What We Loved This Week: Slug-Lines, Bicycle Rush Hour, and the Hidden Gems of the Southwest

Eva Holland
I loved canoeing a 40-kilometer section of the Yukon River with a group of friends last weekend. Stiff shoulders and a sunburn were a small price to pay for six hours spent floating downstream with the river and mountains almost entirely to ourselves.

Emily Badger
I loved learning about a travel culture in my own back yard I’d never heard of before: slugging. Travelers around Washington D.C. on the most common trip of all—the daily commute—have created a casual carpooling system to ferry each other through gridlock to and from work. Going to the Pentagon? If you pick up two strangers heading the same way at a designated “slug line” outside of town, everyone gets to ride in the HOV lane. No money changes hands, everyone gets to work faster, and fewer cars are on the road.

Michael Yessis
This time-lapse look at Utrecht’s bicycle rush hour:

Jim Benning
Portland. I spent last weekend there. From the light-rail system that extends to the airport, to inventive restaurants (I loved Ping, among others) and the nation’s greatest bookstore, it’s a fun city to visit. It didn’t hurt that the sun decided to pay a rare visit while I was there, too.

Terry Ward
It’s a hot day in New York, and I’ve been cooling off listening to Norwegian artist Erlend Øye (of Kings of Convenience) and daydreaming about a trip to Norway in August to go scuba diving in the fjords.

Adam Karlin
Damn you, Grand Canyon. You strut about with the Colorado River, acting all big, all bad, all Lookit-me-I’m-the-best-tourism-destination-in-Arizona-EVER. Everyone hears about you and as a result, don’t hear about the Chiricahua National Monument, or Cochise Stronghold, two wonders of the natural world. Think rocks scattered in such weird formations you’d think God had scattered his marble pouch over Southeastern Arizona. Plus: these spots mark some of the most dramatic episodes of the Indian Wars—the final holdouts of the Apaches, who evaded and fought off the Mexican and American armies for decades in these mountains. These two spots are by far some of my favorite hidden gems in the Southwest.

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