GearJunkie Road Trip: The Long Way to Outdoor Retailer Trade Show

The Outdoor Retailer trade show gets underway in Salt Lake City this week, and members of the GearJunkie crew are converging on Salt Lake City from across the country to report on the show. A group of editors from Minneapolis has been road tripping across the country for the past five days, hitting adventure destinations and testing gear and a new car en route to OR. Here are some of the highlights from their trip.

We pushed 900+ miles on day one from the frozen tundra of Minneapolis to unseasonably warm Denver. There we met up with a Denver-based GJ editor and spent the sunny weekend hiking in Eldorado State Park and Golden Gate Canyon.

Sunday morning, we hit the road to camp in Moab, Utah. We were anticipating cold conditions, and we got more than our share — temperatures were hovering in the single digits with eight inches of snow!

We set up camp in a canyon along the Colorado River about 10 miles outside of Moab. We can’t be certain, but it’s our suspicion we were the only ones within 100 miles sleeping under the stars. After about four hours of cold and restless sleep, it wasn’t hard to see why.

Tonight we arrived in Salt Lake City. Tomorrow is skiing at Solitude Resort, and then into the abyss of the Outdoor Retailer show for the following three days. Monitor our Facebook and Twitter for updates from the show floor, and stay tuned for our to-be-unveiled “Best in Show” awards announced later this week. —Patrick Murphy

—Monitor GearJunkie’s Outdoor Retailer channel for updates and gear previews from the show.