Best Towns 2007
YES, REAL PEOPLE LIVE HERE
Moving sucks, but you wouldn't mind so much if you were off to one of these 30 sweet spots. We're talking smart, progressive burgs with gorgeous wilderness playgrounds—and, yes, realistic housing and job markets. So why are you still reading this?

POWDER KEG
The heads of state over in Iran may have a few problems with U.S. foreign policy, but their people are just gaga over that most Western of pastimes, stalking powder. JOSH DEAN tours the rickety but wicked ski resorts of America's newest enemy and comes away with one question: "When can I go back?"

ZONKEYS ARE PRETTY MUCH MY FAVORITE ANIMAL
But ligers (half-ton kitties) and pizzlies (like polar bears but orange) are pretty flippin' awesome, too. And such hybrid critters may not be the genetic dead-ends Darwin thought they were. BY JON COHEN

GOLF BRO
Hey, look, a dirtbag adventure junkie made it to the PGA Tour. And we were about to give up hope. JOHN BRADLEY recounts the legend of Will MacKenzie. (He's the one who'll be fantasizing about surfing Ghost Tree between shots at Pebble Beach.)

MEET THE FLINTSTONES
With Big Oil training its sights on untrammeled northern Alaska, a few obsessive archaeology types are in a mad scramble for evidence that humans crossed over from Siberia as early as 18,000 b.c. STEVEN RINELLA goes a-hunting Stone Age points above the Arctic Circle.

»  FIRST LOOK: The Young Guns crew crashes Vietnam's raging waterfalls.

DISPATCHES
»  THE BIG IDEA: An ode to keeping those top-secret adventure stashes all to yourself.
»  THE OUTSIDE INTERVIEW: Surfing phenom Bobby Martinez.
»  SECOND CHANCES: A look at major U.S. rivers where the dams are coming down and the waters will soon roar back to life.
»  ASK DAVE: What's the manliest breed of man's best friend? Can that workout funk be cured? PLUS: Dave's leech-removal methods.
PLUS: Skydiving's falling arc; tailing Dog the Bounty Hunter.

MEDIA
»  FILM: A handy-dandy guide to this summer's top popcorn epics.
»  BOOKS: The great globe-trotters are back in Richard Bangs' Adventures Purpose and Tony Wheeler's Bad Lands; reconstructing the 1967 Denali disaster; Patrick Symmes goes back to school with Fidel Castro.
»  PLUS: TV's Ultimate Tourist Scams; photographing Mother Russia.

DESTINATIONS
»  SPOT ON: Downhill mountain biking hits the stellar trails of the Swiss Alps.
»  LINKUPS: Five spectacular hiking and biking routes, from the Rockies to New England—with swanky overnights and gourmet eats.

OUT OF BOUNDS  
At Stanford U's experimental human-pain lab, a doctor named Angst is researching where it hurts—and why. ERIC HANSEN plays guinea pig.

REVIEW
»  COVET: A highly mobile, easy-to-operate, computerized telescope.
»  FOOTWEAR: This summer's best kicks are tailored to every pursuit.
»  FRESH LOOT: Summit-season gear.
»  UPGRADE: Sitting comfortably in the saddle; an elite Italian road bike for U.S. riders; Truck Camping 101.
»  STYLE: It's no longer a black-and-white world. Gray matters.

BODYWORK
»  THE OWNER'S MANUAL: YOUR HEART: What makes the ticker tick, and how do you keep it going? How to care for the ultimate core muscle.