What Science Tells Us About Adventure

Some go to therapy.  Some blog. Others drink.1 Everyone’s got a different method for dealing with the bigger queries in life.  Who am I?  Why am…

How to Catch a Bearded Fireworm (Or a Marine Biologist’s Friday Night)

It is quite difficult to catch a bearded fireworm when it is dark and you are upside-down. But really, it is the only way to catch…

The Treasure Hunters’ Treasure Hunter

(This article is excerpted from Troubled Waters: The Battle Over Shipwrecks, Treasure, and History at the Bottom of the Sea.)   Anything good down there? I asked…

Staying Found: The Search For A Sense of Direction

“Navigation,” begins Chapter three of the Wilderness Travel Course (WTC) Student Handbook, is “the art of ‘staying found’”.  When it comes to outdoor adventures, the difference…

The Secret Lives Of Christmas Trees—QUIZ!!!

What industry occupies 350,000 U.S. acres, takes place across all 50 states, employs over 100,000 people, and is probably the best smelling industry of all time?…

Where the L.A. Cougars Roam

Did you hear about the mountain lion who ate the biker?  Or the one found outside a preschool in Santa Monica salivating over tots?  How about…

It Ain’t A Cali Beach Party Unless You Got Yourself A Sea Monster

In case you don’t regularly keep up on fish news (shame on you human), giant undersea serpents are joining sunbathers on southern California’s beaches.  This month,…

A View From Three (Federal) Lands

Twas but a lone cow that stood between my tent and I.  He froze mid-road glowering at myself (or perhaps at my car) with the slow…

So You Wanna Be An Elite Global Nomad?

Perhaps it has happened to you.  You come home from a long trip, bag full of essentials—toothbrush, computer, some tactically chosen items of clothing.  You walk…

1000 Hours Under Earth and Phil Short’s Other Adventures

He has spent over 3,000 hours underwater[1] and just recently spent “1000 Hours Under Earth”.  And, as he told our mutual contact, he’d “…be happy to…