I’ve got a publication date for my Bamberger book!

I’ve got a publication date for my Bamberger book!

This page in the TAMU Press catalog mentions my upcoming book, which has been delayed due to the coronavirus.

I’ve got a new book publication date. Let’s hope it sticks.

“My Stories, All True,” my upcoming book about land conservationist J. David Bamberger, should be in my hands in four months. The official release date, according to my editors at Texas A&M University Press, is Sept. 22.

I should have been cradling my first copies by now, but, you know, coronavirus. The book is being printed in China.

Maybe I’m lucky. If the book had arrived in April as planned, I’d be stuck with a bunch of cartons of books and shuttered bookstores. I couldn’t hold a book signing or make the rounds with Bamberger, 92, to share some of his slightly tall tales.

I’m hoping that by September, bookstores will reopen, and it’ll be safe for Bamberger and me to hold a few book readings. We’ll see.

Bamberger grew up poor, became a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman, went on to make a fortune as one of the founders of Church’s Fried Chicken, then tackled his life’s work – land conservation. He bought what he perceived to be the most worn-out, used-up piece of land in Blanco County and set to work removing invasive species and nurturing the land.

Today Selah, his more than 5,000-acre ranch south of Johnson City, serves as a lab for people who want to learn how to revive their own land. He holds seminars and gives tours, and students and scientists conduct research out of a new education center there.

I started working on the book about three years ago, when Bamberger would invite me to the ranch and recount stories from his life.

It’s been a long haul. I can’t wait to hold it in my hands.

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Forget Montana – Texas serves up some great fly fishing opportunities

Forget Montana – Texas serves up some great fly fishing opportunities

John Henry Boatright shows off a catch from a Central Texas river. Aaron Reed photo

If you’ve always thought of fly fishing as a hobby for wealthy people who waded around in Montana streams with a bunch of expensive gear, Aaron Reed begs to differ.

Just about anybody can learn to fly fish without spending a ton of money, he says, and they can do it in rivers and streams all around Central Texas.

Aaron, a fly fishing expert and native Texan who lives in Georgetown, drove more than 2,500 miles and waded and paddled more than 150 miles of waterways to research his new book, “Fly Fishing Austin & Central Texas” (Imbrifex, $24.95). The guidebook, packed with photos, maps and tips, includes directions to more than 100 legal access points and more than four dozen wade and paddle routes within an hour’s drive of Austin. It also includes gear recommendations, tips on how to get started, information about the history and wildlife of the highlighted destinations, and suggestions on where to grab a bite and a beer when you’re done casting.

“I wanted to do what I could to demystify fly fishing,” Reed says. “There’s still a widespread perception it’s an elitist sport that’s expensive and hard to do. We certainly at one time deserved that reputation, but hopefully not so much now.”

Fresh bass! Aaron Reed Photo

These days, he says, anyone can get started for under $200, with gear that will last a long time.

As for that misconception that fly fishing is concentrated in places like Montana? Not so. Texas has a thriving fly fishing community, with five clubs between Waco and New Braunfels alone – as many as the entire state of Colorado. Austin is home to three fly shops, and three more are situated along the nearby Guadalupe River.

“There’s this incredible, vibrant community here that not a whole lot of people outside the state know about,” he says. “The idea is to serve that growing community and the incredible number of visitors who come in for Austin City Limits or South by Southwest music festivals, and pack a fly rod and go down to river and fish an hour.”

He says a recognition across the country that fly fishing isn’t just for trout and interest in warm water fisheries has put Central Texas at the forefront of the movement. People here are fishing for largemouth bass, Guadalupe bass, Rio Grande cichlids and even carp with fly rods.

“Austin for quite a long time has been on the radar worldwide as great place to catch wild common carp,” Reed says. “Carp is a huge sport fish in Europe … Fly fishing for them is catching fire, and we now have a series of carp fly fishing tourneys around the state, including one in San Marcos.”

Aaron Reed will sign copies of his new book at several locations in Central Texas this spring. Erich Schlegel photo

Want a signed copy of Reed’s book?

They’ll be available at the San Gabriel Fly Fishers meeting at 7 p.m. April 21 at the Boy Scout Hut in San Gabriel Park in Georgetown. He’ll also be signing from 1-6 p.m. May 2 at the Flies and Flame Expo at Star Hill Ranch, 15000 Hamilton Pool Road in Bee Cave; from 10 a.m. to noon May 9 at the Living Waters Fly Shop, 103 N. Brown Street in Round Rock; 3 p.m. June 6 at Lark & Owl Bookstore, 205 W. Sixth Street in Georgetown; and 5 p.m. June 20 at Book People, 603 N. Lamar Boulevard in Austin.

A party to celebrate the publication of the book is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. May 7 at Mesquite Creek Outfitters, 704 South Austin Avenue in Georgetown.

Edgar Diaz fly fishes in Onion Creek. Aaron Reed photo

 

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What do you pack for a major expedition? New book takes a look

What do you pack for a major expedition? New book takes a look

Ed Stafford’s new book describes what some of the world’s greatest explorers took with them on their journey. Pam LeBlanc photo

Ever wonder what you’d need for a trip to the South Pole, a road trip across the Sahara Desert, or a flight across the Atlantic?

Survivalist Ed Stafford, who walked the Amazon River (with a guide) and has starred in his own series on the Discovery Channel, has put together a book that answers those questions.

“Expeditions Unpacked: What the Great Explorers Took into the Unknown” details 25 expeditions through the equipment the explorers took with them.

The book hits store shelves on Sept. 17, but I’ve been flipping through an advance copy. For me, the charm comes in reading about the non-essentials the explorers chose to take with them.

Jacques Cousteau packed a red knit beanie along with a shark cave and face mask. Pam LeBlanc photo

You might have guessed that Roald Amundsen took ski boots and skis on his expedition to the South Pole from 1910 to 1912, for example, but did you know he also packed a mandolin, a piano, a gramophone and a violin?

Amelia Earhart packed Dr. Berry’s Freckle ointment along with the essential parachutes, Bendix radio direction finder and an emergency raft on her flight across the Atlantic.

Thor Heyerdahl, who spent 101 days on a balsa wood raft during his Kon-Tiki Expedition, brought shark powder (whatever that is) and a parrot on his journey, although I’m baffled by an account of Heyerdahl’s encounter with a 50-foot whale shark with 3,000 teeth that could have “turned the Kon-Tiki to driftwood.”

Whale sharks don’t have teeth, and they’re not aggressive. They’re like giant catfish, and I’ve swum with a dozen of them at once off of Isla Mujeres.

The book covers all sorts of explorations, including sailing, bicycling, camel trekking, skiing and ballooning. I love the illustrations that go with each chapter – drawings of the supplies, unpacked and spread out.

During his first ascent of Everest in 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary tucked sardines, biscuits and tinned apricots into his luggage, along with walkie talkies, an ice axe, a nylon and cotton tent, woolen socks, crampons and goggles.

Eva Dickson, the first woman to drive across the Sahara, loaded her Chevrolet Confederate with a hunting rifle, a camping bed, a spare tire, gasoline and a copy of the Bible for her 27-day journey in 1932.

Amelia Earhart brought parachutes and a life raft, along with freckle cream. Pam LeBlanc photo

Not all the explorers mentioned made it out alive. Perhaps Lieutenant Colonel Percy Fawcett, who disappeared after heading into the Amazon basin to find the forgotten city, was missing a few key pieces when he packed flares, a mosquito net, accordion, sextant, fedora and a tweed jacket.

Stafford allots 10 pages to his own 860-day trek along the Amazon River from 2008 to 2010. Explorers have been hauling some of the same gear he took – a hammock, a sewing awl and a machete, for example – for centuries. But he enjoyed the luxury of modern technology his predecessors never had, like GPS, satellite communication equipment, a camcorder – and DEET to keep the mosquitos away.

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Austin Paddler West Hansen to release book about Amazon expedition at Sept. 7 event

Austin Paddler West Hansen to release book about Amazon expedition at Sept. 7 event

Amazon Express expedition leader West Hansencarries his kayak through a boulder field while negotiating the Rio Mantaro below Tablachaca Dam. Photo by Erich Schlegel

Seven years ago, Austin paddler West Hansen led an expedition down the Amazon River, navigating whitewater, encountering narco traffickers, getting held up multiple times and dodging boulders that rained from canyon walls as he followed the river from its source in the Peruvian Andes to the ocean.

West Hansen takes a break from writing in his journal during his 2012 paddling expedition on the Amazon River. Erich Schlegel photo

On Sept. 7, he’ll unveil his first book, which chronicles those adventures, at a signing at Zilker Clubhouse in Austin.

I’ve already gobbled up “Source to Sea, The Farthest Journey Down the World’s Longest River,” reading an early version via my iPhone during a surf trip to Costa Rica last year. (That says something. Who reads an entire 400-page book on a teeny screen unless it’s a pretty gripping account?)

The book takes readers on a twisting, 4,200-mile adventure from the high mountains to the jungle. Hansen, who moonlights as a social worker when he’s not paddling to all corners of the planet, manages to weave in regional history, drama with team members and a feud with National Geographic.

The book includes more than 90 color photos, graphics and maps, plus descriptions of encounters with wildlife and locals (friendly and non-friendly), visits to towns along the way and a peek at the life of a modern-day explorer out to claim a rare “first” in a world where people spend most of their time glued to computers and smart phones.

Pre-order the book by Aug. 15 at www.westhansen.comto guarantee delivery at the signing. (No pre-orders will be mailed, so if you order one you must pick it up at the event. The book will also be sold via Amazon.com, but for a higher price.)
The event begins at 6 p.m. Sept. 7 at the Zilker Clubhouse, 200 Zilker Clubhouse Road off of Rollingwood Drive.

 

 

 

About Pam

I’m Pam LeBlanc. Follow my blog to keep up with the best in outdoor travel and adventure. Thanks for visiting my site.

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