Book picks similar to
Pheasant Tales by CountrysportSteve Grooms


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Uncharted: A Couple's Epic Empty-Nest Adventure Sailing from One Life to Another


Kim Brown Seely - 2019
    This is an adventure story about a voyage from one life chapter to another that involves a too-big sailboat, a narrow and unknown sea, and an appetite to witness a mythical blonde bear that inhabits a remote rainforest.Kim Brown Seely and her husband had been damn good parents for more than 20 years. That was coming to an end as their youngest son was about to move across the country. The economy was in freefall and their jobs stagnant, so they impulsively decided to buy a big broken sailboat, learn how to sail it, and head up through the Salish Sea and the Inside Passage to an expanse of untamed wilderness in search of the elusive blonde Kermode bear that only lives in a secluded Northwest forest. Theirs was a voyage of discovery into who they were as individuals and as a couple at an axial moment in their lives. Wise and lyrical, this heartfelt memoir unfolds amid the stunningly wild archipelago on the far edge of the continent.

Blisters and Bliss


David Foster - 1991
    And for over twelve years, this book has been the definitive guide to the world-famous trail. This fifth edition is completely up-to-date and expanded to include the latest on trail information, reservations, travel connections, and trekker tips. The illustrations are a delight, and the book now includes a special section for northbound and southbound hikers.

A Journey to Softness: In Search of Feel and Connection with the Horse


Mark Rashid - 2016
    “Softness,” via what many in the horse world today might refer to as “feel,” begins, Rashid says, with one simple truth: “It’s not about what we do that starts us on the path to softness, but rather, it’s what we don’t do.” Softness is having the sensitivity we need in order to feel when and if the horse tries to “give.”It is about develping the kind of awareness and feel it takes to know when we are working against our horses, rather than with them. In these forthright stories, readers get a glimpse of a life that has produced a man known for his ability to solve difficult problems with communication rather than force, as well as methods and techniques gleaned from decades of work with horses, horse people, and the “way of harmony” through the martial arts.

The Sweet Season: A Sportswriter Rediscovers Football, Family, and a Bit of Faith at Minnesota's St. John's University


Austin Murphy - 2001
    The time has come, he concludes, to fly beneath the radar of big-league sports, to while away a season with the Johnnies. So, he moves his family to the middle of Minnesota to chronicle a season at St. John's, a Division III program that has reached unparalleled success under the unorthodox guidance of John "Gags" Gagliardi.The Sweet Season is an account of what happens when a family pulls up stakes and spends months in a strange and wonderful place. It is also, not incidentally, the story of the most incredible football program in the country, run by a smiling sage who has forgotten more about the game than most of his peers will ever know.

How to Shoot Like a Navy SEAL: Combat Marksmanship Fundamentals


Chris Sajnog - 2013
    Is your aim good enough to guarantee your family’s safety? How to Shoot Like a Navy SEAL teaches gun owners and their families the same deadly effective techniques the author used to create the world’s deadliest snipers. The book is designed to give you the most powerful methods in easy-to-follow instructions. When the book temporarily went out of print, new paperback copies were selling for as much as $3495.00! Now you can save over $3,475.03 on this life-saving knowledge, with the security of knowing that it works -- for both Navy SEALs and responsible gun owners like you. A retired US Navy SEAL and bestselling author, Chris Sajnog was hand-selected to develop the entire US Navy SEAL Sniper training program. Now, you can use these world-class techniques to master your weapon and protect your family. How to Shoot Like a Navy SEAL also comes with exclusive access to 12 online instructional video lessons filmed just for this book – no other shooting book offers you this! Watch Chief Sajnog show you his proven methods, and read detailed explanations in this book packed with Navy SEAL training in just 114 easy pages packed with crucial weapons knowledge. Chief Sajnog doesn’t waste time showing you “cool moves” or “fancy footwork.” He gets down to the fundamental skills that separate US Navy SEALs from everyone else, and shows you how to use them in simple, step-by-step instructions. Here’s what you’ll learn: ● How to find the right positions for you -- not the cookie-cutter methods that only work for some people -- so you can maximize your aim with as little effort as possible. ● Simple training exercises you can do right now, at home, without having to spend 1,000’s of dollars at the shooting range. ● How to boost your accuracy by up to 95% -- using the “Navy SEAL focus” technique that you can master in just minutes. ● Chris Sajnog’s “SEAL 7”: 7 super-simple steps that will completely change the way you shoot… so you can hit your mark every time. ● The SEAL Sniper Trick that you can start using today, allowing you to instantly hit targets at twice the distance. ● Why the aiming technique you were taught is completely wrong -- and how you can fix it instantly. ● Plus… how to do all of this safely, without risking harm to your family. Protect your loved ones, your country, and yourself, with the firearms techniques developed by the mastermind behind the US Navy SEAL Sniper training program and one of the most respected firearms trainers in the world, Chris Sajnog.

Trail Blazer: My Life as an Ultra-distance Runner


Ryan Sandes - 2016
    Since bursting onto the international trail-running scene by winning the first multistage race he ever entered – the brutal Gobi March – Ryan has gone on to win various other multistage and single-day races around the globe. Written with bestselling author and journalist Steve Smith, Trail Blazer – My Life as an Ultra-distance Trail Runner recounts the life story of this intrepid sportsman, from his experiences as a rudderless party animal to becoming a world-class athlete, and includes details on his training regimes, race strategies and aspirations for future sporting endeavours.Sports enthusiasts will enjoy the adrenaline-inducing trials and tribulations of one of South Africa’s most awe-inspiring athletes, while endurance-sport participants – from beginners to aspirant pros – will benefit from his insights and advice. As Professor Tim Noakes says in the Foreword to this book: ‘However much we might think we know and understand, there are some phenomena which now, and perhaps forever, we will never fully comprehend. We call such happenings “enigmas”. Or even miracles. Ryan Sandes is one such.’

Whistler's Walk: The Appalachian Trail in 142 Days


William Monk - 2018
    Based on Monk's journal entries written daily along the way, readers are afforded the up-close and intimate privilege of witnessing his very real trials and triumphs, and each incredible, beautiful moment as he experienced it. Anyone who has hiked, or plans on hiking the Appalachian Trail, lovers of nature, and those who know what it's like to accomplish a seemingly insurmountable feat will relish the uplifting story of Monk's successful, 2,189-mile trek. With every milestone achieved throughout his life-changing, unbelievably difficult journey, Monk paints a magnificent portrait of the outdoors, and what it's like to fully immerse oneself in nature's glorious, awe-inspiring-and challenging-beauty.

Duct Tape and a Tarp: A Dubious Adventure


Kelli Jae Baeli - 2018
    Sometimes it’s a sprinkle, and sometimes it’s a deluge. This is the wetter one.Drew Keen is not a people-person. No surprise, she’s lived in the Northwoods for the last decade, living simply and working freelance photography jobs for National Geographic. Finally, the loneliness persuades her to attend her college reunion, intent on reconnecting with the one that got away.Amber Richards has gone to every class reunion, hoping to see Drew, who fell off the grid after their graduation led to an inevitable breakup. She didn't expect Drew to be there this year either.She also didn't expect to spend her reunion time with an old flame, running away from her in the Northwoods.

Wide-Eyed and Legless


Jeff Connor - 1988
    In this new edition of 'Wide-Eyed and Legless', Connor describes in detail what it takes to compete, survive and win during those 26 days of gruelling effort in the name of sport.

In Some Lost Place: The first ascent of Nanga Parbat’s Mazeno Ridge


Sandy Allan - 2015
    At ten kilometres in length, the Mazeno is the longest route to the summit of an 8,000-metre peak. Ten expeditions had tried and failed to climb this enormous ridge. Eleven days later two of the team, Sandy Allan and Rick Allen, both in their late fifties, reached the summit. They had run out of food and water and began hallucinating wildly from the effects of altitude and exhaustion. Heavy snow conditions meant they would need another three days to descend the far side of the ‘killer mountain’. ‘I began to wonder whether what we were doing was humanly possible. We had climbed the Mazeno and reached the summit, but we both knew we had wasted too much energy. In among the conflicting emotions, the exhaustion and the elation, we knew our bodies could not sustain this amount of time at altitude indefinitely, especially now we had no water. The slow trickle of attrition had turned into a flood; it was simply a matter of time before our bodies stopped functioning. Which one of us would succumb first?’ In Some Lost Place is Sandy Allan’s epic account of an incredible feat of endurance and commitment at the very limits of survival – and the first ascent of one of the last challenges in the Himalaya.

Edmund Hillary - A Biography: The extraordinary life of the beekeeper who climbed Everest


Michael Gill - 2017
    A man who against expedition orders drove his tractor to the South Pole; a man honoured around the world for his pioneering climbs yet who collapsed on more than one occasion on a mountain, and a man who gave so much to Nepal yet lost his family to its mountains.The author, Michael Gill, was a close friend of Hillary’s for nearly 50 years, accompanying him on many expeditions and becoming heavily involved in Hillary’s aid work building schools and hospitals in the Himalaya. During the writing of this book, Gill was granted access to a large archive of private papers and photos that were deposited in the Auckland museum after Hillary’s death in 2008. Building on this unpublished material, as well as his extensive personal experience, Michael Gill profiles a man whose life was shaped by both triumph and tragedy.Gill describes the uncertainties of the first 33 years of Hillary’s life, during which time he served in the New Zealand air force during the Second World War, as well as the background to the first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953, when Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers to reach the summit – a feat that brought the pair instant worldwide fame. He reveals the loving relationship Hillary had with his wife Louise, in part through their touching letters to each other. Her importance to him during their 22 years of marriage only underlines the horror of her death, along with that of their youngest daughter, Belinda, in a plane crash in 1975. Hillary eventually pulled out of his subsequent depression to continue his life’s work in the Himalaya.Affectionate, but scrupulously fair, in Edmund Hillary – A Biography Michael Gill has gone further than anyone before to reveal the humanity of this remarkable man.

How to Hike the AT: The Nitty-Gritty Details of a Long-Distance Trek


Michelle Ray - 2008
    This one tells you exactly what you need to know to prepare for and complete a long-distance hike on the A.T. From determining a budget, preparing an itinerary, and packing gear to resupplying, using bounce boxes, and staying on schedule, this book will help any hiker make certain their long-distance trek is a success.You can hear an interview with Michelle Ray on how to prepare for your thru-hike if you click here.

Lords of the Fly: Madness, Obsession, and the Hunt for the World Record Tarpon


Monte Burke - 2020
    The best fly anglers in the world—Lefty Kreh, Stu Apte, Ted Williams, Tom Evans, Billy Pate and others—all gathered together to chase the same Holy Grail: The world record for the world’s most glamorous and sought-after fly rod species, the tarpon. The anglers would meet each morning for breakfast. They would compete out on the water during the day, eat dinner together at night, socialize and party.  Some harder than others. The world record fell nearly every year. But records weren’t the only things that were broken. Hooks, lines, rods, reels, hearts and marriages didn’t survive, either. The egos involved made the atmosphere electric. The difficulty of the quest made it legitimate. The drugs and romantic entanglements that were swept in with the tide would finally make it all veer out of control. It was a confluence of people and place that had never happened before in the world of fishing and will never happen again.  It was a collision of the top anglers and the top species of fish which would lead to smashed lives for nearly all involved, man and fish alike. In Lords of the Fly, Burke, an obsessed tarpon fly angler himself, delves into this incredible moment.  He examines the growing popularity of the tarpon, an amazing fish has been around for 50 million years, can live to 80 years old and can grow to 300 pounds in weight. It is a massive, leaping, bullet train of a fish.  When hooked in shallow water, it produces “immediate unreality,” as the late poet and tarpon obsessive, Richard Brautigan, once described it. Burke also chronicles the heartbreaking destruction that exists as a result—brought on by greed, environmental degradation and the shenanigans of a notorious Miami gangster—and how all of it has shaped our contemporary fishery. Filled with larger-than-life characters and vivid prose, Lords of the Fly is not only a must read for anglers of all stripes, but also for those interested in the desperate yearning of the human condition.

Guide to Colorado Backroads & 4-Wheel-Drive Trails


Charles A. Wells - 1998
    The 1998 and 2005 versions of this book garnered rave reviews among readers and this new Guide to Colorado Backroads & 4 Wheel Trails is certain to receive plaudits for its updates and other improvements. Suggest with confidence.

The 100 Best Vacations to Enrich Your Life


Pam Grout - 2007
    One especially fast-growing area of interest is the "experience-driven" or "wellness" vacation, a proactive approach based on the idea that true recreation involves positive engagement: acquiring a new skill or volunteering to share your own expertise; exercising your intellect or extending yourself in some creative, physical, or spiritual way.In response to such aspirations, this timely book showcases a broad range of the most life-enriching getaways in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, with something for every taste and every interest. Here are programs dedicated to kayaking lessons, mountain biking, yoga instruction, and more. Perhaps you'd prefer to spend an arts and crafts holiday focused on a creative activity like cooking, painting, or woodworking. Imagine studying French in a Maine village, learning about nutrition at a historic North Carolina spa, or helping rebuild the devastated communities of the Gulf Coast. Weave a Navajo rug; make a film in New York; learn to surf in Mexico; or choose any of scores of other possibilities.Elegantly designed and packed with attractive and fun descriptions, detailed travel information, lists of unique activities, and special sidebars, this unusual resource tells you all you need to know to ensure that your next vacation won't just be time off—it will be time well spent.