Having resisted the temptation to make this an April Fool’s edition of Daily Dirt, I do have some longer reads for you today as some regional events and issues have been making it into some very prestigious national publications. All the outdoor news that’s fit to digitize for April 1, 2013:
Chattanooga Continues to Do What it Do
There is a huge reason why Chattanooga, Tennessee is getting so much press lately. They have completely transformed themselves from industry dumping ground to outdoor recreation nirvana in what seems almost overnight. They were the winner of our Mountain City poll and have garnered praise from a bevy of other outdoor publications. Of course, national praise from all sides is never enough for Chattanooga; now they want to become part of the Great Eastern Trail (the GET is a north/south long distance trail that parallels the A.T.). Noog would be considered a “Trail Town” and their application seems like a slam dunk considering all the cool stuff they have going on. Read more about the process at dochattanooga.com.
Go Home Math, You’re Drunk
In a piece called Drunk Math, the Atlantic is calling out small batch beer brewers for lobbying Congress for tax breaks. In response to a New York Times piece (elite journalism cat fight!) Jordan Weissmann makes the case that craft brewers do not deserve, nor should they get, a tax break on the barrels of beer they produce. He makes a compelling case against any IRS benefits, citing the growth of the industry versus the craft movement and sales, yadda yadda economics. One of the main takeaways is that the Small BREW Act would also cut taxes for Boston Brewing Company (Sam Adams), who hardly needs it, and the numbers appear to be inflated. So there’s that, plus some good arguments in the comments as well. The Southeast, with its small brew hotbeds could be affected either why the chips fall in in Congress. One thing is for certain though if craft beer prices stay the same, we’ll still buy it.
Crazy Race Gets Serious Coverage
Speaking of the New York Times, they continue to impress with their outdoor sports coverage. Following great profiles of snowboarder Jeremy Jones and endurance athlete Kilian Jornet Burgada, comes an expose on one of the region’s great, eccentric foot races, the Barkley Marathons. This is one of the most brutal races in the country, made even more ghastly by the psychological warfare waged by its race organizer against…wait for it…the racers. We’ve covered the race before, but this article does a great job capturing the utter helplessness of the participants and the draconian silliness of Race Founder Gary Contrell.
