyoming has recently connected with a local outdoor recreation website called RootsRated to promote local activities. Plus, Eastern Mountain Sports recently partnered with Smart Button to offer customer service rewards. 

• If you wonder what the SNEWS team is doing this weekend we can tell you with certainty that we’re going to be having an awesome time at Adventures Denver Sept. 9, a fun outdoors event where families can come and try out various outdoor activities like stand-up paddleboarding. We hope to see you Denver Metro area outdoors folks there. Chances are there will be lots of future customers at Sloan’s Lake, off of Sheridan and 17th Avenues. Check out this Denver Post article for more information.

• Two more Yosemite campers were identified as having the Hanta virus this week, according to the Christian Science Monitor. Warnings are still going out to people who visited the national park this summer and Fox News reports that more than 10,000 are at risk for having contracted the disease. If you were there during June or July, keep tabs on your health and maybe visit your doctor just to make sure you’re fine.

• As if Hanta virus wasn’t scary enough, ABC News reports a Colorado girl contracted the bubonic plague while camping recently. She’s recovering, but the 7-year-old, who contracted the disease while camping in southwest Colorado, is the first confirmed case of human plague in the state since 2006. The article stated her mother believes the girl got it from insects near a dead squirrel the little girl had wanted to bury.

• We aren’t average, and pretty much nothing we do is average, so we love reading about non average things like the not-your-average camping trip Abby Lowell recently wrote about in The Republic about her two-day fastpacking trip to the top of the fifth Mendenhall Tower. Check it out. 

• Adventure Racing is blowing up and these people need equipment from your racks and shelves, and if this Active.com post has any effect on people, there might be more of them rolling into your stores. The story suggests people try adventure racing with the ones they love. To do: Find a boyfriend, stat, so we can have an adventure-racing partner.

• Lance Armstrong has been in the news a lot these days. Heck, he’s been in the news a lot in the last several years. No matter your stance on Lance, this Outside article dives into the situation from an insider’s point of view. Former Lance Armstrong Personal Assistant Mike Anderson tells the story about why he thinks Lance cheated, but also relays some stories that might be hard for Lance fans to digest.

• This might seem like a no-brainer to us in the industry, but going for a hike in the gorgeous outdoor spaces around you is good for the body and the mind according to this FitDay post. So maybe this is a way we can get those prissy girls who don’t like to get dirty interested in the outdoors. We’ll tell them that a hike will sculpt them better than that little 30 minutes on the elliptical they’ve been doing. 

Have you read anything interesting you’d like to share with us? Maybe we’ll include it next week’s column with a little shout out to you. Send a link to the story with the subject line “SNEWS Reads” to be considered.

–Compiled by Ana Trujillo