I have a prominent writer friend who has acquired at least two literary agents over the last six or seven years but so far has managed to avoid even starting a book. When I asked him why, he said something like this: "Why? You probably won't make any money. If you do, when you figure out your hourly wage, you'll be making cents an hour. No one will read it. It's agony. The only reason to ever write a book is because you want to. Your desire must overwhelm logic. Publishers know this, and that's how they get you."
They got me. My first book, Backpacker's The National Parks Coast To Coast: 100 Hikes, drops on April 1st. While my friend isn't entirely wrong (ask me why over a beer), I'm still immensely proud and honored that Backpacker and Falcon Guides allowed me to commemorate the centennial of our national parks system by writing this book. It's a collection of the "best" trips in the park system — so really, an assemblage of incredible trips you should absolutely do and then quibble with me over. And no, I haven't done them all: I've hiked a lot, but to complete this book, I relied on the ocean of backcountry beta that resides in the minds of Backpacker contributors. This book would've been impossible without their astounding skills.
I dedicate my sappy intro to precisely why the parks mean so much to me. To honor that, I'm going to try and spend as much time in our national parks as I can this year. I'll disappear into a desert, hide on top of a mountain, get lost in a forest. I know millions of people will do the same, for the first time or for the thousandth. Get ready, national parks: It's going to be a hell of a birthday party.