I've Arrived at Active at Altitude, Estes Park, Colo.

Road trips are funny things. I left Boise, Idaho, yesterday morning with the intention of spending the night with a friend in Salt Lake City. But I got to Salt Lake in the early afternoon, and figured, hey, since this is pretty much the longest day of the year in terms of daylight hours, why not press forward?

So I arrived here, Active at Altitude, a day early for the Trail Running and Writing Weekend retreat to which I've decided to treat myself. This is the perfect transition from my former life as an elementary school teacher, which ended about 48 hours ago, and my new life as a PR pro, which I've been chipping away at for a couple of years, but am now chasing full-throttle.

This place is so relaxing! I'm blissfully tapping away in the Active at Altitude great room, looking south at some gorgeous granite peaks that owner Terry Chiplin tells me are called Twin Sisters. The only thing blocking the view are humming birds jockeying for position at the feeders. This lodge-like facility, which I'd compare to a marvelous bed and breakfast, is in Estes Park, Colo., at the door to Rocky Mountain National Park.

Our days are pretty full here, starting today and ending Sunday afternoon. I'll likely have to bail out early, though, or I will miss the start of Primal Quest, the expedition adventure race I'll be covering for the adventure racing news website Checkpoint Zero.

Terry's taking me to town, so I'll have the Estes Park introduction shortly. So far, this place impresses me as the perfect place to get away from it all in a super-supportive, super-healthy environment.

My Mandatory Gear List for Primal Quest Montana

Mandatory Gear:

Laptop computer with wireless Internet capability
Computer power supply
Digital SLR
Selection of lenses for digital SLR
Memory cards
Memory card reader
Extra camera batteries
Camera battery charger
Composition book for taking notes
Ticonderoga No. 2 pencils
Black Uni-ball pens

Recommended Gear:
Cell phone
Personal identification
Debit card
Clothing for five days (gonna have to hit a laundromat...)
Prescription eyeglasses
Numa Sport Optics Ride Rx sunglasses
Montrail Hardrock trail running shoes
Bridgedale socks
GoLite Phantom jacket
Checkpoint Zero business cards
Checkpoint Zero Headsweats hats
Checkpoint Zero T-shirts

Optional Gear:
Food
Frosty beverage
Sleeping bag
Eagle's Nest Outfitters Double Nest Hammock

Mike Bitton, On Assignment

I'm reading quite a few books about how to make my new PR business successful. Over and over again, I keep seeing this advice: Put yourself in front of the folks you want to hire you. Well, they're easy enough to identify! Bitton PR specializes in outdoor industry public relations, so I just need to get myself in front of the owners and upper-level managers of every company with products for sale in REI or Eastern Mountain Sports! I can catch most if not all of them twice a year in Salt Lake City, during the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market and Summer Market trade shows. But have you ever been to Outdoor Retailer? The bigwigs are so busy during Outdoor Retailer, even a charmer like me struggles to land an appointment.

So I have an innovative plan to get in front of the folks I want to hire me. I'll become the expert at covering the most gear-intensive outdoor sport ever created -- adventure racing. And I'll cover the sport for the best adventure racing news source in North America, a nifty little website called Checkpoint Zero. That bachelor's degree I earned in journalism, and the 10 years I spent working at daily newspapers, sure will come in handy! So instead of a handshake and a business card at Outdoor Retailer, I'm gonna do this: Show the owners and upper-level managers of every company with products for sale in REI or Eastern Mountain Sports, via a body of writing and photography work, that I know their customers better than anyone else. That my pulse is their customer's pulse. That if they're ready for a PR pro who's not afraid to spend a week in the dirt for the love of adventure, I am their PR pro.

Part One of my plan -- getting the assignments from Checkpoint Zero -- is already panning out. Paul "Yak" Angell, owner of Checkpoint Zero, LLC, confirmed this week I'll be covering at least four events for him during the remaining months of 2008: Primal Quest in Montana; the Mountain X Race in the French Alps; the Upstate Adventure Race in South Carolina; and the Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge in the Middle East.

As the body of work grows, I know Part Two of my plan will come to fruition. There certainly are some solid outdoor industry PR agencies already doing business. But only one has my passion at the helm. Owners and upper-level managers of outdoor industry companies, here am I. If you have any PR request for proposals to send out for bids, don't forget Bitton PR in Portland, Ore. We'll give the established agencies a run for their money, guaranteed.

No More Fridays

Today was my last Friday as an elementary school teacher. It was kinda sad, knowing I won't see these people every day like I have for the past three school years.

This time next week, I'll be somewhere between Salt Lake City and Estes Park, Colo., where I'll attend a Trail Running and Writing workshop. I'll go directly from there to Big Sky, Montana, where I'll cover the Primal Quest expedition adventure race for the adventure racing news website Checkpoint Zero. So even though I'm leaving teaching, and hoping for a giant decompression break, instead, I'll be a road warrior with places to be, and things to do, until about July 6.

But that's OK. 'Cause after that -- I'll be free. And on a whole new professional adventure!

USARA National Championships, Santa Barbara, Calif.

Photo by Mike Bitton

Adventure racers mountain bike past palm trees in Santa Barbara, Calif., during the USARA National Championship race.

The first weekend in November I covered the national championships of the United States Adventure Racing Association (USARA), held this year in Santa Barbara, Calif. It was a great time to be away from Portland, Ore., since we were logging record rain totals every day I was gone!

It was a little strange to be at a race where I only knew a few teams. At Primal Quest I knew dozens, at and the Wicked and TRIOBA races here in the Pacific Northwest, I know even more. Walking around the starting line on the beach, I only met a few groups I recognized. Where were all the so-called "top teams" of the sport? I guess they don't bother with "grassroots" racing any more. Or maybe they were taking the weekend off so they could be in Rio for EcoMotion Brazil. That was the case with my friends from DART-nuun in Seattle.

I'd never really spent any time in Santa Barbara before, just drove in once when I lived in SoCal and took a stroll on the beach with my wife. This trip was different. I spent three days driving around town and up and down the San Ysidro Mountains that form the city's dramatic backdrop.

It's funny the things I miss about California -- being so close to Mexico; seeing $100,000 cars being passed by Kias; and the ever-vibrant Los Angeles International Airport. Things I forgot I didn't like -- the endless supply of rude people; maniac drivers in the fast lane of every freeway; and a parade of lousy radio stations. KCRW FM in Santa Monica is the only exception.

I was welcomed like family into the rental home of team Mighty Dog from Atlanta, Ga. Sherry and Ardie Olson, team manager and captain, respectively, have taken me under their wings every time I've seen them since May 2006, when we met at the Mighty MO Expedition adventure race in the Ozarks of Missouri. One of the greatest things about adventure racing is reuniting with friends every few months, always in a diferent state, and sometimes in a different country!

Daylight hours were spent taking photographs of teams. Dark hours were spent downloading photos off my memory cards and onto my laptop. There was no stress to put up stories and photos every night, since the USARA said they had their own method of updating their web page to keep family and friends up to date on race conditions. Sadly, it didn't come together for them, which left fans in a lurch. About a dozen people asked me Saturday morning where all my stories and photos were. I told them Checkpoint Zero had agreed not to post anything until AFTER the event, so as not to compete with the USARA information machine.

I spent a lot of time talking to athletes after the race about training and nutrition, as I will be racing in 2007. In fact, Iwill be racing next month! There's a BEAST race near Seattle on Sunday, Dec. 3. I'll be there with some other newbie adventure racing friends from Portland to see how we all perform under stress. Nutrition and training have become an important new part of my life since I decided to race in 2007. I'm lucky to have so many elite-level adventure racing friends to point me in the right directions!

Wicked Sunsweet 24hr Adventure Race

Photo by Mike Bitton
Glenn Rogers of team nuun/Clif grabs a checkpoint in a culvert during the Wicked Sunsweet 24hr adventure race in Oakridge, Ore.

Oakridge, Ore., was recently ranked by a national magazine as the second-best mountain biking location in the United States, beaten out only by Moab, Utah. So why the heck hasn't anyone outside of the Pacific Northwest heard of Oakridge? Now that the Wicked Sunsweet 24hr adventure race has wrapped, I bet the word will spread like wildfire.

Green Waters Park in the center of town served as headquarters for the race, which begain at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept, 23. The course was so Wicked that only six of the more than 30 registered teams were able to finish the whole thing. Thankfully, time cutoffs allowed slower teams to complete a "sport course," and still see the highlights of the area, which included a 100-foot rappel.

While I normally work alone covering adventure races, I got to host two new friends this time around. Julie was in my Jeep, supporting solo racer Duncan Sailors. Jalen was with us as well, supporting his mom, Terri Smith.

Outdoor Retailer Summer Market

Every August and January, about 1,000 outdoor sporting goods gear manufacturers gather in Salt Lake City for an industry-only trade show called Outdoor Retailer. The August show is Summer Market, and the January show is Winter Market. I just got home from Summer Market, and what an experience it was!

On assignment for Checkpoint Zero, North America's leading source for adventure racing news, my job was to find gear of interest to adventure racers. The show is so massive, it's not easy to whittle down all the good stuff to just great stuff. I'm eager to return next summer and do it again, though.

While there, I got to see Rich Brezeau and Gordon Wright of the Primal Quest expedition adventure race. I also saw people from SOLE Custom Footbeds, Merrell shoes and Backpacker Magazine that I'd met at Primal Quest in Moab about a month ago. Several adventure racers were at the show nurturing relationships with sponsors. I spent time with members of teams DART-nuun, Salomon-Crested Butte, Silly Rabbits, Gerber Gear, Adventure Racing Concepts, WickedAR.com, Bulleit and Jen's Men (now called Men for Hire, as Jen has retired). What a treat to see all these people again! They all inspire me to train harder and enter more races.