The Dirtbag Diaries

Ryan Nickum was a 20-year-old college athlete with a passion for brutal tackles and body checks. Spring break of his sophomore year, Nickum and his best friend Woodchuck were too broke for Cancun's party scene and opted instead to join a band of radical environmentalist organizing a tree sit in Southern Oregon. There are many ways to stumble into activism. 

When writer Alissa Bohling and her longtime boyfriend Paul set out on the Pacific Crest Trail, they thought a trip of that significance would leave a mark on their relationship.  They didn't foresee that it would leave Paul hobbling and struggling to get healthy years after they reached the Canadian border. In today's Short, Alissa puts pen to paper and imagines a pain-free life for Paul.  

Today, we bring you another Year of Big Ideas -- a time to turn daydreams into concrete goals. Professional athletes, weekend warriors, and full time dreamers present their goals for 2010.

When Scott Harvey’s poem “40 Miles of Inspiration” showed up in my Inbox, it was a like a breath of fresh air.  It’s hard not to smile at this refreshing cure for the mid-week blues.  Farm dogs. Wayward bats.  Coyotes. All in a day’s commute. 

There is type one fun and type two fun, but today, we are going to explore type three fun. This is the epic. The suffer fest. What does type three fun entail? Why do some people seem particularly drawn to these types of adventures and what could possibly motivate us to embrace type three fun?  Today, we bring you answers.  

Two and a half years ago, climber and Diaries contributor, Kelly Cordes, signed up for a Facebook account, promptly forgot the password and found out that negotiating social media can be every bit as difficult as picking a path through gaping crevasses, rotten ice and snow-covered rock. It’s certainly just as time consuming.

Today, we present three stories.  A city girl sheds caution to start a farm. A kayaker becomes a journalist. An adventure photographer forgoes a career traveling the globe to run for office back at home.   I am John Muir. You are John Muir.  We all have a Yosemite. 

Last summer, climber and writer Majka Burhardt embarked on an adventure two years in the making. In the last moments before leaving, Burhardt decided to purchase travel insurance. Her trip to Namibia was an insurance underwriter’s nightmare. After all the work to make her trip happen, she wanted more than insurance. Burhardt wanted assurance that her adventure would be a success.  

It was a tough summer in the climbing community. We lost heroes, friends, mentors, legends, sons and parents. We celebrate their lives with stories and memorials, but then the living are left to confront hard questions and dark emotions. This year, 22-year-old Evan Piche’s world turned upside down. He discovered, that even in the worst moments there are seeds of growth.

When writer Sarah Wroot took her first hike through Scottland’s craggy hills, she was overwhelmed with a surprising notion. “If I had a pack and a tent, I could keep going. I could be free to go wherever I want,” she thought. The idea took hold. Today, Sarah takes us all the way the Scottish Highlands and a journey that changed her life.