Lyme Disease Changed My Relationship with the Outdoors
Plus, cycling's biggest race organizer needs to support women
Hi everyone! Happy Monday. I’m back from a two-week hiatus after a weekend in Telluride for Mountainfilm and a weekend of climbing in northern New Mexico.
Mountainfilm crew
Here’s what I’m reading
She Learned to Bike at 20. Now She's a Champion. Last July, then 28-year-old Alexandera Houchin won the women's Tour Divide, a 2,745-mile race from Canada to Mexico over the Continental Divide. Next on her list? The new Dirty Kanza XL, a 350-mile unsupported race across Kansas. [Stephanie Pearson for Outside]
Born to Be Eaten: What’s at stake in the fight over development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? A caribou herd, and a culture that relies on it. [Eva Holland for Longreads]
‘Unlikely’ Hikers Hit the Trail: Our public lands have a diversity problem. But grassroot initiatives and outdoor-gear companies hope to change that. [Alyson Krueger for The New York Times]
Lyme Disease Changed My Relationship with the Outdoors: For Blair Braverman, physical activity was a given. Until it wasn't. [Blair Braverman for Outside]
‘Not Just a Maid’: The Ultrarunning Domestic Workers of Hong Kong: Jaybie Pagarigan is part of a growing community of maids in Hong Kong who have taken up trail running for the challenge of the sport and the opportunity to be treated as equals in a society that often discriminates against them. [Mary Hui for The New York Times]
Cycling's Biggest Race Organizer Needs to Support Women: The largest promoter in road-bike racing is backing away from what may be the sport's future. [Joe Lindsey for Outside]
Climbing
Outlaw country
Klamath County, Oregon, is the perfect place to go if you don’t want to be found—and the worst place to be if someone threatens your life, by Emma Marris for The Atavist:
In January 2018, Benito Devila Sanchez was shot by Richard Bryon Johnson with a .45 during an argument; Johnson hid the body in the woods, where it was discovered after Sanchez’s roommate reported him missing. In March of the same year, the body of Beatty resident Jack James Hasbrouck was also found in the woods. When reporters asked Klamath County district attorney Eve Costello if the public should be concerned about a killer, she said, “Mr. Hasbrouck had a lot of friends that maybe weren’t the kind that an average citizen is going to have.” No one was ever charged. “The meaner you seem, the safer you probably are,” Klamath County sheriff Chris Kaber told me of living in the area.
Vote for Tasha:
My friend and extremely talented artist Latasha Dunston is a finalist in Backpacker’s Meet the Artist contest. The winner gets a cash prize, their design on a T-shirt benefiting the the Conservation Alliance, and a donation to an outdoor nonprofit of their choice. If Tasha wins, she’s considering donating to PGM ONE…
“…because they create a space for people of color in the outdoor industry to share and have community and bring each other up and put opportunities forward. City Kids Wilderness Project, a non-profit based in DC that gets inner city kids into parks around the area and teaches them outdoor skills, is another option—I’m most passionate about children and people of color. Whatever organization I choose will be about helping minorities get out.”
