Just like Boulder seems to support more than the typical per capita number of bike shops and running shoe stores, this year’s Olympics, which begin on Friday, July 27, in London, will see a stunning 11 competitors from Boulder — all of them cycling or running after medals.

We’ve all done it — watched a film like The Way and thought about packing up for Spain, or seen 180º South and considered a life of climbing mountains and surfing new waves. But how often do we turn that inspiration into the impetus to pack up a motorcycle and set off to write our own diaries?

It might be late in the session in an election year, but Colorado’s senators continue to push for additional wilderness designations in the state, recognizing the economic and and environmental benefits of untrammeled land. Last week, Senator Michael Bennet introduced a bill to protect more than 100,000 acres of the Hermosa Creek Watershed, an area in the San Juan National Forest north of Durango.

Circa 2006, the state of mountain biking’s gravity-fueled cutting edge was Whistler and a few ski resorts nestled between the Swiss Alps and the French Alps. But the difference between what was happening in Europe and what was happening in Canada was pretty much maple syrup vs. high fructose. The latter, “bad stuff” was Europe, because they viewed gravity as a pro thing. Build it for the pros and let the masses hit it and see if they can survive.

Professional skydiver Nick Batsch jumps for many different reasons. Whether he’s diving to break world records (which he’s done five times) or to commemorate fallen friends (who have accumulated over the years), Batsch says his motivation is always evolving.

After not being heard from in over a month, missing hiker William M. LaFever, 28, has been found. He was spotted by a helicopter flying over the Escalante River gorge, where the bearded man was discovered sitting in a shallow river in the Escalante Desert with nothing more than his pants, shoes, underwear, shirt and a lighter. LaFever had been trying to make his way from Boulder, Utah, to Page, Arizona, on foot, and had lost 50 pounds subsisting on nothing but frogs, roots and river water.

Burro racing probably won’t be coming to prime time on ESPN soon, but that doesn’t mean that the sport isn’t alive and well in Colorado.

The Wall Street Journal posted today (July 4) that its extreme-sports columnist, the 45-year-old freelance writer and climber Michael Ybarra, has died in a fall on the Sawtooth Ridge near Yosemite, according to his sister. Suzanne Ybarra posted the news upon conclusion of a helicopter search instigated when Michael was overdue from the solo endeavor. He had set out on the alpine Sawtooth Ridge Traverse early Saturday and intended to be back by Sunday evening at the latest.

If the shocks in his prosthetic arm would reload faster, Marc Dervaes could spend all his evenings doing one-armed pushups. After losing his right arm just above the elbow in combat, Dervaes had a replacement prosthetic built with a set of shocks like those on a mountain bike. He wanted to go kayaking again.

Alex Willie’s road to the 2012 Mountain Bike World Championships in Leogang-Saalfelden, Austria, just got a lot smoother. The 17-year-old cyclist, who was profiled in the May 31 issue of Boulder Weekly, has just been named to the elite United States World Cup Cycling Team as a downhill racer.