Following the often turbulent emotional and physical passages of teenagers on a successful wilderness therapy program, the author reveals how the great outdoors can transform the lives of America's teens.
Author Gary Ferguson first answered the call to adventure at age 12, loading up his purple sting-ray bike with camping gear and riding with his older brother through the central Midwest. By age 18, bicycles had given way to boxcars and backpacks, as he made his way across North America by rail and by thumb, more often than not heading west, and heading for mountains.
At 25, Ferguson plunged full-time into the freelance writing life. Soon thereafter his work found a home in the national media--both his personal profiles of American nature, as well as a wide range of social and environmental stories from Europe, Africa and North America.
Formerly an interpretive naturalist for the U.S. Forest Service, Gary is the author of 16 books on nature, science and history. His recent work, Hawks Rest (National Geographic), became the first book in history to win nonfiction Book of The Year from both the Pacific Northwest and Mountains and Plains booksellers associations. He was the 2002 Seigel Scholar at the School of Political Science at Washington University, St. Louis; in January 2007, he had a five-month tenure as Distinguished Visiting Writer at the University of Montana. Gary's nature and science-based essays can be heard on National Public Radio affiliates throughout the country.