outdoors sports, sporting goodsOne of my friends lives high in the mountains north of Las Vegas and she has quite a selection of skiis, poles, and and hiking sticks. In fact, her hot tub room resembles a sporting goods store. She has all sorts of atheletic equipment stored in this room. I've noticed that people who live in the mountains tend to be more athletic than people who live in the hot valleys of the desert southwest. Maybe it's the wonderful summer weather and pleasant winters that they have that prompts them to do more with outdoors sports than people who live in the hot climates do. For six months of the year, people in the valleys put up with temperatures that are hardly conducive to participating in outdoors sports.

Sometimes I go to my nephew's little league games played in the late morning and early afternoon, and I marvel at how those kids can actually run from base to base in 100+ temperatures. Maybe it's the youthful energy they have that helps them tolerate the heat. Cycling is one of the outdoors sports that is more tolerable in the hot temperatures because the perspiration evaporates quickly when going along at a 10 to 15 miles. Once the weather cools down in the valleys, it's amazing how many people start hiking again and enjoying outdoors sports locally.