WILDFIRE PREVENTION
By Lynn Rosen

Once again, we're into a drier-than-normal fire season this year. Whether you're camping or hiking this summer, or staying around home, you can help prevent wildfires by reducing fire risks and following these wildfire safety tips.

RENAISSANCE FAIRES
by Vicki Hoefling Andersen
Transported back to the 16th Century I find myself at Faire. In those days, yearly events were held to celebrate the demise of winter and resurrection of spring. Farmers presented early crops, crafters hawked their goods, and inn keepers tempted passersby with their most delectable dishes.

ADVENTURING IN NEVADA AND OREGON'S OUTBACK
by Larry Turner
The Kiger Creek expedition was the culmination of a two-week outback adventure which John and I had planned the previous year. We started with an adventure-filled week at Nevada's Alder Creek Ranch.

JOY OF CYCLING PART 3
At age 74 my father got his first new bicycle
by Steve Giordano

"You're going to die someday, but it won't be of a heart attack,'' said the doctor after going over all the stress and medical test results. ``Go ahead and ride the damned thing, but take it easy on the hills."

A LEAP OF FAITH by Lee Juillerat

Most hours the Schilthorn gondola transfers tourists between Stechelberg, a valley village, more than 1,000 steeply vertical feet to a transfer station at Gimmelwald, a small hamlet. But late afternoons the cable car only glides part-way when most of its passengers exit by head-first dives. It's called bungee jumping.

ADVENTURE POEMS by Timothy Pilgrim Adventure Poet Laureate
Still glow
(with a nod to Albert Camus)

Heads down, no way to say sorry,
mistake, we drag laden canoe
to the beach, paddle choppy water,
her behind, steering.

THE BIRDS OF SUMMER
Humor Column by Noma d'Plume

Every May it's the same routine. We wake up at the crack o' dawn to the sound of a woodpecker rat-a-tatting on our gutters. This normally goes on until we give up trying to sleep and get up.

TRADITIONAL ICELANDIC FOOD
by Yvette Cardozo

"They really didn't pee on the shark. It only smells that way," the chef was telling me as I peered dubiously at a bowl of white cubes amid the pile of curious Icelandic munchies on a wooden tray.