Koreans love the outdoors like Americans love spectator sports
Twenty-five years ago, when Koreans were known for having the world’s longest work week (nominally six days, often longer), they still found time to get outdoors. Hiking clubs were a big deal. Camping was less popular because it requires a couple days of leisure in a row, but it was still popular. Over the...
Everyday life and death
You know how this goes. A bunch of olds get together and go on regular bike rides. Some are 90. Some are disabled. They click off 25 miles and adjourn to the bar, or have a nice salad over lunch. You don’t care and why should you. Except that the difference between doing this...
AAA now assisting bikers (!?!)
The American Automobile Association—that venerable proponent of auto safety, auto insurance, auto touring maps and roads-roads-roads (sometimes at the expense of walking and biking trails)—is slowly changing. Over the past six years, a number of chapters have expanded their services to include roadside assistance for bikers. It wasn’t that many years ago when AAA...
Retired park rangers: Don’t drill, baby
U.S. Park Rangers are trained to work in extreme and dangerous environments, in deserts void of human touch and uncivilized wildernesses, among mindless beasts and insects. So they are prepared—or at least better prepared than most of us—to operate at the fearsome intersection of federal bureaucracy and the oil industry. A group of retired...
When 5% less means obliteration
You can probably cut your caloric intake by 5 percent and be just fine. (Maybe better.) Some other things you can easily cut by 5 percent: Time watching TV. Old t-shirts. Beer. Caffeine. Old books. Cut some other things by 5 percent and you’ll feel the bite, but you’ll survive: Time with loved ones....
Hiking for thrill-seekers
How did the walkabout become benign? A hundred-and-some years ago, “a long walk” could have meant raw-boned pioneers thrusting themselves into uncharted territory. Predators, starvation and meteorological calamities. Today, it usually means something so safe you could do it on a first date with a stranger you met through Match.com. You don’t get...
Kiss your sweet pass goodbye
Do active old people—those who hike, bike, ski and get about outdoors—think of themselves as self-reliant, fiscal conservatives? Do they see themselves as people who are proud to pay their fair share? Probably not. Or they shouldn’t, if they do. We’re not talking about Social Security or Medicare here. (Yes, those programs do...
More noise and chatter on retirement
A wintery mix of news about retirement savings over the past few weeks. There’s some variation in the details but a consistent underlying message, which is that you will die poor, Boomer. And your generation will likely impoverish the generations coming after it. (Here’s the upside: we are told by a study of cheery Germans...
That sharp pinching sensation? Might be the sequester
At first glance, the sequester seemed like nothing more than a Great Unpleasantness. Much bickering, many threats and accusations, many teeth gnashed by people who said the across-the-board cuts were irresponsible and idiotic. But there was no obvious sense of urgency, which is why your federal leaders declined to hammer out a deal. A...
London doubles down on biking
Londoners have always had a genius for urban transportation: faced with a massive population and crowded streets, the city built the world’s first subways (inaugurated in 1863). They also improvised double-decker buses—first powered by horse, then by motor—as a way to get twice as many people moving along the same square footage of roadway. ...
Sally Free Ride
Last week’s biggest under-reported story was the U.S. Senate’s confirmation hearing for Sally Jewell, CEO of outdoor retailer REI and President Obama’s nominee to be Secretary of the Interior. It’s easy to see why this story is big: the Department of the Interior holds the deed to 417 million acres—18.4 percent of the land...
Please ignore our travel needs
Baby Boomers are a kind of demographic interstate: everywhere they flow, they change the landscape. Music is a good example. Boomers haven’t actually obliterated what was there before, but they certainly affected it. It’s also true for housing. And medicine and public policy. Boomers have also redefined travel. In the 60s and 70s, they forged...
