Pacific High: Adventures in the Coast Ranges from Baja to Alaska

From the jacket of Tim's 2002 book

On a promising January morning, the first day of a new year, writer Tim Palmer and his wife set out in their custom-outfitted van on a nine month journey through the Pacific Coast Range, the ribbon of rugged landscape lining the sunset edge of our continent. With a route stretching from the dry mesas of the Baja Peninsula to the storm-swept Alaskan island of Kodiak, they embarked on an incomparable tour of North America's coastal mountains high above the Pacific.

In Pacific High, Palmer recounts that adventure, interweaving tales of exploration and discovery with portraits of the places they visited and the people they came to know along the way. Bringing together images of locations both exotic and familiar with profiles of intriguing people and descriptions of outdoor treks on foot, skis, mountain bike, canoe, and whitewater raft, Palmer captures the brilliant wonders of nature, the tragedy of irreversible loss, and the hope of everyone who cares for this extraordinary but threatened edge of North America.

At the heart of the story is the author's concern for the health of the land and all its life. Nature thrives in many parts of the Coast Range - pristine rivers and ancient forests still promise refuge to the king salmon and the grizzly bear - but with a human population of 36 million, nature is under attack throughout the region. Clearcutting, smog, sprawling development, and more threaten even national parks and refuges. Yet throughout Palmer remains hopeful, introducing readers to memorable people who strive for lasting stewardship in this land they call home.

Pacific High, with maps, $28 plus shipping in hardback, available from Island Press, 800-621-2736.

Jacket reviews and endorsements for Pacific High

"In Pacific High, Tim Palmer brings the long overlooked, overdeveloped, and overlogged Pacific Coast Ranges into brilliant focus. With a naturalist's eye and a poet's heart. Palmer pays passionate attention to the wonders that remain among these coastal mountains, and he conveys an acute sense of what has been lost. I can think of no better guide for this desert-to-tundra journey - or landscape more suited to Palmer's skills as a writer"
Tim McNulty, author of Washington's Wild Rivers and Olympic National Park: A Natural History

"Tim Palmer knows how to travel. He packed his van and drove, hiked, climbed, skied, thrashed, canoed, ferried, and flew the Pacific Coast Ranges from Baja California to Kodiak Island, Alaska. Well informed to begin with, he missed no opportunity to learn more intimate truths from the people and places he met. All readers, including those of us who have made our homes in the sundown mountains of North America, can learn from his account, which is as varied and lively as this long, restless, spirited landscape itself."
John Daniel, author of The Trial Home and Winter Creek: One Writer's Natural History

"Reading Tim Palmer's gracefully informative and candid report is the nearest thing to enjoying nine months of leisurely coastal adventuring with an extraordinarily knowledgeable and reflective old friend. Palmer eloquently and companionably shares his delights and his occasional miseries, his joy in the fascination of landscape, his painted yet hopeful reactions to human impacts on it, and his wonder at the still surviving wilderness and grandeur along the continent's edge."
Ernest Callenbach, author of Ecotopia and Ecology: A Pocket Guide