Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2013 i Outside

DAVID CLIFFORD Last April, Clifford had hoped to shoot Bend, Oregon, runner Max King’s attempt to set a record on the 42.5-mile Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim traverse—a double crossing of the 5,250-foot canyon. Unfortunately, the Park Service wouldn’t let him. “For safety reasons, they’ve been trying to keep people from running on the trails, and they were worried about publicity,” says the Boulder, Colorado, photographer. King missed the record by almost an hour, but the next day Clifford talked him into a few action shots near the South Rim’s Shoshone Point. “Max was pretty burned out from the day before, but there weren’t any rangers around, and the backdrop was too good to pass up.” THE TOOLS: Canon 1D Mark IV, 16–35mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 100, f/5, 1/1,500 second TYLER ROEMER…

Last summer, Ann Bender, an heiress charged with murdering her wealthy husband, reached out to los angeles writer ned zeman. “She was six months from trial and wanted to get the U.S. press involved,” says Zeman, who wrote “Dead of Night” (page 92), an investigation into whether the death of Wall Street genius John Bender was murder or suicide. Zeman, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, spent a year reporting the story, including multiple visits to Costa Rica, where he saw the crime scene at the bender compound deep in the jungle. His most memorable four days, though, were spent listening to Ann tell “uncomfortably revealing” details about her battle with mental illness, bender’s suicidal tendencies, and the crucial moment when the bullet crashed through his head. “It was a…

Photographer Jake Stangel took a novel approach to this month’s running-focused style special shoot, “Double agents” (page 78), featuring six silicon valley geeks who moonlight as hardcore endurance athletes. “I decided to tell the story of a cat-and-mouse chase through the coolest parts of my hometown,” says the San Francisco native. He scouted 18 locations by riding his bike around various neighborhoods, then had the six runners don slim-fit suits and brightly colored running shoes and sprint through the busy city. Here are a few highlights.…

FOR EVERY SUCCESS STORY like the California condor, there’s a Dakota skipper butter-fly—an insect that’s been languishing on the endangered-species candidate list for 38 years. Dozens of other species have gone extinct while awaiting review by the Fish and Wildlife Service, mostly due to red tape. But this year will see a huge shift in momentum: nudged by countless lawsuits from conservation groups, the service has agreed to rule on 97 priority species by the end of the summer and 164 more over the next two years. All told, the protected-species list could more than double in the decade ahead. The greatest benefit? Millions of acres of land—often prime recreational real estate—shielded from unfettered commercial (read: oil and gas) exploitation. Sure, these protections can sometimes seem excessive. But we’ll take…

LIKE A LOT of Vanagonauts, I joined the tribe thanks to a wayward ski, surf, and climbing bum. This guy was from Crested Butte, Colorado, and everyone referred to him as Turtle, in part because of the white pop-top camper shell that covered his back at night. Turtle’s van had an equally befitting nickname: the Cube. Bound to a desk at the time, I lusted for the freedom the Cube afforded. It had two beds, rotating front seats, and a cabin with swing-out tables, a portable toilet, a stove, a refrigerator, and an electric sink. Before long I offered Turtle $1,700 for the Cube, then spent the next two years in it, crisscrossing the country to chase waves. After some significant renovations, I sold it for $6,000. Like all former…

1960: Bertrand’s father, engineer Jacques Piccard, and U.S. naval officer Don Walsh become the first men to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench, in a 59-foot submersible. 1975: Bertrand Piccard takes up hang-gliding. 1992: Begins studying hypnosis to deal with the sleep deprivation that long-distance ballooning requires; wins first trans-Atlantic balloon race. 1996: Becomes a resident lecturer at the Swiss Medical Society for Hypnosis. 1999: Piccard and Briton Brian Jones complete the first nonstop circumnavigation of the globe in a hot-air balloon. 2010: Piccard’s solar-powered carbon-fiber plane, the HB-SIA, becomes the first fuel-free plane to fly through the night. 2013: Beginning in late may, he’ll fly the solar-powered HB-SIA across the U.S. to raise money and awareness for a flight around the world in 2015.…

SOUTHEAST UNPLUG ON A FORGOTTEN MID-ATLANTIC CAPE. JUST IGNORE THE JELLYFISH. The first time a jellyfish ever slid inside my swimming trunks, I was in Cape Charles, Virginia, at a spot called Pickett’s Harbor, a long beach with sand dunes and a breakwater of sunken ghost ships just offshore. I was six, bobbing around in baggy boardshorts when suddenly my crotch exploded. The pain passed, but my fondness for the place didn’t. My dad grew up in the town of 1,000, about 200 miles southeast of D.C., on the far southern tip of Delmarva, and every summer we’d head “down the road.” We’d put lightning bugs in mason jars, ride bikes down the empty boardwalk with its zero shops, or steam blue crabs we caught at the docks. Now that…

SOUTHWEST LEARNING TO RAFT—AT A STEEP COST—IN NEW MEXICO’S FINEST CANYON The Rio Chama in northern New Mexico—at least the ten-mile stretch that starts near a monastery where the monks brew beer—is not particularly wild. The biggest wave is a Class III roller, and the float ends above a dam that creates the jet-ski haven of Abiquiu Lake. Also, the water often resembles Yoo-Hoo, so the fishing is usually very bad. Still, the Chama is one of my favorite places on earth for a simple reason: I learned to raft here. I first tried it a few years ago and broke a fly rod or two failing to evade an oncoming cottonwood. But piloting a raft is like skiing or learning an instrument: you do it, and do it, and…

TWENTY-SIX YEARS AGO, Loren Cordain, a lifeguard turned exercise-physiology professor at Colorado State University, began an obsession with an influential 1985 paper published in the new England Journal of Medicine titled “Paleolithic Nutrition.” The paper laid out a compelling argument that the healthiest human diet looks a lot more like what our Stone Age ancestors ate than the sugar-and fat-laden food Americans mostly rely on. Intrigued, Cordain overhauled his own eating habits and was soon proselytizing about the benefits. The Paleo Diet, his 2002 book outlining his experience, urged readers to abandon grains, dairy, and excessive sugar and salt in favor of meat, fish, poultry, fruits, vegetables, and nuts—essentially what humans ate 10,000 years ago, until agriculture came along. “I didn’t design this diet, nature did,” Cordain wrote in the…

SHE’S NOT EVEN 30 years old, and Melissa Arnot is already one of the most recognizable names in climbing. As a guide for Rainier Mountaineering since 2004, Arnot has notched 94 ascents of that peak and summited Everest four times—the current record for a non-Sherpa woman. If all goes as planned, she’ll climb Everest again this spring, without supplemental oxygen. How does she prepare for laps at 29,035 feet? Acupuncture, gold stars, and the occasional beer. → "Six weeks before a trip, I do weekly massage and acupuncture. It prevents sprains, strains, and tendinitis.” → “Downhill hikes are one of the most important things I do. Three days a week I hike in my crampons and climbing boots, with 50 pounds of weight in my bag, 3,000 feet up at…

TWO OR THREE TIMES A YEAR, I slow-cook a whole 150-pound hog, and not just because there’s no good way to cheat your way to that exquisite flavor. Those 18 to 24 hours of fireside work can’t be done alone, which might be the best part. I learned how to cook a pig from my elders, and they learned the way we all do: getting conscripted to work overnight, staying up until dawn to keep the coals smoking, drinking liquor, and wailing on a guitar, torturing the most maudlin lyrics of the time (then, Leonard Cohen’s). That graveyard shift is practically a rite of passage. Real barbecue slows down time and gets you back to the very origins of cooking. I’m always shocked by how many people come over in…

CRAIG DOS SANTOS Long before minimalist shoes altered the running landscape, Craig dos Santos, 31, made his own. “I used to put my shoes in the oven to heat them up so I could remove the middle layer of padding,” says the former Rice University cross-country and steeplechase competitor. In 2011, he founded Andover Games, which produces mobile apps for clients like National Geographic. These days, he runs in Golden Gate Park before work and fits in the occasional marathon, ultra, or century ride. “Being an endurance athlete and an entrepreneur both put you at the edge of self-discovery,” he says. “In sports, you’re optimizing the way your body works. As an entrepreneur, you’re optimizing business efficiency. Things are constantly changing in both arenas.” ZAK HOLDSWORTH Zak Holdsworth, 31, grew…

A brilliant American financier and his exotic wife build a lavish mansion in the jungles, of Costa Rica, set up a wildlife preserve, and appear to slowly, steadily lose their, minds. A spiral of handguns, angry locals, armed guards, uncut diamonds, abduction, plots, and a bedroom blazing with 550 Tiffany lamps ends with a body and a compelling mystery: Did John Felix Bender die by his own hand? Or did Ann Bender kill him, to escape their crumbling dream? NED ZEMAN investigates. The city of San José, Costa Rica, is a sprawling gray mess that doubles as the sex-tourism capital of Latin America. Thanks to legalized prostitution, parts of downtown look like Disneyland for horny, middle-aged Australians. The urban center is a mix of shopping malls, semi-rises, and fastfood outlets…

Each June, our annual Weekend escapes package (“play the Field,” page 40) serves as my own personal reminder that I need to leave town more often. I’ve got two young kids, and come most summer Fridays, when end-of-the-week fatigue sets in and traffic starts to jam, volunteering to hand-process ballots in an election recount can sound more appealing than getting everyone packed and out the door. Then I remember the sage advice a friend once gave me when I threatened to bail on our car-camping mission: you don’t always regret deciding to stay home, but you never regret getting out of town. Here’s what else I’ve learned over the past few summers. Stress about unpacking, not packing. When you get home on Sunday, air out the tent, drain the cooler,…

“Sunk” (April), Kathryn Miles’s detailed account of the last days of the Bounty, the wooden tall ship that went down during hurricane sandy, killing captain Robin Walbridge and deckhand Claudene Christian, set off a heated debate about the captain’s decision to sail into the storm. it also inspired moving tributes to the rescue efforts of the U.S. coast Guard, which saved the lives of 14 crew members. Despite knowing about the events surrounding the Bounty’s last voyage, I was shocked by the recklessness detailed in “Sunk.” Sometimes, thankfully rarely, captains make tragic, lethal mistakes. Captain Walbridge should never have left port, and he knew it. An ocean passage leaves little room for carelessness. MATTHEW R. STRAUS PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK This is an excellent story, and it captured the essence…

USING TWITTER AND A LOT OF HUGS, A RENEGADE TRIBE FROM BOSTON ATTEMPTS TO REIMAGINE FITNESS AS A SOCIAL EVENT WHY DO AN OLYMPIC track star and a Stanley Cup–winning defender for the Boston Bruins don neon and go meet a bunch of bartenders, moms, and yoga instructors at the crack of dawn? To hug them. Also, to stay in shape. For the past 19 months, a growing cadre of fitness buffs, including former 800-meter runner Nicole Teter-Downin and Bruin Andrew Ference, have been gathering at outdoor spots around Boston. On Mondays, they do push-ups and sit-ups in public parks; on Wednesdays, they sprint up the Harvard Stadium stairs; on Fridays, they run the city’s hills. Hundreds of people turn out, rain, snow, or shine, some of them in spray-painted…

THIS SPRING MARKS two big anniversaries in the mountaineering world: 50 years since the first American team climbed Mount Everest, and 100 years since the first summit of Alaska’s Mount McKinley. As you’d expect, there are the usual commemorative expeditions hitting the ridgelines, among them Denali 2013, which aims to put five bloodline descendants of the mountain’s first climbers atop the 20,320-foot peak. But the one that could have the greatest impact will be looking forward, not back. This June, Expedition Denali, a collection of 12 teachers, wilderness instructors, and students, hopes to become the first African-American team to summit North America’s highest mountain. Their larger goal: to draw attention to the persistent lack of diversity in the outdoors—and to give rise to a new generation of wilderness advocates. Efforts…

DR. GEOFFREY TABIN, one of the two medical all-stars in second suns: two doctors and their amazing Quest to restore sight and save lives (Random House, $27), issues a big, bold statement at one point about the service he provides through the Himalayan Cataract Project. Founded in 1995 by the U.S.–based Tabin and Dr. Sanduk Ruit, a Nepali eye surgeon, the HCP performs low-impact cataract operations in the developing world, installing artificial lenses to allow blind people to see again, usually overnight. During a hectic day of surgeries in Ethiopia, Tabin pauses to savor the power of these transformations. “It’s the single most effective medical intervention on earth,” he says to Relin, “a little miracle.” It’s hard to argue with that, and second suns should be required reading for anybody…

YOU KNOW WHERE YOU WANT TO BE THIS SUMMER: RUNNING A RIVER, SITTING IN A HAMMOCK, OR LYING IN THE SAND. HOW TO GET THERE? THESE 24 EASY, FRESH ESCAPE ROUTES, FROM VIRGINIA TO WYOMING. PLUS: THE SEASON’S BEST TUNES, GEAR, AND BEER. Northeast OBJECTIVE: BEAT THE CROWDS STRATEGY #1: SAIL AWAY New York, New York The quickest way to exit New York City is via North Cove Marina, just a few blocks from the World Financial Center. Book a 40-foot sloop through Manhattan by Sail (from $1,140 with captain; manhattanbysail.com) and restaurant-hop up the Hudson River or explore the beaches of New Jersey’s Sandy Hook. It’s the easiest way to beat the heat—it’s ten degrees cooler on the water—and the quiet is even better. STRATEGY #2: CLIMB A TREE…

Each summer, some college friends and I go to Michigan’s Manistee National Forest for a weekend trip we call Fish Yer Briefs Off. The forest has many famous trout streams—the pristine Pere Marquette, the mighty Big and Little Manistee, both renowned for steelhead runs. We don’t go to those rivers. Our place, which I’ve sworn to keep secret, is an hour from Grand Rapids on a forested ridge where a small stream feeds into the bigger river. When the steelhead come in late winter, fishermen line its banks. But we usually go when the forest is empty and the trout are absent. The first year, we met at a wood-paneled smokehouse off Route 31, picked up steaks and Busch Light, and drove 40 minutes to find that we had nailed…

YOU CAN AFFORD TO MISS MOST SUMMER FESTIVALS, BUT NOT THESE FOUR EAT Asheville Wine and Food Festival, August 22–24 Asheville, North Carolina Crazy-good dishes like braised pork belly with cheese grits and carrot and fennel crab cakes, set amid the Blue Ridge Mountains. Bonus: 300 wines. wncmagazine.com/wineandfood/about DRINK World of Beer, May 29–June 2 Montreal, Quebec More than 600 beers, from Stone IPA to local favorite Dieu du Ciel, for as little as US$2 per glass. Work off the calories on a run at Mount Royal Park, right up the hill. festivalmondial biere.qc.ca LISTEN Pickathon, August 2– Happy Valley, Oregon Andrew Bird, Foxygen, and Kurt Vile. Five thousand campers with impressively manicured beards. All on a farm outside Portland, 30 minutes from the steelhead-clogged, Class III–IV Clackamas. pickathon.com PLAY…

Q: HOW CAN I AVOID MUSCLE CRAMPS? First, ditch the salt tablets. “The biggest misconception is that exercise-associated muscle cramping is due to dehydration or electrolyte imbalances,” says Martin Schwellnus, a professor of exercise science at the University of Cape Town, in South Africa, and one of the world’s leading researchers on the subject. Cramps, Schwellnus and other scientists recently discovered, stem from altered neuromuscular control, or a sudden change in the interaction between the nervous and musculoskeletal systems brought on by fatigue. Genetics may play a role, but cramping usually happens in areas that have experienced prior muscle damage or have become fatigued. And once you begin cramping, electrolyte-laced sports drinks and pills won’t do much to prevent it. Here’s what might. #1. Ramp up volume and intensity slowly,…

PLUS: LESSONS IN ADVENTURE PARENTING FROM JACK HITT, W. HODDING CARTER, AND ANTHONY DOERR It was just coming light on an early spring morning when my ten-year-old son James and I set out to find Butch Cassidy’s cabin up the East Fork of the Wind River in Wyoming. When Butch owned a ranch in nearby Dubois, he built the hideout in Alkali Basin, a high valley in the mountains above our own cabin. Butch knew about hideouts, and this was a good one. Almost no one ever went up to Alkali Basin. You could be alone in a way you couldn’t be in most places in America. When I was young, I spent months humping a pack and an M-16 up and down the Annamite Cordillera in Vietnam. It took…

JULY IN IDAHO, and my eight-year-old twin sons and I are sleeping in a yurt in the middle of Boise National Forest. Weare—I’m guessing—100 miles from home, 30 miles out of cell-phone range, and ten miles from the nearest human. It is deeply, amazingly, unsettlingly quiet here. The hour before dawn comes on so still, so windless, that the sound of my heartbeat, shifting hairs in my inner ear, keeps waking me up. Many environmental scientists write about scarcity. We’re running out of silence, amphibians, genetic diversity, fresh water. Yet one of the largest challenges my children face is too much access to too much stuff. Together my sons own approximately 47 trillion Legos; they play organized football and soccer and go to lacrosse camp; they have Mario Bros., Minecraft,…

WALK INTO A RUNNING STORE AND THE FIRST THING YOU’LL BE ASKED IS “ARE YOU A MIDFOOTER OR A HEEL STRIKER?” GENERALLY SPEAKING, MIDFOOTERS WANT A FLATTER SHOE, HEEL STRIKERS WANT AMPLE PLUSHNESS, AND MOST RUNNERS SHOULD GET SOMETHING IN BETWEEN. ONCE YOU IDENTIFY YOUR RUNNING STYLE, FIND THE RIGHT FIT USING THE SPECTRUM OF OPTIONS PRESENTED HERE, FEATURING THE SEASON’S TOP ROAD SHOES, FROM HEAVILY PADDED KICKS TO BARELY-THERE MOCCASINS. THE MARATHONER 1. SAUCONY KINVARA 4 BEST FOR: Midfooters seeking cushioning The Kinvara has the natural, flat-footed feel of an aggressive minimalist shoe, but when you land it’s pillowy soft. That’s because a thin but effective belt of padding runs along the midfoot. Combine that with its nearly structureless upper and you get a shoe that’s race-flat light but…

CHARLIE ENGLE WAS A CRACK ADDICT WHO SAVED HIMSELF THROUGH ULTRARUNNING, BECOMING AN ADVENTURE-FILM STAR KNOWN AROUND THE WORLD. THEN HE WAS CONVICTED OF MORTGAGE FRAUD AND SENT TO PRISON. [OOPS.] HE’S OUT NOW, WITH AN AUDACIOUS NEW GOAL: TO REBUILD HIS LIFE AND RUN 5,000 MILES, FROM THE DEAD SEA TO THE TOP OF MOUNT EVEREST. Not the idyllic grounds or gardens or the fact that—for the first time in two years—Charlie Engle has his own room, with his own bath. Long deprived of fresh fruit, he beelines toward the bamboo bowl brimming with organic apples and Asian pears, just plucked from the surrounding orchards. Then, gazing out the sunlit window (a window!), he polishes off every piece. “I didn’t even know what I was eating! I just grabbed…

“Parasites are the most successful life forms on earth,” says Carl Zimmer, who wrote “Feeding Frenzy” (page 70), about the unsettling spread of ticks. The Guilford, Connecticut, author has written 13 books and dozens of stories for wired and National Geographic about science, but he’d never covered ticks. “Given their prevalence, it was an odd omission,” says Zimmer, who also has the honor of having a tapeworm named after him (Acanthobothrium zimmeri). “The sheer volume—thousands of ticks per acre, many capable of making you sick—had me a little creeped out.”…

ANTHONY DOERR wrote about the joys of taking his eight-year-old twin boys into the Idaho wilderness (“play station,” page 68). He asked his sons, Henry and Owen, what they thought of the experience. DOERR: Dudes, do you remember the yurt trip? HENRY: Yes. What was your favorite part? HENRY: When we played Jenga and Owen went crazy. Owen, how about you? OWEN: When we played Jenga and I went crazy. Do you remember eating a pound of Oreos? HENRY/OWEN: Yeah. [laughter] that was a super fun trip. Contributor W. HODDING CARTER wrote about his sink-or-swim approach to outdoor education in the essay “almost ruining angus” (page 65). We asked angus, carter’s ten-year-old son, for his take on Dad’s tough-love tactics. Writer WILLIAM BROYLES chronicles a close encounter with a grizzly…

LAST FEBRUARY, 29-year-old filmmaker Devin Graham recruited 12 friends and headed to the 105-foot Corona Arch outside Moab, Utah. They tied a length of pre-stretched climbing rope to the sandstone feature and began swinging through the opening as Graham filmed. The resulting footage, “The World’s Largest Rope Swing,” has garnered 20 million views on YouTube in the past year and drew legions more swingers to the location. Visitation numbers aren’t available, but according to Kim Christy, deputy director of the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, which oversees Corona Arch, there’s “no question” that the video enhanced the popularity of swinging from Corona. Then, this March, 22-year-old Kyle Lee Stocking died while using a rope that was too long. This isn’t the first time rope sports have had a…

EMILY AND DANE JACKSON “IF YOU’RE AN APACHE and you hunt buffalo, your kids are not going to be lawyers. They’re going to hunt buffalo.” That’s how Kayaking legend Eric Jackson explains the rise of his children Emily, 23, and Dane, 19. The Jackson clan spent the better part of the past decade living out of an RV, following Eric as he dominated every freestyle-kayaking competition on earth and nurturing what has become the biggest brand in white water boats, Jackson Kayaks. Now, perhaps more quickly than he’d like, his kids are poised to unseat him. ASCENDANCY: In the past two years, Dane has emerged as the most accomplished paddler on the planet, winning three golds at the 2011 Freestyle World Championships and the whitewater grand Prix—an invitation-only event—twice. Emily…

“Just occasionally you find yourself in an odd situation. You get into it by degrees and in the most natural way but when you are right in the midst of it you are suddenly astonished and ask yourself how in the world it all came about.” So begins Thor Heyerdahl’s The Kon-Tiki Expedition, his account of putting to sea on a balsa-log raft in 1947 to test his theory that ancient Peruvians were the first to populate Polynesia. And the blithe spirit of that opening line is a good mindset for approaching Kon-Tiki, a terrific new dramatization of the 4,300-mile voyage. A hit in Heyerdahl’s native Nor way, it was the country’s entry for best foreign film at the 2012 Academy Awards. Now it’s being released in the States by…

We were drifting down the South Fork of the Snake River, the Grand Teton behind us, when my guide began rowing frantically across the stream. This is the telltale sign, of course, that the man on the oars has spied a patch of water that is lousy with trout. He pointed to the left bank. “Cast to the grass,” he said. “Downstream angle, six inches from the edge.” There are times when fly-fishing is all about the tension of waiting—those few seconds after your bug lands on the water, when you enter something like a fugue state of anticipation. This was not one of those times. The moment my size 10 Schroeder’s Hopper lit, the water exploded. Set! Rod tip up! Strip, strip, strip! Just like that, I had a…

KEEP THESE SIX NECESSITIES IN THE TRUNK FOR SPUR-OF-THE-MOMENT GETAWAYS 1. Eddie Bauer First Ascent Bacon pack The ultralight bacon fits all your weekend gear and rolls up into itself. $100; eddiebauer.com 2. Zeal Essential sunglasses Our favorite all-purpose shades. The frames look slick, and rubber on the temples and bridge keep them on your face during a ride or run. $99; zealoptics.com 3. Outlier New OGs pants The breathable fabric holds up on the trail and blends in at the bar. $240; outlier.cc 4. Brooks-Range Cloak 30 sleeping bag The 850-fill down is perfect for chilly summer nights, and it packs down to the size of a growler. $300; brooks-range.com 5. Aether Contour jacket It’s wind and weather resistant but makes a seamless transition to civilization. $325; aetherapparel.com 6.…

PACIFIC THE ONLY THING MORE DIFFICULT THAN STAYING DRY IN OREGON’S RAINFOREST IS LEAVING IT BEHIND My future sister-in-law Alli—we call her Foof—doesn’t belong in southern Oregon. She could easily be a model, lives for electronica concerts, and wants to pursue a career in fashion. She spends many evenings using the Internet in my Ashland apartment to troll Craigslist in Manhattan. Yet she never quite gets up the will to leave—she seems tethered here. I like to think I had something to do with that. For Foof’s 26th birthday, we took her to the North Umpqua, a Wild and Scenic Class III river in southern Oregon, and rented a cabin above the river. The walls were covered in bald eagle paintings and rusty farm tools. It rained constantly. Despite that,…

SPF (Sun Protection Factor) The higher the SPF, the more protection from UVB rays, which are the ones that burn your skin. But what most people don’t know is that UVB protection doesn’t increase proportionately as SPF goes up, and once you get above 50 there’s practically no difference. The biggest leap comes between SPF 15—which blocks 93 percent of UVB rays—and SPF 30, which blocks 97 percent. Apply an SPF of at least 30 half an hour before exposure and reapply every 90 minutes. Sunblock Versus Sunscreen Sunblock contains particles that block UV rays, whereas sunscreen is formulated with chemical components to absorb UV rays. Broad Spectrum A general term signifying that the lotion guards against both UVA rays (responsible for the signs of aging) and UVB rays (responsible…

IF THERE WAS ONE THING I knew when he was born, it was that I would be the one to guide my son, Angus Kane Carter—named for both the Yeats poem “The Song of the Wandering Aengus” and the 19th-century Arctic explorer Elisha Kent Kane—to be the confident young outdoorsman I never was. Unlike my own father, who absently set me adrift in the sea of manhood, I had a plan. I would artfully lead Angus to his competent destiny through repeated outings, carefully orchestrated “learning” moments, and even the occasional confidence-building “test.” Looking back, the first misstep occurred when Angus, now ten, was a toddling two. He could swim as well as a six-year-old as long as he was beside the wall, but I decided to nudge him forward,…

CARL ZIMMER WALKS INTO THE WOODS TO FIND OUT WHY THESE TINY BEASTS ARE SKYROCKETING IN NUMBER—AND OUTSMARTING SCIENTISTS WITH EVERY BITE. I’M TAILING A FORD pickup truck along the eastern bank of the Connecticut River. When we reach a sign for Lord Creek Farm, the pickup turns off the road and I follow up a dusty driveway. We park in the shadow of an enormous red horse barn, next to paddocks full of jump gates, where riding lessons are under way I get out of my car and climb into the passenger side of the pickup. It’s driven by Scott Williams, a wildlife biologist from the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven. Williams, 38, has the poise and scale of a bear standing upright. He wears a faded…

1. Of the umpteen ultralight shirts we tested this season, Sugoi’s supple, quick-wicking, and chafe-free Titan Ice Short Sleeve ($50; sugoi.com) was our favorite. Its smooth, stretchy fabric always felt cool against skin. 2. Because of a hyper-grippy rubber cover and an ergonomic fit that locks into your ears with a twist, Yurbuds’ Inspire earphones ($30; yurbuds.com) stayed put no matter how hard we ran. Sound quality isn’t exactly Bose, but it’s good for the price. And we like that they come in four colors. 3. Carrying a big bottle on a long run can be annoying. Salomon’s Sense Hydro S-Lab ($40 for a pair; salomon.com) uses an adjustable elastic strap to keep an eight-ounce flask pressed snugly against your palm. 4. Everything is illuminated! Expose New Balance’s Hi-Viz Beacon…