“Our world we live in is easier to explore than ever before in history, the invention of the telephone, the television and the aeroplane has brought us together but perhaps drawn our attention from our homes. I am as guilty as any and have spent so many hours searching, dreaming and longing to venture into far away places when just outside my backdoor an incredible landscape lies waiting, untouched.”

“When we sat down to make these careful choices, we called on the expertise of the entire Singletracks blog team. Narrowing the list down to just 10 places was a very difficult, controversial process. There was quite a bit of disagreement, even internally, about which towns should make the list, and which ones weren’t deserving. Regardless, each of the 10 locales listed below is more than worthy of dedicating a week (or a month) of your vacation time to exploring on the back of your mountain bike.”

“Every year, the Amer­i­can Long Dis­tance Hik­ing Asso­ci­a­tion (West) rec­og­nizes the long dis­tance hik­ers who have com­pleted the Triple Crown. These hik­ers have trekked over 7,500 miles, ascended and descended well over 1,000,000 feet, and tra­versed three of the longest, and most iconic hik­ing trails in the United States. So far, only 196 ded­i­cated hik­ers have received this award, and to get you started on being #197, here’s some fun infor­ma­tion on what you’ll be tackling…”

“The hard­est thing about long-distance back­pack­ing trips is dial­ing in the logis­tics. Here are a few things to keep in mind before you escape into the wild.”

“There is some­thing to be said about the pris­tine beauty of the majes­tic moun­tains. Fresh air, pure land­scapes and untouched peaks. Trav­el­ers and locals alike have the oppor­tu­nity to wake up each morn­ing, stim­u­lated with a breath of fresh air while spend­ing time in these pretty moun­tain towns. Get your out­door legs ready for some of the best hik­ing, ski­ing and bik­ing on earth.”

“The north­ern lights, or auro­ras, are a nat­ural col­or­ful light dis­play in the sky caused by a col­li­sion of charged par­ti­cles with atoms in the ther­mos­phere. The sun is the cre­ator of the north­ern lights. Essen­tially, dur­ing large solar explo­sions, the sun releases par­ti­cles deep into space. As the par­ti­cles meet the Earth’s mag­netic shield that is “dri­ven” toward the poles in a cir­cu­lar man­ner where the par­ti­cles meet the upper layer of the atmos­phere. When the energy is released, vivid shades of color float through­out the sky. This light show occurs in high lat­i­tude regions such as the Arc­tic and Antarc­tic poles.”

“From the cockpit of my expedition kayak, I watch in awe as the stadium-sized iceberg 500 feet away starts to roll over. The Arctic air is dead silent as the immaculately polished white ice tilts in slow motion into the inky black sea.”

“As spring approaches, some people think about gardening, or baseball season, or getting to wear white shoes again soon. We think about the desert: sunsets colored by dust in the air, red rock that glows during the golden hour, “a dry heat,” biking, hiking, climbing, sleeping out because there’s 0 percent chance of precipitation. We think of Moab, and all the things we love about it.”

“Spring is in full swing here in Missoula, and in the Tours department we are all talking about summer touring plans. Here are the top five ways I prepare for summer riding.”

“On Saturday, April 5, Calitz ran up and down the 1085 meter (3558 ft) tall flat-topped mountain an unbelievable 14.5 times in 12 hours. That gave him a vertical gain over that period of 10,257 meters (33,651 ft). That’s the equivalent of running up Everest, plus an additional 1409 meters (4622 ft), over the course of half a day.”

“On March 1, the very first day of 38-year-old ski mountaineer Greg Hill’s own version March Madness—to climb and ski 100,000 vertical meters (300,000+ feet) in just 31 days—he took his two kids, ages 7 and 8, to their first summit on British Columbia’s 8,086-foot Mount Mackenzie. This was after he had already toured 10,000 feet that day.”

“The United States maintains more than 6,000 federally-protected sites, spanning over 1 million square miles and totaling roughly 27 percent of the U.S.’s entire land area. Attracting millions of visitors worldwide, the U.S. National Park System offers tourists incredible variety, from the lush Everglades, to windswept Death Valley, to the grandaddy of national parks, the Grand Canyon.”