National Geographic

Bikes, Buffalo Soldiers, Cycling, Denali, Diversity, National Geographic, Outside Magazine / 08.07.2024

In the run-up to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, I suddenly find myself thinking about the international cycling scene. Forty years ago, I bought my first new racing bike, a Raleigh Super Course, inspired in 1984 by the silver medal finish of Nelson Vails at the games in Los Angeles. As the first Black American to podium in Olympic cycling, Vails was a personal hero and I peddled that bike through a modest career in several triathlon races from the mid 80s into the early 90s. Though...

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#BlackLivesMatter, Adventure Activism, American Rivers, Black History, Black Lives Matter, Blackwaters, Everyone Outside, Mississippi River, National Geographic, National Monuments, National Parks, Unhidden / 27.05.2024

This week Devin Brown begins her journey to become the first Black woman to paddle the 2300-mile length of the Mississippi River from Lake Itasca, Minnesota to New Orleans, Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico. “When I do this trip, I will be the first black woman on record,” she told NBC news affiliate KARE 11 in an interview. “I like to say ‘on record’ because we know that enslaved people have made this journey up and down the river. So, part of it is to honor ancestors.” ...

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An American Ascent, Black In National Parks Week, Blackwaters, Books, Buffalo Soldiers, Denali, Expedition Denali, Fly Fishing, Madison, National Geographic, National Monuments, National Parks, Outdoors For All, The Adventure Gap, The Joy Trip Reading Project, Unhidden / 22.04.2024

Recently I had the pleasure of welcoming two special guests to Madison, Wisconsin. As we’re entering the last two weeks of instruction in my online course at Western Colorado University, one of my students, Melanie Hardin, reached out to let me know that she would be passing through town. Coincidentally, Brian Shellum, a renowned author of several books on the Buffalo Soldiers, happened to arrive on the same day. On a beautiful spring afternoon, I was excited to meet with them both in person for coffee and lunch...

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Adventure Activism, Black History, Diversity, Matthew Henson, National Geographic / 22.01.2024

The Joy Trip Project is excited to announce the 3rd recipient of the Matthew Henson Memorial Polar Explorer Scholarship. In partnership with Polar Explorers, an Illinois-based guiding company, we are pleased to award Carla-Paz Moran Sanchez free tuition to attend a five-day introduction to a winter travel introduction training course in the Boundary Waters Wilderness Area of Northern Minnesota. Carla-Paz will be joined by last year’s scholar awardee, Christine Meissner, to help guide and mentor her journey through in the world of cold weather overland travel. To honor...

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#BlackLivesMatter, Black History, Capitol Christmas Tree, National Geographic, National Parks, Public Land, Unhidden / 08.11.2023

On a visit to the New River Gorge National Park, I hiked through the preserved ruins of the community in which historian Carter Godwin Woodson spent his formative years. Known as the “Father of Black History”, he worked as a coal miner in the town of Nuttallburg, West Virginia. Just a few miles from the visitor center, down a very step narrow road, are the remaining structures in which Woodson likely worked as a young man, as well as the schoolhouse where he first taught Black students....

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Alaska, Climate Change, Commentary, Denali, Destinations, Essays, National Geographic, National Parks, Public Land, The Arctic, Uncategorized, We are the Arctic / 24.07.2023

Just over 10 years since my first trip to Alaska’s Denali National Park, I stood near the Mountain Vista Trailhead searching through the clouds. I knew that somewhere in the distance stood a snow-covered peak whose summit stands as the highest point in North America. The horizon line loomed as a field of pale grey light behind a vast expanse of a deep green alpine tundra. The landscape was dotted with a few tall spruce trees scattered sporadically in a low-elevation taiga forest. Beautiful, but not what I...

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