In the mid 1860s, at its peak during the gold rush, Idaho City was the biggest city in the northwest with about 200 businesses and 7,000 residents. If you’ve been to the small mountain town in the last 130 years, you’ve probably noticed it’s changed a bit.

With about 500 residents, according to the 2010 census, Idaho City is a remote stop along scenic Highway 21. But even during the blisteringly cold winter months, Idaho City is the base camp of memory for adventure seekers like myself who crave the beauty and peaceful solitude of Idaho’s mountainous wild.

It’s official. I can’t be a member of Idaho Jeep Girls for two glaring reasons: I don’t own a Jeep and I’m not a girl. Despite my attempts at haggling and offering to trade in my Subaru for the famed four-wheel drive, nothing could convince members to let me join.

Alas, I’ll have to find another group that will take me. Maybe the Shriners are recruiting…

Crossing deep snow is a pain in the you-know-what. Since our ancestors didn’t have four-wheel drives and Whole Foods with stocked shelves, they were forced to invent efficient ways to cross snow effectively to hunt and forage. In modern Russia, archaeologists have found skis that date back as far as 8,000 BCE, so the method has been around for a while.

Always looking for new ways to get sore muscles, my girlfriend and I decided to try out some skate skiing. But before we get into that fiasco, let’s start with the basics.

After donning my climbing shoes and tightening my harness, I attached myself to an auto belay carabiner, grasped a nearby outcropping, and began pulling myself up a 45-foot wall at The Commons climbing gym.

Halfway up the knobby embankment, I was out of breath, my forearms burned and my fingers ached as I searched frantically for footholds below like I was climbing a prison wall to freedom. Also, I knew there was a climber watching me from a bench below and I certainly wasn’t going to look like a wuss, so I forged on to the top.

In 1940 things weren’t exactly peachy in Europe and Southeast Asia. Hitler had invaded Poland, Norway, and by June that year, most of western Europe. Japan had invaded China and would soon bomb Pearl Harbor before spreading its tentacles over southeast Asia.

During World War I, the U.S Military mainly relied on inefficient gas-powered vehicles and horses for scouting and transporting troops and weapons. By constantly pestering the Army at their offices and cocktail parties, a persistent car company lobbyist was able to convince military brass that his company could design and build the light-weight, all-wheel-drive vehicle they had dreamed of for decades.