Boy and Bear both love to explore the outdoors. There are so many neat things to see, and so many strange things to find. These explorers are prepared for anything . . . except each other! When Bear and Boy meet in the woods, they're scared at first. Really scared. But soon these kings of the wild realize that no mountain is too big to conquer if you have a friend to climb it by your side. Praise for Explorers of the Wild "[An] exquisite book . . . [with] ravishing art." -- USA Today Praise for To the Sea "A whale's tale that dives deep and surfaces with useful lessons about making, keeping, and helping friends." -- Kirkus Reviews "An unusual and appealing story about friendship." -- School Library Journal
For the past decade, Men’s Journal has set the standard for travel and adventure writing by publishing the work of America’s finest authors and literary journalists. Wild Stories collects thirty-two of the best pieces to appear in the magazine, written by its most esteemed contributors, including Jim Harrison, Sebastian Junger, P. J. O’Rourke, Rick Bass, Thomas McGuane, George Plimpton, Hampton Sides, Doug Stanton, Tim Cahill, and Mark Bowden. Each of the four chapters in Wild Stories showcases Men’s Journal’s diversity and taut storytelling power. “The Adventures” is a series of razor-sharp travel narratives, from a road trip across India on the perilous Grand Trunk Road to a search for grizzlies in Romania. “The Sporting Life” is a look into obscure corners of the sports world, where golf’s bush-league wannabes try to make it to the PGA and a group of cyclists out-suffer one another in pursuit of the mythic Hour Record. “Men’s Lives” includes profiles of singular adventurers such as Yvon Chouinard and Ned Gillette, and captures the rewards of such quintessentially male traditions as building a cabin on your own plot of land. And “The Reporting” collects definitive accounts of the most newsworthy disasters, as well as riveting dispatches from war zones in Somalia, Sudan, and Colombia, and from environmental hot spots in Alaska and Montana. Commemorating Men’s Journal’s tenth anniversary, Wild Stories is a diverse and entertaining anthology that explores the magazine’s basic creed: Life is an adventure. From the first page to the last, these are stories you’ll never forget.
At the beginning of his memoir Life Lived Wild, Adventures at the Edge of the Map, Rick Ridgeway tells us that if you add up all his many expeditions, he’s spent over five years of his life sleeping in tents: “And most of that in small tents pitched in the world’s most remote regions.” It’s not a boast so much as an explanation. Whether at elevation or raising a family back at sea level, those years taught him, he writes, “to distinguish matters of consequence from matters of inconsequence.” He leaves it to his readers, though, to do the final sort of which is which."--Amazon.
### Surviving in the Yucatan Your Ultimate Wilderness Guide Are you ready for the adventure of a lifetime? *Surviving in the Yucatan* is the comprehensive guide that transforms your dream of exploring the Yucatan Peninsula into a reality. Whether you're a seasoned explorer or a curious newcomer, this guide equips you with the essential knowledge and skills to navigate the Yucatan's breathtaking landscapes and challenging environments. #### Discover the Mysteries of the Yucatan Dive deep into the pristine wilderness of the Yucatan Peninsula with a meticulous exploration of its unique geography, diverse ecosystems, and complex climate. Understand the intricacies of this enchanting region, from lush rainforests and ancient cenotes to exotic wildlife. #### Prepare Like a Pro Preparation is crucial for any successful expedition. Learn about the essential gear, health and safety precautions, travel logistics, and necessary permits. This guide ensures youâre fully prepared to tackle any challenge the Yucatan throws your way. #### Master the Terrain Navigate through dense jungles and rocky terrains with confidence. This guide covers reading topographic maps, using GPS, and recognizing natural landmarks. Hone your orienteering skills to ensure you never lose your way. #### Secure Water and Food Learn to identify freshwater sources, purify water, forage for edible plants, hunt small game, and fish in rivers and coastal areas. Your survival hinges on mastering these crucial techniques. #### Build a Shelter and Craft Fire Find and select a safe campsite, construct various types of shelters, and learn fire-starting techniques. The skills covered in this guide are essential for creating a safe and comfortable base in the wild. #### Engage with Wildlife From identifying common species to avoiding dangerous animals, this book teaches you how to safely coexist with wildlife. Learn best practices for observation and interaction. #### Comprehensive Wilderness Skills From first aid to weathering natural hazards like storms and earthquakes, this guide ensures you're prepared for any situation. Learn advanced survival techniques, sustainable practices, and modern technology solutions for remote adventures. #### Embrace Local Cultures Gain insights into the rich cultures and traditions of local communities. Learn basic Spanish phrases and build respectful relationships with indigenous peoples. #### Document and Reflect Enhance your journey by documenting your adventure through journaling. Reflect on personal growth, lessons learned, and plan your next expedition with newfound wisdom and confidence. *Surviving in the Yucatan* isn't just a survival guideâit's your gateway to an unforgettable journey. Equip yourself with this indispensable resource and embark on an adventure filled with discovery, wonder, and resilience.
North of Jasper, in the Canadian Rockies, is a large, roadless and spectacular wilderness of alpine flower meadows, glaciated peaks, canyons, waterfalls and abundant wildlife. Compared to the millions each year who visit Banff and Jasper national parks immediately to the south, this northern area sees few visitors. Fewer still have ever attempted to travel through this wilderness in one continuous trip. The first to do so was Samuel Prescott Fay in 1914. To this day, his exact route has never been duplicated. Fay and his party set out from Jasper on June 26, 1914, with five saddle horses and 16 pack horses. After a treacherous, slogging journey of 1,200 kilometres through wild, uncharted country they reached their destination on October 15, 1914, with the outfit completely intact. During his expedition, Fay kept a detailed journal (currently held at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC), which he provided to the US Biological Survey (now known as the US Fish & Wildlife Service) and to various Canadian government authorities. He also published several magazine articles about his discoveries. However, the journal in its entirety, with all his day-to-day observations, struggles and concerns, has never been published. Similarly, his maps, photographs and wildlife records have been preserved in various Canadian and US archives but never exhibited to a wider audience. Brought together for the first time in book form, they provide an early and dynamic record of an area that remains little known to this day. Complete with a large selection of never-before published photos and maps, The Forgotten Explorer is destined to become a classic of North American exploration history.
The Wilderness Paddler’s Handbook offers paddlers of any stripe Alan Kesselheim’s personal, engaging writing and his unsurpassed experience. Helpful sidebars, interspersed throughout the book, provide step-by-step instructions on all critical technical considerations. Everything a new or experienced paddler can expect to encounter is included, from trip planning, choosing the right gear, and packing, to camping, cooking, modifying your boat, and dealing with conditions on every kind of water. Whether it’s how to pick the right partner, negotiate a tricky rapid, go solo, or bring the entire family, it’s all here in this entertaining, inspiring, and informative guide. Alan Kesselheim has paddled thousands of wilderness miles – alone, with his wife, Marypat, and with his young children strapped into the canoe like babies in car seats. He’s paddled fast-moving rivers, windswept lakes, and quiet ponds. (One trip took him on a 13-month, 2000-mile journey from Grande Cache, Alberta, to Baker Lake in the Northwest Territories.) He’s also one of North America’s preeminent canoeing writers, and his hard-won opinions are highly respected.
If, as many argue, movies and television have become Western culture's premier storytelling media, so too have they become, for most members of society, the primary source of encounters with the natural world—particularly wild animals. The television fare offered nightly by national and cable networks such as PBS and the Discovery Channel provides millions of viewers with their only experience of the wilderness and its inhabitants. The very films that so many viewers take as accurate portrayals of wildlife, however, have evolved primarily as a form of entertainment, following the established codes and conventions of narrative exposition. The result has been not the representation of nature, but its wholesale reconstruction and reconfiguration according to film and television conventions, audience expectations, and the demands of competition in the media marketplace. Wildlife Films traces the genealogy of the nature film, from its origins as the "animal locomotion" studies that mark the very beginnings of motion pictures themselves, to the founding of the Animal Planet cable channel that boasts "all animals, all the time." The narrative and thematic elements that unite wildlife films as a genre have their roots not in the documentary film tradition, but in the older traditions of oral and written animal fables as reflections of human society. Derek Bousé contends that classic wildlife films often portray animal protagonists living in families modeled on an ideal of the human nuclear family and working in communities that resemble an ideal of bucolic human society. In these stories—presented as documentaries—animals are motivated by human emotions and conduct relationships according to human customs. This imposition of culturally satisfying narrative patterns upon the lives of animals has not only led to the misrepresentation of the natural world; it has promoted the notion that our values, our moral vision, our models of society and family structure derive from nature, rather than being cultural formations.
