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Words and photos by Leslie Kehmeier Austin, Texas? For mountain biking? The capital of the Lone Star State isn’t usually on the radar when it comes to destinations worthy of riding. However, when you think about the food, the vibe and the Hill Country terrain, it totally makes sense. Here are five reasons that Austin ...

Words and photos by Leslie Kehmeier. Originally published in Dirt Rag 193.  Road trips have become a regular part of my work routine as I seek out mountain bike stories across the country. Over the last few years I’ve crisscrossed many states north and south, coast to coast, visiting both the renowned as well as ...

Words: Sarah Galbraith In parts of our country, when winter takes a firm, frosty grip on your core, some mountain bikers mark the turn of seasons by putting away their bikes and tuning up their skis. But explosive growth in winter fat biking has taken hold in the past few years: Sales grew 44 percent ...

For the better part of 20 years, I called myself a cartographer. So what nerdier thing could I do to pay homage to a career that eventually merged with my mountain bike life than to travel to the last-mapped region in the United States? Even though I knew that Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Capitol ...

Do you use public lands? If you’re a mountain biker, then it’s likely that you do — especially if you live or ride west of the Mississippi. The Forest Service is proposing big changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA has two major functions. For one, it requires informed decision making regarding public ...

by David Tucker It’s late afternoon and the air has a bite to it. The heat of summer is gone, replaced by the angular and indirect sunlight of fall. Four grade-schoolers huddle together while their mate sits on his bike, poised above a miniature tabletop, waiting anxiously to drop in. “Can I send it?” he ...

In Montana, mountain bike advocates seek continued access to the Lionhead by David Tucker Halfway up the final climb to Targhee Pass, our progress grinds to a halt. From the high side of the trail, a ball of earth the size of a VW bus hovers suspended in midair, propped up by six 50-foot beams ...

Jeff Kendall-Weed is back once again with the latest episode in the Local Loam series. This time Jeff is going big in the hills of Texas with the crew from Trail Party and Freeride 512. With a lack of public land available to trail building, Jeff finds out how riders in Texas are creating two-wheeled ...

Words by Kurt Refsnider, photos by Kurt Refsnider and Kaitlyn Boyle I stood chatting with my friend and trail advocate Tom Riggenbach on the sidewalk in front of a plaza in the Navajo community of Cameron, Arizona. This town, built upon a treeless landscape of colorful rock between the Painted Desert and the Grand Canyon, ...

By Leslie Kehmeier  If there is one thing that government agencies and advocacy organizations are known for, it’s acronyms. I call it the alphabet soup. In my 15 years of combined experience working for both genres, I’ve been through my share of meetings filled with full sentences of fake words that actually mean important things. ...

Words by Ben Davis, photos by Eddie Clark Being told “no” and “that’ll never happen” and “you’re wasting your time” several times a day is a uniquely deflating experience. You’re sharing an idea—a great idea, an innovative whopper of an idea—with friends and decision makers and community leaders. You’ve got energy and passion in your ...