This weekend there are two great events that you can out and test your skills on the water or on the trails.

Two Harbors Kayak Festival presented by Midwest Mountaineering
Friday-Sunday, August 1-3
Minneapolis, MN

Please join us in Two Harbors for the 11th annual Kayak Festival. We started helping sponsor the Festival 11 years ago and it keeps getting better every year. It has everything including kayak instruction, tours, races and kid specific events. The whole family can spend the weekend on the North Shore having fun outside. Two Harbors on Lake Superior’s North Shore.

Xterra Pt. Series Race- River Sports Outfitters
Sunday August 3rd Knoxville, TN
SWIM:  800M in Cherokee Lake
BIKE:  16.6 miles on double and single-track trails.   Fast Course.
RUN:  4.5 miles on dirt trails.  Includes a 5k college cross-country course.

Awards given to top overall finishers in each age group.  Awards will go 3 deep.

http://www.riversportsadventures.com/panthertri/main.htm

Relay For Life- Skinny Skis
Saturday August 2nd
Jackson, WY

The Relay for Life is a fun-filled, overnight event that mobilizes communities to celebrate survivors, remember loved ones and raise money for the fight against cancer. Teams of 8 to 15 members gather with tents and sleeping bags with the goal of keeping one person on the track at all times. Sign up today to become a part of the Relay.

Midwest Mountaineering has announced recipients of their Environmental Grants Program.  Midwest has long committed to donate 10% of  pre-tax profits to environmental causes that they support. This is the first year employees of Midwest Mountaineering have voted to decide on the funding.  Owner Rod Johnson said of the grants this year, “We support their efforts and enjoy the benefits of their programs and hope you will, too!  These are the people who make sure we keep our outdoor treasures for future generations.”

Recipients of Midwest Environmental Grants
• The Conservation Alliance – www.conservationalliance.com
• Eco-Education – www.ecoeducation.org
• Kinnickinnic River Land Trust – www.kinniriver.org
• Lonnie Dupre – www.lonniedupre.com
• Mississippi Whitewater Park – www.whitewaterpark.canoe-kayak.org
• North Country Trail Association – www.northcountrytrail.org
• U of MN Raptor Center – www.raptor.cvm.umn.edu
• Superior Hiking Trail Association – www.shta.org

Midwest is passionate about these causes and about promoting outdoor recreation in general.  Each year Midwest host’s two Adventure Expos (April & November) and many clinics, sales and trips to support outdoor enthusiasts in Minneapolis.  The most recent Spring Expo yielded 60 Exhibitors, over 60 Presentations, and a screening of the Banff Film Festival.  Beyond special events, Midwest has its own climbing cave, open daily and encourages climbers with special programs like  Bouldering Divas! 

At the Winter Adventure Expo in November, Midwest is proud to announce that they will have Dr. John Francis as a key speaker.  Dr. John Francis, is an environmentalist best known as for his actions famously lived without car transportation for over 17 years and started Planet Walk in 1982.  He was recently profiled in Backpacker Magazine, and spoke at The Conservation Alliance Breakfast this past winter.

For more about Midwest Mountaineering go to their website http://www.midwestmtn.com.

For more on owner Rod Johnson see his profile in Outdoor Business Magazine.

Andy Knapp, an amazing outdoorsman and veteran buyer for Midwest Mountaineering, has been inducted into the Midwest Mountaineering Minnesota Adventurers and Explorers Hall of Fame.

Andy Knapp has been an active outdoor adventurer with over 156,000 human-powered miles accumulated in the last 46 years, including a bicycle trip to Alaska and back in 1967, a 500-mile backpacking journey through the Brooks Range in 1972, and a 30-day circumnavigation of Lake Superior in 1996, the first without re-supply. He has bicycled in 34 states and 12 other countries, has hiked and climbed throughout North America, and has paddled extensively in the wilderness waters of the upper Great Lakes area and beyond. Andy has worked for over 34 years in the outdoor equipment industry as a retail buyer, has served on the boards of several trade associations and advocacy groups, and has written two books and numerous magazine columns.

After being diagnosed with potentially terminal kidney cancer in 2003, and, after the initial panic, Andy realized that he must face the uncertainty and pain with the same stubbornness, perseverance, and sense of humor that he put into the thousands of miles of paddling, bicycling, hiking, skiing, and mountaineering adventures. With the help of family and friends, Andy has survived two major surgeries, a bout with radiation, and a series of potent drugs, and is still bicycling and paddling away.

In June 1967, Andy Knapp, then 19, took off from the Twin Cities on a 10-speed bike loaded with more than 40 pounds of stuff crammed into an old Duluth pack, bound for the new state of Alaska. Returning by bike to Minnesota 99 days later, he had logged 7460 miles and filled his diary with countless stories.

Forty years later, and after several years of battling cancer, Andy decided it was time to motivate with another long self-propelled trip, so why not bicycle to Alaska again! This past July, he left Minneapolis on a 27-speed touring bike, with state-of-the-art lightweight gear, and arrived in Skagway, Alaska, 24 days and 2655 miles later.

Grassroots Outdoor Alliance would like to Congratulate Andy on all of his adventures and inspiration!

Last week Rod & Sharon Johnson (owners of Midwest Mountaineering) were quoted in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on an article regarding “Slow Travel”. See what they had to say below and read the full context at http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/travel/17269204.html

The slow movement is broad-based and popular in Europe; in the United States, its biggest impact has been on the coasts. While there aren’t organized slow travel clubs in Minnesota, there are slow travelers.

Rod and Sharon Johnson, owners of Midwest Mountaineering in Minneapolis, said they’ve long practiced slow travel, though they didn’t know it was a movement until recently.

“We like the concept because we walk or bicycle on our vacations,” Sharon said. “You feel more a part of the landscape when you’re moving slowly enough to see it.”

The Johnsons recently returned from a three-week trip to Patagonia, the mountainous region at the tip of South America, where they backpacked in Torres del Paine National Park. Rod said slowness can include how you pack your luggage; they each carried a 20-pound backpack for the duration of the trip, sharing a third 15-pound pack of dried food.

“Going light or ultralight is another way to simplify life,” Rod said. “Less time packing, less time looking for things, less weight on your back.”

Visiting one site a day