#1. Brendan Swihart, http://outlivingblog.wordpress.com
What else is there to say about Brendan? There is an honesty to his photographs that resonate with me, particularly of the beauty and challenges of living and wandering in the high deserts of UT and CO. He stops to examine the sights and sounds that many of us fail to see. Check out his travels from the past year over at his blog.
#2. Cass Gilbert, "While Out Riding",http://www.whileoutriding.com/blog
Cass is a vagabond, who happens to reside in my great state of NM intermittently, when he's not traveling the world on his two wheeled steed documenting the life and cultures of the colorful people he meets along the way. Few will fuel the stoke to get out and do something, anything. There is a heap of information in his blog on going light by bike. His bikepacking and photography gear fluctuates quite a bit, but the core items of his kit list can be adapted for your own travels on bike and on foot.
#3. Craig Wisner, "Sweeping the Garden", http://sweepingthegarden.wordpress.com
Surfer. Father/Husband. Backpacker. Freediver/Spearfisher. Potter. Teacher. Mentor. Dirtbag. Runner.
Need I say more?
#4. Anton Krupicka, "Riding the Wind", http://antonkrupicka.blogspot.com/
Few travel as light, fast, and efficiently through the mountains as Anton Krupicka. He runs multi-day routes in the Rockies before most of us have a morning pot of coffee made. "Done in a day" takes on a whole new meaning with him and it's unbelievably motivating. This year he released a film project titled "Into the High Country" that will blow your mind.
#5. Steve Fassbinder, aka Dr. Doom, http://therepublicofdoom.blogspot.com/
Adventure in the post apocalypse, or whatever… If Cormac McCarthy wrote a novel about: bikepacking, packrafting, hike a biking, climbing, canyoneering, and general desert rat debauchery of the highest order, then the story would look something like this.
#6. Ike Jutkowitz, http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/traversing-adirondacks-foot-and-packraft-jutkowitz.html
Ike is a BPL staple, for good reason. I've enjoyed seeing his evolution as an outdoorsman as he raises the personal bar with each and every adventure he conceives and executes (*or fails to execute).
#7. Dan Carter, "A Different Kind of Paradise", http://adifferentkindofparadise.wordpress.com/
Dan Carter is my good friend and a fellow partner in crime out on the trails when he's "home" in the valley. Dan is an old soul and his outlook at the world is contagious, always positive and encouraging. Over the last two years he has traveled all across the US in his vehicle, thru-hiking the JMT, climbing routes in: Yosemite Valley, Indian Creek, Black Hills, ND, NM, volunteering at the Hardrock 100, running ultramarathons, surveying and data collecting in the Four Corners region, race directing, etc…..
#8. Casey Greene, http://greenecasey.blogspot.com/2013/06/tobacco-root-packbike.html
Badassery abounds.
#9. Nicholas and Lael, "Gypsy By Trade", http://gypsybytrade.wordpress.com/
#10. Luke DeMuth and Junaid Dawud, 14'ers Thru Hike, http://14ersthruhike.com/photos/
These two guys put together a route and thru hiked all of CO's 14ers over the course of 71 days. Beasts.
I know I'm missing some, but these are the individuals and adventures that stuck with me the most over the past year.
