Elliott Mott has spent over four decades helping enthusiasts relish the great outdoors. His guidebooks are the outcome of volunteer events he organized as a way to stay active outdoors in nature. When he left active duty as a Vietnam era Marine Corps officer he desired an active lifestyle to counter-balance the hours he was indoors during the week working sedentary jobs, so he joined a local mountain club. Unfortunately, not all club leaders knew where they were going. He found this frustrating. Elliott also observed the strongest hikers were cyclists, so he began leading hikes and organizing rides. In this process he discovered if he committed himself to volunteer to lead an event – he had to show – and this reinforced his desire to stay active outdoors in nature.
Hikes were easy as trails were mostly long-established game trails worn down through years of hikers hiking, so keeping everyone on course was relatively simple. Keeping cyclists together on circuitous road rides was more challenging because riders spread out due to differences in fitness, ride motivations, equipment choices, nature calls and mechanicals – so maps were helpful management tools. This was long before the internet and on-line apps in an era when responsible ride leaders provided hand-drawn maps. Elliott did this. A university professor who frequently joined his events encouraged him to publish his bike routes given the detail his maps provided and the variety of routes his volunteer rides showcased. Cycling Possibilities was the outcome.
Later when the State of Utah developed its master plans for the state’s sovereign rivers, he engaged to present the recreational users’ perspective and his volunteer leadership expanded to include leading open-call group tours on Utah’s Jordan and Bear Rivers. Water trails are unique because not every part of a river is normally accessible or navigable, and enthusiasts need to know where to put-in and where to take-out and the connecting roads between those locations. There was no definitive guide showing enthusiasts how to do this, so Elliott researched the rivers and began organizing group events introducing enthusiasts to Utah’s sovereign rivers. He created maps illustrating water trail adventures on the navigable sections and how to get there on the road. His Jordan and Bear River water trail guidebooks were the outcome.
And thus, Elliott’s guidebooks are not deep philosophical novels, suspenseful mysteries or romance trilogies, but simple guides proposing ways to lead active lives out of doors in nature. He hopes his guidebooks introduce you to places you otherwise would not experience and your life becomes richer as a result. As an author he prefers to use color, show a lot of pictures, and use high-quality paper, unusual in this genre.