My writing encompasses not only where to hike in amazing open spaces and national parks, but also stories about the creation of these parks and the people who have lived in them and loved them.
These days I also spend a lot of time in a room full of books surrounded by children. A circle has closed in that sense. I started writing when I was in elementary school, so to be a school librarian feels like a homecoming.
As a writer, reader, and wanderer, my life’s work feels like a long walk in a spectacular labyrinth of story. I’ll keep you posted on the story unfolding around the next bend.
2020 NOBA Winner
2020 National Outdoor Book Award Winner
Outdoor Adventure Guidebooks
Hiking Lassen Volcanic National Park (3rd ed)
About the Author
Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, I started writing articles for local newspapers in Marin County’s Ross Valley when I was a teen. I continued to publish while earning a bachelor’s in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, where I also took journalism and creative writing courses.
In Colorado, I worked as a reporter and editor for the Canyon Courier, a biweekly newspaper covering the mountain town of Evergreen. Backcountry skiing, backpacking, mountain biking, and summiting Colorado’s Fourteeners crystalized a love of outdoor adventure that had its genesis in the hills above my hometown of Fairfax, California.
My metamorphosis into a guidebook writer took place at Chockstone Press, then the premier publisher of rock climbing guides. After twin sons Jesse and Cruz were born, I began writing guides to hikes suitable for families, which became the 12 Short Hikes series. When Chockstone moved under the wing of Falcon Publishing, I moved with it, and have since published more than 25 FalconGuides to destinations in California and Colorado. Jesse, Cruz, and their younger brother, Penn, have accompanied me on much of my research. My best-selling guidebook titles include Hiking Waterfalls Northern California, Best Easy Day Hikes Lake Tahoe, Best Rail Trails Northern California, and Best Easy Day Hikes Boulder.
In addition to FalconGuides, I’ve also published books of essays focused on national parks with Lyons Press. These include Historic Yosemite National Park, Historic Denali National Park and Preserve, Death in Mount Rainier National Park, and Search and Rescue Alaska. Taking these deep dives into history, park lore, and SAR have not only broadened my skill set as a writer, but piqued my curiosity. I’ve got a couple of projects in the works that follow this format. You can sample these essays by visiting my Stories page.
Though 2020 was a difficult year on many fronts, it had a brilliant highlight: The third edition of Hiking Lassen Volcanic National Park was named the National Outdoor Book Award winner in the Outdoor Adventure Guide category. In the wake of the 2021 Dixie Fire, I worked with the Lassen Association, a nonprofit park partner, to publish Walking with Wildfire: Exploring the Impacts of the Dixie Fire on Lassen Volcanic National Park. Lassen is my heart park and the NOBA was validation for me as a writer. Walking with Wildfire is another love letter to the park, recognizing that even as this amazing place changes, my connection only deepens and matures. That I can express my passion for place with my words in a way that reaches people, and moves them, makes me very happy. I’m proud to have done right by the park and by my craft.
Now based in California, I continue to write stories and opinion columns for local newspapers, including the Kenwood Press, the Sonoma Index-Tribune, the Sonoma Sun, and the Pulitzer-Prize winning Santa Rosa Press Democrat. I’ve worked as an editor for a number of online investing and life sciences newsletters and magazines, as well as for Globe Pequot Press. I’ve become the librarian at Altimira Middle School in Sonoma. And in my spare time (ha!) I’m pursuing a dream of also becoming a novelist.
My guidebooks are available online through Bookshop.org, Falcon.com, Amazon.com, and other online booksellers. The titles are also available at bookshops and outdoor retailers. Happy trails, and happy reading!
Stories
Shy no more: I’ve got stories to tell. Tales from the trails, from places I’ve been and places I love, about my people, about fire and resilience, about home, and about things I’ve decided to make up. I’ve broken them into categories, hoping it’ll be easier to find what you’d like to read. Thanks for indulging me and please enjoy.
On the last day of summer, I took a long walk around the former campus of the Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC). I was following up on an ongoing story about who is responsible for maintenance of the site now that the State of California, which owns the property, has stopped taking care of it. The …
My father is at the end of his good, long life. These days his veins and arteries are failing. He has always been my redwood tree, tall and strong and straight and handsome; exotic and aloof and, at times, incomprehensible. But now the sap runs slowly, sometimes in fits and starts, sometimes so slowly he …
Dear Sadie, I’ve enclosed a picture of our Glen Ellen Women’s Improvement Association so you can put faces on some of the people I mention in my letters to you. You will recognize me second from right and standing, in that horrid herringbone dress with my hair (as usual) beginning to come undone. And, of …
