Jeremy Kroeker - Through Dust and Darkness: A Motorcycle Journey of Fear and Faith in the Middle East

First, I need to simultaneously thank and apologize to everyone who read an early draft of this book. Looking back, I dont know how you managed. So, heres me saying thanks and Im sorry to David Miller and Jeremy Duncan, who were especially helpful.

Deborah Lantz slogged through several early drafts. She provided useful comments and fresh enthusiasm for the project with each read.

Ted Bishop, author of Riding with Rilke, gave me valuable feedback that made the book stronger.

Chris Becker read it too, but he only said, Make it shorter.

Then theres Mark Richardson, author of Zen and Now. Mark gave the manuscript a basic line edit. Unfortunately, by that time in the process, I was tired. Marks advice went mostly unheeded until another editor, Dinah Forbes, said much the same thing. And so I began another rewrite, with Dinahs help. Thank you both. Your insights shaped this book, and where it fails, it only does so in spots where Ive ignored your advice again.

Several friends steered me away from selecting poor titles, such as, And Iran. Iran So Far Away. My second choice (for marketing purposes only) was Another Justin Bieber Biography. Shaking their heads at both ideas were the following people: Leighton Poidevin, Lynda Poidevin, Heath McCroy, Tom Wolfe, Mike Holton, Catherine Macdonell, Stuart Kroeker, Nevil Stow, Daryl Makk, Jordan Hasselmann, Sandra Hasselmann, Ekke Kok, Audrey Allenspach-Kok, Sands Musclow, Cindy Newton, and basically everyone who has ever heard of Horizons Unlimited (.com).

I have to thank several writers who have played either the mentor or the psychoanalyst in the past few years. In addition to those already mentioned, thanks to Matt Jackson (The Canada Chronicles), Michael J. Totten (The Road to Fatima Gate), Karsten Heuer (Being Caribou), Jerry Auld (Hooker and Brown), Stephen Legault (The Slickrock Paradox), Angie Abdou (The Canterbury Trail), and Jocey Asnong (Nuptse and Lhotse in Nepal).

Thanks to Scott Manktelow for designing maps, and to Jen Groundwater for the first round of copyediting.

Andrew Querner convinced me that the artist who suffers the longest wins.

Amanda Lindhout showed me what grace and forgiveness look like. Thanks for so many things, Amanda, but mostly Im just glad youre home.

Theres no delicate way to put this, but Nika Hubert put up with an incredible amount of BS. Thats all I have to say about that. And thank you. (Oh, and by the way, theres more BS heading in your direction.)

This may be a little broad, but I really am thankful to fans of my first book, Motorcycle Therapy. Without your support and kind words, there would not have been a second effort. And without little independent stores like Canmores Caf Books, there would not have been so many supporters. So thanks to you too.

Im grateful to Don Gorman and the team at Rocky Mountain Books, who carried this project the last mile. It was an eleventh-hour contract that rescued me from having to self-publish again. I really needed someone to believe in this story, as it was a difficult one for me to tell.

Thanks to many more friends that I just cant list travellers, motorcycle riders, journalists, miscellaneous neer-do-wells and thanks especially to my family.

My mom and dad may not appreciate or agree with some things that Ive written, but they never failed to support me, and they are steadfast in love. I thought I was the luckiest kid in the world when they gave me my first dirt-bike, but I missed the point I was lucky because they were my parents.

Running Toward Stillness

Stephen Legault

In 2006 Stephen Legault experienced a period of tremendous upheaval, the result of bad decisions and a lifetime of anger and fear that left him in a deep depression, struggling to come to terms with the choices he had made. While running on a sun-dappled trail he realized that, like so many other people, he felt alone and afraid and was suffering, and that he had to do something about it. Having been toying with meditation for years and studying the teaching of the Buddha since he was a teenager, Stephen decided to address his disquiet by dedicating himself more fully to both meditation and running. By combining these two practices, he was able to more effectively address the problems in his life and bring a renewed sense of meaning, joy and creativity to the acts of spiritual contemplation and physical activity.

Illustrated throughout with the author's photographs highlighting the tranquil beauty of India, the American Southwest, Canada's West Coast and the wild landscapes of the Rocky Mountains, Running Toward Stillness is an invitation to run through the woods, along the seashore and on mountain trails in order to experience moments of sublime delight, personal insight and the healing power of the natural world.

The Carbon Cycle
Crossing the Great Divide

Kate Rawles

In 2006 outdoor philosopher Kate Rawles cycled 4553 miles from Texas to Alaska, following the spine of the Rocky Mountains as closely as possible. Cycling across unforgiving but starkly beautiful landscapes in both the United States and Canada deserts, high mountain passes, glaciers and eventually down to the sea she encountered bears, wolves, moose, cliff-swallows, aspens and a single, astonishing lynx. Along the way, she talked to North Americans about climate change from truck drivers to politicians to find out what they knew about it, whether they cared, and if they did, what they thought they could do. Kate tells the story of a trip in which she has to deal with the rigours of cycling for ten hours a day in temperatures often in excess of 100 F, fighting punctures, endless repairs and inescapable, grinding fatigue .... But in recounting the physical struggle of such a journey, she also does constant battle with her own ideas and assumptions, helping us to cross the great divide between where we are on climate change and where we need to be. Can we tackle climate change while still keeping our modern Western lifestyles intact? Should we put biofuel in our camper vans and RVs? Or do we need much deeper shifts in lifestyles, values and worldviews?

Gaiety of Spirit
The Sherpas of Everest

Frances Klatzel

Since the birth of modern mountaineering, the term Sherpa has been used to refer to Himalayan men working as guides on expeditions in and around the area of Mount Everest. Known mostly for their remarkable mountaineering skills and expertise, Sherpas are much more than mere high-altitude porters.

The Sherpas are an extraordinary ethnic people who settled the remote valleys in the Himalayas about 500 years ago and whose culture is steeped in the rich philosophical traditions of Himalayan Buddhism. As distinguished British Himalayan mountaineer Eric Shipton wrote:

... the temperament and character of the Sherpas... have won them a large place in the hearts of the Western travellers. Their most enduring characteristic is their extraordinary gaiety of spirit.