Resources

Robert Sapolsky and Lisa Share published the forest troop findings in PLoS Biology in 2004; the paper is open access. Sapolsky’s memoir of those seasons, A Primate’s Memoir, is the best entry to his work. The trip in this story was run through Nootka Wilderness Lodge, on the outer coast of Vancouver Island, and you can book one for yourself. nootkawildernesslodge.com

Kyle Thiermann is a writer, filmmaker, and longtime Patagonia surf ambassador from Santa Cruz, California. His first book, One Last Question Before You Go, came out in 2025. @kyle_tman, kylethiermann.com

Christa Funk is a surf photographer on the North Shore of Oahu. A Coast Guard Academy graduate, she was the first woman to shoot the Eddie Aikau Invitational from the water. @instaclamfunk, cfunkphoto.com

The Mancos Shale was laid down roughly ninety million years ago on the floor of the Western Interior Seaway. Where it erodes into badlands, it makes some of the strangest walking on the Colorado Plateau. It also swells when wet and turns to grease, which is why you should think thrice before entering it after rain. Mountain Press’s Roadside Geology volumes for Utah and Colorado explain what you’re seeing from the shoulder. mountain-press.com

Leath Tonino is a frequent AJ contributor and the author of two essay collections, The Animal One Thousand Miles Long and The West Will Swallow You. He remains, as ever, without socials.

Kane Engelbert is a landscape photographer in Colorado whose work centers on the mountains, badlands, and the Desert Southwest. @kanesimages, kaephotography.com

Spain’s fertility rate fell to roughly 1.10 children per woman in 2024, about half the replacement rate. The rewilding project mentioned here is coordinated by Rewilding Spain, part of the Rewilding Europe network, in the Iberian Highlands of eastern Spain. José M. Rey Benayas, the ecologist who guided the Campo de Montiel section, runs the foundation FIRE. rewilding-spain.com, fundacionfire.org

Ken Ilgunas is the author of Walden on Wheels, Trespassing Across America, and This Land Is Our Land, which argues for a Scottish-style right to roam. He lives in Scotland. @kenilgunas, kenilgunas.com

It would take approximately 4,400 American pikas to equal one winter-ready Katmai brown bear. The little muffins measure about eight and a half inches and you’re welcome to say PIE-kuh or PEE-kuh. Either is acceptable. Pikas don’t hibernate; they cure haypiles all summer to eat through winter, and because they overheat at temperatures a hiker would call pleasant, they’re a closely watched indicator of a warming alpine. The Colorado Pika Project trains volunteers to monitor colonies, and its Pika Patrol app takes sightings from anyone. pikapartners.org

Deirdre Denali Rosenberg is a conservation photographer and guide in southwestern Colorado. She began the American Pika Project in 2017; her book The American Pika: Notes from the Field benefits Rocky Mountain Wild. @deirdredenaliphotography, deirdredenaliphotography.com

Amanda Monthei is a writer and host of Life with Fire podcast. She currently splits her time between Montana, Washington, and northern Michigan, which is as chaotic as it sounds. @amanda.monthei

Nearshore, Steve Hawk’s first novel, was published by Viking in 2026. The coastline in this excerpt is real (and where Hawk lives): Tunitas Creek, Pomponio, San Gregorio, on Highway 1 south of Half Moon Bay.

Hawk edited Surfer from 1991 to 1998, one of the longest tenures in the magazine’s history, and later edited Sierra and surfline.com. He has been a senior editor of Adventure Journal since AJ01 and is co-writing a skateboarding history with his brother, Tony Hawk. @stevehawk6211, stevehawkauthor.com

Ryan “Chachi” Craig is a Santa Cruz native and documentary photographer, formerly on staff at Surfer and now photo editor of Santa Cruz Vibes. @chachfiles

Roughly a thousand grizzlies live in the Northern Continental Divide ecosystem, which includes Glacier. Attacks are rare and encounters are not; bear spray is what the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee and the Park Service recommend. Glacier posts closures and bear activity at nps.gov/glac. The National Gang Center keeps a state-by-state directory of intervention and reentry programs at nationalgangcenter.ojp.gov.

Benjamin Alva Polley is a Montana naturalist and journalist who spent more than a decade on Glacier trail crews. His work has appeared in Esquire, Audubon, Outside, Rolling Stone, Sierra, and the Guardian. benjaminpolley.com

Reverence was published on July 28, 2026, World Nature Conservation Day, and contains one hundred sixty of Paul Nicklen’s photos. hemeria.com. Proceeds from the sale of the book will benefit Tree of Life Project at Segera Conservancy, the SEA People NGO, which works to preserve Indonesia’s coral reefs, and Sungai Watch, which removes plastic from Indonesia’s waterways. zeitzfoundation.org, theseapeople.org, sungai.watch

Paul Nicklen lives on the coast of British Columbia. @paulnicklen, paulnicklen.com

Emily White has been a key contributor to Adventure Journal since the beginning. She is an acquisitions editor at Mountaineers Books. That means she finds the books they publish, works with their authors, and shepherds both to fruitful and profitable lives in the stacks.

“An Alpine Divorce,” the 1893 short story by the Scottish-Canadian writer Robert Barr, is free at gutenberg.org and takes about ten minutes to read. Seriously, though, don’t let it give you any ideas about pushing your partner off a mountain. For the modern (and fact-based) version, read William Finnegan’s June 2026 New Yorker feature on the trial that followed Kerstin Gurtner’s death on the Grossglockner. And remember—choose your adventure partners well and hash out your goals before you leave the trailhead.

Chandra Brown is a writer, river guide, and educator from Alaska’s Matanuska Valley. She founded the Freeflow Institute, guides in the Grand Canyon, and lives in Missoula, Montana. chandrabrown.net, freeflowinstitute.com

Chicken Point was completed in 2003 on Hayden Lake in northern Idaho and is the building that made Tom Kundig’s rep as an architect. The window wall is thirty by twenty feet, six tons of steel and glass pivoting on an off-center axle; a hand crank drives bicycle gears, and a flyball governor keeps the speed honest. olsonkundig.com

Dirty Gourmet has been publishing camp-food recipes since 2010. Mai-Yan Kwan, Emily Nielson, and Aimee Trudeau all live in Southern California. Their cookbooks Dirty Gourmet: Food for Your Outdoor Adventures (2018) and Plant Power (2023) are published by Mountaineers Books. dirtygourmet.com, @dirtygourmet