That’s why I’m giving Dressed in Dirt a rare and coveted link in my blogroll. It’s genuinely informative. It’s fun to read. It’s not there to simply hawk products.

I wish I would’ve discovered it six months ago. The knowledge there would’ve been a great help for planning my trip to Iceland – at least the backpacking aspects of it. If you’re into backpacking – and especially if you’re just getting started – this Dressed in Dirt is a must-read.

Addy and Erin, great work!

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Here’s the thing: I have a few online friends who automatically get links. They’ve contributed technical assistance to the blog, along with immoral support. They are a shoe-in to survive the Great Wandering Justin Link Purge.

There are some sites that I use as resources, and that I recommend highly to others. Those, also, will stay. There are some that I read for fun. Not many, but a few. I think there are few enough that they can stay.

Now comes the hard part: Links that promote businesses or service. This is a thorny situation because I genuinely believe in some businesses and services, like those seen in what’s currently my Tour Operators page. Those are hugely valuable.

Most of the organizations that have approached me … well, I haven’t used any of them. I’ve done a little due diligence, and most seem to have some value and be on the up-and-up. But if I offered a link to each, you can see how WanderingJustin.com could become the link farm I fear. My thought is to have a page devoted to these sorts of businesses. Maybe offer some space and a small graphic for a small fee. After all, a link is advertising. If I’m going to advertise for someone, this site should see some benefit (and a lot of the businesses contacting me are fairly new, and probably have a smaller reach than WanderingJustin.com does).

What do you bloggers out there do? What are your policies, guidelines or ideas?

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"I can haz new home?" Become Oscar's new human, and keep a little dog -and a dude recovering from hip surgery- happy.

Attention, Mountain Bike Monday fans! I’m pre-empting this week’s regularly scheduled feature to answer the call of a puppy in need. Read on!

Imagine what it’s like to be Oscar. This golden retriever/German shepherd mix was abandoned in an empty house with his littermate, left behind by the sort of people who shouldn’t have pets.

That’s when the mighty Doug burst into the house. My ol’ mountain bike buddy and his special lady friend were cruising around in Miami, Ariz., recently checking out houses. Something led them to this particular abandoned house. Good thing for Oscar and Molly, his sister.

Doug wasn’t about to ignore two puppies in need. So he loaded them up and took them home to care for them.

Here’s where it gets rough: Doug is about to head into some serious hip surgery, and he won’t be able to care for Oscar during his long recovery. He’s already found a home for Molly, but Oscar needs someone who will be able to keep up with him and his puppy antics. Plus Doug’s landlord isn’t cool with dogs, apparently.

This is one of those times when it’s really hard to be a travelin’ man with a dictatorial, possessive, territorial, imperialistic ol’ tomcat lording over the house. My frequent absences are okay for an independent animal, but the situation wouldn’t be very good for a dog.

So Oscar needs you, if you’re an big-hearted animal (even better if you have a yard to match that big heart).  In exchange for taking him in, he’ll be your ever-loyal friend, protector and therapist. Contact me at wandering.justins@gmail.com if you want to get in touch with Doug to become Oscar’s new human.

“It breaks my heart to give him up, but it will be best for him,” Doug says.

I know it’ll help Doug to see his new buddy paired up with a good human. So c’mon, animal lovers. Let’s come through for Doug and Oscar.

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I do hereby proclaim Jan. 8, 2010 to be International Blog My Trail Day^SM. Here’s the idea – I want every single mountain bike-loving blogger to post about their favorite local trail. I want to hear about all the go-to trails for all of you – that one that’s closest to your house, where you first learned to ride, where you’re training for an epic race or you see snakes and javelina on every ride.

SO I WANT YOU!

Tell the world all about it. Throw in a map. An elevation profile. Some photos. A short bit of video. Whatever you got. Put it in Twitter. Post about it on Facebook, Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad, whatever ya got. If you won’t have a blog, I’ll offer up to three guest posts right here at WanderingJustin.com.

Here’s a Facebook page where you can become a fan to let everyone know you’re joining.

This is a great chance to show the entire world your trail, and to remind trail advocates, planners, decision makers and all sorts of official folks how much you care about your sport – and your trail.

Oh, yeah – another thing. To those who say I can’t just make up an international day of anything … I just did. It worked for International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and I hope it works a tenth as well for International Blog My Trail Day. Arrrrr.

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The panel started off with a pretty obvious question, and one I’ve never addressed here: Why do you blog?

I never actually considered having a Wordpress blog -or a blog other than my deeply buried Livejournal account- until a few years ago. I was interviewing a teenager for work. He’d visited Australia on a trip through a children’s charity that grants the wishes of kids with life-threatening medical conditions. This was shortly after I’d returned from Australia myself.

His trip was mostly in Sydney, and mine was a pretty far-flung event. So we swapped tales, and he suggested that I send him some photos.

That got me thinking – if one guy was interested in my trip to Australia, maybe a few other people would be. So I started the blog just to have a reminder of my trip. Then I kept coming up with topics that were travel and adventure-related. Now, you have before you this increasingly messy but interesting (I hope) bunch of content. I really need to take the CodeWhacker to some of the extra links and badges and stuff that have popped up.

So what about you? What got you started?

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1. I know this might seem like blasphemy since the chance to ride a $6,000-plus wonder bike was part of the draw. But I think Specialized should equip the Trail Crew with more “everyday rider” sorts of bikes. That’ll cut the cost down, and give a more realistic idea of what their products can do. Also, they need to make the Trail Crew bikes visually different. I’m seeing a special color scheme along with a full Shimano SLX group – I’d suggest a choice between a Stumpjumper HT (29 or 26) and the Epic. Promote the notion that you can have well-maintained, workaday bikes and still enjoy riding to its fullest. It’s the experience, not the bike. I would love to see what Shimano SLX on a quality frame can do.

2. Figure out which members will get the word out. The current Trail Crew has been weak on spreading the word. I’ve searched Google Blogs to see what the lucky few posted about being selected – barely anything. One guy posted about the arrival of his bike. I haven’t seen any substantive posts since. Specialized needs to figure out which bloggers are syndicated, which ones have real readership, which ones hustle for those readers and which ones get out on the trails and engage the public. That’s more important than where they placed in their last race. For example, my post to apply for the Trail Crew appeared on the Chicago Sun-Times Web site and generated more than a thousand headline impressions. Specialized doesn’t let people ride their stuff for free out of the kindness of its collective heart: It should expect measurable results.

3. Use the Trail Crew as realistic product testers, and welcome their feedback – both complimentary and cutting.

4. Widen the net. The Trail Crew needs to engage people – lots of them … in-person and online. So choose population centers wisely. A rider in Montana is great, but will engage a limited number of people. A rider in Denver or another major city with access to local riding? Far better. Frankly, I’d also aim for a concentration of riders in climates with long riding seasons. Better weather equals more biking, which leads to more exposure. And that’s the name of this game.

5. Require Trail Crew members to complete a certain amount of trail maintenance. There’s more to mountain biking than riding. This will build brand goodwill. My tactic would be to do all my trail maintenance wearing a shirt with my blog’s URL, and some sort of Trail Crew logo. That explains what I’m doing there, and how fellow trail maintenance workers can find out more.

6. Speaking of which, Specialized needs to recruit members who understand branding. They need people who realize that a brand is more than a logo – it’s a promise on delivering a certain level of quality experiences. It’s about engaging the customers’ lifestyle. That requires some work. The Trail Crew members need to be blogging -and not just Tweeting- about their rides: favorite local trails, crashes, near-crashes, maintenance sessions, cool people they meet, anything that’s remotely interesting. Promote the brand and the experience through that sharing.

7. Select bloggers who are more than bikers. If every post is centered on Specialized or mountain biking, the content will get stale and repetitive. Specialized needs Trail Crew members who have other interesting aspects of their lives – travelers, rock climbers, pilots, musicians, artists. And they need to keep posting that all in their blogs.

8. Finally, stay away from any blogger who registers a domain with “Specialized” in it. That tactic shows commitment, yes – but it also shears away the entire grassroots, organic flavor of the effort. It comes across as something being written by another company rather than a person. It also narrows the blog’s niche too far, and makes it awkward to post non-Specialized content like I mentioned in #7.

There we go! Any questions?

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This trip to the top of Mt. Ngauruhoe is a perfect example of what should've been in National Geographic Adventure, but wasn't.

After more than 10 years, National Geographic Adventure is going to stop publishing.

As an adventurous sort of cat, how should I feel about this? The truth is, aside for the people losing their jobs, I just don’t really care. I picked up many editions of the magazine whenever I’d spy something interesting on the cover. But I never pulled a single interesting and useful tidbit out of it.

Did the editorial staff really think it was serving the bulk of its readership by telling us about 16-day, $7,000 adventures in Africa? Or by giving us a list of 10 Bikes You Must Buy This Year? I found every issue to be thin on practical advice, and far too heavy on “well, maybe if I win the lottery” fare.

Obviously, the magazine was trying to appeal to its advertisers. But from where I sit, it grubbed so much for advertising dollars that it lost sight of serving its readers. I suppose there may be a few people out there lounging on their yachts who picked up an issue and splashed down for a two-week guided tour starting in Timbuktu - but I’ll be there are a lot more like that who just wondered where they might be able to see a wild cassowary in Queensland. Would that story attract as many advertising bucks? Probably not. But it’s actually something more of its readership could afford.

I’m hoping for the rise of a magazine for travelers who are on real budgets, but have a desire to push themselves just enough to satisfy. In the meantime, you have WanderingJustin.com, right?

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3. Phoenix is a huge city. So why can’t I find a decent guitar shop? – Most musicians love gear. The 5th-largest metro area in the nation should have lots of gear-starved musicians, right? Then why do we have a dearth of awesome guitar shops?

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Want to know about cool stuff like Sedona's rock? Check out the Arizona state geologist's blog.

When it comes to geology, Arizona has a lot to offer. It’s an incredibly rich source of copper. Then there’s the Grand Canyon. There’s the remains of a stratovolcano that now provide quality skiing for Arizona residents. Speaking of volcanos, there’s also the very cool Sunset Crater. And geology meets exogeology (is that even the right word?) at Barringer Crater! Let’s not forget the foreboding Superstition Mountains, a monstrous caldera that’s the stuff of legends.

Now, if you find this stuff as cool as I do, you can find the latest Arizona geology news at the Blog of the State Geologist of Arizona. The blog does a great job of covering geology-related stuff, from Resolution Copper’s work to mine a deep, rich copper deposit near Superior to a cool cave in a remote part of northern Arizona. Some of it is very business-related and technical – but outdoor enthusiasts can often take away some very lively tidbits.

Let me also mention that the state geology crew are a really great bunch. I was working on a piece for Mountain Flyer magazine and came up against a tough question on the composition of Sedona’s slickrock. A staff member fielded my question nicely the same day.

I think this blog accomplishes more than entertaining an online audience. It shows the diverse work the Arizona Geological Survey handles, and communicates this to the public in a down-to-earth way that’s pretty accessible.

If you have an interest in geology, stop by. Maybe show the love with a comment or three.

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In the meantime, let me offer you some other reading.

Let’s say you’re a coffee fan. I’m not talking a Frappucino swiller, but someone who likes espresso, French press or Clover done right. You should check out Tom’s Coffee in Arizona blog. It’s very new, so there are just a few posts. But stand by. It’ll get bigger and even more fun. The only thing that’s kind of a bummer about it is that you have to join the blogging service to leave a comment. His latest post, Snotty Baristas and Barista Commandments, should be required reading at every indie coffeehouse.

Okay, now let’s say you fancy some sci-fi. Fiction blogs seem to be the minority. In most cases, that’s probably a good thing. But Transmissions from Omicron Persei VIII is quite interesting. The premise? A dude gets abducted by aliens. But this is no gray-aliens-probing-the-butt-the-truth-is-out-there, Scully sort of abduction. And the aliens are really us, but separated by eons and astronomical units! Explaining more will spoil the fun. You give it a look.

If you’re a mountain biker, check out the Adventures of Mountain Biking Girl. She’s pretty much a regular Joe (or Jill) mountain biker from Canada. But for a burnt-out rider like me, it’s motivating to see someone enthused about the sport. It reminds me of how I used to be before too much schlepping, fixing too many beater bikers and too many flat tires began hanging ’round my neck like a millstone. But she’s been riding a long time, too – enough to remember the early days of Alison Sydor!

Speaking of which, I’ve said enough. I’m going for a ride.

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