2006 National Outdoor Book Awards

I love the fall. The weather cools down and all but the die-hard visitors leave the park. It's time to curl up with a good book next to a warm fire. If you are looking for a good read, then check out these jems that just named as reciepents of the 2006 National Outdoor Book Awards.

The Last Season
By Eric Blehm

Randy Morgenson is an experienced backcountry ranger in Kings Canyon National Park of the California Sierras. He leaves on a routine patrol to an area, which after 28 seasons, he knows as well as anyone alive, but Morgenson never returns. An extensive air and ground search ensues. No sign of the ranger is found. Was it an accident? Was it foul play? Or was it all just a ruse? Could Morgenson still be alive? In this outstanding work of investigative journalism, author Eric Blehm pieces together a fascinating story of an individual comforted by his solitary time in the wilderness but who is increasingly troubled by life in civilization. Blehm spent eight years researching this book and it clearly shows. He sets the stage, draws you in, and slowly unravels the truth of this absorbing mystery of the Sierra mountains.

The Middle Fork of the Salmon River : A Comprehensive Guide
By Matt Leidecker

More than any, river guidebooks get used --and abused. All day, they are in and out of ammo cans, passed around, and used to keep track of mileage, to re-check routes through rapids, and to find the night's camp. They have to be tough, conveniently sized, able to withstand a soaking or two, have easy-to-read maps, and clear and concise descriptions. Matt Leidecker's Middle Fork If you have a trip planned on Idaho's Middle Fork of the Salmon, this is the guide written and built for the job.

Yellowstone Expedition Guide: The Modern Way to Tour the World's First National Park
By Charissa Reid

This is a state-of-the-art, technologically savvy guidebook for visitors of Yellowstone National Park. It's packed full of beta, including information on the area's geology, its hydrothermal features, plants, animals, and hiking trails. Topping it off are two included CD's: one is an audio tour which can be played as you visit different parts of the park, and the other contains movies and panoramic photo tours which can be played on your computer.

Caterpillars of Eastern North America: A Guide to Identification and Natural History
By David L. Wagner

It's a caterpillar lover's delight: a copiously illustrated guide to the caterpillars of nearly 700 butterflies and moths found east of the Mississippi. Many of the caterpillars included in the volume have never been photographed. The guide is nicely designed and easy to use with clear and crisp photographs of both the larva and adult stages.

Extreme Kids: How to Connect With Your Children Through Today's Extreme (and Not So Extreme) Outdoor Sports
By Scott Graham

Healthy, adventurous outdoor activities are a great way to connect with your children. And here's a book to help you make that happen. Extreme Kids has the low-down on how parents and children can safely participate together in sports like rock climbing, surfing, canoeing, mountain biking, hiking, kayaking and many others.

Being Caribou: Five Months On Foot With An Arctic Herd
By Karsten Heuer

Karsten Heuer has just married and he has an idea for the perfect honeymoon: a 5 month, 1,000 mile journey following the caribou migration from their winter range to their calving grounds in the Arctic and back again. No stranger to wilderness adventure herself, his wife and film maker, Leanne Allison readily agrees. Being Caribou is Karsten's sensitively done book of the couple's adventurous and inspiring journey. This a book full of heart and soul, capturing, like no other, the exquisite beauty and stark realities of that timeless and most celebrated of all mammal migrations.

Condor: To the Brink and Back--The Life and Times of One Giant Bird
By John Nielsen

This book is a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the efforts to save the condor, North America's largest flying land bird. Condor is a story waiting to be told, and there could have been no better person for the job than John Nielsen. Nielsen has penned a natural history book that is fun to read, mixing humor, science and human interest in just the right portions. In short, it's a brilliant telling of a compelling environmental saga.

Life in the Undergrowth
By David Attenborough

Beautifully illustrated, this book takes the reader on a tour of the cloak-and-dagger underworld of creatures without backbones, the invertebrates. The tour guide is naturalist David Attenborough, prolific author and producer of popular nature documentaries for television. In Life in the Underground, Attenborough guides us past scampering scorpions, albino termites, sex-starved slugs, blood sucking ticks, and ravenous, lizard-eating spiders. Well, you get the picture. It's a scary world down there at our feet. But it's also a wondrous world, and the ever-curious Attenborough is clearly in his element telling us about it.

Illustrated Atlas of the Himalaya
By David Zurick and Julsun Pacheco

The Himalayas: the word itself can send our thoughts soaring to dizzy heights, and now there's a reference work worthy of the range's summits. The Illustrated Atlas is the first full-color comprehensive atlas to the entire 2,700 kilometer length of the Himalaya. It's attractively designed and includes 300 specially created maps, including maps of the range's national parks and preserves. The facts are there too, of course. Along with a wealth of photographs, the book includes textual information on the natural environment, conservation, resources, exploration, and culture and society.

Carving Grand Canyon: Evidence, Theories, and Mystery
By Wayne Ranney

How and when was the Grand Canyon formed? For nearly a century and a half, scientists have debated that question, but the answer remains elusive. They do, however, agree on one thing: the canyon was carved by the Colorado River. In this stylish, full-color book by the Grand Canyon History Association, Wayne Ranney describes and summarizes the various geological theories of the canyon's origins.

100 Caterpillars: Portraits from the Tropical Forests of Costa Rica
By Jeffrey C. Miller, Daniel H. Janzen and Winifred Hallwachs

This is an exquisite book portraying the caterpillars of Costa Rica in impressively sharp and brilliant color photographs. The lay-out and design is flawless. The accompanying text is complete and satisfying. The authors clearly want to share their discoveries and wonders of their work with everyone -- not just with fellow biologists, but with all who are fascinated with the infinite variety of the natural world -- and in that effort, they have succeeded beyond measure.

Wings of Spring: Courtship, Nesting, and Fledging
Photographs by Tom Vezo. Text by Chuck Hagner

Wings of Springs represents some of the finest photography of birds ever published: a Great Egret tossing a stream of brightly lit water droplets, a Wilson's Snipe standing on one leg forlorn in June snowfall, a Western Screech-Owl dangling a lizard from its beak. One is amazed at the days and countless hours photographer Tom Vezo spent patiently waiting for these moments that he has so elegantly captured. Complementing Vezo's photography is a comfortable and inviting design, and just the right amount of text to make the book useful as a bird guide as well as work of artistry.

Kelly of Hazel Ridge
Text by Robbyn Smith van Frankenhuysen. Illustrations by Gijsbert van Frankenhuysen

Kelly is in trouble. Her fourth grade teacher has asked her to write about something that's been important in her life. But she can't think of a thing until her father tells her to take a walk around their small farm. As she walks, she sees all the wild animals that share the farm, and she remembers helping her parents dig ponds, create wetland areas, and, oh yeah, plant a gazillion little trees! This book is a pure delight with a suffused gentle innocence, heartfelt text, and warm, luminous illustrations, all of which will surely excite young minds and imaginations. Ages 4-10.

Gaia Girls: Enter The Earth
By Lee Welles

In this 320-page novel, a young girl takes on a corporation that threatens to pollute the air and water of her upstate New York home. She is helped by a fantasy creature by the name of Gaia who she learns is the embodiment of the earth and of all living things. But can she, only a fourth grader (but soon to be a fifth grader!), stop a big corporation? Find out in Lee Welles' page-turner for young girls. Ages 9 to 14.

Sleeping Island: A Journey to the Edge of the Barrens
By P.G. Downes

Sleeping Island is the story of P.G. Downes' 1939 canoe expedition through unmapped country in the remote northern corner of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. His journey takes him to the edge of the Canadian Barrens, a desolate arctic wasteland known to the Indians as the "Land of Little Sticks." What helps elevate this book over many of the chronicles of early twentieth century canoe excursions is Downes' intimate knowledge of the trappers, traders, and especially the Indians who live off the land. This is what it was like on the cusp of change, just before the advance of civilization and titanic forces that would forever transform the face of Canada's north country.

Ranger Gord picks a fight

Look out, I'm in one of those moods.

A couple of weeks ago I shared with you the story of a blogger who calls herself Pontifica, who is a selfish dog owner that chronically lets her dog run loose at the park and was recently cited by a park ranger. Pontifica shared her story of getting out of her dog off leash ticket by lying to the prosecutor about being a responsible dog owner.

I recently checked back with Pontifica and found the following post:

Perhaps the creepiest discovery was that my blog was quoted at length, and disapprovingly, by someone named Ranger Gordon, who objected to my "silver-tongued" scofflaw-itis regarding my Alleged Lawless Hound. Sheesh. No helpful link to his blog here -– sorry, Gordon.

While I expected her to disagree with my post, I was surprised that she couldn't even get my name correct. I guess I was just expecting too much from Pontifica, who I shall now refer to as Katherine. Everyone knows that it is common courtesy to flush the toilet when you are done, call people by their proper name, and to keep your dog on a leash. O.K. so I don't really know if she flushes when she is done. Someone as self absorbed as Katherine probably doesn't ever consider what her actions will do to others, so she is probably the type that lays half a roll of toilet paper on a perfectly clean seat and then just leaves the whole mess for the next unsuspecting fool to walk into the stall.

As I looked through Katherine's blog, I noticed that Kate likes to see how people may have accidentallyy come across her blog.

Here are some of the recent web searches that have led hapless victims to my parlor:

• daring cleavage
• john lennon bed peace hair peace
• berlin art hipster (my blog was #1!)
• dozens of Fields of Gold/Sting/Studio 60/lute combinations (my blog often came up #1. Go figure!)

Kate'ms seems to get especially excited when Google Blog Search lists her blog as "#1", so I thought, as a courtesy, I would help her out by listing some of the searches that lists Kathy's blog, Ponitifica's Parlor as "#1." The following searches all listed Pontifica's Parlor as the #1 result on the day I made this post. Check them out...

• Charming park ranger gave expensive citation to out-of-control scofflaws
  Hmmm...I guess Google agrees with my point of view.
  
  
• I fucking loathe so-called writers
  Did I forget to mention that Cathy is a writer or wants to be a writer for a television show.
  
  
• Yucky crack addicted mental girlfriend
  I guess her girlfriend has a few issues.
  
  
• Stupid second-rate slippery sex product
  Caveat emptor! You get what you pay for. Don't be a cheapskate when purchasing sex toys!
  
  
• Smashing the 8-year-old cheerleader's heart
  I'm not sure what that is all about, but it doesn't sound good.

By now, some of you must be thinking, "Wow, that Ranger Gord is mean." Well, it's not the first time I've been called an asshole.

UPDATE: Pontifica has removed all references to the name Gordon from her blog. Ranger Gord declares victory!

Ranger+Gord angry park+ranger fight+club Google+Blog+Search

The sounds of solitude

As a bad DSL modem left me cut off from the internet world this week, I thought about how difficult it is to cut yourself off from the modern world, even when you want to. Many of us use parks to seek solitude and escape from the artificial stress of modern society. This solitude is often interrupted by the intrusive sounds of man made machines, such as RV generators, snowmobiles, and airplanes.

Gordon Hempton's One Square Inch of Silence project seeks to protect solitude by reducing man made intrusive noises within our parks. Hempton has declared a one square inch spot within Olympic National Park as the quietest place in the United States. When the solitude at this spot is interrupted by a man made noise, such as a commercial airline flying over head, Hempton contacts the source of the noise and asks that they avoid this area. Hempton believes that protecting the solitude of this single spot will effectively protect a huge area within the park.

One Square Inch of Silence was designated on Earth Day 2005 (April 22, 2005) to protect and manage the natural soundscape in Olympic Park's backcountry wilderness. The logic is simple; if a loud noise, such as the passing of an aircraft, can impact many square miles, then a natural place, if maintained in a 100% noise-free condition, will also impact many square miles around it. It is predicted that protecting a single square inch of land from noise pollution will benefit large areas of the park.

I applaud (golf clap), Hempton's effort to protect the solitude within our parks. I can recall trips through the backcountry of Canyonlands National Park where I did not see another human for days, yet my desert solitude was frequently interrupted by the annoying sound of a 747 streaking across the sky 10,000 feet above a desert floor.

solitude parks man+made noise One+Square+Inch+of+Silence Olympic+National+Park