Exploration - page 2

Tom Holm is the founder of EcoTrek Foundation, a nonprofit with the goal of preserving cultural and natural resources through renewable power, products and practices. A major part of EcoTrek’s business involves converting and modifying vehicles to be more environmentally friendly for demanding expeditions.

Warning: This story contains some very real experiences and some very unreal imagery.

This story is a permission slip. Later this summer, this year, or this lifetime, you have hereby been granted permission to fail. We encourage it. Go forth and break things. Get stuck. Paddle out and bail. Eat dirt. Finish last. Whatever it is you want to do, go. Get out there, and fail at it. 

Or perhaps we should say, fail into it.

You could call John Rathwell a lot of things. A photographer, a former pro kayaker, an amateur mechanic, a volunteer firefighter, a coffee roaster, an adventurer...the list goes on. But no matter his job title, he’s an unwavering optimist with an uncanny ability to make the most out of life, no matter what obstacles it throws his way.

At final bell, the doors of Haileybury Girls College erupt in a blinding sea of magenta and gold. Pigtail braids and white straw hats bob on top of crisp polo shirts, breezy pinstripe dresses, and nylon backpacks that look as big as their carriers.

Establishing the National Park system was one of America’s greatest ideas. Preserving wilderness areas and making them accessible to all Americans is a noble cause. But over the past few years, the nation’s parks have seen an explosion in interest. This is a good thing! Visiting one of these areas is a monumental experience. But let’s be honest, sitting in a line of RVs for hours trying to get into one of these parks is a monumental pain.

Plenty of parents drop their kids off at college in August. Few do it Marty Lawrence style—cross country and over the course of the entire summer.

Believe it or not, this story starts in late 1970s — the first years that a team from BFGoodrich® Tires went down to Baja to participate in the most ruthless racing event on the planet.