Outside Magazine, Sep 1999

FEATURES
Blood in the Water
None of the boys of summer are tougher than those trying to secure a seat on the U.S. National Rowing Team. While bad-ass coach Mike Teti heaps abuse upon their heads, exhaustion rules, muscles fail, and minds get blown, all for one holy cause: picking the fastest, strongest, winningest rowers. And this year, two superhuman athletes are fighting a red-hot duel for the same seat in the coveted heavyweight eight boat. Who's in and who's out?
By Max Potter

WILDERNESS 2000
Good, Clean, Dangerous Places
As Ed Abbey rightly said, "Civilization needs wilderness." With that in mind, Outside set out to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, and along the way discovered a few key things: There's a new wilderness consciousness poised to reignite green activism; there's still plenty of land that needs protection; and when it comes to the politics of wilderness, everything old is new again.

• The New Wilderness Land Grab
  An unlikely but potentially earth-shaking movement is afoot, and its rumblings are just beginning to be felt in Washington, D.C. Fueled by youthful energy, its adherents are laser-focusing on a single issue—creating new wilderness—and discovering a potent new ally: big bucks.
  By Elizabeth Arnold
• Virgin Land: A History
  A wilderness timeline, from Bob and Aldo to George W. and Al Jr.
• The Wild Bunch
  We've already got 104,702,547 acres of officially designated wilderness in the United States. Sounds like plenty, right? Hell, no. Outside respectfully submits its master list of amazing places that could still be destroyed by the hand of man—and damn well shouldn't.
• The Wild Bunch, Cont.
  After making our list and checking it twice, we came up with another 30 deserving candidates. (We just couldn't stop ourselves.)

O Look at All the Fire-Folk Sitting in the Air!
It was love at first sight. Two scientists went into the woods around Elkmont, Tennessee, on a cold-hearted mission to document firefly nookie. What they found instead was a dreamlike gathering of bug-smitten onlookers and a wondrous symphony of light.
By Bill Donahue

The Low-Tech, High-Speed, Retro-Manic Simple Life
Eustace Conway talks to horses. He also bites horses. He catches trout with his bare hands. He has never bought a roll of toilet paper in his life. Eustace Conway is trying to set a land speed record for circumnavigating the Great Plains. Is there a message here? Yep: Being a Type A mountain man ain't easy. (And being his girlfriend is even harder.)
By Florence Williams

Fall Fashion: Hang Time
Newton's Law of Gravity states that what goes up must come down. We have a corollary: When coming down—especially from, say, about 13,500 feet—it's important to look sharp.
Photographs by Jorg Badura

©1999, Outside magazine