For the first time in a single volume, this book brings together more than 140 of the best walks, tracks or trails in New South Wales, which can be walked by the moderately fit individual. They are located in national parks, coastal parks, state forests, conservation reserves, historic parks and local government and public easements. Other routes follow state highways, minor roads, coastal cliffs, old gold routes, or pass bushranger haunts and back roads linking towns and historical features. Most routes do not require specialist navigation or bushcraft skills, and vary in length from a 45-minute stroll to a 4-day, 65-kilometre camping trip. Walks, Tracks and Trails of New South Wales highlights the best the state has to offer, from an outback ghost town and ancient lake beds, to Australia’s highest mountain, coastal environments and World Heritage rainforests. Easy-to-interpret maps are included to help you navigate, and the book’s size makes it convenient to bring with you on your adventures.
Wales is a country where small in beautiful, a cultural tradition rooted in the austerity and erudition of the Celtic saints, a tradition more confirmed than repudiated by the Reformation and is best appreciated by lovers of small things. The delights of Wales are understated and cumulative: small country churches rather than great city cathedrals, a labyrinth of byeays away form the few highways, details of vernacular achitecture rather than grand edifices - Edward I's thirteenth-century castles being the exception that proves the rule.
In the spirit of Three Nights in August and The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty, veteran sports writer Ryan McGee goes behind the scenes, into the stands, and onto the field to reveal an exciting yet personal look at one of the hottest sports championships in the country--the College World Series. Every summer, college baseball teams from around the nation come to Omaha, Nebraska, to play pure move-the-man-over, run-manufacturing baseball in a series that's part college bowl game, part county fair. In 2008, the ten-day, eight-team tournament was the scene of one of the greatest series in its illustrious history. And Ryan McGee puts the reader behind closed doors with the underdog champs, the Fresno State Bulldogs, as well as with their seven opponents, from the first batting practice session, to bus rides to the ballpark, to the locker room and the dugout. It's the CWS as few ever see it. But The Road to Omaha goes far beyond the 2008 season. It's an in-depth look at the managing strategies and playing style of college baseball, as well as a series of profiles that examine the people behind and around the CWS--the players, coaches, and fans who keep that feeling of good-old-days innocence alive through their reverence for the Great American Pastime. McGee also takes up residence at Rosenblatt Stadium itself, reliving its rich history and tapping into the electricity around it, from the tailgating fans to the surrounding neighborhoods. "The Blatt" is America's last real connection to the baseball belief that Field of Dreams can actually happen: a wooden-framed ballpark with cramped concourses where teams share locker rooms, change clothes in the parking lot, and sign autographs for kids until their fingers cramp. "The Blatt" is a monument to tradition--and the last of its kind to keep that tradition alive. Thanks to Ryan McGee's quick eye for play-by-play action, as well as his deep love for sports, The Road to Omaha is a rare glimpse into the kind of baseball our grandfather's knew--a snapshot of the one of the last remaining vestiges of pure Americana: a hometown, baseball, and the people who shape it and are shaped by it in turn.
Pat Burns was one of the great NHL coaches. He worked with the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins and New Jersey Devils, and seemed always to enjoy instant success. He capped his extraordinary career by coaching the New Jersey Devils to a Stanley Cup victory in 2003. Cancer--his third bout--finally claimed him in 2010, aged 58. Rosie DiManno, who knew Burns well, has written a revealing, exhilarating and heartfelt account of his life: his childhood as a fatherless, solitary male surrounded by many women, his years as a police officer, his glorious coaching career and his long and characteristically valiant ending. Coach is both the first major biography of Burns and one that, with its revelations, personal insights and riveting prose, is--like the man himself--sure to be both controversial and hard to beat. Rosie DiManno knew, liked and admired Burns, and in the writing of this book has interviewed many, many people from every stage of his life. She is not blind to his less endearing qualities, but seeks to explain them. DiManno reveals a man of contradictions--gruff and crude, bullying and sentimental, and easily wounded. She shows, moreover, a man of hockey. The Burns who rode motorcycles, dressed like a cowboy, and sweet-talked the ladies was, says DiManno, a self-creation. His one indisputable, true talent was for coaching hockey. He was a pure coach. DiManno tells a compelling story and helps us to understand a complex man, one who gave little of himself to the public and yet whose funeral was a spectacle. How did that happen? Who was Pat Burns? Rosie DiManno, who witnessed much of the story, has the answers.
TALES OF THE EXPRESS This true story begins in 1826, at a small farm in New Hampshire. The main character is a scared, thirteen-year old girl, named Charlotte Parker. An alcoholic and abusive stepfather and stepbrother complicate her life and she runs away from home with an old horse. After running as far as the horse could take them, Charlotte disguises herself as a boy and tries to find work at a stable. She meets a kind-hearted man named Ebenezer Balch, who owns a livery stable and tavern called the Balch House. Eb takes the boy under his wing and vows to make a man of him. Reinventing herself as Charley Parkhurst, the "boy" becomes part of the family business. Charley stays on at the Balch house and learns to become a respected coachman. In 1844, when the Balchs' relocated to Providence Rhode Island, Charley, now 31 went along as well. At the "What Cheer House", in Providence, Charley meets two young men named James Birch and Frank Stevens, who are hired on as stable boys. Parkhurst trains them well as coachmen and during the California gold rush, Birch and Stevens helm a wagon train to the west. James Birch starts a stagecoach business in Sacramento and is wildly successful. Here we are introduced to a lawman named William Wallace Byrnes and see California hang its' first woman. Several future outlaws are introduced before James Birch can convince Charley Parkhurst to come to California to drive stagecoaches. Parkhurst travels to California with Birch and another coachman named Hank Monk, aboard ship, stopping in Jamaica, before taking a boat ride through the jungles, then riding mules over the mountains to Panama and a waiting ship, with cholera still lingering on her decks. When they get to California, Birch shows them the ropes and sends them down the road. While driving a stagecoach in the Mariposa mountains, Parkhurst is attacked by a sadistic killer named Tres Dedos and left for the bears to finish. A Cherokee poet, John Rolling Ridge, who was camped nearby, rescues Charley. The Mexican gang captures the two of them, but the leader, Joaquin Murrieta decides the gang doesn't need trouble with the U. S. mail and releases them. When back to work, Parkhurst drives with William Byrnes as a shotgun, they forge a tight friendship.William Byrnes joins the California Rangers to hunt down Murrieta. In the fall of 1855, Parkhurst was again in the company of his friend Hank Monk in the foothills of the Sierras, Placerville, where they befriend a young man from Norway, named John Thompson. Remembering his childhood in the Alps, Thompson builds himself a set of skis and eventually signs on to carry the winter mail across the Sierra Mountains to Carson City. In the spring, while Charley was on route to Redwood City, Parkhurst has trouble with a nasty horse and is kicked in the face and loses his eye. Monk cheers up his pal on a bear hunt, that nearly finishes Hank in the river. The following winter, Snowshoe Thompson saves the life of James Sisson, who was freezing to death in an abandon cabin in the Sierras. Charley Parkhurst and Hank Monk both drive the new Pioneer route from Placerville to Carson City. While on this route, Parkhurst is robbed at night by the bandit Sugarfoot. Horace Greeley then makes an appearance, and is treated to a wild ride and ridicule by Hank Monk. Promoting Monk to the rank of legend. April of 1860 saw trouble with the Paiute Indians, near Carson City, after some station keepers at a remote relay station kidnap two Indian women. When Snowshoe Thompson signs up to hunt Indians, Byrnes signs on to keep the Sierras' only winter mailman alive. Parkhurst decides to see the rest of the frontier, the plains. He signs on with the new "King of Stagecoaching" Ben Holladay, but doesn't find it to his liking. Charlie learns that Byrnes has been shot seriously and is in need of a trip to Ne
When the game is on the line, some coaches tense up. They scream, they yell. But Mike Brey remains calm, having instilled confidence in his players and having built a system in which they have great freedom. Fueled with a competitive streak that belies his fun and easygoing demeanor, Brey has turned Notre Dame into a national contender. When he took over Notre Dame, the school had not reached the NCAA Tournament in a decade. Under Brey the Fighting Irish have qualified for the Big Dance 12 times in 17 seasons, reaching the Elite Eight in 2015 and 2016. And in 2018 he passed the legendary Digger Phelps to become the winningest coach in program history. In this autobiography Brey, the son of educators and athletes, depicts the culture he has created at Notre Dame while profiling his amazing basketball path, having learned from coaching legends Morgan Wootten and Mike Krzyzewski. From the whirlwind turn of events during Matt Doherty's departure that led to his hiring, to recruiting battles, to changing conference affiliations, to epic NCAA Tournament games against Kentucky and Wisconsin, to defeating Tobacco Road powers en route to winning in the ACC, Brey reflects on his remarkable life and career in Keeping It Loose. That includes growing up in the Beltway, teaching at DeMatha Catholic High School, coaching under Krzyzewski, and guiding Delaware into the NCAA Tournament. Brey shares insider stories and memories of Fighting Irish stars Troy Murphy, Luke Harangody, Jerian Grant, Bonzie Colson, and many more. You'll learn why the man described as the "loosest coach in America" is also one of its finest.
THE MEN WHO MADE MARCH From its humble beginnings in 1895 to its modern-day dominance over American culture for the entire month of March, college basketball is often called madness and is well-deserving of the title. Most NCAA basketball coaches fail; however, the special few profiled in this book didn’t just succeed where others failed, they influenced the game; changed it; and altered its very course. The ten men featured in this anthology went about coaching differently, each bringing their own approach and mindset to the hardwood, and their success is unprecedented: John Wooden (UCLA) Bobby Knight (Indiana University) Adolph Rupp (University of Kentucky) Dean Smith (University of North Carolina) Phog Allen (University of Kansas) Mike Krzyzewski (Duke University) Jerry Tarkanian (UNLV) Jim Boeheim (Syracuse University) Lou Carnesecca (St. John’s University) Jim Calhoun (University of Connecticut)
"After a fourteen-year estrangement, Maria Venegas returns to Mexico from the United States to visit her father, who is living in the old hacienda where both he and she were born. While spending the following summers and holidays together, herding cattle and fixing barbed-wire fences, he begins sharing stories with her, tales of a dramatic life filled with both intense love and brutal violence--from the final conversations he had with his own father, to his extradition from the United States for murder, to his mother's pride after he shot a man for the first time at the age of twelve"--Amazon.com.
Discover 69 wilderness areas--including seven new ones--showcasing everything from mountains to canyons, rushing rivers to desert landscapesA comprehensive guide to Colorado's wild areas Totally updated and revised Includes 74 maps and 90 photosMuch has changed in the landscape of Colorado's wilderness designations since the first edition of this book appeared in 1992. At the newly designated Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, visitors peer into the depths of this narrow canyon that drops 2,000 feet to the Gunnison River below--and some choose to follow rugged backcountry routes down to the inner canyon. A trail in Spanish Peaks Wilderness, established in 2000, leads up one of these twin sentinels that rise above the edge of the high plains. Nestled at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and standing up to 750 feet high, the dunes of the newly enlarged Great Sand Dunes National Monument and Preserve are the tallest in the Western Hemisphere. Other recent additions to Colorado's protected lands include the Castle Peak Wilderness Study Area, Bull Gulch Wilderness Study Area, San Luis Hills Wilderness Study Area, and Demaree Canyon Wilderness Area. Colorado is one of the nation's primary adventure-travel destinations, and both visitors and locals will find this book the most all-inclusive reference available to the state's wildness areas. From the state's high peaks to its spectacular canyons and deserts, Exploring Colorado's Wild Areas provides detailed information on seasons, flora and fauna, geology, history and activities.
