front cover of Best Backpacking Trips in California and Nevada
Best Backpacking Trips in California and Nevada
Mike White
University of Nevada Press, 2015
The American West is home to some of the best backpacking trips in the world, and within California and Nevada are several outstanding destination trails. Hikers from all over the country, and around the world, travel to this area every season to undertake some of these classic trips of a lifetime and enjoy the breathtaking scenery. Best Backpacking Trips in California and Nevada was written to help the accomplished hiker through the entire process of planning a multiday excursion. The book covers all aspects of the trip, from traveling to the area to successfully fulfilling the dream of backpacking in one of the most beautiful regions in the West.

The guide includes thirteen detailed trail descriptions, along with information on additional resources, governing agencies, and permits and fees. It also provides listings of the nearest airports, outdoor retailers, campgrounds, transportation, and amenities and attractions. Accompanying the specific information on each trip are captivating historical vignettes and entertaining personal essays, enhancing the reader’s understanding of the area. Whether journeying from near or far, Best Backpacking Trips of California and Nevada is the most complete resource for turning a dream trip into reality.
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front cover of Best Backpacking Trips in Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico
Best Backpacking Trips in Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico
Mike White
University of Nevada Press, 2016

This is the second book in a series of detailed guidebooks covering all the best “life-list” backpacking vacations in the spectacular backcountry of the American West. This new volume specifically covers the best such adventures in the states of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. Every conceivable aspect of trip planning is covered in the guide, including maps and descriptions of the trail, where to locate the nearest airport, other area attractions that shouldn’t be missed, and guide services that are available. A noteworthy feature of the book is the individual vignettes that give insight into the historical significance of many of the trails. Also unique are the interesting and humorous personal accounts that the authors share from their personal experiences hiking these routes. Backpackers will find a wide range of outstanding trips, from high mountain adventures to some of the world’s best lower-elevation canyon hikes. Best Backpacking Trips in Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico provides an extensive choice of terrific expeditions.

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Canyoneering the Northern San Rafael Swell
Steve Allen
University of Utah Press, 2013
The San Rafael Swell is a seemingly endless expanse of slickrock, reefs, rivers, narrow canyons, mesas, towers, and pinnacles. It is the wilderness home of coyotes, eagles, mountain lions, and bighorn sheep. Steve Allen’s Canyoneering: The San Rafael Swell has long been the standard for exploring this remarkable area. With the input of fellow guidebook author Joe Mitchell, Canyoneering the Northern San Rafael Swell replacesthe older volume with a completely rewritten and updated text containing more detail, greater accuracy, and a tighter focus on the northern half of the Swell. This is the most current and comprehensive guide to the region. Designed for wilderness enthusiasts of all ages and skill levels, this guide provides detailed information on 25 hikes, including trip length, difficulty, elevation gain, and water sources. Side trips, points of interest, and historical information are noted throughout the text. This guidebook includes for the first time a wealth of topographic maps for all routes and roads, elevation profiles, and GPS coordinates.

A second volume covering the southern portion of the San Rafael Swell is in preparation.
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Desert Survival Skills
By David Alloway
University of Texas Press, 2000

Remote desert locations, including the Chihuahuan Desert of northern Mexico, southern Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, draw adventurers of all kinds, from the highly skilled and well prepared to urban cowboys who couldn't lead themselves (much less a horse!) to water. David Alloway's goal in this book is to help all of them survive when circumstances beyond their control strand them in the desert environment. In simple, friendly language, enlivened with humor and stories from his own extensive experience, Alloway here offers a practical, comprehensive handbook for both short-term and long-term survival in the Chihuahuan and other North American deserts.

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Lunkers, Keepers, and Ones that Got Away
Fish Tales from Four Generations of Anglers
Jerry Apps
Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2025
Stories of fishing with family and friends by beloved author Jerry Apps 

From his first experiences going fishing with his pa as a boy, Jerry Apps was hooked. Eighty-some years later, Apps reflects on a lifetime of fishing and the memories and lessons hauled in along the way. As he recounts the simple pleasures of casting a line from shore on a warm summer evening or reeling in a lunker on opening day of trout season, he reminds us of the values fishing can teach people of all ages: persistence, resourcefulness, and the importance of caring for our natural world. 
 
Along with his best-loved fish tales, Apps includes fishing photos from the family album and favorite angling locales, lingo, bait, and gear. He draws on interviews with fellow fishermen and -women, his own journal entries recorded over decades, and his popular newspaper column Outdoor Notebook. And, since it’s a tradition among fishing folks to pass along tales told by others, he shares stories that have come his way from extended family and friends—some of them funny, some poignant, many embellished, and all of them keepers. Humorous pen-and-ink illustrations made by artist Sid Boyum to commemorate the annual fishing season opener add charm to this delightful volume.  

In Lunkers, Keepers, and Ones that Got Away, Apps captures the exciting, heartwarming, and nostalgia-inducing experiences that fishing brings to avid and casual anglers alike.
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New Way Of The Wilderness
The Classic Guide to Survival in the Wild
Calvin Rutstrum
University of Minnesota Press, 2000

The complete resource on backcountry camping from a legendary wilderness expert.

In this classic guide, first published in the late 1950s, Rutstrum covers the key elements of a successful camping trip: the proper way to build a raft, chop down a tree, construct a campsite, cook over a campfire, find a way through the woods, and much more. Drawing upon his vast experience in all kinds of weather, Rutstrum provides essential knowledge for every camper, in a lightweight volume perfect for the backpack.

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Outside in the Interior
An Adventure Guide for Central Alaska, Second Edition
Kyle Joly
University of Alaska Press, 2007
With its breathtaking vistas and countless acres of unmarked wilderness, Alaska has long attracted those who are looking for a bit of adventure in their vacations—from visitors who want to climb rugged peaks to those content to push a stroller down a paved trail. Filled with maps and photos, Outside in the Interior is the perfect guidebook for outdoor enthusiasts of all levels of ability. It presents detailed information about trails throughout Interior Alaska, including round-trip distance, estimated hiking duration and difficulty, elevation, seasonal variations, and tips on what wildlife and other sights hikers are likely to observe along the way. Features on trail etiquette, safety, and the environment round out the volume, making this fully up-to-date new edition of Outside in the Interior an invaluable companion to any trip to America’s largest state.
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Parkour and the City
Risk, Masculinity, and Meaning in a Postmodern Sport
Kidder, Jeffrey L.
Rutgers University Press, 2017
In the increasingly popular sport of parkour, athletes run, jump, climb, flip, and vault through city streetscapes, resembling urban gymnasts to passersby and awestruck spectators. In Parkour and the City, cultural sociologist Jeffrey L. Kidder examines the ways in which this sport involves a creative appropriation of urban spaces as well as a method of everyday risk-taking by a youth culture that valorizes individuals who successfully manage danger.
 
Parkour’s modern development has been tied closely to the growth of the internet. The sport is inevitably a YouTube phenomenon, making it exemplary of new forms of globalized communication. Parkour’s dangerous stunts resonate, too, Kidder contends, with a neoliberal ideology that is ambivalent about risk. Moreover, as a male-dominated sport, parkour, with its glorification of strength and daring, reflects contemporary Western notions of masculinity. At the same time, Kidder writes, most athletes (known as “traceurs” or “freerunners”) reject a “daredevil” label, preferring a deliberate, reasoned hedging of bets with their own safety—rather than a “pushing the edge” ethos normally associated with extreme sports.  
 
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Wilderness Route Finder
The Classic Guide to Finding Your Way in the Wild
Calvin Rutstrum
University of Minnesota Press, 2000

An indispensable resource for navigating the wild.

In the days before cell phones and global positioning systems, knowing how to find your own way in the wilderness was a vitally important skill. The Wilderness Route Finder, first published in 1967, was the popular resource for anyone venturing into the woods who wanted to find their way out again. Now this essential book is available once more in a handy paperback edition.

As more and more people seek to simplify their wilderness experiences and return to traditional camping methods, Rutstrum’s simple, straightforward, and dependable methods can be appreciated anew. Rutstrum focuses on the tried-and-true techniques that have served wilderness travelers for generations: how to use a map, a compass, a sextant, and the sun and stars. He explains why we sometimes get lost and what we should do when we are. This is a valuable traveling companion for anyone wishing to hunt, fish, explore, camp, or simply walk through unfamiliar territory.
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