“Something’s swimming up ahead,” said biologist Drew Crain, in the bow of my canoe. We quickened our paddle strokes, then stopped when we saw what it was: a timber rattler …
On the prowl for bluegill, bobcats, and wild hogs at Abrams Creek
“I’ve heard that socks and sandals are out,” I said to Terry Bunde as he dragged his kayak down a steep bank, slippery with loose shale, toward Abrams Creek. “I …
Scaling the Walls of Jericho in the Cumberland Plateau
Drew Crain snored away in his hammock a few feet away from me, but that wasn’t what was keeping me awake 3 miles and 1,000 feet below the trailhead where …
Surviving the Ocoee River’s heart-pounding whitewater
I’d put off rafting the famous Middle Ocoee for years. Just the look of it spitting rafts and kayaks down what looked like a continuous hellstorm of whitewater rage had …
Norm: A final trek with a faithful outdoors companion
Not until we lose a pet do we fully realize how intimately they connect us to nature and the wild animal part that we share with them. Norm, my dog, …