Resources

Even though Double Bopper and other caves are extraordinarily difficult to find and access, the stewards of the Grand Canyon cave systems are keeping their locations mum. For good reason, given their fragility and importance to science. A paper by Northern Arizona University professor Carol Chambers stated, “The remarkable evidence of long-term continuous use of these caves by bats illustrates the importance of protection and conservation to provide habitat for them. The caves also provide an unprecedented time machine to study bat communities from the past, understand long-term patterns of habitat use, and prepare for climate change.”

So…shhh.

This is writer Stephen Eginoire’s first story for AJ, but we’re confident it won’t be his last. stepheneginoire.com, @eginoire_photo

Should you want to recreate Timmy O’Neill and Mikey Schaefer’s Yosemite Valley climbing quest, you can find copies of the 1964 A Climber’s Guide to Yosemite Valley by Steve Roper on eBay starting around forty bucks.

O’Neill is a professional rock climber, first ascensionist, public speaker, and high-energy super good dude. timmyoneill.com, @timmyoneill

Alpinist and climbing photographer Mikey Schaefer is a longtime contributor to AJ. mikeylikesrocks.com, @mikeylikesrocks

Writer Brianna Randall’s work centers on travel and science, and her stories have appeared in National Geographic, The Washington Post, Forbes, Outside, CNN, Discover, BBC, and Science News. briannarandall.com

Although the Civilian Conservation Corps was terminated in 1942, its ethos lives on in the AmeriCorps service and volunteerism program and more than one hundred forty “corps” connected through the CorpsNetwork. These organizations typically work with people ages sixteen to thirty and veterans up to age thirty-five. In 2024, CorpsNetwork folks built nineteen thousand miles of trails and planted nearly nine hundred thousand trees. It’s estimated that every dollar spent on AmeriCorps projects returns thirty-five dollars in economic benefits. Unfortunately, the Trump administration has been dismantling AmeriCorps, and cuts in funding are also impacting the CorpsNetwork. Let your reps know how you feel about that. americorps.gov, corpsnetwork.org

If you’d like a deeper dive into the CCC, start at CCC Legacy’s book list. ccclegacy.org/history-center/references/

Frequent contributor to Adventure Journal Mark Jenkins writes primarily for National Geographic and Smithsonian and for a decade was The Hard Way columnist for Outside. markjenkins.net, markjenkinsgoingtoextremes.substack.com

This story was excerpted from Tommy Corey’s beautiful, colorful book All Humans Outside, published in spring 2025, by Mountaineers Books. When Corey launched his GoFundMe campaign for the book in 2022, he wrote, “My goal is to not just show the diversity in people who love the outdoors but show the beautifully unique ways these people connect to Mother Nature, protect outdoor spaces, find belonging, and create community for others. I want anyone to pick up this book, flip through the pages, and be able to see themselves represented outside because the outdoors are for everyone.”

Corey is an LGTBQ+ Mexican-American photographer whose creative endeavors focus on diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in the outdoors. His thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail led to a wholehearted devotion to the outdoors. He’s based in Redding, California. tommycorey.com, @twerkinthedirt

The Appalachian Mountain Club operates eight shelters in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, all reached only by foot and via the Appalachian Trail—and it’s been doing so since 1888. These huts are “huts” in name only, because with home-cooked meals, warm bunks, and sometimes multiple floors, they’re far more like the staffed refuges of the Alps than a drafty, damp wooden cabin. outdoors.org

Michael Wejchert is a climber and writer whose first book, Hidden Mountains, was published in January 2023. He lives in New Hampshire as a thirty-something curmudgeon ignoring social media and most emails. michaelwejchert.com

Was Nan Shepherd beloved? Um, yes. The Guardian newspaper called The Living Mountain “the finest book ever written on nature and landscape in Britain,” and Shepherd was honored in 2016 with her portrait on the Scottish five-pound note. The image was adapted from a photo session in which she was goofing around and wrapped a roll of film around her hair like a headband. The modernist writer and poet died in 1981 at age eighty-eight. Long available in the UK, The Living Mountain was published in the United States in March 2025.

The photos for this story were created by Rosamund Macfarlane, whose images are regular winners in British wildlife photography awards. She’s also the mother of noted British outdoor writer Robert Macfarlane, who penned the introduction to The Living Mountain.

Due to hunting and loss of habitat, in the 1940s the American greater sandhill crane population was down to about one thousand birds. Thanks to conservation efforts, today there are nearly one hundred thousand greater sandhills and four hundred thousand lesser sandhills. To see these majestic birds and their seven-foot wingspans for yourself, visit the International Crane Foundation’s Sandhill Crane Finder, sandhillfinder.savingcranes.org/near

Leath Tonino is a freelance writer and regular contributor to Adventure Journal. His last feature for us was The Unknown Mountains, in AJ34. He’s the author of two essay collections about the outdoors, most recently The West Will Swallow You. Don’t know how he does it, but he has no website or social media accounts.

Artist Matthew Cusick is represented by Holly Johnson Gallery and Pavel Zoubok Fine Art, hollyjohnsongallery.com, pavelzoubok.com. You can see more of his pieces and contact him directly at mattcusick.com.

In case you haven’t noticed, the recipes we feature in Three Square are always vegan. There are two reasons for this: One, for lots of recipes, it’s easier to add animal products than remove them. Two, eating more plants and fewer animal products is one of the best lifestyle changes you can make to fight climate change. It’s not like you’re going to waste away; bears, despite their love of salmon, eat mostly berries and other fine vegetative foods.

The recipes in this issue are excerpted and adapted from Dirty Gourmet: Plant Power, Mountaineers Books, 2023. Dirty Gourmet’s first cookbook, Dirty Gourmet, was published by Mountaineers Books in 2018. dirtygourmet.com, @dirtygourmet