Doug Schnitzspahn

Abandon All Hope Ye Print Publishers

“Guarda quel grande che vene.”
-Dante on Jason in Inferno, Canto 18 (in which Dante encounters the fradulent sinners)

People (especially those lost souls who contributed to the final issue) keep asking what happened to Hooked. The Reaper has the answer. And a question/command: “Who will be next?” That’s the magazine biz, right boys?

On a much more brutal note in the world of magazine publishing, the pieces Talking Points Memo complied on “mag crews” are well worth reading.

Light in the Heart of Darkness

The latest Kayak Session is on newsstands with a profile I wrote on kayaking doctor Jessie Stone. Jessie called me back in the fall and asked if I would write the piece on her for the magazine which is published by Philippe Doux in Lyons, France. It was an honor. Jessie is fighting malaria with mosquitoe nets in Uganda where she has built a medical clinic staffed by local Ugandans through her nonprofit Soft Power Health—this April inner city kids whom she teaches how to kayak will be traveling to Uganda to help her with the clinic. Just after I interviewed Jessie for the piece her father passed away while she was working in Uganda. It made the piece even more important to her. She told me it was the one bright light during a tough few months and I felt compelled to write something that would have made her dad proud. The pay was next to nothing, but it was one of the most satisfying and meaningful magazine pieces I have written. Sometimes it really isn’t about the money. Both Jessie and Philippe are fantastic people and I wish them continued success.

There is a preview of the story here.

kayak session #21

Colorado Trail in Style

In September, I spent three days riding about 100 miles of high-alpine singletrack on the Colorado Trail for a feature that will run in Adventure Cyclist this fall. The idea was the carry the few things we needed in a small pack, ride hard (we topped over three passes higher than 11,500-feet), and spend nights in swank hotels in Breckenridge and Copper (we caught week one of the NFL season resting our quads in a hotel room). The riding was harder than I expected. Things you could clear with ease in Boulder become an exercise in pain over 10,000 feet. It was also better than I expected, with mind-altering sections of downhill coming down from West Ridge, the crest of Peak 10, and Georgia Pass. Marshall McKinney, who is now working as a designer at Outside’s Go, rode along and Seth Hughes shot the pro photos.

Highlights:
– Rolling up on our bikes to the front desk at the Breckenridge Hyatt to check in
– Reckless, full-speed, non-stop descent from Gerogia Pass to Kenosha
– Topping out at 12,500 on the ridge between Breck and Copper during a break in a snow squall
– The ride back up to Georgia Pass from Breck in perfect blue-sky Colorado conditions

Lowlights:
– The slog up the paved bike path from the CT to Breck after 40-some miles of pounding singletrack
– Taking a full-on spill 50 feet from the end of the ride on Day 3
– Absolute exhaustion at the top of the seemingly easy slog up West Ridge after 30 miles of riding on Day 1
– The Giants getting spanked by the Colts in “Manning Bowl”

Here are a few of my photos from the trip.

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The Epic Begins: Marshall in morning light on Kenosha Pass

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Smelling the Barn: Approaching Breck after 40 miles of pure, sweet singletrack

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…and me bombing the aspens on Kenosha

Cape Cod and My Dad’s Dominance

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Radha, Isa and I spent a week on Cape Cod with Dad, Mom, Max and Erin in mid July. Dad made fools out of Max and I and just about everyone else on the beach, catching fish after fish while Max and I got more or less skunked. Here’s one of two pathetic stripers I caught after three days at Stage Harbor near Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge. The rational brain says: it’s a life lesson, an exercise in patience, maturity. You have to remember that catching no fish is the way life works—even if your father is slaying them using the same fly, same casting distance, same stripping technique. The heart says: getting skunked sucks.

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