If you think that I’m joking when I say that the New Hampshire Supreme Court is going to be hearing a case between Bigfoot and the New Hampshire Division of Parks and Recreation, I’m not.

Two years ago, Jonathan Doyle, a performance artist, bought a Bigfoot costume from iParty, and then headed up to the White Mountains in New Hampshire to parade around in his suit and then interview hikers that witnessed his antics.

Returning home, Jonathan posted the video to his YouTube account.

Jonathan, unlike so many other hoaxters on Youtube, wasn’t simply creating a fake Yeti video and then claiming that it was real.

Instead, he was showing how people react to the surreal – how people respond when something completely out of the ordinary takes place in a setting that is otherwise quite ordinary.

Kicked Out of Monadnock State Park

Upon returning to Monadnock State Park in the White Mountains this year, he and his friends were met by a park manager that told him to leave the mountain with his cameras, and that he would need a permit if he wanted to continue filming in the park.

Jonathan Doyle later went to the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Foundation for help. In his view – he is not a commercial film company, just an independent artist trying to express his free speech rights.

New Hampshire is standing behind the Park Service decision to kick Doyle out of the park, citing park policies that ban commercial filming. According to the NH Attorney General those policies can’t apply only to large commercial film crews – instead they are:

“…narrowly tailored to serve the legitimate, significant, and substantial governmental interests of managing varied and competing uses of park resources, mitigating the impacts of commercial events, protecting and conserving the park, protecting visitors from unwelcome and unwanted interference, annoyance or danger.”

Who Gets to Choose What’s Annoying?

With such a wide range of reasons for kicking someone out of the National Park, the policy appears to provide the Park service with broad rights to remove anyone from NH State Parks that they feel may be causing “unwelcome and unwanted interference, annoyance or danger.”

Apparently, the organization with the power to make the decision regarding what sort of activity is annoying or unwanted is the Park Service.

Both Doyle and the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Foundation feels that the policies are set up in a way where the Park Service may quash Civil Liberties of the public if they so desire.

The Civil Liberties Foundation wants to preserve, “the right of the little guy to express himself artistically.”

According to Doyle, he represents the “little guy” just trying to have some fun on YouTube, not a major commercial interest with expendable cash to buy the freedom to express his opinion.

“I am maintaining the integrity of being real, enjoying day-to-day things, and having fun with your friends. If I let that go, I’ve given up a significant right to the state.”

Jonathan Doyle is described by friends as a free spirit – an artist and futurist that will pack up and head out on an adventure on a whim.

By creating the Bigfoot videos in NH and then interviewing passersby, Jonothan was doing what so many artists across the world do – he was exploring human nature and social behavior.

But above all, he was just having some fun with friends on YouTube.

Japan’s leading toilet manufacturer has really pushed the float out with its promotional activities, creating a poo-powered motorcycle with its own built-in lav-look seat.

The Toilet Bike Neo runs on biofuels such as compressed livestock waste and household wastewater, so while the design looks like a portaloo on wheels, it doesn’t actually function as a khazi.

Even if it did , you’d have to be mentally unstable to sit so publicly at the traffic lights, squeezing out a Richard the Third – see Viz’s Profanisaurus.

Toto, the company behind the design, says the bike is a promotion for its “environmental efforts” and is currently taking the crap-crunching cycle over 1000km from the Toto HQ to Tokyo, where it will arrive on 2 November.

The bog bike can reach maximum speeds of around 50mph, and Toto reckons it could reduce CO2 emissions by 50 per cent in just six years. Though if folk get too keen on the design, methane emissions may rise.

But that’s probably dependent on everyone literally getting their shit together and actually using one.

Ride like the wind…

‘Evidence’ that mythical creatures like the Yeti actually exist usually comes in the form of a blurry home video, or the ramblings of a drunk who once got lost in a forest somewhere.

Which makes it all the more surprising to discover that in the Russian coal-mining region of Kemerobo, a team of legitimate researchers are claiming to have evidence that makes them ’95% sure’ the Abominable Snowman really does stalk the earth.

More than a dozen scientists and ‘Yeti experts’ flew in from all around the world to embark on a one day fact-finding mission in the area, where reports of local sightings of the Bigfoot have increased.

In a statement the group claimed to have discovered footprints and what they believe may be hair samples belonging to a yeti in the remote Russian mountains.

“During the expedition to the Azasskaya cave, conference participants gathered indisputable proof that the Shoria mountains are inhabited by the ‘Snow Man’,” the Kemerovo region administration said.

“They found his footprints, his supposed bed, and various markers with which the yeti marks his territory,” the statement said. The collected “artifacts” will be analysed in a special laboratory, it said.

“Conference participants came to the conclusion that the artefacts found give 95% evidence of the habitation of the ‘snow man’ on Kemerovo region territory.”

Traditionally Yetis are thought to roam the Himalayas, but the Kemerovo government are keen to push the area’s credentials as place where people can hope to glimpse the mysterious creature. Last month it even convinced heavyweight boxing champion Nikolai Valuev — the 7ft “beast from the east” beaten by Britain’s David Haye — to go on his own search for the creature. He failed, possibly by scaring the Yeti off.

The Kemerovo government has hosted a number of stunts aimed at boosting the region’s reputation as a yeti centre. Last month, it welcomed former heavyweight boxing champion Nikolai Valuev, as the 7ft “beast from the east” went on his own search for the creature. He reportedly failed. What do you reckon? An elaborate publicity stunt or evidence, finally, that the Yeti is real?

Certain members of Team Asylum have, shall we say, a lot of hair. So much hair it makes them look a little bit like Sideshow Bob. True story. Because of this, wearing helmets while cycling is difficult because none of the buggers really fit properly.

So as cycling is a somewhat dangerous hobby, recently we’ve been forgoing our pedalling passion purely to protect our heads from getting cracked on the side of a busy London street. Boo.

But wait! Here come our saviours in the form of Swedish desginers Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin, who’ve created what’s known as “The Hövding” – essentially a waterproof collar that expands into an airbag helmet. When you’re struck by a hefty force, that is. Not, say, when you hit a button on the side. That would be weird. Weirder, anyway.

The Hövding has been around in prototype form since last year, but now that they’ve started winning awards for it, we expect the worldwide interest to catapult the airbag helmet into the mainstream.

Amazing, the award they won most recently was the “Index: Award” — the world’s largest monetary prize for design, giving Anna and Terese €100,000 (Approx: £87,500) for all their hard work.

To give you a taste of how the thing works, here’s a video they uploaded that shows the Hövding in action, followed up with some footage of the awards ceremony itself. Just so you know, they have wicked hair. Wicked big hair, in fact.

Oh, and for more details, check out their website here. You can even order your own. How nice.

The helmet (on a crash test dummy) in action:

Soft-spoken, bespectacled Jim Smith makes an unlikely activist.The former Mobil Oil geophysicist retired to Sedona, Arizona, about 10 years ago, drawn by the spectacular red-rock scenery. In November 2009, Smith drove five miles of rough road to the Vultee Arch trailhead and backpacked in for a night. When he returned, he found the Forest Service had ticketed him for failing to buy a Red Rock Pass.

Rather than simply mailing a check, Smith did some research. Then he challenged the citation in federal court.

Last September, he won. U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Aspey ruled that the Coconino National Forest could not charge recreation fees at undeveloped trailheads or other sites that did not offer certain amenities, like toilets or picnic tables. The Coconino has since stopped charging fees at more remote trailheads. It’s also held two public meetings, and in June released two alternative fee scenarios. Coincidentally, the Forest Service announced on February 25 that it would conduct a nationwide internal review of its recreation fee areas.

Smith says he challenged his ticket on behalf of those who “have a hard time affording fees.” Kitty Benzar, president of the Western Slope No Fee Coalition, is more effusive. “Jim Smith,” she says, “is a hero to a lot of people.”

The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management were first authorized to charge access fees through the 1996 Recreational Fee Demonstration Program. Local agencies needed money to reduce a huge maintenance backlog; at least 80 percent of the fees would be used on the land where they were collected. But many people resented the program, arguing that public lands should remain, well, public. Cities, counties, and state legislatures including Oregon’s and Idaho’s passed resolutions condemning it and complaining about charges for access to undeveloped areas.

The Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA), passed in 2004, repealed the Fee Demo program and restricted fees to sites that provide amenities. But the Forest Service retained many of the same fee programs it had created under Fee Demo — even in areas lacking services. The agency came up with a new designation called “High Impact Recreation Areas,” or HIRAs, which lump together primitive sites with nearby sites that do have amenities, creating chunks of land where fees could be collected. There are 95 HIRAs across the country, mostly in the West. They are often huge: Sedona’s Red Rock fee area, for example, encompasses 160,000 acres.

Since FLREA also allows federal agencies to charge fees for “specialized recreation uses…such as group activities” and “recreation events,” the BLM took a different approach, requiring paid permits at roughly 20 primitive but sensitive sites throughout the West, like Utah’s Cedar Mesa and Arizona’s Paria Canyon. Benzar calls this the “black hole” in the law.

No-fee activists say the Smith decision has re-energized them. Matt Kenna, an attorney with the Western States Legal Foundation who represents plaintiffs challenging fees at Mount Lemmon outside Tucson and Mount Evans west of Denver, says it’s helped in both cases. District court rulings aren’t binding precedents, but Kenna calls it “a fresh, well-reasoned decision.”

Still, it’s unclear how the decision will affect the Forest Service at large. The head of the agency, Tom Tidwell, says system-wide reviews were already being planned, but acknowledges that Smith’s case “was another indicator that we need to take a look” at the fee areas. The agency completed the reviews in late May, but says it’s too early to reveal what recommendations might result.

Given flat recreation budgets and skyrocketing visitation, some say access fees are likely here to stay. Nationwide, the Forest Service collects over $60 million annually in fees, about 20 percent of its total “Recreation, Heritage and Wilderness” budget. The money is funneled back into maintenance, safety, visitor education and more. In Sedona, Red Rock Pass revenue pays for managing the nation’s largest national forest volunteer team, which does everything from pick up trash to help maintain trails. And the fee program is fairly lean: No more than 15 percent is used for administrative and other overhead costs.

The local program generated just over $1 million in 2010. That’s a lot of money; the Red Rock District received only about $400,000 in federal recreation funds that same year. The fees are critical for protecting a fragile ecosystem that hosts a million and a half visitors every year, says Coconino Recreation Staff Officer Jennifer Burns. If there aren’t established trails, hikers create their own by tramping over sensitive soils, she says. “The Red Rock Pass in this day and age is a necessity. I would hate to see it go away.”

EDITOR NOTE: This is one crazy arse race, watch the video below, do it now!

by Michael Frank @ Adventure Journal 

There’s been a little race going on in France this month you might have heard about. But while waifish men on skinny tires confine themselves to the roads of the Alps and Pyrenees, there’s a series of enduro/DH races like the Megavalanche that are way more dangerous and thrilling than anything in the modern history of the Tour de France. Descents might cover 20 miles and plunge 9,000 feet. There are waves of mass starts, with the pros going first and amateurs getting later guns. Sure, there’s no hazard of a car hitting you, but that’s not so much consolation when you’re bombing a glacial scree field at 30 mph.

Incidentally bikes of choice are typically not DH rigs — there’s a lot of climbing and at that altitude, with a full face lid and body armor, you want a bike that will pedal up as well as bomb down. Bikes with five or six inches of travel are increasingly common, and ideally you’re at 30 pounds or less.

For the 2011 Alpe D’Huez Megavalanche, the crown of the Mega series, Remy Absalon elbowed and jostled his way to victory off the top of 9,840-foot Pic Blanc. It took him a forearm-cooking 40 minutes. Read that again: a 40-minute downhill (compressed in this video to six minutes). In Absalon’s pro/am class, the last finisher was Joe Rafferty of England, who took 348th place with an exhausted time of 2:08. Some more regular Jane and Joe racers stacked yet another hour on top of that to descend the 6,000 feet and 30 kilometers to the finish banner.

Hamilton, an ex-teammate of Lance Armstrong’s who received an eight-year ban from cycling in 2009 after positive tests, recently appeared on CBS’ “60 Minutes” to discuss doping. He said Armstrong not only took performance-enhancing drugs, but also encouraged other cyclists on his team to take them to keep Armstrong in front at the Tour de France. Hamilton also admitted that he, himself, had doped throughout his career.

Hamilton’s interview prompted staff to rethink whether to continue recognizing his record for the nearly 8-mile course, as well as several records held by Jeanson, race director Mary Power said Tuesday.

Jeanson admitted in a 2007 TV interview that she had been doping throughout her career, and Power said she had been questioned about her records for several years.

“These races are held independent of any other governing body, and we have never conducted drug testing for them,” Power said. “However, following the revelation by Tyler, as well as Genevieve’s earlier confirmation that she used banned drugs from the age of 16 until her retirement 10 years later, we are respecting the rulings of national and international cycling federations, and we are no longer recognizing any of their times here as records.”

Hamilton’s time in the 2006 Bicycle Hillclimb of 52 minutes, 21 seconds was a record for men ages 35 to 39. The new record-holder for that group is Mike Engleman, who finished at 53:53 in 1997.

READ MORE HERE

By Rob Zimmerman for FTM

These folks would! So this column Ima take a break from bashing roadies and honor them. At least this bunch, they didn’t behave at all like the roadies we know, these guys drink post ride beers!

Ok, so I hear ya, wtf is FTM doing writing about roadies. Well I happen to own a Vamoots and occasionally I get on it. This was the case yesterday. Id finished up some work that needed to get to the UPS drop box so I thought, what the hell its gorgeous out I’ll make a loop ride out of it and baring any flats I wont get eat’n alive by skeeters. Earlier this week on Sunday I spent a few hrs up above the Mineral Site trails on Boulder Loop- Way In The Woods, the skeeters were out in force and I got the bites ta prove it.

So off to the UPS drop box on Washington Ave I went, I then made my way through town and started up the Kanc, what a beautiful day, I’m never in a hurry so I enjoyed the scenery all the way up to the Albany Covered Bridge where you cross the Swift River.

When I got across the bridge I went to my usual spot to take a breather, just at the trail head to the Nan mtb/x-country ski trail.  Off to the other side of the road was a small group of riders easliy spotted with their orange jerseys. I just assumed it was some sort of club or shop out riding.

I waved at them, and they hollered across,’ how much farther?’ Jokingly I said you still got a long way to go. Little did I know I was right! They came across and we  all introduced ourselves then they told me they where headed to Lincoln today, but ultimately Seattle Wa. I was like wtf?

Alex (on the left) informed me that they where raising money for Multiple sclerosis. They started in Bar Harbor, Maine a couple days earlier. This was an enthusiastic group of riders that broke my stereotype of the ‘typical shaver’ that we all know here in the WMNF. They couldn’t wait to get to Lincoln to check out the brewpub, WOOT! Roadies that drink post ride beers?

Ok Im have a bit of fun here. This group is known at the Northern Tier grp designated by the route they’ve chosen to ride, it just happened to bring them right through the Mount Washington Valley and by me. So check out their WEBSITE and donate some $$. These folks are gonna earn it and its for a great cause!  What a way to spend the summer!

 
Rob Zimmerman, occasional contributor to this place
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FTM has started a massive project through the wilderness region of the White Mountains between New Hampshire and Maine starting in Jackson, NH and heading to Evans Notch in Maine. There is also a loop from Intervale, NH off Town Hall rd.

We submitted for review our proposal to the US Forest Service and to the former Congressman Jeb Bradley during the comment period of the USFS White Mountain Plan Revision. But since they decided to add MORE wilderness instead of doing the right thing, FTM has decided to take the task on. And man oh man our we ever!!

First up we brought in the heavy guys and turned them loose to get some quick ‘smash and knock down’runs thru the woods in before they where onto us and whoosh we got’m outta thar…yeeeehaaawwww.

Then we sent in gramps. Hes an old tima who said its just like the ole days ‘for them govt folks started tell’n everyone what they could and could’nt do. Ha.. good ole gramps…gotta love’m

Look’t, we’ve seen how AMC operates in build’n trails, and that frankly just takes way to long. If ya got some’thn powered with diesel … use it.
We took this here candid shot of yer typical yak master do’n trail work for the AMC, Duh…. gonna take all day mr. yak master.

No mess’n ’round here, we got trees to get out the way, lets do it. FTM is home to the worlds only chainsaw silencer too! We’ll have some how to’s fer ya ‘case you wanna build one yerself.

Ole gramps is still out there put’n in the extra hours make sure we do’t right. Will let ya know when its Ready ta Ride!

Rex Kramer