Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

This week's book review comes from my "outdoor adventure and environmental studies" pile.    Title : North to the Future: An Offline Adventure Through the Changing Wilds of Alaska Au thor: Ben Weissenbach. Read by the author Publication info : Grand Central Publishing, 2025. 11 hours. Hardcover same, 320 pages. Source : Library Publisher's Blurb (via Goodreads) : At the age of twenty-one, college student Ben Weissenbach set out into the Alaskan wilderness armed with little more than inspiration from his literary heroes and a growing interest in climate change. What meets him there is a landscape both stark and awe-inspiring—a part of the world seen by few outside a small contingent of scientists with big personalities. There’s Roman Dial, the larger-than-life field scientist who leads him on a five week journey into the Alaskan backcountry. There’s Kenji Yoshikawa, the isolated researcher who leaves Ben alone for eleven days to care for his remote cabin, whe...

Wow, where did the last week go? Anyway, here I am again with more from the Gila Wilderness. The third day of our trek was a shorter hike up the Middle Fork to the point where we would be crossing over to the West Fork.  Heading out. We'd been in no doubt that we weren't alone out there, passing many piles of bear poop on the previous days. We'd spotted a bear early in the second day's hike, as well. This morning, we found fresh tracks shortly after leaving camp. My size 9.5 (40.5) boot next to the print. The same bit of sandy trail also provided some tracks of a mountain lion (spoiler alert: we never saw any of them). We carried on, being sure to announce our presence before pushing into the brush.   We seemed to be coming out of the narrow canyon, with more and larger open spaces. That just left us more exposed to the sun, and things were heating up. "Meadow" and pointy bits of eroded rock.  Not sure about the ID--my app says Black Locust. Beautiful pink blo...

Last month I went down to New Mexico and did a mellow 6-night backpack trip up the Middle Fork of the Gila River, and down the West Fork. I'm still working on the photos (I'm also working on some significant revisions to the new novel, and selling books live on weekends, so it's been hard to focus on my photography, no pun intended). The hike was exactly what I needed, a bit of mountain, a bit of desert, and a bunch of trail nights, but it wasn't as exciting photographically as some. Still, I think I got some good shots, and I'll share a dozen or so here from the first couple of days, which is as far as I've gotten with the edits.  About a hundred yards from the car, we spotted a herd? troop? pack? of javelinas. The hallmark of the Gila River trail is... river crossings. Since the trail follows the river up a canyon, it is forced to switch from side to side frequently. VERY frequently.  First crossing, and a fairly deep one--over my knees. Most were ankle to mid...