The Great Outdoors: A User's Guide: Everything You Need to Know Before Heading into the Wild (and How to Get Back in One Piece)

The outdoor market has never been hotter. This easy introduction to outdoor life will ensure that even a novice won't get lost in the woods while finding an activity he loves to do in the great outdoors--whether it's hiking a 14er or camping on ice. With 400 strategies for engaging in the outdoors, and expert tips and tricks, The Great Outdoors: A User's Guide makes Mother Nature easier to understand than ever before. Brendan Leonard, writer, filmmaker, and outdoor adventurer, shows the reader how rewarding it can be to live life away from the computer and get outside. From mountain climbing, to skiing, sledding, and sailing, Leonard shows that you don't need to be a risk taker to enjoy the outdoors. And if the reader does find himself at the point of man vs. nature, Leonard shares survival skills from how to bandage a wound and read a topographical map, to how to drive on sand and remove a tick from your skin. Organized thematically and written in short takeaway entries with line drawings, The Great Outdoors: A User's Guide is a friendly way into the outdoor lifestyle for those who want to dabble or go all in.

“Most guide books are specific to an area or already assume a certain level of ‘radness’ for the potential reader. The Great Outdoors: A User's Guide highlights that being rad is up to the individual to decide and it can be just as great to camp in the backyard—and he’ll tell you how—as it is to explore mountains from New Hampshire to the Himalayas.” Stacy Bare, director, Sierra Club Outdoors

“How much embarrassment I would have been spared had I owned this book when I first started going on adventures. I'm putting it in my glove compartment to prevent future calamity.” Jonah Ogles, Outside magazine

“Highly giftable.” New York magazine

Brendan Leonard is a writer and filmmaker whose work focuses on travel and adventure and the human experience with both. He’s a contributing editor at Climbing, Adventure Journal, and The Dirtbag Diaries. His stories have appeared in National Geographic Adventure, Outside, Men’s Journal, and Sierra, among others. He lives in Denver, Colorado. Find him on Instagram @semi_rad.