On The Trail Of The Golden Bear

An exciting adventure as the author travels to Southeast Asia in search of the golden moon bear. She chronicles the detective work and science behind tracking a new species in a different part of the world.

Augusta National is golf’s Holy Grail. Navigating the azaleas to play the exclusive course that hosts The Masters is a pipe dream for every golfer. Imagine being afforded the opportunity not only to play the course, but to be able to bring your father along for the ride. To complete the priceless fantasy, Jack Nicklaus—“The Golden Bear”—hosts the round. Through fate, coincidence and good fortune, Joe Wessel managed to find a way to make that happen. In White Fang and The Golden Bear, Wessel recounts that special round, how it came about, and what happened on the pristine grounds of Augusta National. With the help of veteran sportswriter Bill Chastain, Wessel's memoir offers the touching story of how the game of golf helped in the development of a special father-son bond and how that relationship grew first throughout Wessel’s childhood, then during his tenure as a football player-turned-coach, and finally once he was a dad himself. This book offers the perfect father-son story for any sports aficionado!

This book is a collection of the very best non-technical hikes and scrambles on Colorado's 13,000-foot mountains. It will showcase 50 select routes on the most exciting, beautiful, and adventurous of the 637 officially recognized thirteeners. A balance of difficulty will roughly be divided into thirds: easier (about 25% of the routes), modest (50%), and difficult (25%). While the guide will cover the entire state of Colorado, there will be a slight bias toward summits within a two-hour drive of the Denver/Boulder metro area. Each of the 50 chapters includes full-color photography and maps. None of the routes are harder than class 3, making this guide suitable to hikers of all skill levels, with no need to use technical mountaineering gear. Detailed write-ups include accurate driving directions, at-a-glance stats for the peak, a turn-by-turn description of the primary route, optional route info, and when relevant, interesting history or stories about the featured peak. Fees, permits, and an index with info such as thirteener lists, helpful USFS contacts, hiking groups, and online resources are also provided.

"Blevins's 'Dancing with the Golden Bear' is the glory years of the untamed West. Fresh and rich." ~ Kirkus Reviews. In the third book of The Rendezvous Series, DANCING WITH THE GOLDEN BEAR, Sam learns the poignant meaning of the words of his mentor, Hannibal McKye: "Life is like a golden bear. It's magnificent, it's beautiful, and it bites." When the enigmatic Jedediah Smith, greatest of the mountain men, puts together a brigade of trappers for an expedition into the unknown territory of Mexican California, Sam Morgan joyfully joins up. With his Crow Indian wife Meadowlark and his coyote pup at his side, Sam sees the expedition as a chance for adventure-and wealth. Captain Smith leads the group south in search of the Buenaventura, a great river believed to connect the Great Salt Lake to California, but when the river proves to be a myth, the trek toward the Pacific becomes a nightmare. Struggling through the Mojave Desert, a land of sand and scrub in which game is practically nonexistent and water a rarity, their lives are saved several times by strange bands of naked Indians who share food with the starving trappers. Like ghosts they struggle into the San Gabriel Mission in southern California and there recuperate, but the Mexican government eyes them with suspicion and Sam and his companions are forced to flee back into the Mojave. And then, Meadowlark falls ill. With extraordinary courage, energy, and the force of rivers, the old adventure ends. Where will the next one lead? "Blevins is capable of expressing the most romantic, the warmest, also the cruelest emotions imaginable, and maintaining the perspective of his protagonist." - G. Whitesides "No one writes about the westering experience better than Win Blevins. He has a poet's way with words and imagery to match the wilderness reality. Blevins has re-created that long-ago world where the improbable was commonplace, and where courage and audacity made anything possible." - Lucia St. Clair Robson, author of Ghost Warrior.

The story of one man's rediscovery of himself and the building of interpersonal connections with friends and family while hiking in the Sierra Nevada during the summer of 1994.