I was a Boy Scout, Troop 285. One of two Eagle Scouts in our small group of youngsters, I learned to love camping. I also love to ride. I should have been a cowboy, but my granddad sold my horse before that thought ever got the bit in its teeth. So, I bought a motorcycle instead. I never chased cattle, but I rode the range…still do, every chance I get. My bedroll consists of a North Face Blue Kazoo sleeping bag and a Big Agnes Seedhouse SL2 tent. My steed is a BMW R1200GS Adventure. Motel Six might as well save a few kilowatts and turn out the light. I’ll be somewhere under the stars, thank you.

The Rawhyde Adventure Ranch, deep in the heart of the Angeles National Forest north of Castaic, California, has become BMW’s west coast training center and host to the 2010 GS Trophy qualifier, “The Adventure Rider’s Challenge.” The event was held there at the end of April and first of May. I rode out with Adventure Rider Magazine’s publisher, James Pratt, primitive camping in some of the west’s magnificently remote but motor-accessible places.

Many times we find ourselves bound by urgency, flying down the highway, bent on making it to our destination in time to have a well planned bit of fun and then return home to the lawn, jobs and other obligations, a predictable experience when we attempt to schedule every moment. Not this time. Adventure, I have heard it said, is what happens when plans go awry. Sans any plans then, it’s all an adventure, right? Our only obligation was to make it to the Rawhyde Ranch in time to compete, six days travel away. Plenty of time to ride a motorcycle less than 2,000 miles. We barely made it with all our wanderings!

We burned the six days out to California and I continued my rambling, rolling explorations another three weeks and 5,000 miles after the competition before returning home. I will attempt to share more of that story later, but suffice it to say that we were successful at the Challenge and I will be representing the United States in the GS Trophy competition in Africa this November. As I prepare for the event, I am grateful to have a Backwoods store in my hometown of Norman, Oklahoma. It was a “fur piece” to north Oklahoma City back in the dust bowl days before they put in a store a mile from my house! Next week I will load my gear on my bike and head to the Great Northwest to meet my team mates for the trophy and ride the Oregon Back Country Discovery Route (OBDR), and to attend BMW’s National Rally in Redmond, Oregon. The OBDR, a 750-mile, mostly dirt trail from California to Washington, will serve as a training run. We will camp along the way, enjoying the outdoors and learning something about working together as a team.

Learn more about the Adventure Rider’s Challenge and the GS Trophy completion by checking out this link. Dragoo in center of opening slide and on red R1200GS, black and white shirt, gray helmet.

And more about the GS Trophy here:

About Bill Dragoo: Bill Dragoo takes to riding big motorcycles in the rough like a fish takes to water. Bill and his wife, Susan, of Norman, Oklahoma, are writing a book, “Ultimate Dual Sport Rides of North America.” Bill just finished a 7000-mile journey through the western United States, where he went to compete and to meet with contributors. Over the last three years Bill has competed in the Rawhyde Adventure Rider’s Challenge near Los Angeles, California, an amateur skills competition for dual sport motorcycles of 650cc and above. He has scored two first-place podium spots and a second during his three attempts at the ARC. Bill’s first success in 2008 caught the eye of BMW Motorrad of North America and put him in the running for a world class, dream come true event. BMW’s German parent company sponsors “The GS Trophy” every two years. Based on the popular “Camel Trophy” of years past, the GS Trophy showcases the R1200GS and F800GS instead of Land Rovers. Conditions are, otherwise, much the same.

In 2008 the contest was held in Tunisia, North Africa. Bill was one of six finalists, but missed the final cut in competition at BMW’s east coast training facility at Spartanburg, South Carolina. This year his second-place finish on Day One of the Adventure Rider’s Challenge earned him a place among the Top 20, who would compete the second day for one of the top three positions on the GS Trophy team. The 2010 GS Trophy will have teams from 14 countries taking on the terrain of South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique.

Over 500 youth from across the Nation met in New York City’s Central Park this past weekend to discuss opportunities and new ideas to inspire more people to go outside and seek active, adventurous lives – just like our Backwoods Mission Statement.  This was a unique experience and the first of its kind.  Thank you to Backwoods and Osprey for sponsoring a delegate and myself to attend this phenomenal event.

Dezi Howard, a member of Big Brothers Big Sisters from Cape Girardeau, Missouri was our representative for this once in a lifetime opportunity.

The winner of our April “you had to be there” story is from Joe Grant in Omaha, NE. Joe faced tough competition with lots of great stories like the ones from finalists Carl Vieregger, Diane Bedell, Monica Wormington and Micah McGuire. Congrats Joe – you are now eligible for the $1,000 You Had to Be There grand prize. Check out the about page to post your stories:

NO HELP NEEDED
by Joe Grant

I entered a 10K fun run while living in England. This fun run just happens to be in the middle of winter and there were adult beverages available to participants “to warm the cockles”– of course the race was sponsored by a local pub. Before showing up to the race I ate a high protein bar, figuring the protein would help heat my body during the race. The temp outside was a bit below freezing and the course wound through the countryside…farmers fields etc.

After socializing and having a couple of pints, participants were called to the starting line and off we went into the even colder, rolling snow covered hills of beautiful England. About halfway into the race I was separated from the leaders and pretty much bringing up the rear feeling the effects of the British lager and that awful protein bar gurgling in my gut. The gurgling soon turned to the feeling of not trusting your body to pass gas while running in frigid temperatures and I soon stopped behind a snow bank (in the countryside – well off the race course) to partake in a “number two”. I was crouched behind the snow bank tending to the business at hand when to my surprise I heard a sound. I peeked up from behind the snow bank and there stood two very proper British women and they politely asked me if I needed help – YHTBT.

Mothers day is a time for me to remember why I became a mom and look back at how I got to where I am today. When I was younger I was staunchly against having children. I was afraid I would not have enough of my self to share. I was afraid I would not have the ability to give the time needed to a young child. I was afraid I would be lacking at any mothering instinct. And so I waited, and waited. I did not plan on becoming a mom because I had set in my mind it would be to hard and take to much from me. I was so wrong.

Yep, that's my daughter in the backpack!

This will be the second mothers day I get to celebrate and it is one of the best days of my life other than when I got married and when my daughter was born. I look back and think why did I wait? I could have had all of this before. I missed out on years of snuggling and running around! There is so much more fun in my life now than I could have thought possible. It was like for all of these years something was missing and now that space is filled. I CAN give her all the time she needs. I do have the ability and the love to share. The best time of day for me is when I walk in the door and a little person runs up to me with arms spread wide babbling incoherently about what her day was about……and then settles in for a good long hug with her little arms wrapped around my neck.  Mothers day is every day for me……

Hiya! Greetings from the Pacific Coast!

We have been in Manuel Antonio the last couple of days and life is good!! My hotel room overlooks the ocean. In fact, I can even see the beach & ocean from my bed…doesn’t get any better than that!

Our first day here we went white water rafting down the Savage River and it was intense and tons of fun! We had some fantastic rapids, in fact our river guide said that this was the highest he had seen the river since January.  The scenery down the river was amazing and we saw some more birds and even a vanilla farm.  At one point in the river we were able to get out of the raft and jump from a 15 foot cliff…you better believe that I participated!! Joe, our raft guide and I were the only ones to jump.  It was cool!  We also had an opportunity to jump out of the raft and float a bit down the river…the water was really clean and very refreshing.  It was a perfect morning.  The afternoon, we had some rain come in, but that didn’t stop us from visiting the pool and the pool bar.

Today we went  to Manuel Antonio National  Park…we saw lots of wildlife…the Jesus Christ lizard that walks on water, lots of iguanas,a handful of 2 toed and 3 toed sloths, several white faced capuchin monkeys, howler monkeys, tree frogs, wood peckers, crabs, an Opsrey and more…it was really pretty amazing.  The best part, at the end of our hike, we came upon the beach and since it is in the national  park, there were not any vendors…we were a bit disappointed that there were two other people there before us, but we were still able to get some great photos.  By the time we left there were hundreds of people there.  I’ve been out of the water for about three hours, but it still feels like I’m riding the waves in the ocean…I guess that means it is time to join the others at the pool!

Keep your fingers crossed that the rain stays away and I get a good sunset photo over the ocean!!

Pura Vida,

Kathy

Day # 4 in Costa Rica and it feels like I’ve been here much, much longer!! We are having a blast! Yesterday. we were able to decide how we wanted to spend our afternoon…we could either lay by the pool at the hotel or take a day hike down a canyon to the LaFortuna waterfall…well, half of our group decided to lay by the pool and myself, Joe and Jorge decided to hike to the waterfall. The waterfall was beautiful! When we arrived at the bottom, we were able to swim in the pools…it was a bit chilly but very refreshing after the hike down. There were lots of fish swimming in the same pool and the water was crystal clear.

After we finished swimming it was time to hike back out of the canyon…fyi, it was 487 stairs up, out of the canyon – Joe counted. After the hike we came back to the hotel and went to the pool and the swim up bar…very cool! We had about three hours until our next adventure, which we were headed to the Hot Springs. Wow! This place was Cool!!! They had about 14 different pools that varied in temperature, all being heated by the volcano and natural springs. There was one pool where we could sit under a waterfall and get pounded on the back, it was a perfect water massage! After we relaxed in the pools, we had dinner at the same place…a huge buffet, that looked like something you would find in Las Vegas. Today we are headed back south and towards the coast and tonight I will be sleeping with an ocean view.

Wish you were here!!

~ Kathy

We arrived in Costa Rica on Saturday and took a three hour drive north to LaFortuna. The drive up was great, and we passed a massive amount of farms – sugar cane, coffee, pineapple, mangos and lots of vegetable farms.  It was amazing! The farms were built on the side of mountains, so all the work is done by hand….pretty impressive.  It rained our first night and it was nice to sleep to the sound of rain.

Day # 2 was adventure filled and action packed to the MAX!!!  We started early with breakfast at the hotel at 6:30am and then headed to Pure Trek Canyoneering for some waterfall rappelling…AWESOME!!! No previous experience was necessary and we rappelled down four waterfalls and one dry canyon…there was a couple of them that we went straight down the middle and the water was very refreshing!!

After the rappelling we went to Aernal Volcano and did some hiking in the rain forest around the base.  We saw some great plants, trees and even some Howler Monkeys.  Jorge, our guide brought a spotting scope, so we were able to look at them up close and personal.  After the forest trek, we headed up to the lava flow from 1992…we climbed on the volcanic rock and were able to see the volcano up close and personal…we were fortunate and heard the volcano rumbling and even saw some volcanic boulders rolling down the side.

We had dinner in town at LaFortuna and it was MOST delicious…I had this fruity pineapple drink and it was great! After dinner we went to check the volcano out at night and we could see the red lava at the top…how cool is that!!! We also saw several red fireballs that came out of the top and rolled down the side…the perfect ending to the perfect day!!

Today we had a bit of a later start and left the hotel at 7:45am and went zipling through the rain forest…we had 11 zip lines and we got some great speeds and some phenomenal views!!  Definitely not an activity for someone that is afraid of heights. I actually got a small “rug burn” when my arm touched the cable…but now I can tell everyone that I got that scar in Costa Rica when I was zip lining through the rain forest…what a great party topic.

Now we are headed to hike to a waterfall and then to the hot springs tonight!!

Pura Vida!

~ Kathy

The Outdoor Foundation and its lead partners announced the Outdoor Nation Youth Summit and Festival, an event that will bring together tens of thousands of festival-goers, including 500 delegates, from across the country to celebrate active outdoor living in New York’s Central Park on June 19 and 20.

A diverse group of partners, including The North Face, the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, Backpacker Magazine, The Conservation Fund and Mobilize.org, are empowering a new generation to champion the outdoors by developing a national agenda, top priorities and youth-led solutions that will be delivered to elected officials, and business and community leaders, as well as peers over the next year.

As part of the announcement, the organizations launched a ‘call for applications’ – a national search for 500 change makers to travel to New York City and participate in this first-ever Youth Summit on the Outdoors. Delegates will be selected based on outdoor interest and a commitment to lead local, regional and national efforts that will reconnect youth and the outdoors.

Presented by The North Face, the Outdoor Nation Youth Summit and Festival will combine outdoor activities and outdoor advocacy to raise awareness about the important role that the outdoors and recreational activities play in healthy active lifestyles. The goal of the initiative is to empower young leaders to start the next American Revolution by building an Outdoor Nation for this and future generations.

“There is a crisis in our country today. Young people are increasingly disconnected from the outdoors resulting in unprecedented levels of child obesity, depression, diabetes and ADHD. We need a new American revolution where young ‘Outsiders’ lead the way toward a healthier generation,” said Chris Fanning, executive director of The Outdoor Foundation. “The Outdoor Nation Youth Summit and Festival will bring leaders together for the first time to develop a national outdoor agenda, discuss youth-led solutions and receive the tools, training and resources to champion change on campuses and in communities.”

In an effort to harness the passion, energy and ideas of a new generation that is eager to influence the future and stand up for change; the Outdoor Nation Festival and Youth Summit will host delegations of 500 young people from each of the 50 states. Summit delegates will not only craft and deliver their message of change to the country, but strengthen the outdoor youth movement by infusing young leaders with new ideas, skills and connections, as well as opportunities for employment and action. Interested individuals ages 18 – 30 can visit www.outdoornation.org/youthsummit and apply to be part of this ground-breaking event.

With additional lead support from The Conservation Fund and facilitated by Mobilize.org, the Summit will include key topics such as health, diversity, careers, service, recreation, education, media and culture.

In addition to the Youth Summit, Outdoor Nation will partner with the NYC Parks Department’s annual outdoor sports celebration, Adventures NYC in Central Park, Manhattan’s largest urban playground, to bring outdoor adventure and entertainment playground, offering concerts, cultural festivities and nature-based activities such as climbing, mountain biking, and kayaking to kids from all around the country. In partnership with Backpacker and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, Outdoor Nation will build upon Adventures NYC, resulting in the nation’s biggest event celebrating youth and the outdoors. All activities will be inclusive, open to the public and free of charge.

Adding to the excitement will be a high-profile, two-day Conservation and Outdoor Career Fair, where public, private and not-for-profit organizations will provide information and advice on how to start a career in the outdoors.

Additional sponsors include Johnson & Johnson, Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation, CIGNA, Wilderness Systems, Dagger, Eastern Mountain Sports, Merrell, SmartWool, Mountain Hardwear and Paddle Advisory Council.

What is the recipe for a Great Spring Hike?

Take 16 highly motivated, adventurous individuals who enjoy the outdoors, one grand Spring morning with beautiful blue skies, sunshine, and mild temps, one challenging trail in Missouri hardwoods filled with lush vegetation, gorgeous Spring wildflowers and blooming trees.   Mix and shake gently (not stirred)…

You guessed it – our BWSTL Matson Hill hike was one to remember.  We covered approximately 3.0 miles (give or take - depending on who’s GPS was the most accurate) as we trekked through thick woods, up and down hills, and across stream beds.  We encountered small waterfalls, saw a few deer tracks, and heard a woodpecker in the distance.  Overall it was another fun-filled BWSTL hike…

Upon completing the hike and returning to the store, we held a drawing for two pair of Salomon shoes.  The winner of ther first pair was Loretta Auld, and coincidently, daughter Jenny was drawn as winner of the second pair.  Congratulations to both!

A BIG Thanks to all who participated and hope you enjoy the attached photos. Join us for our next hike on Saturday, May 1st. Click here for more details about BACKWOODS St. Louis and to see all the photos, check out our Facebook page.

Rick Haley