The Adventure Summit in Dayton, Ohio (Adventure Capital of the Mid-West) was a success. We met some fun and exciting people from across the world. The kayaking expo was very entertaining and the beer tasting made conversations more interesting. The Adventure Summit had plenty of booths to keep me occupied. Some of my favorites were the ECO Sports Corridor ( who knew Springfield, Ohio was so exciting?), Skydive Greene County (I hope I win the free skydive raffle!), and the Hike For Your Life booth.
Face it: it’s cold outside! That has us taking shorter hikes and trips, staying close to the hearth and warmth. One good thing about the cold weather is that I find time to read more. Which is one reason I’m never sad to see the winter days arrive.
One Minnesota Twins fan has the same idea. This review of Rollies Follies (by Clerisy Press) reminded me just how entertaining a read Fingers and Yellowstone have put together. It’s a great book full of baseball lore and facts, all just the right-size so you can pick the book up whenever you want and read a short piece. But don’t take my word for it, go read the review and see what one true baseball fan thought of the book. Of course, if you’re like me, all this talk of baseball is just one more reason I’m looking forward to warmer weather.
The video shows many clips taken during their successful trip of circling the globe, using only human powered machines. It also profiles their latest adventure of traveling from Scotland to Syria, again using just rowboats and bicycles.
Both are amazing trips that have been captured in the pages of two Menasha Ridge Press books: Beyond the Horizon and Rowed Trip.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, hike to the top of Mount Greylock, Massachusetts highpoint, each year. Few, if any, realize that this impressive whale-shaped peak that dominates the western Massachusetts landscape may have inspired one of America’s classic literary works. That’s right, its distinctive contour is reputed to have motivated Herman Melville to write his classic, Moby Dick.
Artist Norman Rockwell and philosopher Henry David Thoreau were also attracted to the area for its majestic, inspirational beauty. Cultural history notwithstanding, Greylock is a great hike. Multiple trails weave their way to the developed summit where there is a 100-foot lighthouse-style tower constructed to honor the fallen heroes of World War I. Situated in the picturesque Berkshire Mountains, choose a trail and enjoy a outstanding outdoor adventure in a compellingly historic environment.
One of the easiest routes to the summit is detailed in our book, Mountains for Mortals - New England, and additional options are discussed. GPS Trailhead coordinates, Key Information, trail map, elevation profile and photos are also provided.
We got the news last week, when the 2009 National Book Awards were announced and we saw that William Nealy’s (destined-to-be-a-classic) Kayak: The New Frontier took home the top prize in the “Classic Category”. It’s a great honor to have this one-of-a-kind book get the recognition we think it deserves. The folks here at Menasha Ridge Press always have fun working with any of William Nealy’s books or posters. The artwork and cartoons are as quirky as they are accurate and instantly recognizable.
Here is what the NOBA site had to say:
It is unfortunate that William Nealy left us so early. When he died in 2001, he was still young, at the height of his creative genus, and well established as the outdoor world’s most famous cartoonist. His work was as zany and outrageous as it was smart and insightful. His best known book is Kayak which sold over 300,000 copies and was translated into five languages. And now Kayak is back. Thanks to Menasha Ridge Press, Kayak lives on with the release of a newly updated edition, just in time to entertain a new generation of paddlers.
This book is loaded with the best trails for all skill levels. Not to mention the trails that lead to some of the most fantastic outdoor wonders, all within and hour of Philadelphia. Kear takes time to make sure this hiking guide is as much about where you can go today as well as what spots should be on your radar, in the near future, including the soon-to-be-blazed 25-mile Liberty Trail which colonists used to move and protect the Liberty Bell during the British invasion.
So pick up the book as soon as you can and get outside and go hiking!
Just Passin’ Thruauthor Winton Porter was just passin’ thru himself when he breezed into Greenville, South Carolina, recently to debut his first book (Menasha Ridge Press, Fall 2009). But unlike a debutante, Winton sported Chaco’s Z/2 Vibram Unaweep sandals, forest-green brushed-denim jeans, and a checkered shirt from Nordstroms. And unlike the other three writers on the “Before We Were Authors” panel, Winton walked around the audience telling true-life tales from his book. Sizing up this former outdoor retailer were pros gathered in Greenville for the annual Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance—SIBA—tradeshow.
One listener tagged Winton “Hiker Dude.” Was he just lucky to get his book out, she wanted to know, with no background in publishing or writing? (All of his panel mates—a photographer, a bookstore manager, and a former publisher CEO—were cozy with the book business.)
After Winton’s knock-em dead presentation, the woman’s rhetorical question popped up again over dinner with a small SIBA group at Greenville’s American Grocery Restaurant. And BTW, is this town of 60,000 folks the best-kept secret in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains? The dozens of trendy cafés and hip art galleries along tree-lined Main Street are a far cry from Winton’s backwoods Mountain Crossings store. That’s the setting for his Just Passin’ Thru: A Vintage Store, the Appalachian Trail, and a Cast of Unforgettable Characters.
But the sandal-footed yarn-spinner looked right at home dining on duck and sharing a table with New York City author Joseph Kanon, another SIBA panelist. (His latest novel is Stardust, Atria Books/Simon & Schuster.)
A natural raconteur, Winton enthralled the group until closing time at the restaurant. As for whether or not he was “just lucky” to get JPT published, heoffered his book recipe:
“First, quit your job that makes a lot of money. Raid your bank account, cash in your 401k, and sell your nice suburban house. Then buy a funky old store on the Appalachian Trail in the Georgia mountains. Move your wife, four-year-old daughter, and two-week-old baby into an old hostel next to the store. Do business with just about the strangest, kindest, saddest, funniest, wildest, wisest people you never thought you’d meet. Take notes.”
Each year, at least 1,200 tornadoes batter the United States. While most occur in Tornado Alley—a vast, weather-beaten swath of middle America—in truth, tornadoes can occur almost anywhere. And where there are tornadoes, there are storm chasers. They come in all shapes and sizes, from hobbyists to researchers to professional chasers. There is one, however, who stands well above the rest: Roger Hill.
Hunting Nature’s Fury tells the story of Roger Hill and his love affair with storm chasing, taking you on a suspenseful and dramatic ride across the Great Plains, into the Deep South, even into the eyes of such recent hurricanes as Katrina. You’ll accompany Hill as he braves close calls, makes history, and gains insight into the science of severe weather. This is a story of a storm chaser obsessed with the storms that almost killed him; of resiliency in the face of disaster; and of humility in the presence of the awesome power of nature.
Includes eight color pages of jaw-dropping photos taken by Hill showing many of the storms chronicled in the book.
60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Houston author Laurie Roddy is all set to present tonight at the Westheimer REI store. The event kicks off at about 7:00pm, today October 6th. So get there early to check out the book and find out about all of the great hikes and outdoor adventures around the Houston area.
If you get a chance to talk to Laurie, be sure to tell her we said ‘hi’!
