He would return in September. For the next ten weeks my survival would depend on foraging, hunting and fishing on an island I would share with 1,600 brown bears. This is my story of hunger and solitude, salmon fishing and stormy seas, torrential rains and mountain sunsets, giant halibut and deer hunting, campfires and killer whales. Illustrated with nearly fifty photos and a map.

    However, this is only the beginning of her lifelong dream of hunting and fishing in the Last Frontier of Alaska.She will take you to the Brooks Range, north of the arctic circle, where she and her mate hunt for dall sheep, come face-to-face with a grizzly bear that wants to eat them, and an angry moose trying to trample her hunting partner.Return to the Brooks Range to live with Donna, her mate, and one-year-old daughter in a cabin deep in the wilderness while mining for the elusive gold. Live an authentic life in the Bush of Alaska (The Bush is a term Alaskans use to describe regions of the state not connected to civilization) where she bakes her own bread, has no electricity, no running water, and wolves try to eat her baby.Fish along side her in the famous Katmai and Resurrection Bay, or do some crazy dip-net fishing for salmon at Chitna, Alaska. Catch a few grayling, salmon, or northern pike,and float the Delta river where she almost lost her life.Fly in small airplanes over the Brooks Range to view forest fires waiting to trap them in the wilderness, or hold on tight as they cruise over the majestic Prince William Sound to land on Hinchinbrook Island, and hunt for Alaskan brown bear.Return to the new life-style in the wild and wooly north after the discovery of oil, and the not-so-civilized changes to the Last Great Frontier of Alaska. As author David VanDyke says, "The Wild Side of Alaska will pull you in and keep you laughing, crying and gasping at the amazing true story of one of the last real American frontier women. You won't want to miss this down-to-earth tale of woman versus wilderness.

    The Magic Bus is becoming a national shrine, a holy pilgrim site, a modern-day Mecca. And I was determined to see it, too." So writes author and adventurer Ken Ilgunas, who, in the summer of 2011, moved up to Alaska and, like thousands before him, embarked on pilgrimage to explore the storied bus of the Stampede Trail, the very bus in which Chris McCandless of "Into the Wild" died twenty years before. What was supposed to be little more than a "literary tour" to a bus from a book that Ilgunas had "merely enjoyed" would become a humorous, enthralling, and, at times, treacherous journey, leading him to the very heart of Alaska.

    But what if your canoeing partner brings along a satellite phone to use in case of an emergency? And, struck by the novelty of anywhere-on-earth communication, he proceeds to use the phone to check in with his law office, his wife, kids, sisters, father, and friends? Noted wilderness traveler and author Ted Kerasote deals with just such a situation as he journeys along the Horton River through the largest ice-free, roadless area left on Earth, a stunning wilderness of grizzly bears, caribou, and migrating birds. Between navigating rapids, slipping around musk ox and grizzlies, and being pinned down by Arctic storms, the two friends prod each other into a finer understanding of love, marriage, parenting, and the meaning of solitude in an increasingly wired world. Contrasting his own experiences with those of the regions earliest explorers--Sir John Franklin and Vilhjalmur Stefansson--Kerasote provides a compelling and humorous take on how travelers from any age adjust to being away from their civilizations and how getting "out there" has inevitably changed but has also remained the same--especially if you shut off the phone.

    A must-read about these magnificent but sometimes deadly creatures—thoroughly revised, expanded, and updated

    

    Lisa Frederic didn't set out to run the Iditarod. She just fell in love with the event and wanted to help. She ended up working as a volunteer for the Trail Committee at various checkpoints. Then she helped Iditarod champion Jeff King train his puppies. She had never mushed before. She was a rookie, but a rookie with heart and drive. She started out with short races and eventually raced the 1,049 miles from Anchorage to Nome in the Iditarod. Her story speaks to everyone who has ever followed a dream and found that the dream realized is even bigger than the imagined one.

    Writer and angler David DiBenedetto followed this great migration -- the fall run -- for three months in the autumn of 2001.On the Run offers vivid portrayals of the zany and obsessive characters DiBenedetto met on his travels -- including the country's most daring fisherman, an underwater videographer who chucked his corporate job in favor of filming striped bass, and the reclusive angler who claims that catching the world-record striper in 1982 sent his life into a tailspin. Along his route, DiBenedetto also delves into the natural history and biology of this great game fish, and depicts the colorful cultures of the seaside communities where the striped bass reigns supreme.

    He's like Huckleberry Finn Sort of. He's a twenty-two-year-old housepainter living at his parents' house in Southern California, across a four-lane street from a gated subdivision. Now this suburban innocent is striking out on the only type of adventure he can afford: he's getting into his station wagon and going camping in the desert. Join Mark Sundeen on his rumble-tumble journey across the Southwest, and find that the mystical home of Butch Cassidy, Chief Cochise, and Major John Wesley Powell has been transformed into something entirely strange yet unexpectedly familiar. It's a new West of low-rent trailer parks and high-dollar houseboats, of hot-springs singles scenes and homeless river guides and hapless soul-searchers, for sun-beat old-timers chewing the cud of the land and survivalist teenagers hiding out form the Man. It's a place far from the America you thought you lived in, but close enough to drive to in your car. Car Camping is a modern-day western adventure in the spirit of Mark Twain and Jack London, and you're invited to come along.

    In his memoir of a fishing trip through the Alaskan wilderness, Lou Ureneck brings to life the struggle to reclaim the trust of his teenage son, Adam, following his divorce. Told against the backdrop of the Alaskan wilds, "Backcast" is the remembrance of a fishing trip that carried a father and son from the mountains of Alaska to the Bering Sea. Along the way, nature transforms from friend into foe, and their struggles are played out against the poignant emotional battle raging between the two as they descend the river headed toward confrontation. On their journey, the two encounter nature's dangers -- bears, violent river currents and ruthless, punishing weather -- as well as the hurts that exist between them, the reasons for divorce, the absence of a father and the withheld love of a son. Dipping his hand into the river of his own life, Ureneck recounts his own fatherless childhood, the influence of his mother's boyfriend who helped him learn to fish, and the realization that he himself had done the one thing he always promised himself he would not do: He ended his marriage in divorce. Part adventure story, part reconciliation with life's unexpected turns, and part commentary on the healing power of nature, "Backcast" explores the world of a man confronted by the hard choices divorce can bring to create a moving meditation on fatherhood.

    Hatch charts, fly pattern recommendations, and important fishing strategies from Paul Weamer. This is the ideal reference for those just starting out or for those that want to have a more comprehensive view of the important insects.Understanding aquatic insect hatches is like being able to cast an entire fly line. Do you need to cast that far to catch fish? Of course not. But will being able to cast a long distance inhibit your ability to catch fish? Never. Knowing where, and how, insects live and emerge gives anglers yet another piece of the puzzle. I’ve never heard a fly fisherman exclaim, “I probably would have caught those rising fish if I just didn’t know so much about trout stream insects.”You still need to cast. You still need to present flies in such a manner that fish will accept them. But though no one has ever failed to catch a trout because they knew too much about aquatic insects, plenty of anglers have not caught as big a fish, or as many fish as they could have caught, because they failed to understand the importance of matching a hatch. This is particularly true when fishing for large, wild, selective trout—the ones we all really want to catch.In this book, I try to relieve some of the reticence about trout stream insects that makes many anglers feel inadequate and uneasy. Many excellent books provide very detailed information about specific hatches. But that’s not this book’s goal. This book is written for new anglers who want a basic understanding of aquatic insects or more seasoned fly fishers who want to take their skills to the next level; those who want to know not only if their flies will work but why they’ll work as well. I remember when I was first learning to fly fish, and I read about complicated Latin names or confusing stages of aquatic insect development. I was lost. It was as if the whole fly fishing world was born knowing about these things, and I was left out. This book’s aim is to provide basic aquatic insect knowledge that will not only help you to understand more about trout stream insects, but it will also help you catch more trout on your next fishing trip. It will help you to understand why you should tie one fly to your leader rather than another to imitate the hatches you encounter.Paul Weamer is a Fly Fisherman magazine contributing editor and the author or co-author of several fly fishing books. He is an accomplished photographer, specializing in aquatic insect macro photography, and has contributed photos to Fly Fisherman, The Catskill Regional Guide, and The Drake, as well as his own and several other writer’s books. Paul is a former licensed guide, working the Upper Delaware and Beaverkill Rivers for trout and smallmouth bass, and Cattaraugus, Elk, and Walnut Creeks for steelhead. He has owned or managed three highly regarded fly shops in New York and Pennsylvania and has been a production tier for numerous guides and shops, including the legendary Dette fly shop in Roscoe, New York. Paul is a contract fly designer for the Montana Fly Company and the inventor of the Weamer’s Truform, Comparachute, Alewife, Bucktail Body, and the Weamer Streamer series of flies.Paul is one of the founders of the Friends of the Upper Delaware River (FUDR), and is a current member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America. He was the 2009 co-winner of FUDR’s Upper Delaware “One Bug” tournament and winner of the 2011 Upper Delaware Council’s Recreation Award for his book about the river. Paul is a Simms Guide Ambassador and member of the product development staff for Simms and Orvis.

    Fish and Wildlife Service. In August 1992, she accepted an assignment that forever changed--and endangered--her life. She posed as a big-game hunter in Alaska in order to infiltrate an international ring of poachers out to kill the biggest and best of that state's wildlife.A Hunt for Justice recounts her dramatic story--a story she was not legally permitted to write about until her retirement in 2004.

    Of all his adventures, those he enjoyed on America’s Pacific Crest Trail in the Eighties are among his favourites. The PCT runs 2,600 miles from Mexico to Canada through desert, forest and mountain wildernesses. In Rattlesnakes and Bald Eagles Chris recounts not only his own six month w alk but also the longer story of the Trail, and shares his ideas on how it is developing and where it is all going with his many readers. Illustrated with Chris Townsend’s photographs from his long hike, and earlier, iconic images, Rattlesnakes and Bald Eagles will be the definitive Pacific Crest Trail account

    They chased away bears, marveled at giant eagles, stalked moose, and discovered a greater under-standing of family and nature. “A wonderful, addictive love song to the Alaskan wilderness.”—Charles Rangeley-Wilson, author of Silver Shoals and The Silt Road “A poet with an axe, a teacher on a river, forever learning and sharing.”—Kim Heacox, author of Jimmy Bluefeather and The Only Kayak “A tale of decades spent learning, enjoying and sharing a rare gift.”—Howard Weaver, writer and editor at the Anchorage Daily News, where he worked on both of the paper’s two Pulitzer Prize winning series “A soulful story of teacher turned student; a man bent on immersing himself in wilderness ways.”—Debra McKinney, author of Beyond the Bear “Belongs on the shelf of anyone contemplating finding their own version of the Alaska Dream.”—Tom Walker, author of Wild Shots: A Photographer’s Life in Alaska and We Live in the Alaskan Bush Eric Wade found the perfect place in the vast wilderness of interior Alaska to move his family. He climbed the river bank to walk on the firm forest floor. He wove through the trees, brushed aside rose bushes, and kicked the ground like checking a tire. The land spread before him with majestic white spruce and views of a sparkling clearwater river. His family would grow to love the landscape as much as he did . . . but over time, his dream changed, as did the land itself.

    Music runs through every page of this book, as do stories, rivers and wolves. At its heart, Rhythm of the Wild is a love story. It begins in 1981 and ends in 2014, yet reaches beyond the arc of time. Author and mountaineer Jonathan Waterman has called Heacox “our northern Edward Abbey.” In this book we find out why.We hitchhike with Kim through Idaho, camp on the Colorado Plateau, and fly off the sand cliffs of Hangman Creek with a little terrier named Super Max, the Wonder Dog. We meet Zed, the Aborigine; Nine Fingers, the blues guitarist; and Adolph Murie, the legendary wildlife biologist, who dared to say that wolves should be protected, not persecuted. Kim also reprises in this book his friend Richard Steele, a beloved character from The Only Kayak.Some books are larger than their actual subject—this is one. Part memoir, part exploration of Denali’s inspiring natural and human history, and part conservation polemic, Rhythm of the Wild ranges from funny to provocative. It’s a celebration of—and a plea to restore and defend—the vibrant earth and our rightful place in it.