SNEWS best outdoor reads from around the web

What did the SNEWS team read this week that other industry insiders might find interesting? Read on to find out!

• Honeymoons aren’t all about relaxing at some beach resort somewhere that costs just as much as a few mortgage payments. The economy still isn’t that great, we’re all still watching our pennies, so honeymoons are starting to get a little more economical, which should be good news for outdoor retailers. Check out this news story on how more love birds are making their way outdoors for their honeymoons.

• Turns out hungry bears and Hantavirus aren’t the only dangers of the wilderness, people are too. This San Francisco Chronicle story talks about a woman who was seriously injured after being stabbed several times while on a camping trip at Diamond Head Beach in Honolulu. So watch out ladies and gentleman, turns out you might need an Impact Personal Safety course to go along with your wilderness survival course

• Getting kids outdoors is one of our main missions and now we have this extra tidbit from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University to motivate us to get the little ones outdoors even more. The article said that outdoorsy children are happier, healthier and smarter than their housebound counterparts. The story follows Lisa Sullivan who quit her job to introduce her children to the great oudoors by traveling to see 50 parks in 50 days. Check out the story to see how the experiment led to higher creativity for Sullivan’s twins.

• We are super huge fans of Denver, Colo.-based First Descents and it seems so are a lot of high-profile celebrities and athletes including The Bachelorette’s Ryan Sutter and now Colorado skier Chris Anthony. According to this story, Anthony recently teamed up with the organization to go on the road with its FDMobile vehicle armed with surfboards, SUP boards, kayaks, bikes and climbing equipment to bring the joys of the outdoors to young adults with cancer.

• We understand this story because we’re right smack in the middle of Outdoor Retailer Planning Guide and Daily story reporting and writing, so it seems like there is simply no time for outdoor adventures. In this “Outdoors with Braz” by Mark Brazel, he talks about being so busy in 2012 he only had two memorable outdoor adventures. He recommends finding some inspiration for himself and anybody else who finds themselves in the same situation.

• This is not the first story about stuff being stolen from Boy Scouts that we’ve read this year. It’s so sad when people have to steal from little kids. This Cincinnati Enquirer story reports somebody stole a trailer containing around $10,000 worth of gear from St. James Parish Troop 24, which includes about 45 boys between the ages of 11 and 17.

• We have to bow down to these young sisters featured in this New York Times story who can only be described as the littlest bad asses. Kaytlynn Welsch, 12, and Heather Welsch, 10, have been in the news lately with people arguing whether the endurance athletes are too young and small to be competing in events like the Xterra trail race. Their father has claimed doctors have given him and his wife the OK to let their daughters enter difficult endurance races. Kaytlynn has been featured on Outside Magazine’s website as a “trail running phenom.” What are your thoughts? Do you think the Welsch girls are too young for endurance racing?

• Good news: The Tennessee Wildlife Federation’s Great Outdoors University recently hit the 12,000 “meaningful experiences” mark and plans to expand. The program seeks to connect inner city youth to the great outdoors and outdoor adventures. This past year, it organized about 120 trips for 1,800 kids in 2012. Check out this Memphis Daily News story on how you can help the organization.

• The Mayans may have predicted the world would end in 2012, but we at SNEWS have always known that Bigfoot would be found in 2012. Sure enough, according to this story, some hikers in Utah’s Provo Canyon spotted a Bigfoot. Don’t believe us? Check out the footage on GrindTV.com.

• On the news the day after the election, there was plenty of speculation about why the Republicans couldn’t make it to the White House this time. There were a lot of theories: They didn’t court the Latino vote enough, they turned off women voters, they didn’t reach out enough to black voters. While all that may be true, this Telegram article said it was because conservatives lacked a strong position on conservation, which is a big issue to the outdoor industry, both the hook-and-bullet folks and ours.

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 whoever sent it to us. Send a link to the story with the subject line “SNEWS Reads” to be considered.

–Compiled by Ana Trujillo