Men's Journal

letter from the editor

I THINK WE’VE reached peak beer. This notion occurred to me while I was on a mountain bike, barreling down an expertly groomed stretch of singletrack—right before grazing the side of a huge boulder, losing my balance, and unclipping from the pedals just in time to land safely on my feet before the bike toppled over. You might think my mind would have (should have?) been elsewhere, but nope, it was definitely beer that I was thinking about. The reason was obvious: The trail that was kicking my butt was behind the Norbrook Farm Brewery in the tiny town of Colebrook (pop. 1,413), in the northwestern corner of Connecticut. In addition to growing its hops and making dozens of beers on-site, the brewery is building a network of trails on its…

men's journal

CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER GREG EMMANUEL CREATIVE DIRECTOR DAVID SCHLOW DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY JENNIFER SANTANA DEPUTY EDITOR LARRY KANTER MANAGING EDITOR BRIAN GOOD FEATURES EDITOR RYAN KROGH SENIOR EDITORS MARJORIE KORN J.R. SULLIVAN SAL VAGLICA CONTRIBUTING EDITORS CLINT CARTER, KITT DOUCETTE, ADAM ERACE, JOSH EELLS, JOSEPH HOOPER, MICKEY RAPKIN PAUL SOLOTAROFFFF, SARAH Z. WEXLER JESSE WILL COPY & RESEARCH COPY CHIEF THOMAS BROWN RESEARCH CHIEF AMBROSE MARTOS ART ART DIRECTOR OLIVER YOO PHOTO EDITOR DAVID CARR PRODUCTION MANAGER RUSSELL MENDOZA FASHION FASHION EDITOR KEVIN BREEN MENSJOURNAL.COM GROUP DIGITAL DIRECTOR DECLAN O’KELLY DEPUTY EDITOR JOHN LONSDALE SENIOR EDITORS MATT JUSSIM BRITTANY SMITH MANUFACTURING AND PRODUCTION PRODUCTION MANAGER TISHA PAUL DISTRIBUTION COORDINATOR MARC MELCHER CREATIVE SERVICES CREATIVE SERVICES DIRECTOR BILL JOBSON PROMOTIONAL ART DIRECTOR JOHN KITSES CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER JAY GALLAGHER INTEGRATED MARKETING DIRECTOR JOYCE PARENTE ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR–INTEGRATED MARKETING ASHLEY BRINKLEY SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Aliza Diliberti JEFFFF KIMMEL ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE JAY FITZGERALD MARKETING COORDINATOR ELIZABETH RUBIN BUSINESS MANAGER IVELISE ESTREMERA SOUTHEAST GARY D. DENNIS NAVIGATE MEDIA, 1875…

field notes

Feedback “The Carbon Cowboy” (July/August 2019), about the benefits of consuming grass-fed bison, was phenomenal. It was the first article I read in the issue, and I immediately ordered some bison meat from Wild Idea Buffalo Company once I finished it. TRAVIS GROAT PETOSKEY, MI FLOOD OF EMOTIONS “Death on the Home Front,” about a tragedy at Fort Hood, brought back memories of my time there in the 1970s. I had a similar incident to the one in the story. I was driving a personnel carrier, and my commander told me to drive through a flooded crossing. I refused and told him I’d get out and walk. We ended up driving to a bridge. I got lucky; it was tough to read about soldiers who didn’t. TOM TYLER BUFFALO, NY CANNED RESPONSE “The Perfect Summer” is right:…

jaw dropper

BRICE WEAVER WAS determined to get close to a great white. The San Diego–based nature and wildlife photographer had become entranced by the ferocious predators as a child when he saw an exhibit at the Smithsonian on the megalodon—a distant cousin of the modern great white that grew up to 50 feet long and went extinct some 2.6 million years ago. Great whites are, of course, nothing to sneeze at, either: The largest predatory fish on Earth, they can grow 20 feet long, weigh more than 5,000 pounds, and reach speeds up to 35 miles per hour as they pursue prey. Decades after Weaver’s Smithsonian visit, he got his chance to see the sharks in action. It was a July day in the pristine waters around Mexico’s Guadalupe Island, 150…

new, weird california

JEFF LAXIER’S RULES are unbreakable and a little bit nerve-racking. Before I can take his three-hour lesson in ocean whitewater kayaking, I must don a full-body wetsuit (with booties), a life jacket, and a helmet. What have I gotten myself into? But it all makes sense after we paddle out into the middle of Fort Bragg’s Noyo Harbor and start contemplating the formidable sandstone “sea stacks” that punctuate California’s North Coast shoreline. These are nasty rocks, encrusted with barnacles and seemingly lethal to any fool bold enough to try to swim around them. Laxier, the co-proprietor of Liquid Fusion Kayaking, is about to teach me the art of what he calls rock gardening—that is, riding the whitewater that swirls around these sea stacks in a festival of adrenaline and spray. If…

this is no vacation

MATT PRIOR MAY know where we are going, but he’s doing his best to keep the rest of us from having any idea. Somewhere in eastern Bhutan, we ease our Royal Enfield Classic 500 motorcycles to the side of a gravel mountain road and begin layering to stave off the chill of nightfall. We’re six hours into a five-hour motorcycle tour—“We should be in before dark,” Prior said before setting out—and now he estimates there are another 26 kilometers to our stopping point at Trashigang. That shouldn’t take more than an hour, so, bundled up against the cold, we fire up our engines and snake up the rugged road. An hour later, still picking our way through the night, a sign flashes in our headlights: “Trashigang, 26km.” The element of…