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F E A T U R E S

Fifty-five parks, 70 all-new experiences, and nothing but long summer days ahead. Here’s how to climb, kayak, hike, fly-fish, sail, mountain bike, or just wander far from the madding crowds in every national park in the United States. You’ve got 61 million acres of wilderness heaven at your disposal. What are you waiting for?

…And getting hooked on the purple mountain majesty of it all.
By William Kittredge

Dive shipwrecks at Isle Royale. Sea kayak Acadia. Run with wolves in Yellowstone. Creek-hop the Smokies. We pick 12 of the park system’s crown jewels and let you in on the wildest ways to explore their hidden corners.
By Mike Grudowski

Start in Arches, then move on to the B’s (Badlands, Big Bend, Biscayne). Forty-three parks later, you’ll be at ease in Zion.
By Jennifer Villeneuve

And our new national park is…
By Brian Alexander

Once, they were called pirates, brigands, highwaymen. Today, no matter what name you give them, they’re the bane of adventure travel in the world’s remote places. When Sir Peter Blake—legendary Kiwi sailor and America’s Cup winner—was brutally slain while defending his boat near the mouth of the Amazon River last December, an ancient dilemma took on a new urgency. In a confrontation with terror, do you simply try to survive—or do you fight? By Peter Nichols

25th ANNIVERSARY FITNESS SPECIAL

Can’t smoke your friends on the steeps (or up the trail, or down the singletrack) like you used to? Take heart, champ, and get ready to maximize the endurance, strength, flexibility, speed, and power you never knew you had. We call it The Shape of Your Life—and five months from now, we expect you to be in it. By Paul Scott

D E P A R T M E N T S

DESTINATIONS

Island kiteboarders, surfers, sailors, and other homegrown gurus dish out the Aloha State’s best-kept secrets.
Get yanked to heaven on a kiteboard in Kanaha Bay.
Take on the slimy singletrack of Mud Lane.
Race the ancient wind in a modern-day outrigger canoe.
Calling all beginners: Catch your first wave in Hanalei Bay. Plus: Tips and inside dope on nightlife, , native food, whale-watching, bodysurfing, and more.

DISPATCHES
Making like a salmon across 1,214 miles of the Northwest (and into PCBs and raw sewage), Christopher Swain plans to save the Columbia River one stroke at a time. Plus: Keeping our adventurer’s on Hollywood’s latest on-screen antics, looks back at 30 up-and-down years, by Alan Rabinowitz, Thomas McGuane, and Julia Whitty. And this month’s .

Why do people get squeamish at the sight of gore? Do compasses stop working at the poles? How come fishing is called “angling”? What do mosquitoes eat when they can’t get blood? By Brad Wetzler

What can you learn about the agonies of ocean rowing from the ultimate masochistic loser? Meet Debra Veal, the bodacious last-place finisher of the Atlantic Rowing Challenge. By Mark Jenkins

Borrowing a few cues from fat-tire technology, road bikes have stepped up the evolutionary chain—and made a smashing comeback. We’ve tested and the toughest new to put you at the front of the peloton. Plus: Light the trail with an that weighs less than a PowerBar; enjoy hand-cranked with GSI’s backcountry blender; and more.