Discover the Love: A Backcountry Guide to the Five Love Languages It’s not hard to find love in the backcountry. Adventurers love to explore it, homesteaders love to work it, and solitude seekers love to savor it. But the alpine wilderness isn’t just here to be loved. It can facilitate connection, too, by providing the …
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Wandering with Purpose: The Benefits of Ecotourism Human beings travel for all kinds of reasons—exploration, adventure, relaxation—each one unique to the individual and shaped by their personal circumstances, desires, and motivations. The emergence of ecotourism over the last several decades has encouraged us to consider not just why we travel, but how we travel. Ecotourism, …
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“Good hustle!” is a cheer most of us have been hearing—and internalizing—since we were children. And while it seems an appropriate way to encourage a child who played poorly but tried hard on the soccer field or basketball court, the idea we’ve all carried into adulthood that “hustle” is inherently good is a paradigm that bears examining.
This paradigm doesn’t just dominate our day-to-day working lives. Even on our vacations, we focus on the things we want to do, hustling from one adventure to the next, packing in as many unforgettable experiences as we can before we have to return to real life… and hustle some more.
The hallmarks of homesteading are self-sufficiency, simplicity, and sustainability—which are the very values that inspired chef/owner Eric Johnson to leave behind his home and career in Boulder, CO to build Mount Hayden Backcountry Lodge in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. He first visited the property in 2016 as a favor to his brother-in-law, who had just inherited the small run-down cabin that stood there at the time. This favor changed everything.
We know… you’ve got work to do. Most of your team hasn’t even taken a vacation in months, so it might seem both counterintuitive and counterproductive to close up the office and take everyone on a corporate retreat. The benefits of doing so, however, far outweigh the costs of pulling everyone away from their desks for a few days.
After a cool, cloudy spring following a very snowy winter, Mother Nature delivered the dog days of summer right on time: all at once, the summer solstice ushered in the heat and sunshine that would finally melt the snow and open the road to the high alpine backcountry. No more skis or snowshoes required.
