Travel/Outdoors

14er Climber, Rocket Scientist, Published Novelist, Movie Connoisseur, and Amateur Photographer, Benjamin M. Weilert was born in Colorado in 1985.

While he went to school for Mechanical Engineering (eventually earning a Master’s Degree), he has found science to be interesting enough to write fiction about it. He likes to classify his novels as “science fantasy,” wherein the science is real and (semi) accurate, but portrayed in a fantasy setting to make it accessible to non scientific readers. If you want stories that are surreptitiously educational, he’s your man.

He currently lives in Colorado Springs and his most recent book is Fourteener Father, a memoir of climbing all of Colorado's 14,000-foot mountains with his dad.

Judith has specialized in capturing breathtaking scenic and nature images for over 20 years. She shares her vast knowledge through private and group photo tours of Garden of the Gods as well as other Colorado locations. You can also join her for photographic seminars and workshops. Visit her website to view portfolio images, fine art prints and see free instructional videos at www.mothernaturephotography.com.

Judith says, "Showing up at a location and photographing nature by literally recording the moment is different from capturing nature as an artist feels it should be viewed; using light, weather, equipment, and an artistic interpretation to show Mother Nature’s beauty and power. Both methods are useful in photography, but each has a distinct time and place. My goal is always to make each image intentional, represent my artistic vision, and create a piece of art that will be loved for a lifetime.

I have spent the majority of my life in Colorado Springs, moving here as a child. I remember my joy while climbing on the rocks of Garden of the Gods early in my life. Though I moved to Michigan for ten years, Colorado always echoed in my heart. Now that I have returned to “The Springs,” I often frequent Garden of the Gods, spending much time hiking and photographing this breathtaking open space with my loving husband and children."

I have lived in Colorado Springs for the last seventeen years. I was born in Chicago, later moved to France (father in the military), returned and moved to Kansas before spending most of my time in Texas (San Antonio area). I have held myriad positions in my life. I like to undertake more than one thing at a time, thus I refer to myself as a #workquilter combining various avenues of income. These include:
-Author of nonfiction and fiction.
-Certified permaculture designer and previously worked as a registered interior designer.
-Suburban Homesteader (have gardens, chickens, bees).
-Speaker/trainer on myriad topics.
-Global house- and pet-sitter.
-Nonprofit consultant, certified grants specialist (proposal writer, donor communications, fundraising strategy)

A career writer and editor from upstate New York, Peg moved west to Colorado and Alaska, where she renewed her love of photography on the stunning Kenai Peninsula. She worked for several decades in daily newspapers (Gannett and Freedom) and freelanced for years for business and lifestyle magazines. She is licensed both as a massage therapist and a spiritual advisor and has worked in hospital spiritual care. She writes about people and what they believe, career development, small and corporate business, health care and education, psychology and nature.

Peg and her husband Todd raised a family in Manitou Springs and still live there, but also enjoy working on their log home in Alaska.

Andrea M. Jones born and raised in Colorado. Andrea writes about people’s relationship to the land from a high grassy ridge southwest of Pikes Peak, where she lives with her husband and their two horses. Her nonfiction book, Between Urban and Wild, explores the beauties, contradictions, joys, and responsibilities of life outside the urban boundary. As the owner of Jones Literary Services, Andrea creates back-of-the-book indexes for publishers and authors. She blogs at www.BetweenUrbanAndWild.com.

Arleen is a former senior analyst with the Government Accountability Office where she wrote extensively on many topics ranging from satellite systems to endangered species. She has a science education and loves nature and reality. She is a life-long avid reader and began writing fiction in 2009. She has completed the six-book Darcy Farthing adventure series, which are contemporary mysteries with travel and thought-provoking topical subjects.

Adrienne has lived in Fountain since 2013 and is originally from South Africa. She adores nature and has been a photographer for more years than she cares to admit. Having discovered so much to photograph in her own
backyard (she refers to everywhere as her "backyard"), a book of her work was the logical next step.

Her Backyard Snapshots book is an eBook, with 150 full color photos! Her book is for all ages, and she is particularly keen for children to read and enjoy this book as the message inside is to stop and look. Her book is available from Amazon.com and readable on most devices, which is great, as you're not restricted to using a Kindle.

Visit her website at www.pettprojects.com to see more wildlife photos, her art work and her travel stories.

Lisa Travis dreamed of faraway places ever since she was a little girl who explored National Geographic magazines every month. Looking for ways to discover the world, Lisa studied at the University of Freiburg in Germany, traveled the USA in a Volkswagon camper, and lived and worked in South Korea. She currently finds ways to pack and go by creating global executive leadership programs that take her to cool places like Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Brussels, Copenhagen, and Prague.

Her experiences around the world inspired her to create Pack-n-Go Girls, an innovative book and toy company for girls that delivers positive messages around independence, adventure, and global awareness.

Lisa brings an MA in Communication and 20 years of instructional design to her writing. She lives, bikes, and skis in Colorado with her husband, two kids, and two dogs.

Sandra Knauf is the one-woman-show behind Greenwoman Publishing. Her books include the six-volume series Greenwoman (compilations of literary garden writing and art), her young adult fantasy novel, Zera and the Green Man, and an anthology of sexy gardening stories that she says is the feminist gardener answer to Fifty Shades of Grey--Fifty Shades of Green.

She was a 2008-09 featured “Colorado Voices” columnist for The Denver Post and her humorous essays have appeared nationally in GreenPrints and MaryJanesFarm. She has also been a guest commentator on KRCC’s (NPR's southern Colorado affiliate) Western Skies radio show.

Sandra lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado with her family, dogs, huge urban garden, and lots of books.

T. Duren Jones gets out into the wilderness as often as possible, camping, fishing, hiking, desert trekking, and "bagging" peaks—and does he have stories to tell! He's hiked hundreds of trails, completed the nearly 500 miles of the Colorado Trail, and has summitted all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks. He's kinda crazy that way.

Tim enjoys taking friends, family, and his wife, Diane, on wilderness quests with him ... and most of them have survived his escapades. His first book is titled Tales from the Trails. The book is part adventure journal, part travelogue, part motivational encouragement, part stand-up comedy—and includes 26 nearly true outdoor stories from trails and climbs around the American West.

Tim and his wife have raised four creative and equally adventurous children. He and Diane enjoy an active outdoor lifestyle together that includes biking, softball, snowshoeing, hunting and hiking the many wonderful trails in their home state of Colorado.

About the book -- Care to be entertained? Humored? Informed? Inspired? (All from wilderness trail adventure stories, featuring those who made it out.) Then this book— Tales from the Trails, published by WordFire Press— is for you! You can order a paperback and/or ebook on Amazon.

Tales from the Trails—part adventure journal, part travelogue, part motivational encouragement, part stand-up comedy—includes 26 mostly true outdoor stories from trails and climbs around the American West. This book is for anyone who loves spending time in the outdoors, who wish they could be outdoors more, or who simply enjoy reading about other nuts who spend time outdoors.

The author also has a web site and regular blog featuring stories from the Pikes Peak region and around the American West, and is published monthly in the New Falcon Herald Newspaper, as well as in four regional/neighborhood newsletters on the Front Range. He also publishes an annual calendar featuring author stories and photos from wilderness trails.