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“Okay, so the premise is a little off-kilter – teaming up exhausting adventure sports with craft beer. These well-written columns are fast-paced, fun and really will get you off and exploring natural areas, with a cold brew as your reward.”
James Murren is an award-winning independent writer, with numerous pieces having appeared in outdoor sports and recreation media outlets, adventure and travel magazines, newspapers, practitioners’ journals and newsletters, including:
L.A. Times, The Surfer’s Journal, Adventure Sports Journal, Mountain Flyer, Roads & Kingdoms, Backpacker Magazine, Cranked (UK), Snowshoe Magazine, Sub-Saharan Magazine, San Diego Union-Tribune, Spoke Magazine (NZ), Dirt Rag Magazine, Bike Magazine, Bicyclist Magazine, Strung Magazine, Bicycle Times, Switchback, and XXC Mag.
Currently, he is a columnist for Adventure Sports Journal (“Earn Your Beer“). Earn Your Beer is about pushing yourself in the mountains, deserts, oceans, rivers, wherever and then sitting back and enjoying a beer when relaxing at camp or home. Additionally, he is on the editorial team for Snowshoe Magazine.
I’ve a new project for 2021. Check it out here: MTBeer
Several articles and writing samples are available under Portfolio in the menu bar up top, where you can also enter the Blog for current postings.
Murren has published three books. Go Here, Go There: Travel and Workis a collection of words and photos depicting such experiences in ten countries around West Africa, Central and South America, North America, and Eurasia. The other two books are based on his work and travels in Honduras and Ethiopia. You can buy the books online via the link in the sidebar, or at the following locations: The Reader’s Cafe in Hanover, PA and Verbatim Books in the North Park neighborhood of San Diego, CA.
Member: Society of American Travel Writers and North American Travel Journalists Association
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- Earn Your Beer #132: Digital Detox - 02/15/2024
- Earn Your Beer #131: Mendocino Redwoods - 12/14/2023
- Earn Your Beer: Issue #130 - 08/28/2023
Eastern Sierra, Craft Beers, and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
The Earning
A long weekend in the Eastern Sierra, that spectacular stretch of majestic mountains along US 395, was a hodgepodge of activities that can only happen when winter is at bay, but then comes sweeping down the mountains and into the valley from the northwest. On a gloriously warm sunshiny winter afternoon, I rode Lower Rock Creek, a trail that serves up fast, swoopy flow in its first two sections, and then delivers several rounds of technical mountain biking, characterized by chunk, chunk, and more chunk. There ain’t no flow down low on Rock Creek, until you get to Paradise. I left a little skin on the trailside granite.
In Mammoth, I finally found some snow. I strapped on snowshoes and wandered off-trail up on the “other” side of the lodge area, following local beta in the form of days’ old meandering xc-ski and snowshoe tracks through the trees, affording opportunities for views of downhill skiers swooping down the mountain while I stood in solitude and silence amidst a winter wonderland. No trail signs to follow, I looked for animal tracks and listened to bird songs, gentle breezes swaying the treezes.
Finally, some gravel grinding out in the Wild Willy’s area, by way of the green church road turnoff, provided a blast of true winter. I needed to use the standing crouch with head down to move my bike and body through 30+ mph head and cross winds as a front moved in, overnight dropping eight inches of fresh powder, the first measureable snow in 40 days, according to folks at the Tamarack Ski Center. The wind was cold, fierce in its entry on a Sierra morning. Up high, the sky was moody, and the peaks soon were veiled in clouds. Winter ripped through my layers and stung my lungs. A smile worked its way onto my face, a bit of a smirked grin saying, “I’m happy to be here.”
The BEER
Mountain Rambler Brewery in Bishop served up a Rye XPA that needed a little more rye for my liking, lacking a peppery kick. Mammoth Brewing Company has its mainstays, which have never really knocked my socks off, but a seasonal Baltic Porter on draft nearly did. The 2-week freshly opened Distant Brewing in Mammoth had several IPAs and DIPAs pouring in the tasting room, all darn good and satisfying my India Pale Ale needs.
Ho hum?
For this round of Earn Your Beer, it is time to honor a true American beer classic. A craft beer icon. One I have been legally drinking for just under 25 years: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.
When I see the green label, it seems a new memory comes out of nowhere, yet somewhere, from the nooks and crannies of my brain. Years of cheers lost in the synapses come flooding back by way of sight. Then I crack open a can or a bottle and the always-balanced taste that is a “pale ale,” to me, cements those memories back into the folds of my mind and reminds me that seeking perfection is worth the endeavor to get there.
At camp, at home, at the pub, bar or restaurant, it never disappoints. If there were a Mt. Rushmore, nah scratch that, if there were a Mt. Whitney or The Minarets of USA craft beer, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale would be there, no doubt.
