I’m excited to share that the above picture is the cover for my 4th book! The title is “Mud, Mountains, & Sweat” and I tell 52 of my favorite Outdoor Adventure Tales in the 200 plus page book.

It sums up into the concept that you can (and should) experience some type of Outdoor Adventure once a week at a minimum ALL YEAR LONG. I wanted to share the intro and one of my favorite hiking stories!

PS: This book is now available as a free gift to our newsletter subscribers and other various small bookstores. I took it off of Amazon, because I deleted my Amazon account :). If you don’t have a copy and want one send us a note HERE on the Hashtag59 Contact Page!

Mud, Mountains, & Sweat by Mike Rudd Book Intro

“I think I got bit by a tick last night guys. In fact not just one tick but several ticks.”

Those were the words of my friend Marc as we rose from our tent for sunrise in Glacier National Park’s St. Mary’s campground several years ago. He was not joking around. Something had come into our tent and taken his ankles by storm; little red dots and bumps covered his lower legs and extended up to his knees. The bites looked like they were causing some swelling in his legs too. Fortunately for him it had been a late night out and we decided to give our bodies a bit of a break so we were packing up and making the drive to Spokane, Washington, and not doing any hiking that day.

As for myself and our two other companions, we appeared to be tick free.

As the day went on we grew curious about how on earth the ticks managed to infiltrate our tent and only go after Marc’s legs. Were his legs hairier than ours and this was something ticks enjoyed? Perhaps his legs were just a tad smoother than ours and well received by ticks? Or maybe Marc had that outdoor smell that made him irresistible to ticks? The jokes were endless and relentless and would have been funnier if it weren’t for the fact that Marc’s legs were actually in bad shape.

Marc is a very smart human. So smart that he actually started researching these bites during our long drive to Spokane. He wanted to figure out why these ticks chose to just focus on his pretty ankles and shins the previous night in the tent.

What did Marc’s backseat research uncover?

These weren’t tick bites at all.

Marc had burst his capillaries.

Capillaries burst from overexertion.

The previous day we had (according to my FitBit) hiked 23.1 miles, or 44,101 steps. That’s like 8 days worth of average person steps.

Marc didn’t get bitten by ticks. He got bit by our vicious hiking itinerary; fortunately rest is all burst capillaries need and he recovered quickly.

My name is Mike and I am a tried-and-true outdoor adventure junkie. From hiking in Colorado with my Dad at the age of two to jumping out of a plane for my 18th birthday to begging my wife to visit a new National Park on every vacation ...I’m into all of it.

If it’s outdoors and gets your heart pumping, sign me up. I’m on a quest to visit all 61 of the United States National Parks and I even started an outdoor adventure community called Hashtag 59 (back when there were only 59 National Parks and no we aren’t changing the name) to celebrate outdoor adventure and these incredible parks.

But I have a bigger story to share than what can fit on the Hashtag 59 blog: the story of those 44,101 steps that resulted in some of the most vicious outdoor adventures Marc’s legs had ever seen. It’s also the story of what we saw, felt, tasted, heard, and smelled along the way.

The human body has five senses, if you are fortunate enough to have them all, Sight, Sound, Touch, Smell, and Taste.

When I am in the outdoors, these five senses truly come alive for me. My eyes let me see the amazing views, my ears let me listen to my fellow adventurers, my hands and feet let me experience the ground we're walking or riding on or the water we're swimming through, my nose grants me unforgettable sniffs of Mother Nature, and my mouth lets me enjoy the snacks during (and drinks after!) the journey. You see, the outdoors offer so much. Designated public lands conserve the places we love experiencing, protect endangered species, create tourism and jobs, and offer so many people around the world a place to come together in nature in a special and unique way.

I hope to give you a journey into the great outdoors with a collection of firsthand stories of fifty-two of my most unique adventures and experiences in the outdoors. I’ve included fifty-two in the hopes you can convince yourself to experience one outdoor adventure per week moving forward. I arranged them in a recommended sequence of the best time of year to visit and experience them. Each story centers around one of our five senses to help bring the parks alive for you in the short riffs I am about to share.

Come along with me to the places I (and the friends I convinced or bribed to come with me) have been, hear the stories as they really happened, and be equipped with your own “quest” to start by the time you are done with this book!

This book is my unofficial guide and tribute to 52 outdoor adventures that might burst your capillaries, watering holes that might make you sleep in a bit too much the next day, and everything in between. I hope you’ll laugh, learn, plan a trip, and find ideas for new outdoor adventures or make you yearn to revisit an old one.

Disclaimer: Don’t be an idiot on your adventures, respect the land, be prepared, be kind to all animals, other people, and nature you encounter. Mother nature doesn’t belong to us, it belongs to this amazing planet and we are just guests here for a short period of time.”