The biggest perk of this gig is travel, hands down. The second, which often goes hand in hand with the first, is the frequent opportunities to meet new, interesting, and encouraging people. A recent trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming brought together both, plus a chance to test out a bunch of new products from a handful of brands making dang impressive stuff in the outdoor space.

Myself, along with a dozen or so other editors, spent three days running wild in Jackson. We logged dozens of miles with Specialized (see our review of the all-new adventure-ready Diverge here), ran a few more on mountain trails in Grand Teton National Park with Altra (their zero drop shoes are well worth looking into), charged dirt, gravel, and snow with the new 2018 Subaru fleet, and had a day of fly fishing on the iconic Snake River that could only be described as epic (I landed more trout in five hours than I have in the past 10 years).

After a summer of too much travel, this late September trip to the Tetons was the perfect way to kiss shorts and t-shirt weather goodbye and embrace a colder season to come, all while marveling at the incredible terrain that’s constantly within arms reach in one of America’s best mountain towns.