I know when I need to escape.  Get away.  Just go. There’s a feeling I get that can only be described as antsy with life.  It’s a feeling that I can’t ignore because it builds and builds until I finally go somewhere, anywhere.  More often than not it’s a quick escape to the woods for a weekend of camping.  But sometimes that feeling is a sign that I need to pull the trigger on something bigger, where I have to (no, scratch that, need to) hop on a plane and leave for some place new.  

I’m making it seem like I’m the most spontaneous person in the world and I’m always jetting off somewhere, I’m not.  In fact, I’m a free spirit locked down by an inner-planner. This means I’ve got excuses just like everyone else.  “I really want to go, but…”  Insert long list of excuses here, right?  I can’t take that much time off of work.  It’s too expensive.  What are we going to do with the cats, dogs, kids, etc.?

Written by Cari Morgan

Cari Morgan is a freelance writer and founder of Evoke PR. She currently lives and plays in the Sierra Foothills.

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Forget 'Splash Water Falls' or the 'Log Flume Ride' and try the real thing

Believe it or not, there are people out there who will try to convince you to spend your hard-earned vacation time doing something other than a life-changing, soul-satisfying whitewater rafting trip.

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Written by Reid Williams

Reid has guided whitewater and taught swiftwater rescue in the U.S. and Central America on 13 different rivers, after brief turns as a chemistry teacher and a newspaper journalist. These days, he tries to turn people on to active, outdoor lifestyles as an executive at WELD.

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I’ve got Tuolumne fever.  Already.  And it’s only February.  I blame it on a recent hike at Hetch Hetchy (pictured above), where the gorgeous Tuolumne River rolls out of Yosemite National Park through a spectacular granite canyon and then flows down to create the most wild and exhilarating rafting in the U.S.

The weather was gorgeous for being the middle of “winter” and I found myself basking in the summer temps, day dreaming about a 3-day Wine on the River trip I took down the Tuolumne with O.A.R.S. several years ago.  It was epic.  You know, the kind of trip that you’re always comparing to other trips because it was that good.  

Written by Cari Morgan

Cari Morgan is a freelance writer and founder of Evoke PR. She currently lives and plays in the Sierra Foothills.

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When can I see Aurora Borealis?

When, where & how bright
Anybody can talk about the weather, but  nobody can do anything except predict, wait, and watch. So it goes with the next Solar Maximum cycle, when peaking storm activity on the sun will lead to increasingly spectacular light shows in the northern skies here on earth known as the Northern Lights. The last minimum was in 2008, and the next predicted maximum currently ranges from 2012 through 2014.

Depending on the source, we should be preparing for communication interruptions if the next round of solar storms comes in fast and furious, or global chilling if the storms miss a cycle (a possibility, in one recent forecast).

Written by B. Frank

Author of Livin' the Dream: Testing the Ragged Edge of Machismo (Raven's Eye Press, 2010), Brad Frank has done time as a: Colorado native, sawmill savage, fruit picker, artist, wanderer, poet, seasonal worker, commercial driver, photographer, traveling coffeehouse proprietor, outdoor guide, river rat and writer. Since 2005 he has been listed as a contributing editor and senior correspondent for Mountain Gazette, a magazine that sagely advises, "When in doubt, go higher." More stories from B. can be found at bfrankbroadsides.com.

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Advice for Planning Your Next Family Adventure Vacation

    At one point during our five-day rafting trip down Oregon’s wild and impossibly scenic Rogue River, my 10-year-old daughter, Markie, became obsessed with the notion of catching a rough-skinned newt. This was after a day during which we had leapt from 15-foot-tall cliffs, swum through trains of standing waves, and negotiated scream-inducing rapids mined with boulders, huge suckholes, and raft-swamping ledge drops. The sun had just slipped behind the rim of the gorge and our party of 11 had emptied a gigantic Dutch oven of its chicken-chili-cornbread contents. We’d drawn our camp chairs close as the conversation turned to old college stories and river stories and assorted misadventures endured in the pursuit of adventure.

Written by T. Edward Nickens

Field & Stream editor-at-large T. Edward Nickens is known for do-it-yourself wilderness adventures and profiles about people and places where hunting and fishing are the heart and soul of a community. He has chased ptarmigan and char north of the Arctic Circle, antelope in Wyoming, and striped marlin from a kayak in Baja California. Author of Field & Stream's "Total Outdoorsman" skills features, he is also host, writer, and coproducer for a number of Field & Stream's television and web shows, among them The Total Outdoorsman Challenge and Heroes of Conservation. Nickens has been a National Magazine Award finalist, and has won more than thirty writing awards, including three "Best of the Best" top honors awards from the Outdoors Writers Association of America. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, within striking distance of mountain trout, saltwater flyfishing, and a beloved 450-acre hunting lease that has been the cause of many a tardy slip for his two school-age children.

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8 reasons to stop for a visit

Heading through Salt Lake City soon? Don’t just pass by this scenic city. If you have an hour or more, here are some of the best ways to experience the city.

1.)   Feast on local fare at the downtown Farmer’s Market in Historic Pioneer Park (June thru October).

Written by Cari Morgan

Cari Morgan is a freelance writer and founder of Evoke PR. She currently lives and plays in the Sierra Foothills.

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Adventure photographer Justin Bailie shares a few of the techniques that have earned him a world-wide reputation.

Written by Justin Bailie

Professional adventure, lifestyle, environmental and travel photographer based out of Manzanita, Oregon.

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Moving water is the greatest stress reliever I know. On rivers, life is reduced to its simplest form: your only tasks are to make and break camp, make sure the kids are safe and let the current carry you downstream. Everything else is superfluous.

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Written by Katie Arnold

Mother of two and author of Outside Magazine's Raising Rippers — a blog on bringing up adventurous kids. Arnold is also a freelance writer and editor who focuses primarily on subjects such as: adventure, travel, sports, health, and the environment. Her stories have appeared in The New York Times, Men's Journal, ESPN the Magazine, Marie Claire, Runner's World, Elle, and Sunset Magazine (among others).

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In July 2011, we sent 15-year-old Sarah Faller down the Snake River through Hells Canyon with a challenge to describe, in her own words, an O.A.R.S. rafting trip. (Sarah is no stranger to the river life—or to O.A.R.S.  —having rafted the Main Salmon River with us in 2010.)

Written by Sarah Faller

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I started rafting the Main Salmon River in 1992 – it was my first multi-day wilderness trip and I was very excited and a little intimidated!  The put-in point is a long drive from the town of Salmon, driving alongside the river the entire way. The North Fork joins the Main just outside town and many miles downriver, the Middle Fork enters and about doubles the size of the river.

This is Lewis & Clark country as this river canyon turned them away from attempting to canoe down the canyon and they turned and went into Montana. There are many historic sites commemorating this event on the drive to the edge of the wilderness. This is the Frank Church – River of No Return – Wilderness which is adjacent to the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana.  Together they form the largest wilderness area in the lower 48 states. Outfitters put into the river at Corn Creek which is where the road ends and you enter the magnificent river canyon.

Written by Nancy Harrison

Adventure Media is the brainchild of founder Nancy Harrison. Nancy only started adventuring at the age of 40 when she learned to ski, whitewater raft and horseback ride while living in Winter Park, Colorado. Moving to Wyoming gave her the opportunity to enjoy fly fishing, hiking and camping, sea kayaking, and many other nature-based activities. Nancy has two grown children and four grandsons, all of whom enjoy the outdoors - fishing, hiking, camping, water sports and snow sports. Nancy is a true Citizen of the West who has lived her entire life in the Rocky Mountain States. She has become an expert in her field of media relations and spends a good deal of her time each year teaching and lecturing on PR to groups such as The International Ecotourism Society, America Outdoors, the Adventure Travel World Summit and many state and regional conferences and international gatherings.

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