Latest News in January 2009: I'm honored to have been nominated a one of the seven finalists to the California Outdoors Hall of Fame, which "features nominees who are world-renowned for their skills and who have helped inspire thousands of others to take part in the great outdoors." Some think that they nominated me because I've evangelized about the glories of backpacking 10,000 miles, but I know the real reason: they're impressed that I backpacked for 45 days without a shower.

One of the cool, new features in this site is that you can enlarge many of the photos by just putting your mouse pointer over them. Try it with the photo of my book cover on the left. It will only work if you see a magnifying glass when you mouse over the photo (so it doesn't work with the photo of me on the right because you really don't want a closeup of my face).

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Happy New Year!

I went to a costume party for New Year's Eve in Parnu, Estonia. Everyone was supposed to be either a movie star or an animated character. I dressed up as a thru-hiker, using my sexy Jacks 'R Better convertible sleeping bag and its stylish green hood. The sleeping bag does double duty as a serape, but what its designers don't know is that it has a third use: a make-shift costume for a party. When asked what I was, I replied, "A green M&M."