After a 28 year career in public education, wearing many hats, such as history teacher, head football coach, athletic director, ASB advisor, social studies department chairman, etc. I retired from Yelm High School in 2001. An accident in the Olympic Mountains in 1994 eventually led to a series of back surgeries and procedures. I toughed it out until 2004 when I was evacuated off the Appalachian Trail ending our thru-hike. That put an end to my lifelong joy of backpacking in the mountains. I channeled my love of the outdoors into less vigorous but still rewarding activities, such as birding, day-hiking, geocaching, and traveling around North America with my wife in our 17-foot long Casita travel trailer. I am proud to note that I have recorded 661 ABA life birds in my "National Geographic Guide to Birds of North America," a record I have kept since 1988. Before I totally crashed and burned my wife and I managed to hike all the trails in Mt Rainier and Olympic National Parks, the Pacific Crest Trail in Washington, the John Muir Trail in California, the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Connecticut, and many backpacking trips in Alaska and the Canadian Arctic. In the summer of 2016 we trekked to Alaska's Lake Clark and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park on my quest to visit all the national parks in the fifty states. Near McCarthy in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park we had a rather nasty and scary encounter with a very unfriendly grizzly bear. A magic umbrella saved the day and our hides. My 59th and final national park, Hawaii Volcanoes, was done in Sept. 2019.

In 2006 I wrote and had published my first book,"The Missing Chapters: the Untold Story of Ezra Meeker's Old Oregon Trail Monument Expedition" (Ezra Meeker Historical Society). This was followed in 2009 by "Slick As A Mitten: Ezra Meeker's Klondike Enterprise" (Washington State University Press). In 2012 I co-authored "Our Faces Are Westward" (Oregon-California Trails Association) and in 2013 "A Yankee on Puget Sound" (Washington State University Press). My fifth book, "The Hop King: Ezra Meeker's Boom Years," also published by WSU Press came out in August 2016. My latest book, "Saving the Oregon Trail," was published by WSU Press in the Spring of 2020, I have written many articles for various historical periodicals over the years and I often lecture around the northwest about early northwest pioneers. My lecture at the Schmidt House in Tumwater, March 16, 2017 was televised on TCTTV channel 26 as was my previous lecture at that location. It can be viewed at the link below. The public photo is of me winning the weekly 2007 Martha's Vinyard, Massachusetts Fishing Derby, False Albacore Division.

Slick as a Mitten trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3EyST-P4BU

A Yankee on Puget Sound Trailer: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=667249819953014&set=vb.1213276...

Hop King Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHdgbpluk_E

Link to findagrave posting: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=mr&CRid=1960501&MRid=...

Podcast: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/pnwcast/e/ryan-reynolds-jon-stewart...

My lecture of March 16, 2017 at the Schmidt House in Tumwater was televised and placed on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omWD6CXBARk

Radio Interview May 17, 2017 http://delphiinternational.com/ondemand-archive/delphi-on-demand-ar...

June 14, 2018 talk. at the Schmidt House: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFf3fz1Bizg

Link to Sept 24, 2019 talk at Lacey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I6CLDPyxJU

Link to, Jan 9, 2020 at the Schmidt House in Tumwater https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXmz9LNQjCU

Link to Vietnam interview May 2021 http://www.voiceofvashon.org/user-content/vietnam-series-episode-3b...

Link to Interview WSHS May 2021 https://soundcloud.com/user-585115914/columbia-conversations-episod...